Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzg
It’s not the Woodbine, you can make up whatever rhetoric you want. They didn’t want to be bad neighbours and compete with Parlour, and go through the massive expense and complication of separating the spaces and building in tons of new plumbing (assuming landlord would even allow it, which knowing here - i doubt) when you can get a space around the corner that’s pretty ready to go.
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This is true. The Woodbine’s presence didn’t scare them off any more than it stopped Berns & Black, Parlour, Fox & Fiddle, or La Roca from opening. And please don’t try telling me the closures of Berns & Black and Fox & Fiddle had anything directly to do with the Woodbine Hotel.
It’s tempting to imagine that some kind of geographical prohibition actually works, but somehow it does not seem to. There is one SRO bar within a block of Main and Higgins (the Mount Royal); 20 years ago there were five (Manor, Brunswick, Mount Royal, Bell, Patricia). Has the problems at Main and Higgins reduced by 80% since 1998? Is it 80% more amenable to revitalization now? Stand at this corner and tell me that everything will be better just as soon as the Mount Royal closes.
Is Portage Avenue and the surrounding streets any less menacingly littered with dysfunctional underclasses than it was before CentreVenture waved its magic wand and closed the St. Regis Hotel a few years ago? I can tell you it most certainly is not.
The Woodbine may very well have all kinds of liquor violations and life safety issues that should be addressed. They shouldn’t be ignored just because ‘it’s good to have a mix of people,’ or whatever. Believe me. And certainly a new buyer with deep pockets who wants to do something cool and more upscale with the place would be welcome. But it’s just far too lazy to imagine a single bar and vendor has such an influence in the revitalization of that area. The causes of neighbourhood revitalization are usually complex and various; the causes of decline are sometimes even moreso.
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Regarding the McLaren, it certainly would have been modern in its construction (fireproof!) and amenities (an elevator!) when it opened in 1910, but I don’t think it was ever particularly opulent, or was trying to compete with the railroad company’s hotels. It was instead just a good mid-range hotel. Not oozing class like the Royal Alexandra, but definitely better than the older, modest-to-seedy places like the Occidental, the Albion, or the Seymour.
What’s interesting about the McLaren is how recently it held on before going full-on SRO. I remember hearing from a professor of mine that it was the first hotel in Winnipeg with a direct phone line and shuttle service to and from the airport. I can also remember visiting the upper floors there a few years ago, and the hallways on a couple of floors looked like they were renovated in the 1970s or early ‘80s… like they were still trying to attract a regular clientele.
Today it is owned by a numbered Manitoba company, who may or may not be the same people who owned it a decade ago -- a family who also owned the revolving Royal Crown Restaurant.
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