Winnipeg - Of Interest

[GreyGarden]

It's interesting that he notices an "abundance of parks" here. When I come back from other cities I'm always taken aback by how underused Winnipeg's parks are.

[headhorse]

the problem with maintenance is always going to be too much sprawl. we need to add 300,000 people with our cities current developed area to help pay for upkeep of the spaces we currently have.

[bomberjet]

If the city could keep the grass cut reasonably well, it would make some of the parks more appealing.

I have frequented Civic Park (Kimberley Hill) for my entire life. I've noticed as I'm older now that the grass does not get cut as often, for weeks sometimes, and leaves the space basically unusable. Even for walking your dog. It's long, starts to flower, and just sucks walking through. Never mind once the bugs come out.

I did comment a while back. The city was looking at creating a couple job positons in a small department that would streamline and categorize all of the public park space in Winnipeg. It was in the clerks page.

So people would be able to either call or go online (I presume) to book a park space. it would categorize based on size, type and amenities. So a kids soccer team for example could see what fields are available that suit their needs. Right now there is nothing like that and everything is rather willy nilly.

This could focus efforts on maintenance to locations that are used more than others. maybe some of the park space is redundant and could be utilized for something else. Don't want to start removing all the green space. But maybe locations could be used differently, focusing resources and budgets where it's needed.

[esquire]

It feels like parks in Winnipeg kind of bottomed out in the 90s and 00s... we're starting to see some investment in them, but they're still super basic with very little of the kinds of things that make parks pleasant. It's kind of jarring to visit other places and find well kept and nicely manicured parks... you don't see much of that here outside of the few major regional parks.

So it isn't surprising that when the parks are poorly maintained and don't offer much in the way of amenities, that they simply won't be well used. There are a lot of parks that just feel like dead spaces.

[buzzg]

We have a ton of parks in Winnipeg, that's why they don't have many amenities and aren't overly well kept. We'd be way better off having less, higher quality ones that would actually be used than the current numerous small parks that are just grass and some trees, maybe a structure at best.

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I did comment a while back. The city was looking at creating a couple job positons in a small department that would streamline and categorize all of the public park space in Winnipeg. It was in the clerks page.

So people would be able to either call or go online (I presume) to book a park space. it would categorize based on size, type and amenities. So a kids soccer team for example could see what fields are available that suit their needs. Right now there is nothing like that and everything is rather willy nilly.

While working on the Rockwood, Winnipeg article on Wikipedia this year, I stumbled upon an interesting fact. I was 5 in 1971 the year before amalgamation. Six in '72.

I remember lots of activity for us pre-schoolers in 1971 at Harrow Park Playground. They still have an indoor building with washrooms and a drinking water fountain. Back in '71 there were two City of Winnipeg volunteers or paid staff (teenagers) one who would monitor the wading pool, the other had a more interesting job of managing arts and crafts for us. There was a picnic table inside that when I saw it this year I guess it was removed decades ago. When amalgamation came in, suddenly there was less activity for us and I guess years later they stopped doing that.

See Winnipeg Free Press
July 10, 1971
Page 10

They had a post for a playground supervisor at each one.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OUA...ew?usp=sharing

[Bdog]

Say what you will about Katz as a mayor, one thing I think he doesn't receive enough credit for was his focus on re-investment, and in some cases, re-organization, of some our key parks and community centres. Central Park and Assiniboine Park in particular come to mind. As do some of our inner-city community centres.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Bdog

Say what you will about Katz as a mayor, one thing I think he doesn't receive enough credit for was his focus on re-investment, and in some cases, re-organization, of some our key parks and community centres. Central Park and Assiniboine Park in particular come to mind. As do some of our inner-city community centres.

That's a fair comment, some parks have improved by a noticeable degree in the past decade or so. Even though landscaping is out of the question at all but the largest and most prominent parks, I have noticed that a lot of playgrounds and smaller parks have received new furniture, play structures, equipment and such which is nice to see.

Also, I'm not sure if this is a widespread phenomenon, but there seems to be more respect for public property. I grew up in Tyndall Park which is a bit of a working class verging on middle class neighbourhood, and it was common to see playgrounds, bus shelters and the like get absolutely hammered by vandalism all the time. These days that does not seem to be as much of a problem... kids these days are too busy engaging in eco activism or whatever to beat the shit out of park equipment and spray paint heavy metal-themed graffiti everywhere the way we used to back in my day. At any rate, it's nice to see people taking better care of things which makes for a better park.

Also, to LilZebra's point, programming at parks is noticeably absent beyond wading pool supervisors. I guess the labour costs of having managers to oversee it and workers to carry it out got to be too much. Who knows when we'll ever see that again.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by esquire

Also, I'm not sure if this is a widespread phenomenon, but there seems to be more respect for public property. I grew up in Tyndall Park which is a bit of a working class verging on middle class neighbourhood, and it was common to see playgrounds, bus shelters and the like get absolutely hammered by vandalism all the time. These days that does not seem to be as much of a problem... kids these days are too busy engaging in eco activism or whatever to beat the shit out of park equipment and spray paint heavy metal-themed graffiti everywhere the way we used to back in my day. At any rate, it's nice to see people taking better care of things which makes for a better park.

They're all on their phones.

[pspeid]

On a different topic, I've noticed postings in this forum that a number of new apartment buildings, large and small, being built across the city.

I was wondering; do people tend to move from older to newer apartment blocks in their area when their lease is up? Does this inspire owners of older blocks to rehabilitate their buildings? I was just wondering if there was some kind of domino effect when there is a lot of new apartment space available?

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by pspeid

On a different topic, I've noticed postings in this forum that a number of new apartment buildings, large and small, being built across the city.

I was wondering; do people tend to move from older to newer apartment blocks in their area when their lease is up? Does this inspire owners of older blocks to rehabilitate their buildings? I was just wondering if there was some kind of domino effect when there is a lot of new apartment space available?

I think so. You can see this happening in the Osborne/Corydon area, where midcentury apartment blocks have started to be updated/renoed to stay competitive.

[buzzg]

Yeah, One Evergreen holds monthly "BBQs" for tenants as they don't have any amenity/event space like a lot of newer buildings. In summer outside, I think lobby in winter. They're also redoing the pool and gym. Gotta stay competitive.

[LilZebra]

Huh?

https://markosun.wordpress.com/2014/...s-of-winnipeg/

The above website has Google Map photos of a pedestrian-cycle bridge over the Assiniboine River in Wolseley between Palmerston-Aubrey south into River Heights near Wellington Cres.-Waverley.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.87615...1784594,16.75z

If you go directly to Google Maps this bridge does not show up on the map drawing but does on the satellite photo. I've been aware of the pedestrian-rail bridge near Empress, but this is a different one.

It looks like it's been there for over 100 years, like the Redwood Bridge and Arlington Bridge.

What is it called? Even the Markosun.com page doesn't give it a name. It's so hidden on the River Heights side because there's no signs (? as far as I'm aware), no wide thingy to even know there might be something beyond Wellington Cres. at that point.

[DancingDuck]

Originally Posted by LilZebra

Huh?

https://markosun.wordpress.com/2014/...s-of-winnipeg/

The above website has Google Map photos of a pedestrian-cycle bridge over the Assiniboine River in Wolseley between Palmerston-Aubrey south into River Heights near Wellington Cres.-Waverley.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.87615...1784594,16.75z

If you go directly to Google Maps this bridge does not show up on the map drawing but does on the satellite photo. I've been aware of the pedestrian-rail bridge near Empress, but this is a different one.

It looks like it's been there for over 100 years, like the Redwood Bridge and Arlington Bridge.

What is it called? Even the Markosun.com page doesn't give it a name. It's so hidden on the River Heights side because there's no signs (? as far as I'm aware), no wide thingy to even know there might be something beyond Wellington Cres. at that point.

Not a pedestrian bridge at all, it has some sort of large pipe that runs from one side of the river to the other. I have no idea its actual use.

[Authentic_City]

It's all fenced off, but you can get close from the Wolseley side. For years teenagers have been scaling the fence and playing on the pipe (and probably falling in). Not sure why the pipe would go up and over the river like that, rather than under, but that's the way it is. Would be a good spot for a pedestrian crossing though.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

It's all fenced off, but you can get close from the Wolseley side. For years teenagers have been scaling the fence and playing on the pipe (and probably falling in). Not sure why the pipe would go up and over the river like that, rather than under, but that's the way it is. Would be a good spot for a pedestrian crossing though.

There used to be a huge gas storage tank in Wolseley at around that spot, a century ago. Perhaps there is some connection to that pipe.

[Bdog]

Originally Posted by DancingDuck

Not a pedestrian bridge at all, it has some sort of large pipe that runs from one side of the river to the other. I have no idea its actual use.

It's a watermain.

[LilZebra]

...

[cllew]

Originally Posted by Bdog

It's a watermain.

Its called the Midtown feeder and connects the Pumping station on McPhillips to the one off of Wilkes. Its part of the interconnection of the branch I and branch II aqueducts that terminate at McPhillips and Wilkes stations respectively.

I wonder if it was put above ground as it was probably less costly than trying to tunnel under the river.

[cheswick]

Out of curiosity does anyone know what shifts a typical Winnipeg firefighter works? Like what hours are day shifts vs night shifts? I know a bunch work jobs on the side cause of a lot of
Time off between working