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March 2024

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WFP: The great debate returns - Mayor crosses street in decades-old controversy (Mar2'24)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Mar '24

02 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. The great debate returns… with a $73-million price tag Mayor crosses street in decades-old controversy after report reveals repairs to membrane protecting concourse will cost $73M, disrupt traffic up to five years https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/03/01/mayor-calls-to-re… PORTAGE and Main could reopen to pedestrians by summer 2025 after decades of debate and political wrangling over the fate of the iconic downtown intersection. On Friday, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham announced he’s now in favour of removing the concrete barricades at each corner preventing pedestrian crossing after a new report said it would cost $73 million to repair the leaking membrane under the concrete that protects the concourse below it. The repairs would involve major construction-caused traffic disruptions for up to five years at what is now Winnipeg’s sixth-busiest downtown intersection, the report said. A motion is being drafted to call for the pedestrian intersection to reopen by summer 2025 to coincide with the launch of the new Winnipeg Transit route network. The engineering report goes to the city’s property and development committee on Thursday. “The goal is to get this approved by the end of the month,” said Gillingham, who previously was opposed to reopening the intersection. He said learning the costs and inconvenience of keeping the concourse open changed his mind. “I think it’s time we put this question to bed once and for all and move onto more important issues like addressing homelessness, safety, housing and improving commuting options for people throughout our entire city.” The so-called “coldest and windiest corner in Canada” has been closed to pedestrian traffic since 1979 under an agreement the city signed with a developer who agreed to build two office towers, a hotel, a bank and an underground mall. The city agreed to force people who wanted to cross the street to do it underground, benefiting businesses in the mall. Permanently closing the city’s portion of the underground concourse could take up to five years and cost $20 to $50 million, Gillingham said. “It’s too soon to tell at this point, but there wouldn’t be access through the concourse once it’s decommissioned,” he said. Public works chairwoman Coun. Janice Lukes said Portage and Main has lower volumes of traffic than other downtown intersections and is the only one closed to pedestrians. Funding and research to ensure the intersection is safe for pedestrians would come through the city budget’s road safety plan, said Lukes (Waverley West). Former mayor Brian Bowman promised to reopen the intersection while in office, but after 65 per cent of voters registered their opposition in a non-binding 2018 plebiscite, he dropped it. Instead of a plebiscite, Gillingham and property and development chairwoman Coun. Sherri Rollins will draft a motion calling for Portage and Main to reopen to pedestrians and the mayor expects the majority on council will support it. “There’s a lot that has changed in the past six years,” said Gillingham, who maintained his opposition to taking down the pedestrian barriers during his 2022 mayoral campaign, pointing to the 2018 plebiscite and saying it would be “disrespectful” to the public to ignore the results. However, Winnipeggers were in the dark concerning how much it would cost and how long it would take to replace the membrane, he said Friday. Since the non-binding vote, a global pandemic has changed commuting and work patterns and a transit network design is helping to improve traffic flow, he said. “We have information today we did not have in 2018 and I did not have during the election in 2022,” the mayor said. Coun. Jeff Browaty, who was one of the loudest voices in opposition to opening the intersection in 2019, said civic officials still don’t have enough information and he doesn’t think there’s been adequate consultation with affected property owners. James Richardson & Sons issued a brief statement Friday saying that it is “in favour of improving and revitalizing Winnipeg’s downtown, including taking the step of opening the Portage and Main intersection to pedestrian traffic.” “We understand that the City (of Winnipeg) is considering closing the underground pathway as part of the re-opening of the intersection to aboveground pedestrian traffic, but without time to consider the details of such a plan, it is too early for us to comment further,” the statement said. A prominent tenant at Portage and Main applauded the push to remove the concrete barricades. “Not only do we care in terms of the downtown at large, but… as tenants that are going to be accessing that intersection every day,” said Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Loren Remillard. Four or five years of anticipated traffic disruptions would add to the challenges already facing downtown, Remillard said. “This isn’t just the responsible decision,” he said. “It is the only logical decision.” Federal Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, a former city councillor, said he supports “100 per cent” closing the underground concourse and removing the barriers. “I wish we would have done it 15 years ago,” the St. Boniface MP said at an unrelated news conference in the city Friday. “COVID really did a number on the underground pedestrian walkway and infrastructure is expensive, and I think it’s the right move,” Vandal said. “I’ve long advocated for opening up Portage and Main when I was a (city) councillor… I think this is an example of a good idea will always rise to the top. And it’s quite clear that there were challenges with closing pedestrian traffic and maintaining the underground vitality.” Premier Wab Kinew, who opposed the reopening in the 2018 plebiscite, didn’t offer provincial help to repair the membrane to keep the concourse open. “Mayor Gillingham and I share a commitment to downtown redevelopment and, if he believes this is a cost-effective path forward, then our government won’t stand in the way,” he said in a prepared statement. — with files from Maggie Macintosh, Malak Abas and Katie May carol.sanders(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca> Closed intersection timeline December 1976: City council awards a contract to build an underground parking garage and pedestrian corridor at Portage and Main, and agrees to prohibit pedestrians from crossing the iconic intersection for 40 years. February 1979: A city committee votes to immediately ban pedestrian traffic at the intersection, although crossing from the south corner was permitted to continue until a connection was completed between the concourse and street. March 1979: A caravan of protesters — many using wheelchairs — make three circuits of the intersection to protest the closure. A Winnipeg police sergeant told them, “I must warn you that you are in violation of a traffic-control device.” Officers wrote down the names of about a dozen protesters and gave them to the Crown attorney’s office. August 2014: Mayoral candidate Brian Bowman holds a campaign news conference to announce he would open the intersection to pedestrians, with the goal of getting it done by 2019. “We’ll all be here when the Winnipeg Jets win the Stanley Cup,” he said. October 2018: Voters re-elect Bowman to a second term. Winnipeggers also vote overwhelmingly (65 per cent “no”) against reopening the intersection in a non-binding plebiscite. October 2022: Scott Gillingham is elected mayor. He said during the campaign that he was opposed to reopening the intersection. The second-place candidate, former mayor Glen Murray, previously supported reopening Portage and Main but said that month that “the people have spoken about it once already.” April 2023: The city releases a discussion paper outlining the issues surrounding the intersection, including a massive project to repair the membrane protecting the Winnipeg Square concourse and options to improve pedestrian access.

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CBC: 'A lot has changed,' Gillingham says as he pushes to reopen Portage and Main by summer 2025
by Beth McKechnie 01 Mar '24

01 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Mayor says fixing intersection to save walkway below would cause 'traffic chaos' and cost $73M https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/portage-main-reopening-gillingham-1… Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham made it official Friday morning and announced his desire to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrians by summer 2025. A new report from the city's acting urban planning manager says fixing the leaky membrane at Portage Avenue and Main Street in order to protect the city-owned underground pedestrian crossing would create traffic delays for four or five years and cost at least $73 million. Gillingham said Friday at a news conference he cannot support years of traffic disruptions and will not support the plans, outlined in the new report, to fix the leaky membrane at the city's sixth-busiest intersection. "Repairing the membrane would require completely tearing up Portage and Main in sections and create traffic chaos downtown for four to five years," Gillingham said. "We need to pursue a more practical alternative. It's time to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrian traffic." Gillingham's plan, which must be supported by council, would permanently close the circular underground walkway. Reopening the intersection in summer 2025 would coincide with the implementation of Winnipeg Transit's new route network, which will include a transit hub at Portage and Main. Portage and Main has been closed to pedestrians since 1979. An agreement with neighbouring property owners to keep it closed expired in 2019. James Richardson & Sons, which owns the Richardson office tower at the northeast corner of the intersection, said it supports pedestrian crossings at the intersection. "James Richardson & Sons Ltd. is in favour of improving and revitalizing Winnipeg's downtown, including taking the step of opening the Portage and Main intersection to pedestrian traffic," spokesperson Barb Perreaux said in an emailed statement. "We understand that the city is considering closing the underground pathway as part of the reopening of the intersection to above-ground pedestrian traffic, but without time to consider the details of such a plan, it is too early for us to comment further." The Manitoba Métis Federation, which owns the former Bank of Montreal building on the southeast corner of Portage and Main, supports reopening the intersection. President David Chartrand said above-grade crossings will increase the vibrancy of downtown Winnipeg and enable foot traffic to the Métis heritage centre under construction at the Bank of Montreal. That centre is slated to open in 2026, he said. CBC News has reached out to Harvard and Artis, the owners of the office towers at the northwest and southwest corners of Portage and Main. Former mayor Glen Murray sought to reopen the intersection and held a contest to redesign it. That plan was shelved by his successor, Sam Katz, who said he wished to honour a 40-year deal with adjacent property owners to keep the intersection closed. * Refresh coming to Fairmont Winnipeg after hotel acquired by James Richardson & Sons<https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/fairmont-winnipeg-hotel-purchase-ri…> * 'Would have been a step backwards': Winnipeggers vote to keep Portage and Main closed<https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeggers-vote-portage-main-1.48…> Brian Bowman, Katz's successor, initially promised to reopen the intersection to pedestrians but shied away after a majority of Winnipeggers who voted in a non-binding plebiscite in 2018 indicated they opposed the idea. Gillingham did not support reopening in 2018. "There's a lot that has changed in the past six years. We have information today we didn't have then," Gillingham said. "We didn't know then that replacing the membrane would disrupt traffic for four to five years. We didn't know that it would cost $73 million. We didn't know that we were going to have a global pandemic that would permanently change commuting and work patterns. "We didn't have the transit network design, which will actually help to improve traffic flow at the intersection, and I think if voters did have that information in 2018, I think they probably would have made a different choice. I know I would have. Gillingham said he is not asking the province for money to help with decommissioning the underground concourse. City councillors Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry), Janice Lukes (Waverley West), Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) and Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) stood alongside Gillingham at the news conference. Rollins, Gilroy and Santos represent every Winnipeg ward adjacent to downtown, while Rollins also chairs council's property committee and Lukes chairs council's public works committee. Gillingham said he expects some city councillors to oppose his decision. Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt is one of them. He questioned why a city planner wrote the report and not a city engineer. "It raises alarms and concerns that we would rush to judgment that we would overturn a plebiscite decision made by the citizens of Winnipeg not to open that intersection," Wyatt said in an interview. e later jumped up to the podium where Gillingham spoke at the news conference and addressed people who were there. City hall staff responsible for audiovisual equipment turned his microphone off. Kate Fenske, executive director of the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone, said reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians will improve the vibrancy and safety of downtown. Adam Dooley, who was the co-chair of the "vote open" campaign during the 2018 plebiscite, said the city was aware keeping the underground concourse would come with significant costs. The decision should never have been put to a vote, said Dooley, the public relations manager at communications firm UpHouse.

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