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WFP: A step closer to pedestrians on Portage and Main (Mar13'24)
by Beth McKechnie 13 Mar '24

13 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. EPC votes for plan; Downtown BIZ concerned A step closer to pedestrians on Portage and Main https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/03/12/epc-votes-in-favo… THE proposal to reopen pedestrian access at the Portage and Main intersection and decommission its underground concourse passed a key hurdle Tuesday. City council’s executive policy committee cast a 5-1 vote in favour of the move, despite hearing concerns the below-grade closure will hurt businesses linked to the structure. After applauding the pedestrian reopening as a way to spark street-level activity, Downtown Winnipeg BIZ chief executive officer Kate Fenske told EPC she is similarly worried about the below- ground changes. “We’re hoping this doesn’t have to be an either/or position… Decommissioning the underground would have a huge impact on their livelihoods and could also impact the success of other businesses connected to the city-owned Portage and Main underground,” said Fenske. The sheltered walkways also offer a key option for employees of many downtown businesses to travel between buildings, especially during the winter, she added. “Opening the intersection at Portage and Main to pedestrians is absolutely a priority, but Winnipeg’s underground is so much more than just an intersection,” she said, suggesting the city collaborate with the BIZ to address any negative impacts. Mayor Scott Gillingham later told reporters the feedback “doesn’t change anything for me.” “I’ve committed to having discussions with the property owners and the business owners, as well. We know that businesses, obviously, within the circus… would be affected by its closure but also businesses that are located under the properties. Part of our commitment is to be in discussion with the property owners and the businesses to try to find a way to assist them,” he said. The mayor stressed decommissioning of the site would not happen immediately, though the City of Winnipeg hasn’t provided a timeline. Gillingham said it’s “too soon to tell” whether the city could compensate the six tenants who now rent spaces within the city’s portion of the concourse. “The decommissioning wouldn’t happen immediately. It would take a while to all play out, so there’s time for dialogue.” The mayor has stressed there is a clear financial basis for the changes, noting replacing a leaking membrane to protect the concourse would cost an estimated $73 million and require up to five years of traffic-delaying construction. The mayor’s office said Winnipeg received about $111,000 in rent from concourse businesses in 2023, but paid $1.011 million to operate and maintain the site the same year. An early estimate suggests it would cost about $20 million to $50 million to close the concourse. After decades of heated debate over the site’s future, Gillingham said the relatively muted response to his current call to reopen it to pedestrians is likely related to Winnipeg’s need to address more urgent concerns. “I’m not saying the opening of Portage and Main is not important, but there are just more things that are pressing in our community right now — whether it’s housing, safety, the need to continue to address homelessness in our community. I think the public is wanting us to focus on those things.” At EPC, the mayor joined Couns. Sherri Rollins, Evan Duncan, Janice Lukes and Brian Mayes to vote in favour of the Portage and Main plan; Coun. Jeff Browaty voted against it. Browaty stressed the underground walkway is an important piece of public infrastructure. “Many groups are concerned with this out-of-the-blue closure scenario, accessibility advocates, business owners, people working downtown… At this point, no real work has been done to study the shuttering of the underground circus.” While the matter still awaits a final council vote, Gillingham said he believes there is sufficient support among elected officials to get the plan approved. joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca> X: @joyanne_pursaga

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WFP Analysis: Imagining what the ‘Windy Corner’ could one day be (Mar11'24)
by Beth McKechnie 11 Mar '24

11 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Imagining what the ‘Windy Corner’ could one day be https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/2024/03/11/imagining-wha… OPEN Portage and Main. Four simple words. Elections have been fought over them. Friends have become temporary enemies because of them. Family dinners have been ruined by them. A Winnipeg debate that has stirred local emotions and bewildered outsiders for more than half a century. During the 2018 plebiscite, a common refrain in opposition to opening the intersection to pedestrians was that the money required to remove the barricades could be used for more important things. A new Public Works report flips this economic argument on its head, revealing a staggering cost for required repairs to the underground. This construction work would also cause up to five years of traffic delays through the intersection. With this new information, Mayor Scott Gillingham and several city councillors have pulled the pin on that old political hand grenade and announced their support for the less costly and disruptive approach, proposing to close the underground and allow people to cross the street at the sidewalk level. In 2018, the easiest solution was the status quo, so we voted against change. Today the easiest solution is change. The debate will continue as the mayor’s proposal moves through committees and council votes. We know the issue has been a political quagmire and this time will likely be no different. As politicians argue, however, the rest of us might try a new approach for once. Instead of being sucked back into endless circular debates about traffic and safety, informed by gut feeling and speculation, what if we let the traffic engineers solve the traffic engineering? Let the experts be experts, while the rest of turn our thoughts to a vision of what Portage and Main might become. We may be forced into this decision for pragmatic reasons, but that doesn’t mean our response can’t inspire our collective imagination. The mayor has said, “it’s just an intersection.” He’s right, it is. It’s not the mythical beast that has its own climate or was once a battlefield of pedestrian carnage that has lived in Winnipeg lore for generations. But it was once a special place in our city, in our country. What if it was again? What if instead of being a place to drive through, it was a place where we lingered, learned, and loved? As you enter the ‘Cities of the Twentieth Century’ exhibit at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, you are greeted by a giant mural of Portage and Main from a century ago. It once represented the very best of what a city could be — bustling sidewalks filled with optimism at the social and economic heart of a city. Could it ever become that again? Portage and Main began as an Indigenous meeting place, the intersection of two ancient trading routes, its unusual width a legacy of Red River Carts travelling, side by side, as Métis entrepreneurs crisscrossed the open Prairie. When Henry McKenney built his general store at the connection of the two paths in 1862, he planted the seed that a modern city would grow from. Portage and Main would later be the site of Winnipeg’s first city council meeting, and was once the head of Banker’s Row, a stunning line of financial buildings on land as valuable as Wall Street in Manhattan. Western Canada’s first office building once stood there, and in 1969, the west’s tallest building rose from the corner. It would be where the city’s first streetcar ran, and its last. The intersection witnessed the 1919 General Strike, the signing of Bobby Hull and Dale Hawerchuk, and the return of the Jets. A place where we celebrate together, mourn together, and protest together. Imagine a place where this spirit and history was woven together and expressed through art, lighting, landscape, and interpretive design. A vibrant place that is a celebration of our city, one that welcomes visitors to learn about us and a place for us to learn about ourselves. Today, every side of the intersection is seeing renewal and growth — new plazas, new restaurants, new office space, a gym, a soaring new skyscraper filled with hundreds of people who call the nearby intersection home. The familiar old bank that resembles a Greek temple on the southeast corner will see the intersection’s highest impact transformation as it becomes the Red River Métis National Heritage Centre, poetically reclaiming the origins of the place as a celebration of Métis culture and modern spirit. It will stand as a downtown focal point and destination that will draw people to Portage and Main. Imagine if, instead of being hidden behind concrete barricades, this new landmark was surrounded by a grand urban landscape that spills from one corner to the next, drawing all this new activity out from inside the buildings onto the sidewalks and into the public spaces. A celebration of who we are, where we have come from and where we want to go. Most Winnipeggers recognize the lasting impacts of the pandemic have hit downtown hard, and Portage Avenue is no longer the proud street it once was. New ideas are needed to restore its prominent place in our city. Re-imagining Portage and Main as a welcoming place for people won’t solve all of downtown’s issues, but it will make an important statement about who we are as a city and who we aspire to be. The mayor and supporting councilors should be given credit. It will take political courage to move forward, even backed by financial justification. As we do, let’s take some time to dream about the possibilities and shift towards an uplifting dialogue about vision and opportunity, reflecting on what Winnipeg’s famous ‘Windy Corner’ might one day be. Brent Bellamy is creative director at Number Ten Architectural Group.

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WFP: ’Over the moon’: longtime proponents of opening Portage and Main plan ‘crossing the street’ party (Mar3'24)
by Beth McKechnie 03 Mar '24

03 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. ’Over the moon’: longtime proponents of opening Portage and Main plan ‘crossing the street’ party https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/03/02/over-the-moon-lon… If the concrete barricades are torn down and Portage and Main reopens to pedestrians, you can expect Adam Dooley to be one of the first Winnipeggers to cross the storied intersection. Dooley, who co-chaired the Vote Open campaign during a 2018 plebiscite that denied the reopening, joked about having a “crossing the street” party to celebrate the occasion. “We will definitely be there on day 1, and I know there will be a lot of happy people,” he said. “Once the dust settles, people will applaud this. Even people who were four-square against it.” Dooley and fellow supporters were pleased when Mayor Scott Gillingham announced Friday Portage and Main could reopen to pedestrians by summer 2025, following decades of debate. “I was over the moon. It feels like something that has been a really long time coming,” said Alyson Shane, a digital marketing agency owner who was the official spokesperson of the Vote Open campaign. “It’s nice to see the city making changes that move us in a positive direction.” The downtown intersection closed to foot traffic in 1979, after the city struck a 40-year deal — now expired — with a property developer who built an office tower and an underground mall. In 2018’s non-binding plebiscite, 65 per cent of voters were against restoring pedestrian access. Dooley and Shane said there was a lot of missing information or myths at that time, especially around the potential impacts on travel and safety. When he ran for mayor in 2022, Gillingham was opposed to removing the barricades, saying it would “disrespectful” to ignore the results of the public vote. He’s now in favour, after a new city staff report said it would cost $73 million to repair the leaking membrane under the concrete that protects a pedestrian concourse beneath the intersection. Repairs would involve digging up parts of Portage and Main, which would cause traffic “chaos” for four to five years, the mayor said Friday. Additional costly repairs would be necessary in 30 to 40 years. “We have information today we did not have in 2018, and I did not have during the election in 2022,” said Gillingham. If the report’s findings were available in 2018, the plebiscite’s result likely would have been closer, said Dooley, a public relations executive based in the Exchange District. “When I read about the rationale (Friday), I thought this is a good, common sense policy decision,” he said. In 2018, the Vote Open campaign heard two main concerns: that reopening Portage and Main would be a waste of money, and it would impede vehicular traffic. The report states concourse repairs and maintenance would be costlier, said Dooley. As for traffic impacts, people in the “vote yes” camp pointed to a consulting firm’s 2017 study which suggested only a few minutes would be added to most commutes. The difference would have been negligible, said Shane. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed work and commuting patterns, and the city has been taking steps, including bus route changes, to improve traffic flow, said Dooley. In 2017, the cost to reopen the intersection was estimated to be $11.6 million, about half of which was for the purchase of new buses. City council could soon vote on a motion which calls for pedestrian access at Portage and Main — the city’s sixth-busiest downtown intersection — by 2025 to coincide with a new Winnipeg Transit route network. Further study would find out how much it could cost to reopen the intersection. Public works chair Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) said the city budget’s road safety plan would provide funding and research to ensure the intersection is safe for pedestrians. Busier downtown intersections are open to pedestrians, she noted. The plan calls for the concourse to be permanently closed to the public. It could cost $20 million to $50 million, and take up to five years to decommission the city’s portion of the concourse, said Gillingham. Dooley said some questions are still to be answered. “We don’t know what the final intersection will look like,” he said. Supporters such as Shane believe a pedestrian-friendly junction will help to improve public safety and vibrancy downtown. “It’s a really exciting and positive step for our city,” she said. chris.kitching(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP Analysis: Six years later, ‘Yes’ side gets the last laugh (Mar2'24)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Mar '24

02 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Six years later, ‘Yes’ side gets the last laugh OPINION https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2024/03/01/is-the-truth-in-the-end-… BACK in 2018, with Winnipeggers embroiled in a contentious plebiscite about whether to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrian traffic, one of the property owners connected to the concourse beneath the storied intersection suggested city council delay the vote. The roof membrane of the concourse was leaking and would have to be replaced. However, as the plebiscite campaign raged on, the property owners and city had done only very preliminary engineering work to estimate the size and cost of a fix. “It would seem to me to be very premature to vote on the intersection until we get all the engineering information on what expenditures need to be made to the concourse,” said Roseanne Hill Blaisdell, president and CEO of Harvard Developments, owner of 201 Portage Ave. History will show the plebiscite was not delayed and that — without all of the necessary information about the consequences of the concourse repairs — Winnipeggers voted convincingly to keep the intersection closed. Fast-forward five years. The missing information in the debate over Portage and Main was finally unearthed Friday when Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham released an engineering report confirming it would cost $73 million to remove the existing pedestrian barricades and repair the roof of the underground concourse beneath the intersection. Gillingham said once he had the report in hand, he began to see just how pointless it was to repair the concourse. The $73-million investment would only buy the concourse — the city-owned circular walkway that connects the sub-grade retail and commercial levels of four properties at Portage and Main — another 40 years or so, when the entire process would have to be repeated. And because the membrane has to be accessed from street level, significant portions of the intersection would be closed for up to five years. The decommissioning of the concourse will be costly, as well, Gillingham said, with estimates running from $20 million to $50 million. However, that work will not have to be repeated in 40 years and will not require the intersection to be closed at street level, he added. Despite voting against reopening in 2018 and avoiding the issue completely in the 2022 election, Gillingham said he realizes the only sensible option is to close the concourse permanently, which almost automatically means reopening the intersection to pedestrians at street level. “I think it’s the practical decision,” Gillingham said in an interview on the Niigaan and the Lone Ranger podcast. “I think that if the average voter in Winnipeg had this information (back in 2018), that we’d looking at $73 million for this work, that we’d have to do it again in 30 to 40 years and five years of traffic chaos, I think more voters would have said, ‘Open it to pedestrian traffic.’” Rather than get involved in another plebiscite, Gillingham will join Coun. Sherri Rollins in tabling a motion on the floor of city council to close the concourse permanently and reopen the intersection to pedestrians by 2025. In other words, no followup plebiscite. Gillingham should be applauded for putting practical considerations ahead of philosophical ones. But it will still rankle many of the most strident supporters of reopening the intersection who predicted this exact scenario back in 2018. You may remember that former mayor Brian Bowman was actually elected in 2014 on a pledge to reopen the intersection. However, in the leadup to the 2018 civic election, North Kildonan city councillor Jeff Browaty and allies on council challenged the mayor to hold a plebiscite on the issue on the theory that voters in suburban neighbourhoods — where there is typically higher turnout during civic elections — would defeat the idea. Sensing the political mismatch that was developing, the ‘Yes’ campaign immediately went to work educating voters on the truth of the Portage and Main debate, which was afflicted by both a shortage of critical information (engineering estimates) and deliberate misinformation. Browaty, architect of the plebiscite and unofficial leader of the ‘No’ campaign, continued to argue that reopening the intersection would put vehicles and pedestrians at risk and cripple traffic flow. He made the arguments even though there were much busier and larger intersections in downtown that allowed pedestrians to cross at street level safely and efficiently. And Browaty dismissed concerns about the concourse repairs, suggesting that if existing barriers had to be removed as part of repairing the membrane, then it was an opportunity to build something “more aesthetically pleasing” in their place. When Browaty was reminded during the campaign that a full cost estimate had not been completed, he shrugged and started repeating talking points about pedestrian safety. What a lot of people suspected, and what we know now to be true, is that the 2018 plebiscite was a sham. It was a misinformed debate that took place with only partial information about cost implications, all designed to hoodwink voters. For a ‘Yes’ campaign that relied heavily on fact but ultimately fell prey to the forces of fiction, there may be some hard feelings about having to wait five years for the truth to come out. On the other hand, the ‘Yes’ folks do get to have the last say on the matter. They told you so. dan.lett(a)winnipegfreepress.com<mailto:dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com>

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WFP: Portage & Main - Concourse businesses worried; disability groups cheering
by Beth McKechnie 02 Mar '24

02 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Concourse businesses worried; disability groups cheering Winds of change bring mixed reaction https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/03/01/winds-of-change-b… DOWNTOWN senior Marilyn Brazeau is a frequent visitor to the underground concourse at Portage and Main. Brazeau, who lives a few blocks away, is a regular customer of some Winnipeg Square businesses and, after hearing Friday’s traffic-stopping news, expressed concerns about the owners and people who work below the famous intersection. Mayor Scott Gillingham announced earlier in the day that replacing the leaking membrane under the intersection — protecting the concourse below — would cost the city $73 million and take up to five years, creating major construction-related traffic disruptions. The city will instead close the concourse and remove the controversial concrete barriers at street level that have prevented pedestrians from crossing since 1979. Gillingham’s announcement comes more than five years after 65 per cent of voters in a civic plebiscite turned thumbs-down to reopening the intersection to pedestrians. The mayor said he’s working with Coun. Sherri Rollins to draft a motion that recommends the city remove the pedestrian barricades by summer 2025 to coincide with the launch of the new transit network. Brazeau acknowledged that safety is a concern for people who access the concourse via stairwells from the street. “It is kind of scary (in the concourse), to be honest with you but, I mean, it’s scary up here too, right?” she said, adding she’d like to hear more input from downtown residents and business owners and possibly another plebiscite, before the city takes action. “I think it’s really controversial,” she said. “I think that people should have a say, people should vote on it, because it’s going to cost money, it doesn’t matter which way we go.” John Young was 17 years old in 1979. At the time, he found the decision to close the intersection to people shocking. Now the executive director of the Independent Living Resource Centre, which supports people with disabilities in Winnipeg, he is well-versed in the difficulties downtown residents have navigating the corridor. “Just imagine this — you went from Portage Place, you want to get to here,” he said Friday morning, gesturing at the concourse entry adjacent to the Richardson Building. “But then you get to Scotiabank, and the elevator doesn’t work. You can’t keep going. You’ve got to go back home.” He said the city had reached out to the ILRC for input on the possible change. While he’d like to see the concourse stay open, taking down the barriers will make a big difference for many. “One hundred per cent, this would solve it for people with disabilities, it would solve it for older people, it would solve it for a lot of people who live downtown who just want to cross the street,” he said. If the city saves money by closing the concourse, Winnipeg Square eatery Caribbean Vibes owner Melani Bastians said the city should take the difference and invest it into social supports in the downtown core. “If there’s any extra money that’s being saved from this (change), in the downtown core, we should find a warehouse, build a massive kitchen and… we can make massive amounts of food for the hungry,” she said. Lasha Yaeger has managed the Winnipeg Square dessert shop Cookies By George for nearly 25 years and has followed the never-ending debate about the intersection nearly that long. She was thinking about the future of her business Friday. While some customers order ahead over the phone, most of her business comes from people walking up and buying treats on the go — many using the underground concourse to get to her — and she’s not sure business in the winter will keep up if people have to get to her by trudging through the snow. “As a business, it will affect me,” Yaeger said Friday. “I’m not going to get as many people walking up, especially in the wintertime. So I’m a little concerned.” Yaeger wonders how her business and others in the downtown core, still licking their wounds in the aftermath of COVID-19, will adapt again. “I have very mixed feelings on it,” she said. The underground concourse was quiet Friday morning, and many of the businesses inside were empty. Business owners in the area were skeptical about hopes from city council members that the change could help the revitalization of downtown. Mike Publicover, who owns the nearby Stonework’s Bistro, has been working downtown for more than 30 years. “Every mayor, every council, every time somebody has an idea to improve downtown, it hasn’t happened,” he said. malak.abas(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP: Portage & Main - Most councillors behind mayor (Mar2'24)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Mar '24

02 Mar '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Most councillors behind mayor WINNIPEG Mayor Scott Gillingham said he thinks a motion to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrians by the summer of 2025 has the support of most of his fellow councillors. He was joined at his city hall press conference by councillors Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre), Janice Lukes (Waverley West), Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge - East Fort Garry) and Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) who spoke in favour of it. “Once we start opening things up, we’re going to see a flurry of businesses,” said Gilroy. “When people are around, there is more safety. It builds a downtown where people want to come and live,” she said. Rollins said she and her colleagues have reached out to business organizations about the impact on retailers in the concourse. “We want to keep businesses in the downtown,” she said. “We care a lot about the empty spaces that we want to see filled above ground, too.” Santos said businesses and residents have been asking to open up the intersection and improve access to businesses and services at street level. Others also expressed support. “These types of decisions require leadership and I am glad to see the mayor has taken that approach,” said Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood). “Open the intersection to pedestrian traffic, close the lower level and let’s get on with life,” Duncan said in an email. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) said he, too, is in favour. So is St. James’ Shawn Dobson. “Opening Portage and Main might be the best financial decision we can make,” Dobson said. The cost of repairs to the concourse membrane, a reduction in pedestrian volume since the pandemic and a need to reinvigorate downtown are three reasons he cited for supporting reopening the intersection. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said he will vote “yes” but has “concerns and conditions” he wants addressed. Eadie said $73 million would be better spent on replacing the Arlington Bridge. Matt Allard (St. Boniface) and Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) both said they weren’t prepared to comment Friday. Some other expressed opposition for different reasons. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said repairing the underground concourse is worth it and questions the cost involved in closing it for good. “The reality is we don’t know what the actual costs are to do the mothballing, to close the concourse entirely,” he told reporters after the mayor’s press conference. “We don’t know how long that’s going to take, what the level of construction is to fill it in, so to speak.” He said the $20 million to $50 million cost suggested by the mayor “is really from the back of a cocktail napkin.” The mayor was “putting too much emphasis” on the traffic interruptions if the $73-million repair goes ahead, said Browaty who supports spending to keep the underground concourse open. “I think there’s a lot of advantage to our downtown for people who work in that core for people to use the retail amenities in the underground concourses.” Holding another plebiscite on the matter is unwarranted, he said. “Winnipeggers have spoken. They don’t want it open.” Russ Wyatt (Transcona) said a plebiscite is necessary and Winnipeggers should decide on reopening Portage and Main. “Their voice is being completely ignored by city hall today and being undermined.” He said the city should be getting a second opinion. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) said he’s neither for nor against the reopening — it’s the timeline for making a decision that he called “very troubling.” “I am disturbed by the rush to get this decided,” he said Friday. “This is a pretty big issue.” Councillors Jason Schreyer and John Orlikow did not respond to a request for comment.

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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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WFP: City seeks public input on addressing icy sidewalks (Feb29'24)
by Beth McKechnie 29 Feb '24

29 Feb '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. City seeks public input on addressing icy sidewalks https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/02/28/city-seeks-public… WHILE city crews are proactively seeking out slippery sidewalks to sand, they’re also asking Winnipeggers to point out trouble spots, after a recent freeze-thaw cycle created treacherous conditions. A City of Winnipeg post on X (formerly Twitter) asks residents to report the streets, sidewalks and paths that need sanding the most. “We’ve got thousands of kilometres of sidewalk and pathway. We do have city staff actively out trying to address public areas by putting out sand … but the more we can work together as a community to help, the better we will be,” said Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of public works. “So, we’re encouraging residents to help, to call in these trouble spots.” For sidewalks, Lukes (Waverley West) said public reports help target sanding where it’s needed most. “When (the temperature is) back and forth like this, for sure we get more calls, because every day the conditions are different. And it is frustrating because people have strollers, they want to walk, it’s slippery. This last spell (of winter weather) was a real bad one … but if we’re notified of the troubled areas, we’ll get out there,” said Lukes. The councillor noted repeated freeze-thaw cycles have made some routes more treacherous this winter, but stressed the city has invested more to keep sidewalks and active transportation paths clear. That included spending $3 million to buy 15 sidewalk snow-clearing machines, which arrived in time for this winter. The recent weather patterns made sidewalks especially tough to navigate on Monday, when Rachel Unger fell on a slick patch of ice covered by a layer of snow. “I think it was an issue of weather just because it melted so much and just got really, really cold. It was snow-covered ice, so I didn’t even see that it was there. … It all happened very fast,” said Unger, who uses they/ them pronouns. The fall caused a torn knee ligament, so they may require surgery. Unger suspects sanding might have prevented the injury altogether and hopes the city will take additional proactive measures to sand sidewalks, such as by adding set timelines to complete the treatment. “This winter has just been so wild and very unpredictable from anyone’s standpoint. This is not typical … (but) it would be nice to have a more standardized approach, knowing that it’s not going to prevent all injuries. If we could prevent some (injuries) that would be amazing,” they said. Lukes said requiring all sidewalks to be sanded within a set amount of time would prove challenging and may not be the most effective use of tax dollars, since sidewalk conditions can vary on a block-by-block basis. “You can literally go down two blocks and see (both) frozen ice and dry sidewalk … I really don’t think sanding every sidewalk in the city (would) be a very efficient use of our resources,” she said. The timing of sidewalk sanding is currently based on visual inspections and weather conditions, spokeswoman Julie Horbal Dooley said in an email. “Sanding/ice control isn’t a matter of one-and-done completeness; often, when conditions are suitable, we will sand the entire Priority 1 (major route) and Priority 2 (collector street) sidewalks after a full network plow. Outside of plowing operations, we will sand if and where conditions require it — not on a city-wide or priority-(based) basis,” wrote Horbal Dooley. Coun. Matt Allard, who has repeatedly called for enhancements to sidewalk snow clearing, said he’s not sure more sanding is the answer. Allard (St. Boniface) said his call to have all sidewalks cleared at the same priority level as major route roads, which was recently rejected by city council, would be more effective in keeping sidewalks passable. “(It would) mean comparable conditions for someone who’s driving a car on a (major route) and someone who’s walking on a sidewalk. It would, in my opinion, involve a situation where a slippery sidewalk is the exception and not the rule when you’re looking at the freeze-thaw conditions,” he said. City policy dictates that roads on Priority 1 major routes be cleared to bare pavement, with plowing completed within 36 hours after a snow event ends. Crews are expected to plow downtown sidewalks to a paved surface when “conditions allow,” while sidewalks along major routes and collector streets are cleared to a compacted snow surface, both within 36 hours after a storm ends. Residential sidewalks are to be maintained to a compacted snow surface, with plowing completed within five working days after work starts. Allard said more frequent sanding may be less effective than changing snow-plowing timelines and standards, since sand can be frozen over during freeze-thaw cycles. joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca> X: @joyanne_pursaga

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WFP: Calls to curb cars on Cambridge (Feb29'24)
by Beth McKechnie 29 Feb '24

29 Feb '24

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Calls to curb cars on Cambridge Residents complain about traffic volume https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/02/28/calls-to-curb-car… A RIVER Heights neighbourhood where residents are fed up with rush-hour drivers treating their streets as shortcuts could get relief in the form of traffic-calming measures. At its March 5 meeting, city hall’s public works committee is set to ask staff to explore interim measures for Cambridge Street north of Corydon Avenue, and the possibility of a longterm traffic management plan with a wider look at the community. “The objective is to try to make the streets calmer and safer for everybody,” said Coun. John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry). He said cut-through traffic has been an issue and Cambridge Street is among the residential streets where it is excessive. If his motion is approved, city staff will be given four months to report back on possible measures. The motion says cut-through traffic is increasing as the south end of Winnipeg densifies and grows. A short-term plan would seek input from River Heights residents and consider possible ramifications for streets adjacent to Cambridge, said Orlikow. He said the city would look at how recent construction work on corridors such as Stafford and Harrow streets has affected nearby residential streets. Last year, Cambridge residents told the Free Press drivers were using the street as a shortcut during the construction projects. About 3,900 vehicles per day use Cambridge between Corydon and Grosvenor avenues, the city said. Lower totals were recorded between Grosvenor and Kingsway (3,400) and Kingsway and Academy Road (2,400). Daily totals are as high as 6,500 between Corydon and Grant avenues, where Cambridge is wider and designed to accommodate more traffic. Tim Fennell, a founding member of a residents group, Calm Cambridge, that has lobbied city hall for traffic calming measures, welcomed the potential for interim solutions. “I believe there is some political will to make this happen,” he said. “We need support from all the different members of council.” The group proposed five interim calming measures in its pitch to city hall. It suggested extending the red light interval for north-south traffic at Cambridge and Corydon, installing temporary speed bumps between Corydon and Academy and temporarily reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h on that stretch. The group has asked the city to consider extending left-turn restrictions, from Grant and Corydon to northbound Cambridge, to include the afternoon rush hour. It also suggested blocking existing slip lanes at Grosvenor and Cambridge, and using the intersection as a normal four-way stop. Fennell said there is some risk of traffic being redirected onto adjacent streets by any new measures on Cambridge, but he believes drivers would choose corridor streets rather than other residential streets. He began lobbying for calming measures out of concern for the safety of Cambridge residents and road users, given the volume of traffic and high speeds of some vehicles. He said Cambridge is narrower between Corydon and Academy, and not designed to handle as much traffic as it does. Some sections do not have sidewalks. Fennell said he obtained Manitoba Public Insurance data that showed 179 reports of collisions on Cambridge and 80 on neighbouring Oxford Street from 2014 to 2022. The highest annual total for Cambridge was 31 in 2019. Wayne Manishen, a Winnipeg doctor, wants the city to consider traffic control measures at Cambridge and Taylor Avenue, an intersection he uses regularly. “I call it the ‘Cambridge carnage and chaos corner,’” said Manishen, who provided photos of a collision that happened last summer and a congested intersection during the afternoon rush. In 2018, council rejected a request for a temporary traffic light during construction of the nearby Waverley Street underpass. Manishen believes another option could be turning restrictions for some directions of travel during certain hours. “You don’t necessarily need lights, but you need something,” he said. “The status quo is still a dangerous option.” A long-term community study would take many months to complete. Last year, public works chair Coun. Janice Lukes told the Free Press a community plan would be more effective than individual changes. A community study in Lord Roberts began in 2018 and closed in 2023, with ongoing monitoring. It proposed about two dozen solutions, including reduced speed limits on some streets, new sidewalks, parking restrictions and cyclist crossing improvements. Meanwhile, the public works committee will also consider a recommendation to include traffic-calming measures, where feasible, in road renewal projects in locations that have higher volumes of “vulnerable” road users, starting next year. A staff report cites school and playground zones, and neighbourhood greenways as examples. chris.kitching(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca>

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