Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 27, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba It of Auguat cites Core by Christopher Leo special to the free press As a result of recent City Council Winnipeg taxpayers have been committed to an expenditure of million for the revitalization of the downtown Core their share of a total proposed government expenditure of the so called Core area initiative contains a lot of attractive features Job construction and renovation of improvement of Community facilities and a new downtown an Industrial the Long awaited redevelopment of the cons East commercial develop ment North of Portage Avenue and in the historic Winnipeg it sounds but will it revitalize the downtown Core or to put the question More realistically to what and under what Condi will it contribute to the improve ment of the badly deteriorated areas of the Core no one can answer that question but we can address in order to do we have to look at the reasons Why the Core deteriorated in the first the subject of the origins of Down town deterioration is not a popular because it reflects unfavourably on us it is significant in the Verita ble flood of Ink and paper which has attended the very Little has been said about the in its recent the chamber of com for does not touch the subject at contenting itself with a delicate and a elaborated reference to existing conditions in the Core rather like a writer describing a four letter word which he is not allowed to stops Short the government statement offers a Little More but stops Short of a full migration from the says a document re leased jointly by the three Levels of has left behind an in creasing number of single Parent fewer children and a significantly larger proportion of the elder there has also been a regular migration of native such however we Linten tend to obfuscate the like most comments on the they leave the impression that Down town deterioration is some kind of probably caused by unemployed people in the North end and derelicts on main almost native people Are to take some share of the crime is often mentioned As 1 those impressions Are poverty and crime Are problems of our whole not just of the Down we would have to contend with if Winnipeg Core were a Model of Urban the prob lems of the Core Are not in the first in the people who have remained there or have migrated there in recent but in those who have to put it another Way it is suburban and the accompany ing flight to the which has caused downtown the concentration of social problems which is often treated As if it were a cause of downtown deter Ora is in fact an it results from the ease with which affluent people and businesses have been Able to flee to the there Hope escape the Urban problems which they would otherwise have to Deal the government statement quoted above hints at outdoes not state it the flight to the suburbs has taken various the proliferation of sub Urban shopping holding out the inducement of free parking to its has made it easy even oblige for retail business to leave the rapid development of suburban housing subsidized by the government Iri the form of cheap Mort the average Homeowner an easy escape until rising est rates and other costs began to Block it even industries found it to their advantage to locate in suburban Indus trial Parks rather than All of these developments helped to make the downtown an increasingly undesirable place to live and to do exacerbating that situation was the fact that the suburbs made their residents dependent on the Auto hard to reach districts consisting exclusively of single family Homes do not generate enough passengers to allow for convenient bus suburban shopping centres centralize commercial and Are hard to reach by Public transportation or on As people become More dependent on they use Public transportation All of that has the effect of isolating Down town business people from More and More of their potential thus contributing further to the deterioration of downtown retail business this vicious Cycle of decline could have been halted or at least greatly ameliorated placing some limits on suburban the limits need not have been suburban shopping for exam Are compatible with a healthy Long As their numbers Are limited and they Are located so As to avoid direct Competition with Down town suburban housing does no harm As Long Isit is not made so easily available As to remove the incentive for infill development and maintenance of existing lic transportation can be maintained by mixing different types of housing in such a Way As to ensure that every area of the City has enough population to generate the traffic necessary for a bus no Accident limits like these Are imposed in Many cities in other parts of the world cities by no have been Able to avoid the kinds of ills which Are so evident in downtown win in it is widely accepted that the development of suburbs will be planned in such a Way As to preserve older areas of the an example is which has grown very rapidly since the second world with the result by new suburban communities had been Stockholm suburbs feature All the different types of housing and All the business opportunities of a Canadian and they enjoy Good Road Access to the City but they also have excellent Public transit links to the and the Core has not Only remained prosperous and attractive it has been thoroughly modernized and attracted substantial new the planning of Stockholm and of its has paid off handsomely Europe Long tradition of Urban planning makes the regulation of sub Urban development readily acceptable changes hinted in Federal Cabinet Ottawa the upset defeat of Jim Coutts in the Spadina by election two weeks ago has reportedly thrown prime minister Trudeau Back to Square one in his planned Cabinet according to most Coutts had been slated for a portfolio of major the most frequent speculation was that Coutts was to head the potentially powerful economic development min a position which would have enabled him to coordinate programs and keep an Eye several departments which Are oriented toward economic development As opposed to social the economic development portfolio was created in with Robert Andras As shortly before the election which resulted in a conserva Tive despite the Ballyhoo that accompanied its the economic develop ment portfolio has not received the recognition that was expected for two with two changes of combined with recent Fis Cal have worked against a High profile for economic in the past nine months the government has been interested in Only one aspect of economic development and that has thrust Energy minister Marc Lalonde into the not senator Bud the minister of state for economic reports that Olson was to have been replaced reflect not so much on olsons performance As on the desirability of having people in charge of departments who can answer in the House of com it has proven to be a political liability to have a second who is not Ottawa diary Peter Thomson flight to the suburbs is the main reason for the decline of the downtown but we do not have to go to Europe to find indications that such regulation is possible and that it yields for was Able to maintain its downtown Core in reasonably Good condition even be fore Money began to pour into the City As a result of the Oil according to City the preservation of the Core resulted partly from a program of maintaining downtown housing and partly from limits on suburban shop Ping Centre Edmonton regulatory environment is typically Canadian less organized than the european but not As chaotic As the one which generally prevails in the United states suburban in this is closer to the american neither Ordinary citizens nor business people have been prepared to accept meaningful limits on suburban develop and As a politicians have not dared to advocate As we View the budget attached to the Core area we Are Able to begin counting the the first instalment is it is important to emphasize that this is the first instalment if there is one thing everyone seems to agree it is that million is not nearly the chamber of Commerce and the downtown Winnipeg association have both pointed out if the program is to make an a great Deal of private investment will be needed in the social planning Council has stressed the fact that the Large As it makes very Little provi directly responsible for the depart required to answer on behalf of a minister who is Over in the other in any reports had it that both senator Olson and wheat Board minis Ter Hazen argue were to be replaced Olson by who can claim he comes from Alberta and perhaps by Robert Bock Stael Bockstael is a Western he is in the House of and he is considered less Likely than argue to make politically disconcerting state ments and he does not have to Bear the everlasting animosity of the nip for having deserted its d d d several other Cabinet changes have been rumoured repeatedly As it is assumed the prime minister will try to create a perception of action after having suffered the two recent humiliating by election one persistent Rumor has Veteran agriculture minister Eugene Whelan leaving the government for other Pur or failing the removal of external affairs minister Mark Mac supporting speculation in that area is the fact that the government is Over weighted with representatives from Windsor Macguigan and in Trade and Commerce minis Ter Herb the Only change that can be predicted with some is that Bennett Campbell will become Prince Edward islands representative in the no minister can rest the government has been lacklustre at Best since it was there have been no stars among the there has been Little Opportunity for Many of them to the government was preoccupied through most of the present parliament with constitutional and Energy jus Tice minister Chretien and Energy min ister Lalonde have been the Only two on Centre the others have had to Cope with restraint and disinterest from the prime minister in their Active d d d Sion for the massive problems in the area North of the car what is even much larger sums than million will not save Winnipeg downtown from the ravages of further uncontrolled suburban we Are paying now because we have not accepted limits in the and if we do not accept limits we May be throwing Good Money after in if the Core area initiative is to serve As a starting Point for the revival of Winnipeg it must be combined with some sensible limits on suburban proposals for such limits Are already on the Winnipeg planners produced them a year in a document entitled plan which has not received the attention it the planners proposals Are undoubtedly far from perfect it May Well be that they Are not Strong enough but they Are certainly a viable basis for discus Sion and subsequent since the issues raised in plan Winnipeg have not received a thorough it is not Clear whether City Council has developed the political will to place meaningful limits on suburban it is High time we con fronted the problem City Council can set us on the right path by ensuring that the passage of the plan bylaw which constitutes final approval of Winnipeg development plan is preceded by a full with maximum Public Christopher Leo teaches political Sci ence and Urban politics at the univer sity of Summers in Ottawa Are filled with another that is currently making the rounds is that Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed aspires to be prime minister one the thought is perhaps not All that a great Many conservatives Are con Vinced they cannot win with Joe Clark As but readily agree there is no obvious successor in the Lougheed does have the political stat and when agreement is reached with Ottawa on Energy pricing and taxing he will have even greater stat ure across the after achieving and with 10 years As Premier of Alberta behind there will be Little More for Lougheed to achieve in the tories Why he Call an win it big in support of his constitutional then quit Al Berta for Ottawa taking with him a position on the Constitution which has overwhelming support of people across the and every provincial govern ment except Ontario and new Bruns there Are tories willing to Wager it will progressives set policy while nip dithers despite comments from some observers about the transitory nature of the progressive Leader Sidney Green will not be his latest announcement about a today policy seminar in mid september is one More Effort to ensure that his group will be More than a Flash in the when the progressives were formed in nip Leader Howard Pawley tried to be unconcerned about the effect on his party by the departure of several and said the new group lacked any real ideological it was very difficult to read them in terms of intentions and that cannot be said any in progressive policies Are much easier to detect than those of the members have come out with definite statements on matters such As fiscal responsibility and collective bar prepared to argue their positions and answer on the other the new democrats have yet to make Public Many of their Posi instead they have been forming task forces on various topics and going out to the Public for assistance in reaching their eventual it May be merely a Chicke Landegg which should come first the policy or Public input eventually both must be taken into account if a party expects to be but the progressives obviously believe a policy under the dome Arlene Billinkoff should exist in order to attract that that is especially necessary for a group which does not have an existing popular Green Hopes the focusing on areas of contemporary concern and featuring some Well known Partick will help create that for discussion of fiscal responsibility will be led by financial columnist Dian Cohen and the panel on full employment will include Well known economist Ruben the panel on collective bargaining will feature John head of the department of Industrial relations at the University of Toronto and Ralph former International representative of the teamsters while the discussion on Public Industrial development will be led by with Donald former Manitoba presi Dent of Inco and Steward mar former director of the Manitoba development with those luminaries As the progressives Hope the seminar will attract people and convince those who might not normally show up at a party meeting of the Validity of this party As Green has there is neither the time nor the Money to operate like the More established Par he compares his group to those informal parliamentary associations which were the forebears of existing political they were formed because of common beliefs and Pur poses and gradually evolved into their present recognized the progressives appear to be at a very Early stage of that at present they have 22 candidates for the next provincial with each person responsible for gathering sup port in his or her chosen originally composed of three former new Democrat Las and two Defeated nip the current members represent a wide Range of political beliefs and disagreements with existing party philosophies and Green believes his party is More broadly based than the nip and contains even More broadly based views than his he insists there would be less compromising of his own Faith within the progressive party than within the which he left because of a Basic difference of View about the role of despite the different political Back grounds of the Green said a framework had been constructed in which All who wanted to create a climate conducive to the betterment of the human condition could when the party was that framework included sound Industrial Freedom of collective bargaining for employees and fiscal re excess profit tax on re source industries and full it was to be a viable alternative to other political he since then other policies have been including universally financed pos secondary education and a Posi Tion enunciated by Green when the new la salary increases were passed during the last session they would not come into effect until after the next will there be any progressives in the House after the next election or will they merely serve As spoilers critics say the new party does not have a solid enough base to win and will merely take votes away from one of the major parties probably the nip but Green insists they Are not we cant spoil a party any More than it has Hurt we seek to be the Progress of the progressives has not been As fast As Green he it was moving much faster than others had by the time the election writs Are he Hopes to present a full slate of along with coherent and viable policies for the future of the who has been More specific about policies than the he confident they would receive a favourable res spouse from the for the it is important to make the Public aware of those policies and the seminar is the think it will be a major Green judging by the h should be an interesting two but whether it will actually help elect some progressives remains to be doonesbury jail on some silly wimp to up we Man out of flu wat you most ;