The development of downtown Winnipeg : historical perspectives on decline and revitalization

Abstract

This report examines the ancestry of some of the current major policy concerns relating to Winnipeg's downtown area. These policy concerns are among the foci of the Core Area Initiative (CAl) program presently in operation in Winnipeg. The CAl is an attempt by the federal, provincial and municipal governments to revitalize Winnipeg's Core Area through a five-year public expenditure program totalling $96 million. The report traces the development of housing/residential issues; central business district (CBD) issues-- retail, commercial and industrial; and urban and municipal planning issues. The impact of various historic forces leading to diffusion of activity throughout an overly large downtown area is examined, as is the dispersion of CBD functions to suburban areas. The resulting failure of the redevelopment process in the downtown area is seen as a major source of the contemporary problems which stimulated the CAl in the area. The resolution of these contemporary problems requires that the behaviour patterns stimulated by these historic forces be altered to reflect changed times. Until this need for change is widely accepted, it is unlikely that the downtown of Winnipeg will be fully revitalized.