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Why our young abandon Winnipeg
Retaining urban singles key to raising population
Saturday, April 1, 2006
Dallas Hansen
Why are "a disproportionate number of young, skilled workers" quitting
Manitoba for greener pastures in BC and Alberta? Neither the Winnipeg
Chamber of Commerce or the University of Manitoba economics department
has any clue, but both are calling for "an in-depth provincial
study...."
No need to waste another several years scratching your heads,
fellows–I've already studied this more deeply than any think-tank
every could. As a whole, young, single, educated men and women are
leaving Winnipeg because–compared to Vancouver, Toronto, or,
sadly, even Calgary–Winnipeg is thought to be, to put it
diplomatically, bumpkinly. Provincial.
How Cowtown, once best known for its rodeo festival, ever did eclipse
our superior reputation for sophistication might be profitably
examined, but it's not just about jobs and oil. According to Statscan,
Manitoba's unemployment rate for February, 2006 is 4.4 per cent, second
lowest in the country, and a half-percentage point below British
Columbia's. Alberta, at 3.1 per cent, might be able to guarantee you a
job, but then why do so many young Winnipeggers opt for Vancouver?
As a former Vancouverite who would never consider moving to Calgary,
I'll tell you why. It isn't the climate–three weeks at a time
without a ray of sunlight is worse than three weeks of minus thirty.
It's that Vancouver appeals to young, single, educated adults through
its quality urban neighbourhoods. Whether you live in Kitsilano or
English Bay, Yaletown or Commercial Drive, you have a giant selection
of little grocery stores, cafés, neighbourhood pubs and sundry
shops within easy walking–providing plenty of community-building,
face-to-face meetings with your young, single, educated peers. Under
such conditions a car seems superfluous; without one, the increased
cost of living is no longer. Add a potential for better earnings and
you're financially better off.
Some, such as U of M economist John McCallum, have suggested Manitoba
has a marketing problem. But no amount of slick advertising can rouse
demand for what is essentially an unpalatable product–at least
compared to what our competitors can offer. Then what's our problem?
Winter? Edmonton's is no better. Lack of jobs? Winnipeg's got plenty,
even for artists, writers, actors, etc. In my case, I found opportunity
through a publishing institution old as the city itself–the Free
Press.
Cities, at minimum, are a collection of buildings and people. A block
of densely packed, upright historic frame houses is worth much, much
more–both monetarily and in use-value–when it is proximal
to a lively, storefront-lined pedestrian shopping street. While today
the closest thing Winnipeg has to such a thing might be Corydon Avenue
(though it is also dotted with set-back strip malls, a gas station, an
auto body shop, a giant phone utility building, etc.) during Winnipeg's
growth days many of our streets–Main, Portage, Selkirk, James,
Euclid, Notre Dame–were built up in blocks of solid storefront
with apartments on the upper floors. This mixed-use model has proved
essential to creating zones of urbanity, the sort of attractive public
spaces where the young, single, and educated want to be.
Even if oil prices crash tomorrow, out-migration will continue to haunt
Manitoba's economy until we admit to Winnipeg's modernist mistakes and
begin an aggressive reconstruction program. By all and any means, we
must reëstablish storefront continuity along our main city
streets, building several storeys of apartment dwellings above;
de-regulate on-street parking, moving cars off commercial lands that
ought to be built upon; and, most importantly–thought this is a
point typically lost upon Chamber-of-Commerce types–we must build
a grade-separated, rail based rapid transit system that will every day
bring downtown tens of thousands of people, but not their cars, while
returning the lifestyle advantage back toward the convenient centre and
away from the sterile suburbs.
Speaking of suburbia, that's one environment from which the young,
single, and educated creative classes are almost invariably repelled.
Given the dullness of such subdivisions as Linden Woods and Island
Lakes, disconnected as they are from the wholesome spontaneity of city
life, it's no wonder that so many middle-class, suburban youth have
turned to stimulant drugs (cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy) to feel
stimulated.
Calgary is an ugly mess of urban sprawl, tacky houses, and ugly
modernist buildings. But planners there know this, which is why they're
pushing to build inner-city density while adding to their successful
light-rail transit system. They're proud of having an inner-city
population of 117,000, and their civic government is chasing enough
infill development to add another 34,000 by 2024. Meanwhile, Winnipeg's
inner city population, from 1986 to 2007, fell by 13,000, but remains
still (somewhat) ahead of Calgary's.
Compared to Calgary, Winnipeg would have a much easier time feeling like a metropolis. We need only try.
www.dallashansen.com |
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