|
Downtown streets need people
The Winnipeg Free Press
Focus, Wednesday, April 6, 2005, p. a13
Dallas Hansen
EVERYBODY, it seems, working or living in downtown Winnipeg can tell at
least one appalling tale of being accosted for money.
Often the beggar is described as having breath that could remove nail
polish and a manner more suited to mugging than begging. But Stefano
Grande and Gord Mackintosh have teamed up to provide a putative
solution.
Mr. Grande, director of the Downtown Business Improvement Zone, and Mr.
Mackintosh, our provincial justice minister, have for this important
issue wangled funding for a "special" constabulary and a special
prosecutor to take care of "panhandling, public intoxication, graffiti
and other minor crimes" -- though to my knowledge poverty and begging
aren't yet criminal offenses.
Expanding our already overburdened justice system to accommodate
sidewalk nuisances is both frightening and absurd. Panhandlers cannot
pay fines; jailing them is an ineffective squandering of public
resources. And anointing members of Mr. Grande's Downtown Watch -- who
in many circles have already earned a reputation for arbitrary bullying
-- with the legitimacy to apprehend citizens for petty offenses sets a
precedent that's simply scarier than any drunk, staggering beggar could
ever be.
Panhandlers
Mr. Mackntosh has described this as a "made-in-Winnipeg approach,"
presumably because no other Canadian city -- not even in Alberta! --
could be quite so reactionary. But other cities have panhandlers too.
Some estimate the number of Winnipeg's persistently problematic
panhandlers at 50. Other cities have it much worse. In San Francisco,
whose population of just over 700,000 is roughly the same as
Winnipeg's, the number of homeless is estimated at over 10,000. Most of
them are panhandlers, and many are undoubtedly more persistent than
authorities would like. But the streets seem safe, and most San
Franciscans have no qualms about strolling downtown.
Of course San Francisco's slightly larger population fits into an area
about a quarter the size of Winnipeg's. That makes for much more
density, and much busier streets. Busy streets, as they say, are safe
streets. When you're surrounded by dozens of onlookers, the underclass
no longer seems so intimidating.
On Winnipeg's comparatively desolate streets, even a single panhandler
on an otherwise empty sidewalk can be sufficient to scare suburbanites
back to the mall. Winnipeg's middle class, having long abandoned the
inner city, oughtn't be so surprised at who has filled the void. If
Messrs. Grande and Mackintosh truly want to reclaim our downtown for
the consumer, the only permanent solution can come not from prosecuting
the underclass, but outnumbering them.
Just as Winnipeg is integral to the economic health of the province, so
is our downtown integral to our city's economy. Never mind the
tremendous social problems downtown, a more pressing issue for our
provincial government is our city's zero-per cent population growth.
While once lesser cities such as Edmonton and Calgary are creeping
toward a population that is twice that of Winnipeg's, our government
stays silent on the subject of stagnation.
In the absence of petroleum wealth, Manitoba must induce a more organic
approach to economic development, one that starts with Winnipeg's city
centre. Between Portage and Broadway, downtown Winnipeg is filled with
no less than 27 surface-level parking lots, making for gaps in street
continuity that not only preclude their having any individual identity
but ensure that they will never be well-travelled by foot. Such a
sparse city centre ought to be intolerable.
Approach
A more effective approach, then, would be building density by
legislating surface-level parking out of existence, and the erection --
through private or even public development -- of mixed
residential-commercial buildings: sidewalk storefronts at bottom, with
apartment dwellings up above. This provides a plethora of reasons for
people to be on the block while those living up above keep aware of
what goes on below. The safest neighborhoods are self-regulating.
Young, single out-of-towners are likelier to live in the inner city
than anywhere else, particularly if they are not motorists. A busy
downtown attracts yet more people, creating the proverbial snowball
effect. As people seek to be nearer downtown, the city's population can
grow, without the accompanying problems of urban sprawl.
Community prosecutions, professional busybodies, and the Intoxicated
Persons Detention Act will not keep the poor from roaming the
sidewalks. Indeed, nothing can, save for an all-out police state, and a
downtown without room for beggars is a place I wouldn't want to visit.
Category: Editorial and Opinions
Uniform subject(s): Laws and regulations
Length: Medium, 586 words
© 2005 Winnipeg Free Press. All rights reserved.
www.dallashansen.com |
|
|
|
