Winnipeg battles crime, poverty in attempt to breathe new life into downtown core

As business leaders gathered this past week to discuss ways to convince more residents to live, eat and shop in the city centre, Statistics Canada released a report highlighting one of the main reasons many suburbanites stay away - the city's high crime rate.

The report said Winnipeg had once again registered the highest homicide rate among major Canadian cities. Other Statistics Canada reports routinely rank the city high for other crimes such as assaults and car thefts.

Winnipeg is not alone in trying to stop the daily exodus of downtown workers fleeing to their suburban homes after 5 p.m., but the issue is worse than in other cities. Winnipeg has the third-highest percentage of residents who work downtown in Canada, but only two per cent of residents live there.

The major downtown roadways, Portage Avenue and Main Street, bear few pedestrians after dark. Those that remain sometimes contend with aggressive panhandlers - a problem that prompted the city to pass a controversial bylaw banning begging in certain areas such as bus stops and bank machines.

The city is caught in a Catch-22. The streets would feel safer if there was more foot traffic, but that won't happen until residents are convinced those streets are safe.

"The big solution in terms of perception of safety is to get more people in your downtown, not only during the day, but at night," says Dave Angus, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

Angus dreams of a downtown much like those of Vancouver and Montreal, which buzz with people out for a meal or a drink virtually every night of the week. Getting more apartments and condo buildings in the core is the key, he says.

Winnipeg has seen its share of success stories, although most are public sector-backed attempts to get more people working and studying in the area. Manitoba Hydro is building a new headquarters downtown, as is the regional health authority. Post-secondary institutions are expanding their downtown campuses, and the 15,000-seat MTS Centre has been bringing hockey and music fans downtown since it opened in 2004.

Yet problems remain.

Across the street from the MTS Centre lies one of several boarded-up storefronts on Portage Avenue. A half-block away lies the former home of Wild Planet, a large T-shirt and poster shop that fled downtown earlier this year for a safer location three kilometres to the south.

"I was tired of cleaning up (excrement) on my building, on my street," says Wild Planet owner Roman Panchyshyn.

"My own staff was getting mugged downtown. I was getting threatened all the time."

Panchyshyn's departure from the crime-ridden area was perhaps ironic, given that he sells T-shirts that half-jokingly proclaim Winnipeg the "murder capital of Canada".

The city, helped by provincial funding, has hired more police officers and has increased the downtown foot patrol, but Panchyshyn says people are still wary. He feels the key to revitalizing any downtown is to give it a neighbourhood feel, complete with schools, grocery stores and pedestrian-friendly streets instead of wide multi-lane avenues.

It's a sentiment shared by city hall.

"Housing is extremely important, but you can't have the housing without the amenities ... the grocery store that you need, the dry cleaners, et cetera," says Mayor Sam Katz.

Unlike the public sector, private developers have been slower to embrace the city centre. Hundreds of new high-priced condo units have sprung up in the last two years, but a study commissioned by the chamber of commerce says a lack of affordable new condos has prevented many young professionals from calling downtown home.

For every step the city makes in improving its downtown, it often faces a reminder of the problems that persist.

Katz points to the $5.6-million renewal of Central Park - a once-posh green space just north of Portage Avenue that is now surrounded by public housing - as another effort to make downtown life more attractive.

As Katz talked about the park restoration Friday, Winnipeg police were announcing the results of a drug sweep in the area.

Police made 13 arrests, while seizing guns, crack and cocaine.