WINNIPEG NEEDS DREAMERS
David Asper’s proposal for the stadium, Lloyd Axworthy's plans for the University of Winnipeg and CentreVenture’s proposals for Portage Ave are a refreshing breath of optimism about Winnipeg’s future. We don’t have enough dreamers and dreams for Winnipeg’s future.
The City of Winnipeg Planning Department long ago gave up this important job. In the 1960s Chief City planner Earl Levin actually dared to dream about downtown, offering the 1969 Downtown Winnipeg Plan which spawned a variety of projects like the Convention Centre, a hotel and office buildings.
In the late 1980s and into the mid 1990’s a volunteer group called the Urban Idea Centre came together to offer ideas but its polite members seemed reluctant to speak publicly with vision and determination. We also had various still-born city plans like Centre Plan which were heavy on consultation but devoid of action.
We need an Urban Idea Centre or a city think tank more than ever. We need to see the Planning Department once again become a generator of ideas. We need the Real Estate Board and its members talking possibilities. We need a broad section of Winnipeggers to conspire for Winnipeg’s future and dream and advocate publicly. We need to identify problem areas and undeveloped lands like the old meat packing site and come up with possibilities and sell proposed uses for them. We need to rediscover the spirit of optimism we had 100 years ago when Winnipeg’s citizens were planning for their children’s and grandchildren’s futures.
And it could start online. People could post ideas and dreams and the like to get some debate going. Let’s start a site which we could call “winnipegdreams.com.” And perhaps the Free Press could offer a weekly column for Winnipeg Dreamers.
But as we have seen in the last decade it takes a business person to get the ball rolling. We need business and private individuals to take action. So let’s hear from more such people about what they would like to see done.
