(Sorry, Joni Mitchell.) According to this article, downtown Winnipeg largely consists of over 150 surface parking lots. This is why:"Local planners say the late 1960s and '70s saw a significant shift of residents and capital out of the downtown and into the suburbs -- a phenomenon common in many North American cities but particularly acute in Winnipeg. As building after building was abandoned, many of them historic and expensive to redevelop, owners demolished instead of renovating. Surface parking lots took their place, seen as a temporary way to make cash to cover maintenance and property taxes while the market improved enough to make building a condo tower or office building worthwhile. Problem is, thanks to a slow growth economy that still hasn't quite happened."
I don't expect this to ever change, and this is part of the reason Winnipeg is (in the words of a friend of mine) a "dying city." Here's an example. The Exchange District, which is the most beautiful part of the "downtown," has a high vacancy rate, and the mayor is not that interested in revitalizing it. Recently, this monstrosity (on the right) was built - a multi-story parkade. In New York, this would have been an opportunity for residential housing above, or shopping, or what-have-you. In Winnipeg, even the parkade is uninhabited - it's a ghost town of empty parking spaces, because most people don't come downtown.
