Ha.

The joke's on the New York Times, and... Winnipeg.

Do Winnipeggers Hate NYC?

At least some of them want to blow it up.

It's "Bearly" Believable...

...that someone would want to visit Manitoba. But here it is, more evidence that the province's PR campaign has New Yorkers in its sights. I personally know a couple who traveled to the town of Churchill to see polar bears. (Apparently, this small community of 4,000 people pays $4 for a loaf of Wonder Bread.)

ETA: I'm back in Winnipeg for the winter. The blizzard in NYC actually prepared me for it.

They Paved Hell and Put Up A Parking Lot

(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.

Manitoba PR Office is Working Overtime

You can't put lipstick on a pig and call it Coco Chanel, but that's what the Winnipeg PR office must be trying to do. Recently, there was a glowing article in the New York Times about Winnipeg. One touts its "parka-clad diversity"(Winnipeg Free Press link) and "designer immigration." What the article neglects to mention is that when you have so many people trying to leave this hellhole, you have to try to recruit some poor suckers to move here. Immigrants to Winnipeg are largely unskilled refugees who are desperately trying to flee horrible political situations, so the last thing on their mind is a fear of ten-foot-long mosquitoes or -100 temperatures. (A much older article in the Times mentions the fact that Winnipeg has the largest population of unemployed aboriginals in Canada - not exactly cause for celebration.)