smart | city


Change for the better: new parking fees free up spots for flux of traffic


downtowns. Economic gurus Gregory Pierce and Donald Shoup say it best: “Underpriced (free) and overcrowded curb parking cre- ates problems for everyone ex- cept a few lucky drivers who find a cheap space; all the other driv- ers who cruise to find an open space waste time and fuel, con- gest traffic, and pollute the air. Overpriced and under-occupied parking also creates problems; when curb spaces remain empty, nearby merchants lose potential customers, workers lose jobs, and cities lose tax revenue.” Downtown Winnipeg, too,


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Downtown Stefano Grande


is undergoing a revival. The majority of our restaurants and


retailers tell us that their customers are having a hard time finding on-street parking around the MTS Centre (the zone where parking hours are being extended, not the entire downtown). In other words, the lack of on-street parking is affecting their customers and business operations. Our goal is to help our businesses succeed, and to learn and borrow from best practices in other downtowns. Tere is no doubt that our downtown is becoming more


and more vibrant in the evening, even when the Jets are not playing! Tis is a good problem to have. Tat’s why on- street parking needs to be better managed today. A common practice in many downtowns and business districts where there are on-street parking challenges is to charge for that premium spot during the hours of parking congestion (in our case – up to 8:30 p.m.). As Donald Shoup has proven in his research, if this is done


correctly (price and hours), every time you come downtown to this area, there should be an on-street spot for you – es- pecially if you want to park on the same block where your favourite restaurant is. In other words, the new parking policy applied encourages those that want to park long-term on the street to move into other locations (parkades or off- street parking lots). Te goal is to help people like you who want to come down-


town, but can’t find parking near your favourite restaurant. Remember, this policy is only for the Sports, Hospitality, and Entertainment District (SHED) area. But, if you want to avoid paying for parking, you can still


park on-street a few blocks away, outside of this area. Also, some of our restaurants have free customer parking, surface parking lots, or parkade spots secured for their customers nearby. You can always ask when making a reservation if they have free parking.


Parking issues continue to plague downtown Winnipeg. Photo by Myrone Delacruz. In our conversations with our members (four town hall-


type meetings), we hear eloquently about the need for other parking solutions, like park and rides, public infrastructure dedicated toward rapid transit, and the importance of walk- ability and living/working/playing downtown. Tey are right – we need more dense mixed developments


along our transit routes, which integrate parking, as part of broader transportation goals – and innovative policies like Shoup’s should be assessed and tested. What we’re hearing from our BIZ members • If the demand is quantified by Winnipeg Parking Au-


thority (WPA) properly, then these outside-the-box park- ing solutions are an option (if we can achieve a 15 per cent vacancy of on-street parking as a rule of thumb (Shoup)) • Some BIZ members want the zone extended even


further, outside of the SHED, where there are the same challenges • There is merit to assess if the hours to pay and park on


the street can be extended to 10:30 p.m., typically the time events finish downtown • Ensure all available loading zones not being utilized


in the evening are utilized (on-going initiative to convert loading zones)


• A solution also needs to be found for nighttime workers,


who rely on street parking too (programs providing busi- nesses with the opportunity to offer their workers off-street parking at a low cost/promoting alternatives such as biking and transit) • Restaurants and some retailers need assistance in se-


curing off-street parking for their patrons as an additional measure (this has proven to be successful) • Evening validation programs for our retailers and res-


taurants in this zone • Forecast parking growth and ensure developments in


the area include coordinated parking solutions as part of their developments, with intergraded transportation options • Effective rapid transit is seen as a viable long-term


solution • Encourage WPA/City to invest the revenue into further-


ing these solutions, and other programs to improve our downtown We’re looking forward to ongoing conversations with our


members and the community-at-large in advancing some of these ideas. Stefano Grande is the executive director of the Downtown


Winnipeg BIZ. Let’s go off the rails with our public


transportation plans in Winnipeg Using the existing infrastructure – the rail lines – would prepare Winnipeg for future growth


steamer “Selkirk,” it was big news. It would inaugurate the first major land transportation system on the Prairies – the railway running north and south between Selkirk and Emerson. For the next century, rail


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would be king in Manitoba – and Winnipeg was the hub of it all. Four years later, in 1881,


the Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway Act was passed, opening the way to tie the Dominion together by build- ing the line westward across the Prairies. To grease the wheels, huge


concessions were made to the railway, not the least of which was a payment of $25 million – and with that, two million acres of land – some of it located where cities have since grown up surrounding the networks. CP operated as a crown corporation until 2001 when it was privatized. Headquartered in Calgary, it is publicly traded on the Toronto and New York Stock exchanges. In Winnipeg, CP occupies almost 500 acres


in the heart of the city, cutting the community in half both literally and figuratively. It is sur- rounded by a wasteland of tracks and empty


4 Smart Biz


n 1877, when the Countess of Dufferin locomotive arrived in St. Boniface on a barge, towed up the Red River by the


warehouses as the nature of businesses in the city has changed. Te neighbourhoods on either side of the tracks are among the least desirable in Winnipeg. The Canadian National (CN) Railway


has its own network of lines cutting though east Winnipeg, where there are major yards in Transcona and St. Boniface – and then through downtown through to the south- ern part of Winnipeg, all the way to St. Norbert (and west through Tuxedo and Charleswood). And we’re not only dealing with


CP and CN. Tere are a number of other players, including Via Rail, Burlington Northern, Central Manitoba Railway, and so on. Since the 1960s, various groups


Bold Ideas Dorothy Dobbie


have raised the issue of moving rail yards away from Winnipeg’s core, and there are several prec- edents for this.


Edmonton did it in the 1980s, with the


removal of CN. Tis was followed by a boom in construction and development. What was wasteland is now prime land. Tax rev- enue rose with the redevelopment, and the original investment has since been more than justified. Montreal recently completed its relocation


and development, which was accomplished over the last decade. The redevelopment paralleled that of Edmonton. In 2012, the Social Planning Council of


Winnipeg reintroduced the idea with a study and proposal to remove the CP lines and yards, and fill the space with housing. Tey reasoned that removal of the lines to a loca- tion north of the city was a sensible decision given the location of the transportation- hungry CentrePort Canada development. Te timing is auspicious. Under the leader-


ship of Mayor Brian Bowman, Winnipeg is finally taking its first tentative steps toward creating a rapid transit system, servicing a very small part of the city from downtown to the University of Manitoba. But we need a system that covers the whole city. Te Conference Board of Canada has point-


ed out that the city is expected to grow by 180,000 people by 2031; not only will there be a need for an estimated 83,000 new housing units, there will be additional pressure on our transportation infrastructure. Strategically, it makes sense to utilize the rail line corridors that currently serve private transportation for public transportation. Indeed, the Social Planning Council proposal, which focuses a lot on housing, acknowledges the transpor- tation needs in any repurposing of the site. Naysayers and the weak of heart will worry


about site remediation, but we have experi- ence with this at Te Forks – not that long ago, a 90-acre, industrial-age mess. Moreover, a great deal has been learned in the interim about the remediation efficacy of greenspaces and trees. So yes, we could have a network of rapid transit systems and freeways following the


www.smartbizwpg.com Railway bridge.


old rail lines throughout the city, and yes, we could even have housing on the old rail yard sites with some careful planning. Will this be expensive? Yes, but all projects


are. Te housing will inevitably be built and that development will demand transpor- tation infrastructure. Better to begin the process now, taking advantage of the oppor- tunity to clean up the core areas of the city, and halt some of the urban sprawl. Is this doable? Yes, it is. It will take the co-


ordinated efforts and leadership of the city, the province, the federal government, and local business, but it is more than doable. It could be the salvation of an aging town


that could use a big shot of renewal right to its heart.


June 2015


et’s face it: no one wants to pay for parking, and we all want to park near where we shop, dine or visit. Tis has always been a challenge for great and vibrant


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