The central business district of Winnipeg is generally regarded as the area lying between the C.P.R. tracks on the north, the Assiniboine River on the south, the Red River on the east, and Sherbrook Street on the west. This area is relatively large about 1,400 acres and contains more than merely the central business district "core"; it contains in addition to the core a substantial "frame" around the core in which are contained a variety of industries including retailing, wholesaling, manufacturing, and service, as well as a considerable number of dwelling typical of the "frame" area of most North American cities.
This central area, for the purpose of study and analysis, has been divided into four component areas. The first of these components is the area lying between the C.P.R. tracks and Notre Dame Avenue, west of Main Street. The City of Winnipeg has commissioned an urban renewal scheme to be prepared for this area, known as "Urban Renewal Area 2"; the Final General Report for the scheme was presented to the City in January, 1968.
The second component area is that which lies east of Main Street, between the C.P.R. tracks on the north, and the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers on the south. This area is known as "Urban Renewal Area 3". The City of Winnipeg has also commissioned an urban renewal scheme to be prepared for this area, and the Final General was presented to the City's Housing and Urban Renewal Department in April, 1969.
The third component area is that which lies west of Memorial Boulevard to Sherbrook Street. A study of this area is now in preparation, and the report will be published in due course.
The fourth component area is the balance of the central business district and lies between Notre Dame Avenue on the north, the Assiniboine River on the south, Main Street on the east, and Memorial Boulevard-Colony Street on the west. This area is the subject of the present report and is referred to here as "the Downtown". In fact, this area which may be regarded as "the Downtown" proper; the other three areas are more correctly regarded as the fringe areas or "frame" of the Downtown.
The findings of this report can come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with urban affairs, and is informed about what is happening to the cities of North America. The report reveals that Winnipeg's downtown is going through the same changes as the Downtowns of other cities of this continent: it has lost most of its resident population; the people who are left are older and poorer than the "average" in the city; it is losing its manufacturing, wholesaling, and warehousing industries; it is losing retail trade; only its services industries are holding their own but the volume and rate of new investment in the area are not sufficient to compensate for the losses. In short, Winnipeg's Downtown, like that of many North American cities, is declining.
The report proposes a plan to reverse the prevailing trend, and to bring the Downtown back to a condition of flourishing vitality and activity. This plan requires a number of special, perhaps even extraordinary measures on the part of the public; it can only be realized through the strategic expenditure of public money, and great public effort. It seems reasonable to ask therefore why such special measures are justified.
Why, indeed, should the public make a great effort to reverse what seems to be a "natural" trend, and try to bring a high level of investment and development activity into this particular part of the city?
A number of persuasive answers can be given to that question. To begin with, there is already a very heavy public capital investment in the Downtown in utilities and services. These in the main are still in good condition, with a considerable life expectancy, but with a growing unused capacity. As more of the population and businesses of the central area are decentralized to the suburbs, the use of the Downtown services and utilities declines. At the same time however, new capacity has to be created in the suburbs to accommodate the new development there. In fact the new suburban services have to be designed for an ultimate capacity far in excess of present demand, because the growth of the suburbs is expected to continue beyond their present levels. This means that excess capacity is also being created in the Downtown, due to the decline in the number of users, the community finds itself in the situation in which it is carrying two sets of systems, neither of which at the present time is fully utilized. This represents a high social cost.
The proliferation of the suburbs also means the extension of public services whose economy is a function of the number of users per unit. If there are few users per given unit of service, then the cost per capita is high; if there are many users, the per capita cost is reduced. Suburban development compared to central area development, is low density; the per capita cost of services is very high compared to that in developments of high density. The Downtown can only be developed at high densities, and consequently offers greater economy of per capita services costs.
The private sector, too, has an enormous investment Downtown. This part of the city has the highest concentration of private investment in the entire metropolitan area, and it contributes far more than any other part of the city to the general metropolitan economy. The value of buildings, the size of the payroll, are all more highly concentrated Downtown than anywhere else. And the public revenues derived from this concentration are higher than from any other area of equivalent size. It does not seem reasonable that a sector of the city which is so important to the area's economy, and which represents such a valuable public and private interest should be allowed to decline and be dispersed through the slow process of decentralization, attrition, and neglect.
All of the above considerations are of great importance. But they are not the only arguments in favor of rehabilitating the central area. They may not even be the most important or the most persuasive considerations. Perhaps the most telling argument in favor of a special-effort to revitalize Downtown is the fact that the future of the whole of Metropolitan Winnipeg hinges to a very degree on what is going to become of the central business district.
This critical relationship is so because the character and personality of a city are expressed by its Downtown; the image of a city which is presented to the world is that which is projected by its central business district. The truth of this proposition becomes immediately apparent when one calls to mind the great cities of the world. The image which the names Paris, New York, London, Moscow, Montreal, Stockholm, Vienna, Copenhagen, conjure up is the image of their central business area; and it is so not merely for the greatest cities but generally for all cities.
At the present time Winnipeg has lost some ground to other cities in the Canadian hierarchy, and particularly has lost some ground to Calgary and Edmonton as the great metropolis of western Canada. Winnipeg's image has deteriorated to some extent over the last decade or two, which has been a reflection of the city's relatively modest rate of growth of population and new development when compared with other centres in Canada where growth has been more dynamic.
Winnipeg is now at the point where it must build a new character and a new image which will command confidence and admiration if it is to attract the type and magnitude of investment which will enable it to continue to occupy a place amongst the first rank of Canadian cities. Such a character and such an image can only be created in the Downtown.
The issue at stake here is not merely whether Winnipeg can continue to occupy the fourth place in the hierarchy of Canadian cities, but whether it can continue to improve the quality of life for its citizens. The question of growth and size is meaningful only insofar as it is related to the growth of personal opportunity and the enrichment of life which that growth makes possible. These ends are not necessarily best served by the explosive growth rates of the multi-million population cities. A more satisfactory rate of improvement can probably be achieved by much smaller communities and by much more modest rates of growth. But growth and investment both are certainly required. Without them a city is unable to build the facilities it requires to house all of its many activities, or to attract and hold the people with the talent, energy and dedication necessary for high achievement. In order to attract such investment and such people, Winnipeg must become more attractive than it is. Such attractiveness can only be created in the Downtown.
The development of a highly imaginative and exciting central area will attract new people and new investment not only to Winnipeg's Downtown, but also to the suburbs. Everybody shares the character and reputation of a city's Downtown, and everybody benefits if that character and that reputation have power to charm and excite and attract not only new people, but new investment, new ideas, new activities. Because of this the benefits of an attractive Downtown will flow in full measure into the suburban areas.
For all of these reasons the revitalization of the Downtown should be undertaken, and should be given the necessary support by all segments of the metropolitan community.
The following report sets out the findings of a study which began in April, 1967, and is completed with the publication of this document. The report reviews the trends in the Downtown, documents its present condition, analyzes its problems, and makes proposals for re-creating it in a new, exciting, and attractive image.
Inherent in the report is the idea that the changes which are adversely affecting the Downtown of the North American city can themselves be changed. What are sometimes referred to by conventional wisdom as "natural trends" are not "natural", but are the result of man-made circumstances. The movement of population and investment out of the central area, in some quarters regarded as "natural", has occurred as a result of conscious actions of men seeking certain social goals which were felt to be good, and those movements can be reversed and changed by the actions of men arising out of a different view of the kind of city which is found to be desirable.
It is to be hoped that the facts of the report will be found to be true, its argument sound and persuasive, and the new image it proposes for the Downtown desirable. If so there is every reason to hope that the community will unite in bringing that new image to reality. And if that happens, there is no doubt that Winnipeg, in the coming decades, will emerge as one of the leading cities not only of Canada, but of the North American continent.
Illustration 1-A: Aerial View of Downtown from the South.
Perhaps the one single experience which North American cities have in common is the decline of the central business district. The Downtown of the North American city is undergoing a profound change in the nature, extent, and intensity of its traditional activities. The flight of population, wholesaling, warehousing, and manufacturing from the Downtown has been going on for four or five decades, and is thoroughly documented in thousands of scholarly treatises, newspaper reports, in the annual reports of the business corporations of North America, and indeed in the Report of the Greater Winnipeg Investigating Commission of 1959. More recently there has been a flight of what has always been thought to be the true heart of the downtown business activity retailing, and to some extent commercial offices, hotels, entertainment, and high-rise apartments.
At the same time certain traditional Downtown activities have not moved out but have remained Downtown, and, if anything, have strengthened their position, so that the Downtown is emerging as the area of specialization in such things as service employment, government, financial institutions, and to some extent of entertainment and of quality retail goods.
The changes which have been taking place in the structure of the city are due to a number of complex forces. The changes in the location of wholesaling and warehousing, for example, have followed from fundamental changes in the organization, and in the technology of these industries. Closer integration with retailing, the use of the mechanical fork lift, the greater operational efficiency of horizontal rather than vertical building space have all been important pressures forcing these activities out of the central area. to these may be added, in some measure, the difficulties in finding room to expand in the Downtown, and the difficulties of transportation and access, because of traffic congestion, particularly in the very large cities. Much the same observations may be made of the manufacturing industries. Many manufacturing industries during and after the war underwent very extensive reorganization and re-equipping, and found that they could only do so on new sites which were only available in suburban locations. These various pressures have succeeded in forcing relocations in many instances in spite of the fact that a central area location might be an advantage from the point of view of distribution of the product.
As for housing, the exodus of the middle classes to the suburbs has been going on ever since the almost universal adoption of the private automobile as the principle mode of urban transportation. The widespread use of the private motorcar has permitted a flood of population out of the central city into the surrounding countryside; and the exodus has drained the Downtown of its resident population, and much of its potential new retail investment.
The effects on the Downtown of the flight from the central city have been to leave behind as the residual resident population the poor and the aged of the city; to leave a high proportion of floor space either vacant or occupied at very low rentals by, in many cases, marginal tenants; to leave large site areas either vacant or used as surface parking lots; to create serious over-congestion on the Downtown streets and on the major arteries between the residential suburbs and the Downtown employment centre, particularly at peak hours; and to spread a general air of deterioration and neglect, even of abandonment, over the entire central business district.
Winnipeg has not escaped these common experiences, and its Downtown, along with that of so many North American cities, shows the ravages which have been worked by these forces. A detailed description of the physical, economic, and social conditions which exist in the Downtown today has been provided in the sections of this report dealing with those matters. Some word, however, should be said about the long-range trends which have been characteristic of the Downtown, and data should be presented illustrating in specific terms the nature of the decline of some of the traditional Downtown functions and activities.
The growth of the Metropolitan Winnipeg area as a whole during the last twenty years or more has occurred virtually in its entirety in the outlying municipalities. Between 1941 and 1956 the City of Winnipeg grew by about 14%. Charleswood in the same period grew by about 111%; Fort Garry by 140%; St. James by 74%; Assiniboia by 67%; West Kildonan by 113%. During the ten years between 1956 and 1966 the central city grew by less than 1%, and actually declined by more than 3% during the last five years of that period. The suburbs, however, continued to flourish, Assiniboia growing by nearly 290% during that ten-year period; North Kildonan by 134%; Fort Garry by 50%; Charleswood by 43%; St. Boniface by 45%, and so on nearly every suburban municipality making very substantial gains while the central city's growth declined in both absolute and relative terms.
The decline in the central city's population was paralleled by losses in the Downtown. In 1941 Winnipeg's Downtown* had a resident population of 15,567. In 1966, 25 years later, the population was 8,706. The decline in the population was 44% and it is continuing to decline. In the same period the population of the Metropolitan area grew by just over 68%. But in view of the recognized movement of population out to the suburbs, perhaps this figure, even if disturbing, is not altogether unexpected.
On the other hand it is generally felt that retailing is holding its own, and is in fact one of the strengths of the central business district. The time period for which reliable data are available is only five years, the years 1961 to 1966. In some ways this is unfortunate because they cannot give the long-term picture, although experience elsewhere reveals the long-term downward trend. On the other hand however, the five-year period can be considered very revealing, because it indicates the magnitude of the local changes quite dramatically. The figures are taken from the census reports of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics.
In the Downtown area in 1961, there were 341 retail stores of all categories. These included the Food group, the Merchandise group, the Automotive group, the Apparel and Accessories group, the Hardware and Furniture group, and Other Retail group; 341 stores altogether in 1961. In 1966 there were 319 stores. In 1961 retail stores did $181,081,100 worth of business. In 1966 they did $178,949,400 worth of business, a drop of $2,081,700 in constant 1961 dollars.
In Metropolitan Winnipeg as a whole there was also a decline in the number of retail stores over the same period. In 1961 there were 2,870 stores, and in 1966 there were 2,081, a drop of 69 stores. But these fewer stores did nearly 14% more business, the volume of sales climbing from $493,139,000 in 1961 to $561,905,900 in 1966.
Perhaps a decline of two million dollars in retail, sales in the Downtown doesn't seem to be very serious in itself. In fact, however, it is very serious because it is an index which reveals a trend, and it is particularly significant because it refers to such a relatively short time span. However, the seriousness of this situation may be better illustrated by the fact that in 1961 the downtown retail sales were 36.7% of all retail sales in the Metropolitan area. In 1966 they were 31.8% a decline of 4.9% in the five-year period.
Of the six groups of activity which together make up the retail trade category of the Standard Industrial Classification, only two showed an increase between 1961 and 1966 in the Downtown. These were the Merchandise group, and the Apparel and Accessories group. The others all declined.
The Merchandise group contains such establishments as department stores, general stores, and similar general retail sales and merchandising outlets. At first glance, the fact that this group showed an increase (although only a modest one $602,000) over the five-year period might seem to indicate that this group is still sound in the Downtown, and the big department stores are holding their own. However, a more careful examination proves that this is not really so.
In 1961 the sales of the Merchandise group in the Downtown represented 85.7% of the sales of this group in the whole Metropolitan area. In 1966 the Downtown's share of this business had fallen to 72.2% a decline of 13.5% in the five years.
Looking at this relationship from another angle, the increase in business of the Merchandise group in the whole of the Metropolitan area, in constant dollars for the five-year period was 19.4%; for the same period, the increase in business for this group in the Downtown was .5%.
It is interesting to speculate on the effect which regional shopping centres have on this retardation of the growth of the Downtown retailing business. One hears the frequent opinion that the outlying shopping centres are not reducing the sales of the Downtown retail stores, and particularly not of the larger department stores. The figures quoted above indicate quite clearly that the business of Downtown retail establishments is in fact being very seriously affected it is being severely retarded relative to the growth of retailing in the Metropolitan area as a whole, and is losing its share of that overall growth. But if one examines what is happening in the regional shopping centres, a new insight into the situation is obtained.
The Polo Park shopping centre is contained in the Dominion Bureau of Statistics census tract 29. The boundaries of this tract are Ellice Avenue on the north, Wall Street on the east, Portage Avenue on the south, and St. James Street on the west
In 1961 the total retail sales in this census tract were $25,508,600. This was only about a year after Polo Park was established and before it was covered to create the enclosed mall. By 1966 retail sales had risen to $37,695,100 in constant dollars ($41,883,400 in 1966 dollars), an increase of 47.8% During the same period, retail sales in Downtown had fallen over $2 million.
And if one looks at the Merchandise group, the group specifically containing the department stores, one finds that in 1961 this group in census tract 29 did 5.2% of the merchandise business of the whole of Metro Winnipeg. By 1966 its proportion had risen to 6.7%. The same group in the Downtown suffered a decline of 13.5% in its share of the total Metropolitan merchandise sales.
Apparel and accessory sales, the other sector of Downtown retailing which enjoyed an increase, grew by 10.6% between 1961 and 1966. During the same period however, in the Metropolitan areas as a whole, apparel and accessory sales increased by 27.7% and in census tract 29 (Polo Park) by an impressive 46.9%.
In terms of the proportion of the Metropolitan sales in this sector of retailing, the position of the Downtown fell by 7.2% during the five-year period, while census tract 29 increased by exactly 1.0%.
The information relating to retail sales is set out in Table 2.1.
The value of building permits is sometimes quoted as an index of vitality, and in recent years Winnipeg's performance has been the source of considerable satisfaction. But even here, if one analyzes the data carefully, the performance of the Downtown should be the source of some anxiety rather than a source of satisfaction to those who value a vigorous and lively central area.
In 1961 the total value of building permits in the Downtown was $1,526,992, which represented 2.4% of the total value of permits in the whole of Metropolitan Winnipeg. In 1966 the permit value of Downtown construction was $1,550,025 which represented 1.8% of the total value of Metropolitan permits a drop of .6% in the Downtown's share which is of course not a very serious decline. But when one considers the fact that the increase in the Metropolitan area's building permits in 1966 over that in 1961 was 35% (from $62.4 million to $84.3 million) while the corresponding increase in the Downtown was only 1.5%, (from $1.52 million to $1.55 million) the comparison is not so encouraging. The year 1968 was a record building year in Metropolitan Winnipeg with the total value of permits standing at $124.4 million. This represented almost 100% increase over the total permit value of 1961. The Downtown, too, saw a substantial increase in permit values, the Downtown total standing at $2.3 million. However, this increase again represented only 1.8% of the Metropolitan total (in 1961 the ratio was 2.4%), and represented an increase of 50% over the Downtown's 1961 performance, as compared to almost 100% for the entire Metropolitan area.
This modest performance of the Downtown in terms of relative values of construction would be quite acceptable, even gratifying, if the Downtown were fully developed, as it is in many cities, and there were simply no available land for building. But in view of the extremely high proportion of vacant land in the central area, the building permit record does not indicate a vigorous developmental condition.
In any case, the value of building permits is not a very reliable indicator, unless the period of analysis is long enough to indicate definite long-term trends. On a short-term basis, the picture is too easily distorted by one or two large-scale projects which may or may not ever occur again. And furthermore, gross values of construction do not differentiate between construction in the public sector and construction in the private sector, so that one cannot really appreciate the full implications for the economy of these statistics. The figures quoted are really too short-term to provide any firm evidence of a long-term trend; and the Metropolitan record established in 1968 reflects unusually large public projects such as the Air Canada air freight hangar, The Manitoba Institute of Technology, the Metro Transit garage and the Centennial Centre museum, the equivalent of which may or may not occur again in Winnipeg.
Manufacturing industries were traditionally located in the central area of the North American city. There were many advantages to such a location in the early periods of urbanization. Ease of distribution, proximity to labor force, proximity to rail facilities and warehouses, and other factors created the Downtown manufacturing enclave. In many cities this was the most important concentration of industry in the entire urban area, and in the case of Winnipeg this was certainly true.
But after World War I, and in many instances prior to, and even because of the war, changes occurred which are continuing even today. There is a general movement of manufacturing industry out of the central area of the North American city. Winnipeg's Downtown is experiencing the same loss. A Market Analysis for Metropolitan Winnipeg, prepared by Reid, Crowther, and Partners Ltd. in 1966, states that there has been virtually no new manufacturing, in the Downtown, since about 1950. The statistical information available from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics not only bears out this contention, but clearly indicates a decline of manufacturing in the central area.
The Downtown as defined for purposes of this study does not include that part of the central business district in which most of the manufacturing firms established. Urban renewal areas 2 and 3, north of Notre Dame Avenue and east of Main Street respectively, contain the majority of manufacturing firms in the central area. Nevertheless, in 1961 there were in the Downtown as defined for this study, 83 manufacturing firms. Five years later, in 1966, there were 70 firms a drop of 13 firms representing a decline of about 15.6% from the numbers in 1961. In the larger area of the central business district, including urban renewal areas 2 and 3 and extending west to Sherbrook Street, the decline was not quite as dramatic. In 1961 in the larger area, there were 332 firms, which fell to 304 in 1966. This was a decline of about 8% in the sector of the city where, traditionally, manufacturing has been abundant and firmly entrenched.
During the same period, 1961-1966, the number of manufacturing establishments grew in the Metropolitan area as a whole. There were 984 manufacturing enterprises in Greater Winnipeg in 1961; that number increased to 1,027, or by about 4�% by 1966. The increase of course was accommodated n the industrial parks of Winnipeg and the outlying municipalities, as were also most if not all of the industries which moved out of the central area.
Figures for employment in manufacturing Downtown tell the same story. In 1961, in the study area, there was a total of 2,121 people employed in manufacturing, including working owners and proprietors. In 1966 the number was 1,899 a drop of 222 in absolute numbers, or just over 10%. The same thing occurred in the larger central area. In 1961 in the central business district as a whole, there were 11,806 people employed in manufacturing, including working owners and proprietors. In 1966 there were 11,408, a drop of 398 or about 3.5%. During the same period, in the entire Metropolitan area employment in manufacturing rose from 35,554 to 38,939 of working owners exclusive of working owners and proprietors, an increase of about 9.5%. The number of working owners and proprietors in Metropolitan Winnipeg is not available from theDominion Bureau of Statistics for 1961.
It is interesting to note that there has been an increase in productivity in manufacturing industries generally. This applies to the Metropolitan area as a whole as well as to the central business district and the study area. In the Metro area, between 1961 and 1966, the dollar value of shipments of manufactured goods, in constant 1961 dollars, increased by 30.2%. In the central business district as a whole in the same period, the increase was 8.3%, and in the study area the increase was 4.2%. These increases are a reflection of the rising standard of productivity which is being experienced in Canada generally and in Manitoba and Metropolitan Winnipeg. The figures relating to manufacturing are set out in Tables 2.2 to 2.4.
These figures do not indicate a massive decline in manufacturing industries Downtown. Nevertheless the figures do indicate a downward trend in both number of establishments and number of persons employed in manufacturing industries Downtown, and the decline is of a large enough scale to indicate quite convincingly that manufacturing industries cannot be expected to provide any significant basis for future growth of the central business district.
It should be noted that the figures quoted with reference to manufacturing are Dominion Bureau of Statistics figures. Often there are discrepancies between D.B.S. figures and local agency figures for various types of data. These discrepancies however can usually be reconciled and explained on the basis of different assumptions and definitions used by the respective agencies. In the case of the number of manufacturing establishments for example there is a discrepancy between the D.B.S. figures and the Metropolitan Assessment figures in respect of the number of establishments in Downtown Winnipeg: the local figures (quoted in Table 2.2) show fourteen fewer establishments than the D.B.S. figures. The difference is explained by the facts that, firstly, there is a year's difference in the time reference of the data, and there could have been a substantial reduction in numbers in that year; and secondly, there are a number of establishments which both manufacture products and wholesale them. It is altogether likely that some of these enough to make up the discrepancy were included under the wholesaling category by the Metropolitan Corporation's Assessment Division, and under the manufacturing category by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. In any case, the D.B.S. figures are internally consistent since they are gathered by the same technique and under the same definitions and concepts from census to census, and are therefore reliable indicators of trends. The trend which they reveal in Downtown manufacturing is one of decline, of the order indicated in the foregoing discussion.
Wholesaling and warehousing must also be expected to decentralize in some measure. In the Market Analysis already referred to, the consultants** have this to say,
One cannot be very optimistic about the future of wholesaling and warehousing in the downtown. It is natural that as other western Canadian centres develop, Winnipeg will become relatively less important as a distribution centre. This will likely have a particularly strong impact on the firms which are oriented to the railroad. Furthermore as noted in a previous chapter, Winnipeg is becoming a wholesaling centre for producer rather than consumer goods. These industries tend to locate in suburban areas. While downtown Winnipeg will probably remain the distribution hub of Metropolitan Winnipeg, prosperous firms will tend to avoid locating downtown because of more desirable locations elsewhere, and new larger organizations will locate out of the downtown in those areas where sufficiently large tracts of land are available for the construction of modern single storey structures.
Services are another index of the vitality of a Downtown, because in the profound changes which are affecting the central areas of our cities, services are emerging as the dominant activity. In Winnipeg as a whole, the services sector of the economy has shown the greatest strength and made the greatest gains over the last decade or two. Services include such activities as amusement and recreation, services to business (such as accounting, finance, legal, etc.), personal services (such as hairdressing, laundry, etc.) repair services, accommodation (hotels and motels) and miscellaneous services. These services have expanded vastly as a component of the national economy, and in Winnipeg, as in most of the cities of Canada, they have been a mainstay of economic growth.
In 1961 in the Metropolitan area, there were 1,949 service establishments, and their total revenues amounted to $104,279,100. In 1966 the number had grown to 2,120, and their revenues to $138,430,700, which represented a 32.8% increase in the volume of business in constant dollars.
It is most interesting and gratifying to note that in this particular sector of the economy, the Downtown has held its own. In 1961 the volume of services revenue produced in the Downtown was 26.9% of the total Metro area's; and in 1966 the proportion remained exactly the same 26.9%.
In terms of relative growth, the services sector of the whole Metropolitan area grew by 32.8% during the five years 1961-66, and in the Downtown it grew by exactly the same amount 32.8%.
These trends indicate that although population, manufacturing, wholesaling, warehousing and other economic activities related to the production or servicing ofgoods have tended to decentralize to the outlying areas, those activities relating to the servicing ofpeople have remained Downtown and have maintained their position there.
The following sections analyze conditions as they are at the present time in the Downtown. The picture which emerges is not one which reveals flourishing development and vigorous activity in the central area, in spite of the indicated strength of the services sector of the economy. Nor is there any reason to believe that whatever new growth is taking place is of a sufficient order of magnitude to fill all the empty spaces and generate a new vitality in the Downtown. The overriding impression is one of very slow growth, perhaps even too slow to offset the continuing loss of population and enterprise; of large areas used for surface parking; of old and obsolete buildings with low silhouettes; of an extensive segment of the business activity devoted to automobile repairs, storage and sales; of a general atmosphere of vacancy, decline, and dereliction hanging over most of the central business district, relieved only by one or two busy thoroughfares and one or two major nodes or concentrations of activity.
But these characteristics, too, are not peculiar to Winnipeg. They belong almost universally to the cities of this continent. And other cities of this continent have also found that the Downtown has required deliberate and specific programs to enable it to overcome some of the forces tending to reduce its strength and scatter its resources.
There is a feeling in some sectors of Winnipeg that the Downtown will look after itself. That is to say, that the present trends, operating under the influence of the present market forces will somehow or other generate a surge of development in the Downtown, sufficient to overcome its present inertia and remake it into a dynamic, flourishing central area, without any significant public effort or expenditure of public money. On the basis of Winnipeg's record so far, and on the basis of experience in other North American cities, this view is completely illusory.
Illustration 2-A: Aerial View of Downtown From the North-West.
It is true that the nature and the magnitude of the effort and expenditure required in other cities have varied with the circumstances in each particular city. In those cities with very large populations, or with extremely high growth rates, the public effort seems to have been less overt and "planned" than in smaller, or less rapidly growing cities. Recently there seems to have been a resurgence of vitality Downtown in a number of cities of both the United States and Canada which on the surface appears to have been quite spontaneous, and it is perhaps this phenomenon which has led to the view that Winnipeg's Downtown too can be expected to experience the same kind of "unaided" renaissance.
Toronto and Montreal are the primary examples which are pointed to in this respect. Several factors must be recognized in the recent history of the Downtown of these cities which differentiate them markedly from Winnipeg. The first is that the basic size of these cities, and the magnitude of their growth are vastly greater than Winnipeg's. Each of these cities is more than four times as big as Winnipeg. Toronto adds a population of about 70,000 people to its numbers every year a community the size of about two Brandons. Winnipeg, during the 25-year period 1941-1966, added on the average about 8,000 people per year. The demand created by 70,000 new people each year, for housing, jobs, services, etc. is enormous, and while much of that demand is satisfied in the suburbs, there is enough of it left over to find its way into the central area and make a noticeable impact there.
A second factor is that these cities are head-office cities and experience an ongoing demand for downtown office accommodation. These great centres of commerce generate enough demand for downtown commercial space, and contingent retail and service space, to maintain an extremely high level of Downtown development activity. In the post-war era the demand for new commercial space has been almost insatiable.
But perhaps the most important factor of all, in terms of its direct impact on the Downtown has been, in the case of both of these cities, the construction of the underground rapid transit system. It is estimated that the building of the 4� miles of the Toronto subway between Union Station and Eglinton Avenue sparked development along its route of the order of $10 billion. What must be remembered however is that it cost $67 million to build the subway, and this was a public expenditure. In essence, it was the enormous expenditure of public money on the subway systems of both Montreal and Toronto which were the direct spark setting off the so-called "spontaneous" or "unaided" explosion of development in the Downtown of those cities.
Calgary and Edmonton are also sometimes pointed to as having enjoyed a high level of Downtown investment entirely without public aid or "planning". In the case of the Alberta cities, their stimulus to growth came from the development of the oil industry. Before the discovery of Leduc, they were very small rural service centres. With the discovery and development of the Province's oil resources, these two cities underwent a reconstruction and transformation which changed them from rural service centres to centres for servicing the oil industry. But even here it is completely misleading to say that the Downtowns of these cities experienced a "spontaneous" surge in development. On the one hand the surge was stimulated by the profound and revolutionary change in the economic base; and on the other hand "planning" of both of these communities, and in particular the planning of the Downtown, was perhaps the most comprehensive and sophisticated of any Canada.
Experience in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver, and many, many others indicates that it has taken massive efforts and the most carefully prepared and energetically executed plans of development to rescue the central business district from continuing stagnation and decay. The record is there is countless documents for all to read who are interested in the facts.
Little would be gained here to set out in any detail the experience of those cities which, through visionary leadership and determined effort, and creative co-operation between the various segments of the community, have managed to halt and reverse the decline of their central business districts. What must be noted here however is that in few cases has the reversal of the decline of a central area occurred spontaneously, without deliberate and planned public or combined public and private effort.
Winnipeg is in an admirable position to profit from the experience of other cities. Although its Downtown is experiencing the same losses as that of other cities, Winnipeg has a marked advantage in the fact that a large proportion of its central area is not built upon. In other cities, where the decision has been taken to redevelop and revitalize the central area, in many cases the land was encumbered by large, old, obsolete, often vacant, but expensive buildings. The cost of acquiring and clearing these anachronisms was enormous, adding to the cost of rebuilding the Downtown.
In Winnipeg, as must as 23% of the entire Downtown is either vacant or used for surface parking; some sectors of the Downtown the ratio is as high as 29%. This is generally pointed to as one of the distressing facts about the central area, and indeed it is. At the same time, however, it represents a remarkable opportunity the opportunity to undertake a program of central area development without having to face the enormous costs of acquisition of buildings.
The local conditions which exist in the Downtown, and the degree to which they afford the opportunity for a plan of development peculiarly appropriate to Winnipeg's circumstances, are discussed in the following sections.
* As defined for purposes of this study -- the area bounded by Notre Dame Avenue, Main Street, the Assiniboine River, Memorial Blvd. and Colony Street.
** Reid Crowther and Partners Ltd., op. cit.
The Downtown study area is bounded by Main Street on the east, the Assiniboine River on the south, Memorial Boulevard on the west, and Notre Dame Avenue on the north. The total area contained within these limits is 400.68 acres of which 138.8 acres (34.5%) are made up of streets and lanes. Private business enterprises are the major users of land in the study area, accounting for 69.79 acres or 27% of the total exclusive of streets and lanes. Public and Institutional uses are close behind with 64.8 acres, much of which is represented by the grounds of the Provincial Legislative Buildings. The next two major users of land are multiple family residences, and parking areas, accounting for 44.8 acres and 48.1 acres respectively. The remainder of the land is used for hotels (5.5 acres), industry (1.7 acres), parks and recreation (10.2 acres), single family dwellings (4.8 acres, or is vacant (12.8 acres). Table 3.1 sets out the information relating to land use.
Portage Avenue is the major axis of the Downtown. Running east and west, it divides the Downtown into two major enclaves that lying north of Portage Avenue, and that lying south. Broadway, another east-west arterial, although not nearly as heavily used as Portage, further divides the area lying south of Portage Avenue. There are thus three major sectors in the study area, defined by the two major east-west arteries: the first extending from the Assiniboine River to Broadway, the second between Broadway and Portage Avenue, and the third between Portage Avenue and Notre Dame.
Portage Avenue is not only the major traffic artery within the Downtown study area, but is also the location of the retail core of Metropolitan Winnipeg. The south side of Portage Avenue, extending for the seven blocks between Smith Street and Memorial Boulevard, contains the highest concentration of retail floor space and retail employment (and incidentally the highest concentration of pedestrians) in the whole of Metropolitan Winnipeg. The north side of Portage Avenue, virtually for its entire length, also contains retail establishments, but not in the same concentration as the south side. This of course is to be expected because of the presence, on the south side, of The T. Eaton Co. store, between Donald Street and Hargrave Street, and the Hudson Bay Co. store, between Vaughan Street and Memorial Boulevard two of the largest department stores in Canada.
Broadway is one of the handsomest streets in the Metropolitan area. The 132 feet right-of-way are divided by a generous median into three lanes of traffic westbound and three lanes eastbound. The median is 40 feet wide and is well landscaped with trees, shrubs, and benches where the public may sit in the pleasant shade on summer days. In recent years Broadway has attracted the offices of a number of insurance and financial corporations, creating the beginnings of a very prestigious thoroughfare. The Fort Garry Hotel, the Law Courts, and the Legislative Building with its vast sweep of carefully tended lawns add to the dignity and appearance of the street.
The sector south of Broadway contains two principle land-use areas. Between Main Street and Donald Street, the area is mainly non-residential, containing several office buildings (including those of the Metropolitan Corporation), industrial premises, and the Fort Garry Hotel. West of Donald Street the land-use is mainly residential, with a large number of small apartment blocks as the characteristic building form.
The sector between Broadway and Portage Avenue contains very few residences. The sense of decline and abandonment is felt most strongly in this sector, at least as far as Graham Avenue. This no doubt is due in considerable measure to the fact that vast areas of land are devoted to surface parking. Nearly 30% of the available land surface (i.e. other than streets and lanes) is devoted to automobile parking. Furthermore, much of the land between Main Street and Garry Street is devoted to automobile service industries, housed in single storey buildings, many with adjacent open storage areas. The Main Street frontage at the eastern end of this sector is characterized by buildings in run-down condition, vacant premises, used car lots and parking areas. Scattered through the sector are still a number of single family dwellings, all in manifestly poor condition, emphasized by the fact that many are exposed to empty surroundings. There is therefore little wonder that the sector has an air of general dereliction. The Osborne Street frontage on the western boundary is almost the only pleasant area, due to Memorial Park and Memorial Boulevard. In the western reaches of this sector there are a number of office buildings containing medical and dental offices, and their related services.
Between Graham Avenue and Portage Avenue there is some greater density and variety of development in one or two nodes, or concentrations, but even Graham Avenue can hardly be described as a street with a high density of development or a high level of activity.
The sector north of Portage Avenue is also an area of mixed land-use, more varied than the other two sectors. Central Park, the only significant open space within the study area, is probably what saves this sector from the same environment of dereliction as is experienced in other parts of the Downtown. This attractive park is defined at its periphery, by two recent high-rise apartments (one a senior citizens home) and a third high-rise apartment now under construction. The fine architecture of Knox United Church, and an older apartment block have stood at the edges of the park for some time. All of these elements combine to create a physical environment of relative high quality.
In the eastern part of this sector is a concentration of cinemas, taller office buildings and a convention hotel which provides an element of character and activity to this part of the Downtown. The western reaches of this sector contain extensive areas of row housing and low-rise apartments, together with institutions such as the Y.M.C.A, Y.W.C.A, Y.M.H.A., the adult education centre in the former Isbister School, a concentration of boutiques on Kennedy Street between Portage and Ellice, all of which gives the sector an air of varied, if low-key, activity.
Plate 2 indicates the general land use pattern in the study area, while Table 3.1 indicates the percentages of these uses.
TABLE 3.1
There are five public parks or playgrounds in the study area. The largest of these is Memorial Park situated just north of the Legislative Buildings along Osborne Street. It is under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Government, contains 4.4 acres of formal lawns and gardens with reflecting pool and fountain. It has no facilities for active recreation. The second largest park is Central Park, located between Carlton and Edmonton on the east and west, and Qu'Appelle and Cumberland on the south and north. It contains a total of 3.5 acres under the jurisdiction of the City of Winnipeg; 2.6 acres are used for a quiet park with the focal point being a scaled reproduction of the Edinborough Monument in Scotland; 0.9 acres are used for a playground containing swings, slides, wading pool and washroom facilities. There is only one other playground facility in the study area McFadyen memorial park, owned by the City of Winnipeg on the north-west corner of York and Hargrave Streets. Table 3.2 lists the names, locations and acreages of the parks, and indicates under what jurisdiction they fall.
There are three schools in the study area. The Winnipeg Public School Board operates Alexandra Elementary School. The total enrollment is 218 is divided into six grades, plus a kindergarten and special classes. The building is obsolete and the School Board has recently announced its intention to demolish this school and re-allocate its pupils to other schools. The Adult Education Centre is located in the former Isbister School, also under the jurisdiction of the Winnipeg School Board. Located on Vaughan Street north of Portage, it has a total enrollment of 320. This building is also obsolete. There is one parochial school in the area. The Catholic Church operates St. Mary's Montessori School, a seven-room building with 56 students from several locations in Winnipeg. The school is extremely old and does not meet present-day educational standards.
There does not seem to be much pressure for additional classroom space in the downtown area. Replacement of existing facilities is needed but it is felt that this replacement need not be on the same site. Other locations may be found within easy reach of the study area but not necessarily in it, as is the case with junior and senior high school facilities at present.
The study area is characterized by large amounts of land used exclusively for parking. Coupled with the vacant areas, this large proportion of land used for surface parking not only gives the Downtown an ugly appearance, but also reduces the tax base of the central city. A total of 1,888,600 square feet, or 16.5% of the Downtown area exclusive of streets and lanes, is used for grade level parking purposes. An additional 195,700 square feet is utilized as ground floor space by the Downtown parkades, resulting in a land area of 2,084,300 square feet devoted to parking, or 18.3% of the Downtown total. Vacant land comprises almost 560,000 square feet, or 4.9%. All this land, which is devoid of buildings or public amenities such as parks, constitutes 23.2% or almost one quarter of prime Downtown land. This proportion varies from section to section as the following paragraphs will explain. Plate 4 illustrates the existing amount of parking space, and Table 3.3 sets out the existing amount of land which is either vacant or used for parking.
In the high density area between the Assiniboine River and Broadway, almost 300,000 square feet, or 8% of the total square footage is devoted to grade level parking. A further 150,000 square feet, approximately, is vacant. In terms of the entire Downtown, 17.7% of the available grade level parking is located in this area, and 28.4% of the vacant land.
In the sector of the study area between Broadway and Portage Avenue, 1,123,200 square feet, representing 23.0% of the total area, is in the form of parking lots. An additional 175,700 square feet is contributed by the ground floor levels of the four structures in this area. The total of 1,298,900 square feet represents 26.4% of the land area in this sector and 62.3% of the total Downtown parking area. Vacant land comprises 119,800 square feet or 21.4% of all the vacant and in the Downtown area. None of this land is located in the block between Graham and Portage. Parking lots, including the ground floors of parkades, and vacant land constitute 28.9% of the area of this particular sector.
North of Portage Avenue, parking lots utilize 473,800 square feet of land, plus an extra 20,000 square feet which is the ground floor area of the parkade in this section. Together, they represent 17.0% of the total square footage of the land between portage and Notre Dame, and 23.7% of the total available parking space in the Downtown. There are 281,000 square feet of vacant land in this area, most of it located in the block between Kennedy and Balmoral on the east and west, and between Ellice and Qu'Appelle on the south and north. This amount of vacant land represents 50.2% of total Downtown vacant land. As a proportion of the total land area between Portage and Notre Dame, it represents 9.7%. Combined with the parking lots, the proportion increases to 26.7% of the total area of this sector.
Despite the large amount of land utilized as parking space, deficiencies do exist. The adequacy of the supply of parking spaces was determined from two sources: The Winnipeg Parking Authority's study on Downtown parking facilities in 1968, and the sections regarding parking in the Metropolitan Corporation's 1967 Economic Survey. The Parking Authority's study found tat effective parking spaces had increased 45% between 1956 and 1966. Curb parking had decreased by 36%, parking lots had increased by 12% and garages had increased by 80%. However, the study found a serious parking space deficiency in the area surrounding the T. Eaton Co. A shortage of between 500 and 600 spaces is indicated, and the erection of another garage in this vicinity is recommended. Another potential problem area is situated east of Hargrave between Portage and Notre Dame, but the Authority suggests deferment of action pending completion of the Richardson Complex and the proposed new Marlborough Hotel parking garage.
The Corporation's survey identified some additional trouble spots, based on the replies of the firms in the area. Adequate parking in this context includes any and all available parking spaces, since 67% of the replying firms do not supply their own parking. Firms complained of inadequate parking north of Portage to Ellice between Colony and Donald, and south of Graham to York between Main and Osborne. It is somewhat paradoxical that the firms in the latter area complained of inadequate parking, since this area has the largest proportion of land used exclusively for parking. In most of the other areas, the majority of firms reported parking to be adequate. Of a total number of 739 firms replying, 82% were satisfied with the existing situation.
Illustration 3-A: Vacant Land South of Potage Ave.
As described in previous sections, the Downtown, for purposes of analysis, may be regarded as consisting of three major sectors.The first, from the Assiniboine River north to Broadway, is mainly a residential area. The second, north from Broadway to Portage, is primarily commercial with a scattering of residences. North of Portage, the land use is again mainly residential, although not to quite the same extent as is the area south of Broadway. Viewed in its entirety, the Downtown is composed of a majority of buildings in fair or poor conditions. Fully 37.2% are classified as poor and 36.5% as fair. Only 26.3% of all buildings in the Downtown are in good condition. These proportions vary somewhat from sector to sector as the following paragraphs indicate.
South of Broadway, the density of population is high, due to the large number of apartment blocks. Most of these buildings are in good or fair condition, 41.1% falling into the former category, and 41.7% into the latter. A small number of buildings in poor condition are concentrated in the two blocks between Carlton and Donald.
Purely residential buildings are much scarcer in the sector north of Broadway. Most of them are old houses in poor condition. The great majority of structures are in either commercial or mixed commercial-residential use. Fully 35.6% of all buildings in the area are in poor condition, and an additional 38.3% are in fair condition. Most of the buildings fronting on Portage Avenue and on Main Street are in fair condition. A great many buildings categorized as poor are located between York and St. Mary.
North of Portage, a majority of the buildings (53.2%) are in poor condition primarily because of the existance of dilapidated houses in this sector.
In summary, most of the better buildings in the Downtown are concentrated in the area south of Broadway; the area between Broadway and Portage and Portage contains a great many fair buildings; and the area north of Ellice a great many poor ones. Plate 7 illustrates this distribution graphically and Table 3.4 sets out the analysis in tabular form.
The non-residential buildings in the study are are characterized by low heights. Almost 90% of the buildings are 3 storeys or less. Buildings 7 storeys or higher are few in number and comprise only 2.2% of the total. The taller buildings are located mainly along Portage Avenue on the north side between Donald and Main, and on the south side between Edmonton and Smith. A few tall buildings are scattered throughout the rest of the area, notably the Norquay Building, the Winnipeg Clinic, the Fort Garry Hotel, and the Medical Arts Building. Table 3.5 gives the figures on building heights, while Plate 8 indicates the pattern graphically.
The City of Winnipeg was first developed to the north of the study area. As the city expanded, business moved south into what is now considered the Downtown. Thus the buildings in the study area are not as old as those in the more northerly sections of the city such as Urban Renewal Area 2 and North Point Douglas. The oldest sections of the study area north of Portage Avenue are the triangle bounded by Balmoral, Ellice, and Notre Dame, and the small section southeast of this triangle bounded by Donald, Portage, Main, and Ellice. Between 24% and 28% of the buildings in these areas are over 60 years old. South of Portage, the older buildings are concentrated in the area just south of the major retail core.
New construction has occurred primarily on Broadway where a number of office buildings have been erected, and in the area east of the Hudson's Bay Co. store where medical and dental offices account for most of the new construction.
Of the non-residential structures in the study area for which figures are available, 20.4% are over 60 years old, and 17.0% are less than 10 years old. In Urban Renewal Area 2 in 1966, 43.5% of the buildings were over 60 years old, and only 6.8% were less than 10 years old. The corresponding proportions in North Point Douglas in 1966 were 34.5% and 9.1%. Table 3.6 gives the figures for the age of non-residential buildings in the study area in 1967.
Illustration 3-B: Typical Downtown Housing (Edmonton and Qu'Appelle)
In 1967 there were a total of 1596* occupied business premises and 383 vacant premises in the Downtown study area. These figures were obtained from the Metropolitan Corporation assessment records and do not include exempt premises such as some government offices, schools and churches, etc. The occupied premises were made up of 304 owner occupied and 1292 tenant occupied premises. The 383 vacant premises represented about 19% of the total number of business premises in the study area.
An analysis of the number of business firms in Downtown Winnipeg, according to the Standard Industrial Classification of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, reveals that the predominant industrial division is the Community, Business and Personal Service category which accounts for 47% of the 1596 firms. There are two other major industrial categories in the Downtown: the Retail Trade category which has 18% of the total firms, and the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate category which has 13% of the total firms. Thus 78% of the Downtown business fall into three industrial divisions of the Standard Industrial Classification.
The Community, Business and Personal Service division includes a fairly wide range of categories. The Standard Industrial Classification major groups for Health and Welfare Services has 266 firms or 16.7% of the firms in the Downtown. This reflects the concentration in the Downtown of medical and dental practitioners offices, medical clinics, and the mechanical and technical laboratories which service them. The other significant service industries are: Business Services representing 10% of the businesses; Personal Services 10%, Miscellaneous Services 8%.
The total non-residential floor area in the Downtown, according to the Metropolitan Corporation's assessment records is 8,750,416 square feet. The vacant floor area amounts to 459,600 sq. ft. or approximately 5% of the total floor area leaving 8,290,816 sq. ft. of occupied floor space.
The largest users of non-residential floor space are the retail stores which account for 35% o the total occupied floor space. The greatest concentrations of retail floor space are found between Portage Avenue and Graham Avenue and between Memorial Blvd. and Smith Street. This section of Portage Avenue is the retail centre of Winnipeg which is dominated by the Hudson's Bay Co. at Portage and Memorial and Eaton's at Portage and Donald. The area between Memorial and Edmonton has 85% of the occupied floor space in the retail trade category, the area between Edmonton and Smith has 75%, and the area between Graham and York, Main to Memorial has 67%.
It is estimated that 1,415,516 sq. ft. of floor space is used by governments in the Downtown which represents about 16% of the total floor space.
Wholesale and warehousing establishments account for only 3.7% of the total non-residential floor space. Manufacturing establishments account for only 3.9% of the total non-residential floor space. The other two categories which occupy a relatively small floor area are the construction industry with 0.5% and the agricultural industry with 0.1%.This means that these four industries occupy a total floor space of 8.4% of the total non-residential floor space in the study area.
The Community, Business and Personal Service Industries category taken all together comprise 21% of the total occupied floor area. The most significant group is the personal service (hotels, lodging houses, funeral parlours and miscellaneous services) which has 906,300 sq. ft. or 11% of the occupied floor space. The largest percentage of occupied floor space in the service categories is found in the three blocks directly west of Portage and Main on the north side of Portage Avenue.
There were 1979 business premises in the study area in 1967. These consisted of 383 vacant (19.5%), 1292 tenant-occupied (65.2%) and 304 owner-occupied (65.2%) premises.
The floor-space data indicate that there were 449,600 sq. ft. or 5% of vacant floor-space in the Downtown study area. The 5% floor-space vacancy is low compared to 19% business premises vacancy. This indicates that many of the vacant business premises are relatively small offices.
The greatest number of vacancies was found in the three blocks on the north side of Portage bounded by Notre Dame Avenue, Donald Street, Portage Avenue, and Ellice Avenue; and on the south side of Portage Avenue in the blocks between Main Street, Edmonton Street, Portage Avenue and Graham Avenue. This is a high rent area, and the relatively high rate of vacancy of premises probably reflects the fact that business men are reluctant to pay the prevailing rents for space which is small or obsolete or otherwise inadequate.
The Annual Rental Value is the basis for the business tax in Metropolitan Winnipeg. The Assessment Department of the Metropolitan Corporation derives the Annual Rental Value, which represents a fair evaluation of the amount each business premise should be rented for, and which can therefore be used as an indication of relative market value of a business expressed in dollars. This value would reflect the condition and age of the premises and the supply of appropriate premises in specific locations throughout the study area (and throughout Metropolitan Winnipeg).
The dominant non-residential establishments (by industrial classification) with respect to the annual rental value in Downtown Winnipeg are the retail trade establishments which account for 39% of the total or $4,751,400 in 1966. The next largest group of establishments are in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate industry which has 21% or $2,527,300 of the total annual rental value in the Downtown study area. This is followed by the personal service establishments which have 12% of $1,423,800 of the total.
These three groups dominate the Downtown with respect to floor-use, annual rental value and number of employees and are obviously the largest generators of activity in the study area. The government operations, although not included in the annual rental value analysis should also be included with the dominant industries by virtue of their significant floor area and large proportion of employees.
Examination of the Downtown with respect to annual rental value shows a pattern of grouping similar to the grouping of the industries themselves. For example, the retail establishments are concentrated primarily along Portage Avenue, and secondarily between Graham and York, which is the same pattern as observed in the occupied floor area, the highest concentration of annual rental values, and the analysis of employees, the data for which are given in Section 6.
Plate 11 shows the assessed value of land per square foot, and Plate 10 shows the assessed value of buildings per square foot of land, both on a block basis. These plates indicate that the highest assessed value for both land and buildings for the most part are concentrated along Portage Avenue. The south side of Portage Avenue has the higher assessed values which reflects the higher investments along this side of the street. The major retail stores and some of the major office buildings of the Downtown are located here.
The assessed value of land declines in a fairly uniform manner in a southerly and northerly direction away from Portage Avenue. This regression is what would be expected because the higher value uses are located around Portage Avenue, the central axis of the Downtown.
The assessed value of buildings per square foot of land declines in a similar manner to that of the assessed land values. However, there are some notable exceptions. For example, along Broadway there is an increase in assessed value of buildings although it is not as high as the Portage Avenue assessed values. Also, there is a section between Memorial Blvd. and Kennedy St. extending from Portage Ave. to Broadway which carries the same high assessed values as those observed along Portage Ave.
Plate 10 shows a strip of low ($0.01-$2.50 per sq. ft.) building assessment bounded by St. Mary Ave., Main St., York Ave., and Edmonton St. This reflects the absence of buildings in this area, which is comparatively open, and dominated by grade level parking.
The blocks containing major buildings in the study area stand out with the highest assessed value of buildings per square foot of land ($15.01 and over). Examples of such buildings are: The T. Eaton Co. retail store and mail order, The Hudson's Bay Co. store, the Norquay building, the Post Office, the Investors building, and the Monarch Life building.
Table 4.5, the assessed value of land by block , shows that there are 60 blocks or 74% of the 81 blocks in the study area with an assessed value between $0.01 and $5.00 per square foot of land. There are only six blocks with an assessed value between $12.51 and over $15.01. Five of these blocks are located on the south side of Portage Ave., between Vaughan Street and Donald Street.
Table 4.6, shows the tabulation of the assessed value of buildings per square foot of land by block.
It is estimated that in 1966 there were 31,513 employees in the Downtown Winnipeg study area. The employment in Metropolitan Winnipeg for the same period was estimated at 203,000 employees. This means that the study area represents about 16% of the total number of employees in Metropolitan Winnipeg.
The number of business (private sector) employees in the study area was obtained fro the 1967 Business Assessment rolls. This source revealed that out of a total of 1596 business premises, 1530 or 96% reported 25,457 employees. The 66 non-reporting premises represent about 1056 employees, based upon the prevailing average of 16 employees per business premise. The total business employment figure for the reporting and non-reporting business premises is then estimated at 26,513 employees. A survey of the government offices in the study area indicates that there were approximately 5,000 government employees. The total number of employees in the study area in 1966 was therefore 31,513, consisting of 5,000 government employees and 26,513 employees in private industry.
The major employer in the Downtown is the retail trade industry with 40% of the employees. The other major employers in the study area are Government and Defense, Service and Finance, Insurance and Real Estate industries which account for 20%, 20% and 12% of the total employees respectively. These four industries are the major employers in the Downtown study area, and together account for over 90% of all the employees working in this area. Table 4.7 shows the distribution of employees by industry. The south side of Portage Avenue between Memorial Boulevard and Smith Street is the major retailing area with about 78% of all employees engaged in retailing. This stretch of Portage Avenue has the Hudson's Bay Co. retail store and the T. Eaton Co. retail store; these two stores are the most important retailers in Winnipeg and their presence is obvious from the employment figures as well as the other information such as floor area and annual rental value. The area between Graham Avenue and St. Mary is also an important retail enclave, with about 76% of all employees engaged in retailing, which reflects the presence of the T. Eaton Co. mail order store located in this area.
The area bounded by Portage, Graham, Main and Smith, and the area between York and Assiniboine contain large numbers of employees in the finance, real estate and insurance industry with 32% and 24% of the total employees in the respective areas. There are two separate concentrations in this industry. The first is located around Portage Avenue and Main Street. The second is located along Broadway.
The area bounded by Graham, Edmonton, St. Mary and Vaughan contains a significant proportion of employees in the service industries accounting for 79% of all the employees from that location. These employees for the most part work i the Medical Arts complex.
The Service industry has a large proportion of employees in the area lying between Portage Avenue and Ellice Avenue (about 56%). The hotel and personal service firms predominate in blocks west of Donald Street in this sector; the retail firms account for only 22% of the employees.
In the Downtown survey each firm was asked to give the percentage of the goods or services sold within Metropolitan Winnipeg, the rest of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northwestern Ontario, the rest of Canada, and/or abroad.
For the goods and services sold within the Metropolitan Winnipeg area 841 firms out of a possible 1596 firms replied. A total of 41% of the firms or 344 indicated that they sold 100% of their goods and services in Metropolitan Winnipeg. Projected on a straight proportional basis suggests that 652 firms out of the 1596 sell 100% of their goods and services in the Metropolitan Area. Over 73% of the firms reporting sold between 70% and 100% of their goods and services in the Metropolitan Area.
The firms reporting goods and services sold in Manitoba (excluding Metropolitan Winnipeg) totalled 472. Just over 81% or 382 of the 472 firms reporting sold up to 30% of their goods and services in Manitoba. Thus, a small proportion of the firms replying supply goods and services outside Metropolitan Winnipeg, in Manitoba.
A total of 243 firms indicated that they sold goods and services in Saskatchewan, Alberta and North-western Ontario. Of these 243 firms, 185 sold up to 30% of their goods and services in the above mentioned areas.
Approximately 125 firms returned information on their sales of goods and services to the rest of Canada. The proportion of firms with sales between 30% and 100% to the rest of Canada is extremely small, only 18% or 23 of the reporting firms.
The number of firms reporting sales abroad totalled 32 which is an insignificant proportion of the total number of firms. Also, only a small percentage (25%) of these 32 firms had sales abroad of over 20%.
The preceding information reveals that the study area has commercial establishments which are primarily concerned with filling the needs of the local community -- Metropolitan Winnipeg. This means that the majority of the economic activity carried out in the study area should be classed as service activities rather than basic economic activities (activities in the urban community which export goos and services to points outside the community).
The value of the market outside Metropolitan Winnipeg decreases with the distance of the market from the study area. This is suggested by the fact that there are more firms indicating sales activity in Manitoba than in Saskatchewan, Alberta and North-western Ontario than in the rest of Canada; and there are more firms indicating sales activity in Canada than abroad.
Information on the length of occupancy of the firms at their present site and on whether or not these firms were planning to more was collected in the survey. Firms wishing to remain were asked to give reasons for remaining and the firms indicating that they were going to move were asked where they would move to. Nine hundred and thirty-six firms returned information on their length of tenure. This is approximately a 58% return which offers a fairly accurate picture of the stability of the business in the study area. Around 46% of the firms indicated that they have been in the study area over 10 years. The firms located at their present site from between 2 to 9 years amounted to 43% of the responding businesses.
The firms that were located at their present site for less than ten years were asked to give their previous location if they were in the same business. Seventy-nine firms replied to this question with 93% indicating they were previously located in the City of Winnipeg. The remaining firms come from St. Boniface, St. James, St. Vital and Transcona.
The number of firms replying to the question asking whether they plan to move was 934, or 58% out of a possible 1595 firms. The firms indicating that they plan to move from their present location totalled 139 which represents 15% of the responding firms. This leaves 85% of the firms indicating that they planned to remain in their present location.
The firms that indicated that they plan to move were asked to identify the area they planned to move to. Ninety-nine firms replied with all but three indicating that they were going to move within the City of Winnipeg. More specifically, 95 out of the 99 firms replying indicated that they were all moving into Lombard Place on the north-east corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street. Thus the new "skyscraper" which now dominates Winnipeg's skyline was attracting businesses even before construction was well underway. This my be some indication of the significance of Lombard Place as a stimulating factor in the redevelopment of Downtown Winnipeg.
*This does not include governments or their agencies. There were 17 agencies of government active since 1967, which would bring the total of occupied premises, public and private to 1613.
Illustration 4-B: Aerial View of Study area looking down Portage Avenue.
The enumeration carried out i the winter of 1967-68 by the Metropolitan Corporation revealved that the study area had a population of 8,540 persons. This figure is the lowest in the last 27 years. Table 5.1 contains the census figures which indicate the steadily downward trend in the size of the Downtown population.
Population figures from the Dominion Buea of Statistics and those from the Metropolitan Corporation are not strictly comparable to that D.B.S. counts the permanently resident population while the Corporation does not. For example, a person in the Armed Forces stationed elsewhere in Canada would be included as a Winnipeg resident by D.B.S., but not by the Corporation. Therefore, it may not be entirely valid to assume from the statistics that the population has decreased by 166 people over the 2 year interval, as suggested by the D.B.S. figures for 1966 and the Corporation survey figures for 1968. This, however, does not reduce the value of the 1941 - 1966 trend figures which are D.B.S. figures entirely, and internally consistant.
The population has declined in relative terms as well as absolute terms. In 1941, the study area constituted 5.2% of the total Metropolitan popoulation. By 1951, this proportion had decreased to 3.7%. In succeeding years it dropped futher, to 2.0% in 1961 and to 1.7% in 1966. These figures from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics indicate the marked decline in the population of the study area and also indicate its historical downward trend.
The 1968 Metropolitan Corporation survey counted 4,954 households in the area. IfDominion Bureau of Statistics figures are analyzed for a historical trend, it can be seen that the number of households has increased steadily since 1946. In that year, D.B.S. counted 3,862 households; by 1966 the figure had increased to 4,222. The combinatio o a decreasing population and an increasing number of households must produce a smaller average household size. D.B.S. figures show the number of persons per household dropping from 3.8 in 1946 to 1.9 in 1966. The Metropolitan Corporation survey of 1967-68 arrived at a figure of 1.7. This phenomenon could be the result of a number of trends -- the formation of more single-person households, the undoubling of shared households, the breaking up of multiple-person households, or some combination of all of these.
The changes that have taken place in the size compositions of households are illustrated in Table 5.2. Theses figures have been derived from Dominion Census publications.
Single-person households have increased steadily; every other category has decreased. The results of the Metropolitan Corporation survey reinforce the evidence indicating an increasing number of smaller households. Table 5.3 indicates the size of households in the study area in 1968.
The decrease of population in the area, and the increasing number of single person households, leads to the conclusion that multi-person households, which includes families have been decreasing. Dominion Bureau of Statistics figures confirm this view. The Metropolitan Corporation survey counted 1,802 families in 1968. The type of family is given in Table 5.4.
The size of families (as opposed to the size of households) has remained very constant over the last several years. Census statistics must be relied on exclusively in this area since the Corporation survey did not analyze family structure from this viewpoint. Families have averaged approximately 2.7 persons per family since 1946.
In the study area, 11.7% of the families are supported by female heads.
The sex ratio, the number of males per hundred females, is the conventional measure of the sex compostion of a population. It is often computed by age and is typically highest at the lowest ages, diminishes at successively higher ages due to high mortality among males, and is lowest at the highest ages. Migration or other special factors can distort this pattern.
According to the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, the sex ratio in the area has remained fairly constant over the last 25 years. At the time of the Corporation survey the sex ratio was 88.2. Table 5.5 analyzes the sex ratios by age groups.
The pattern of sex ratios in the study area does not conform exactly to the description of the typical sex ratio given in the introductory paragraph of this section. The ratio in the age group between 15 and 24 is unusally low, perhaps because more women of this age are living and working in the downtown area than men. The observation that the sex ratio is highest at the lowest ages does not apply here either; it is highest between the ages of 25 and 34. It is also not lowest at the highest ages. The fact that the pattern does not conform to what is a typical or "normal" pattern may be due to a number of factors. The population of the study area is older than usual, the number of families is declining, and the proportion of single person-households is very high. All of these conditions are characteristic of the Downtown population and distort the normal sex-ratio pattern.
The figure for the age distribution of the population of the study area in 1968 are shown in Table 5.6.
Dominion Bureau of Statistics figures indicate that, in 1968, 48.1% of the population of the study area was over 45. In 1966 it was 43.5%. In the City of Winnipeg in 1966 it was 33.9%, and in Metropolitan Winnipeg it was 28.8%. Further analysis of the over 45 group shows that 21.6% of the population of the study area was over 65 in comparison in comparison to a Metropolitan Winnipeg proportion of 9.1%, and a City of Winnipeg proportion of 12.0%. In the younger age groups (under 25), the study area had a somewhat lower proportion than Winnipeg or the Metropolitan area. In 1966 the proportions were respectively 32.4%, 42.4% and 45.9%. The 1968 figure for the study area was 28.7%, well below those for the other two areas.
If the Dominion Bureau of Statistics figures are analyzed to establish a historical trend, they show an absolute decrease in every age group but two. Table 5.7 gives the 1961 figures which may be compared to Table 5.6 to illustrate the changes.
The age groups between 20 and 24 and over 65 increased between 1961 and 1967. All others declined, the most serious decrease occurring in the economically active age group between 25 and 54. This group declined by 786 people over the six year interval.
The distribution of the population by sex conforms to the normal situation. Both the City of Winnipeg and the Metropolitan area had more women than men in 1966, although the proportions were slightly closer. The presence in the study area of more women than men in the over-65 age group also conforms to the norm. This situation is due to higher mortality rates among older men.
The statistics pertaining to the marital status of the population reveal that there are slightly more married women than married men in the study area, probably due to a number of husbands living outside of the study area, away from their wives. Table 5.8 gives the figures.
There is a much higher percentage of widowed women than men -- 19.4% of the women are widowed as compared to 7.6% of the men. A slightly higher proportion is divorced. In total, the figures show that a very significant proportion of the population over 15 years of age is single, widowed, or divorced -- 56.2%. The corresponding proportions in the City of Winnipeg and in the Metropolitan area in 1966 were 26.6% and 26.5% respectively.
There were 7,575 persons over the age of 15 in the study area at the time of the survey, but only 7,492 earned any wages or salaries. Of the 7,492 wage and salary earners, 37.8% earned less than $3,000.00 per year. More than 87% earned less than $6,000.00 per year. Table 5.9 indicates the income distribution by sex of the wage earners in the area.
The analysis indicates that the women in the study area are in a much lower income bracket than the men. Of the female wage earners, 45.1% earned less than $3,000.00 in contrast to only 23.9% of the men. The proportion of women falls continuously as the income level rises.
Total income figures are available for the 7,575 persons over the age of 15. Total income includes wages, and all other payment such as pensions, welfare payments, children's allowance, and unemployment insurance. It gives a more complete picture of the income levels in the area than that given by the wages of employed persons only. Table 5.10 contains the figures.
Based on total income, 50.4% of the population over 15 received less than $3,000 per year and 88.2% received less than $6,000. If $3,000 income per year is considered as the poverty line, over half of the populaton of the study area is poor. This figure is even higher for the female component of the population. Of the females over 15, 61.4% received less than $3,000. The corresponding proportion for males was 38.6%.
Income figures were also analyzed by household, by family, and for persons over 65. Of the households, 63.8% earned less than $6,000 per year and 43.1% earned less than $3,000. These proportions are lower than the comparable proportions for single persons because they include income from all sources for every member of the household receiving any. Per family, the proportions decline further. Although 1,802 families were counted by the survey, only 1,442 reported their incomes. Of the 1,442 families, only 61.2% earned less than $6,000, and 26.3% earned less than $3,000. These figures imply that there are a great many single persons with very low incomes in the study area which may be due to the relatively high proportion of single, widowed and divorced persons, and persons over 65. Figures are also available for slightly ver 1,300 persons in the over-65 age group. Fully 60% of this group have incomes below $1,500 per year. An additional 26.5% receive between $1,500 and $3,000 per year.
Geographical analysis indicates that the lowest incomes area concentrated in the area immediately adjacent to the retail core along Portage Avenue. There is also a high proportion of older people in these areas.
At the time of the Corporation survey, 4,150 persons over 15, or 55.4% of the total population, were employed full time. An additional 3.4% were employed part time, and 3.6% were unemployed. The unemployment rate for males was much higher than that for females -- 5.7% as compared to 1.8%. The low figure for female unemployment may simply be due to the voluntary withdrawal of women from the labor force. Of the fully employed of both sexes, 96.0% were wage and salary earners. The remainder were mostly self-employed. The largest group of full-time workers (30.7%) were employed in the Community, Business and Personal Service category of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics "Standard Industrial Classification". This includes such occupations as clerks, barbers, waitresses, janitors, domestic help, firemen, and policemen. The retail trade, the manufacturing industry, and the transportation and communications industry accounted for a further 14.1%, 13.4%, and 13.0% respectively of the full-time labour force. The primary and construction industries employed a very small percentage of the resident labour force -- only 3.7% in total. Table 5.11 contains the figures for the industrial distribution by sex.
Community, Business and Personal Service, employed 37.7% of the full-time female labour force resident in the area and 24.4% of the male. The male labour force was dominant in such fields as manufacturing, construction, and transportation and communication. Within these industries, a further analysis was made by occupational distribution. Table 5.12 contains the data.
The dominance of the Community, Business and Personal Services category explains why a high proportion of the labour force resident in the area -- 26.8% -- was engaged in clerical work, and a further 15.6% in service occupations. Females were dominant in both these occupations: 42.6% and 16.6% as copared to the male proportions of 12.3% and 14.6%. Production workers accounted for 14.9% of the labour force. Most of these were engaged in the manufacturing sector which employed 13.4% of the labour force resident in the area. Males were dominant among production workers -- 20.8% as compared to 8.4% of the females. Professional and technical workers in all industries constituted 18.5% of the total labour force; 17.8% of the female labour force, and 19.2% of the male.
The majority of residents of the study area over 15 years of age employed either full or part time, work in or close to the study area. Only 17.2% of the total labour force works outside the boundaries of the City of Winnipeg. Table 5.13 gives the analysis by location.
A clearer idea of the proximity of the labour force to their places of employment is given in Table 5.14 which analyzes the distances travelled to work. Fully 58.2% of employed persons live within one mile of their jobs. If the "Not Applicable cases are assumed to be persons working at their places of residence, the figure rises to 63.3%.
As many as 43.3% of the full time labour force walks to work, which indicates the large number of people who live close to their jobs. A further 27.1% use the transit service. Only 21.6% travel to and from work by private car. There is a correlation between this low percentage and the large number of persons in the study area -- 68.7% -- who do not own a car. Table 15.5% gives the figures for the mode of travel to work and Table 15.6 gives the car ownership.
Of 4,954 households in the area, 98.1% were occupied by tenants at the time of the survey. Since rented households are so dominant, monthly rental payments assume a great deal of significance. Most monthly rents (42.1%) are between $60 and $99. Low rentals (under $40) are concentrated in the area north of Portage between Balmoral on the west and Notre Dame and Qu'Appelle, and in the area between York and Portage east of Donald. Only 23.9% of all renters pay over $100 per month. The higher rents are in the high-density area between Assiniboine and Broadway, and in the area which includes Regency Towers. The rents paid by the predominantly lower-income group over 65 years of age are especially significant. About 41% of this group pay rents between $60 and $99. In view of the low incomes, rental payments n this bracket are probably too high for a great many of the residents. A high proportion of this age group pays under $60 in rent but it is probably still valid to say that many pensioners are paying more in rent than they can afford.
the statistics derived from the survey regarding the condition of the interiors of the dwelling units showed that 77.5% were in good or fair condition. Dwellings classified as poor constituted 15.0% of the total, and those described as very poor constituted 7.5%. Most of the latter types were concentrated immediately adjacent to the retail core at Portage Avenue.
Another pertinent factor in this area is the degree of overcrowding. The statistics relate to both owners and tenants. Only 4.4% of all dwellings in the study area were over-crowded (i.e., more than one person per habitable room). The area with the highest incidence of over-crowding, 9.6%, was between Portage and York east of Donald.
The largest ethnic group in the study area was the British which accounted for 52.1% of the population. The next largest in order were the French, Ukrainian, and German, which accounted for 11.1%, 6.8%, and 5.9% respectively, of the population. Canadian Indians and Metis were scarce in the area.
The degree of mobility in the study area is high. Of all the households in the area, 42.8% had lived in their present address one year or less. An additional 26.9% had lived at their present address between one and four years. Movement in and out of the area, as opposed to movement within the area, is not quite as high. Table 5.18 shows that only 53.7% of all households had been in the study area four years or less, in contrast to 69.7% of all households which had been at their present address four years or less.
Of the 53.7% of the residents who had lived in the study area for four years or less, 45.4% came from somewhere in the City of Winnipeg outside the study area. An additional 12.8% came from the suburbs and 14.9% from elsewhere in Manitoba. There was not much in-migration from the rest of Canada or outside Canada.
In spite of the high mobility in the area 73.9% of the present residents said they would stay in the area if they had to move from their present dwelling. The greatest degree of discontent was found in the north-west corner between Balmoral, Qu'Appelle and Notre Dame. The preference for dwelling types if a move was necessary was overwhelming in favour of row-houses (65.8%). Table 5.19 contains the figures for dwelling preferences.
The residents were also polled on their opinions as to how the area could be improved. A great many (35.1%) had no opinion on this subject. The highest proportion of those with a specific suggestion felt that the clearing of slums was the top priority item. Table 5.20 analyzes the feelings of the residents on area improvements.
The Corporation survey indicated that 73.5% of the population do not attend church, 96.7% do not attend sponsored clubs, 80.7% do not attend other clubs or organizations, and 98.3% do not attend social welfare organizations.
The presence of friends and relatives in the study area affects the social interactioi of the population. Less than one fifth of the households reported more than five friends ii the area, and only 3.4% reported more than 5 relatives. Those households with 5 or llss friends and relatives in the area constituted 47.8% and 17.2% respectively of the total. No friends and relatives were reported by 33.2% and 79.4% of the households.
A plan for the Downtown, if it is to have some real prospect for realization must be based on elements which have some real prospect of development. It would not be reasonable to propose, for example, that the plan for the Downtown be based upon the development of a ski resort, or an ocean terminal. These example are of course absurd, but it would be only slightly less absurd to propose that the Downtown can be revitalized, and large-scale development stimulated, on the basis of a vast increase in industrial plants, or of new office space.
Manufacturing cannot be expected to seek new locations in the Downtown area as here defined. Nor can wholesaling, nor warehousing industries. The reasons for the removal of industry from the central area to the suburbs have been indicated in a previous section of this report. Changes in business organization and production technology, the need for more site area for expansion, the problems of transportation and access, the changing pattern of the market, are some of the important factors which have caused the movement of industry out of the Downtown. These factors continue to prevail, and new industries seeking to establish themselves, almost invariably choose suburban locations. There is, accordingly, virtually no new growth of industry of the manufacturing, wholesaling and warehousing categories in the Downtown. A viable plan of development cannot, therefore, reasonably be based on the assumption of extensive development of these activities.
There has been some growth of office space in Winnipeg's Downtown over the last decade, and particularly in the last five years with the completion of the Royal Bank Building in 1964, and the Richardson Building now under construction. A large part of this new construction however has been in replacement of existing office space which has become obsolete, rather than new space required to accommodate new growth. Somewhat similar circumstances may be expected for the future, although the ratio of replacement space constructed can be expected to be rather lower than in the past five years in view of the very large areas that were provided by the two projects cited. The market analysis* referred to in an earlier section, estimates that during the twenty years 1966 1986, a total of 4,292,000 square feet of floor space will be required to accommodate the needs for commercial offices and services. Of this 1,296,000 square feet will be in replacement of existing obsolete space.
This is really a very modest volume of office construction for a twenty-year period, particularly so in comparison with the volumes being constructed and projected in the cities of more active growth. Winnipeg's offices, to a significant degree, are only branch offices, rather than head offices, and a branch office city cannot expect as great a demand for space as a head office city, such as, for example, Montreal or Toronto.
Accordingly, although a measure of new office construction can be expected to continue in the Downtown, it is not likely to exceed the rate of the volume of construction which has prevailed in the city over the last decade or two, and is not likely to be of an order of magnitude which will ensure the development of significant areas of Downtown land.
Retailing is an important part of the Downtown economy. The place of retailing in the Downtown was briefly analyzed in the "Downtown Trends" section of this report, and the analysis indicated that retail sales are not holding their own. A rapid expansion of retail activity in the Downtown cannot be expected, and retailing cannot be counted upon to provide a sound basis for Downtown development.
The service industries are the only sector of the economy which is expanding, and which is holding its own in the Downtown. The service sector depends on people, and of course, on the incomes of people, and on the way those people choose to spend their incomes. But it can safely be said that other things being equal, the service function will expand in relation to the growth of population.
It is perhaps a truism to say that the life of the entire Downtown depends on people. It is not merely the service industries that grow with population, but all of the other activities carried on in the Downtown. At the present time the life of the Downtown is sustained by the people comprising the Downtown shoppers, and the Downtown work force. The resident population is small and cannot be regarded as an element of the first order of importance in the Downtown economy.
Careful reflection on the problem can lead to only one conclusion, namely, that if the Downtown is to be revitalized and brought to its appropriate place in the life of the Metropolitan community, it can only be accomplished through the introduction of large numbers of people into the central area; and this can only be accomplished, in Winnipeg's circumstances, through the introduction, not of a new labor force, or new shoppers, but of new residents. What is required is a very large increase in Downtown's resident population; which means that some way must be found to stimulate the development of high-density apartment blocks in the Downtown.
A large resident population would stimulate other types of investment and development in the central area. For example, if there were a large resident population, they would constitute a large local market which would undoubtedly stimulate increased activity in Downtown retailing and personal services. Entertainment and recreation activities would also be stimulated. It is likely that other types of investment in the services industries would also flow as a consequence of these stimuli. The ultimate result could only be one of a greatly altered and revitalized Downtown.
At this point it is perhaps relevant to ask, "Is there a sufficient potential market for apartments in the Metropolitan area to ensure the necessary scale of development in the Downtown to produce the kind of rejuvenation which we are seeking?"
Traditionally, the people of North America have chosen the single family dwelling as their preferred form of housing. this was the prevailing mode in the early decades of the growth of the city, even in the central area. The large fine homes of the early affluent families in many instances, through the passage of time, became the rooming houses and the tenements of the poor in what developed into the fringe area of the Downtown.
As the city's population grew, the universal preference for the single family dwelling a home of one's own simply could not be satisfied in the Downtown: there was not enough space to accommodate any substantial numbers of such dwellings in the central area, and the cost of land became too high to permit its use for this purpose. Moreover, the lack of amenities parks, playgrounds, recreation areas of all kinds, schools and other residential neighborhood facilities, coupled with the traffic and the general "non-residential" character, turned those who could afford it away from the Downtown and into the suburbs. In the suburbs it was possible for families of even fairly modest incomes to find a home in an environment which was closer to the amenities of nature than was possible in the central area of the city. The widespread ownership of the private automobile made it possible for people to live in the suburbs and work or shop or find their entertainment in the Downtown, and this is exactly what has been happening now for thirty or forty years in the cities of North America. There has been a steady growth of the suburban population while the central city's population has either remained static, or together with the resident population of the Downtown has steadily declined. In general terms, those families who moved to the suburbs were the young families of average income and higher, and those who remained behind were the single people, the older people, and the poor.
Winnipeg's experience has not been significantly different from that of other cities, and falls within the general terms of the description given above.
In recent years there has been a very marked change in the nature of the new housing being constructed. Whereas ten years ago the single family dwelling was overwhelmingly the major component of the new housing starts, latterly the proportions have become reversed so that now the multiple family structure is the dominant form. In Eastern Canada this has been the prevailing situation for about fifteen years or more; in Winnipeg the trend has been developing for a shorter period and in 1965, for the first time, the number of multiple family dwellings exceeded the number of single family dwellings in the new housing starts, comprising 52.6% of all new housing units in that year, 45.2% being apartments, and 7.4% being row houses and other forms of multiple accommodation. In 1968 the difference became quite dramatic, 67.7% of all new housing units being in multiple family accommodation, with 61.3% in apartments, and 6.4% in other forms of multiple housing.
The reasons for this shift in preference need not be analyzed here it has to do primarily with the economics of housing but it is becoming clear that more and more people are finding it more and more difficult to own and live in a single family dwelling as compared to renting an apartment. It also has to do with the changing tastes and expectations of our population, reflecting very strongly the influence of the young (about 50% of our population is 25 years old or younger), and the greatly increased mobility, both social and physical of our society. As a matter of taste rather than economics, young people, even married couples, are coming to prefer the apartment to the detached dwelling. In general terms it is probably true to say that a very large number of adults without children between the ages of three and seventeen are coming to accept the apartment as their normal accommodation; in the main, this means the young single adults, the young couples with very young children, and the older people either without families, or whose children have left their parents' home.
In Winnipeg the demand for apartment accommodation in recent years has been high not so much because of the rate of growth of the population but rather because of the internal market structure. It is not the rate of growth of population which is the most important component of the apartment market, but rather the size and characteristics of those groups in the population who provide the effective demand for apartment accommodation. We are now feeling the results of the post-war baby boom; there was a very sharp increase in the number of children born in the years immediately following the end of the war. These children are now young adults who are forming their own families and households, and their influence is very significant in the current demand for apartment accommodation. Between 1941 and 1951 a total of 77,208 children were born in the Metropolitan area. These are now young adults between the ages of 18 and 28, and a large proportion of them are in the apartment market.
During this period there was some significant in-migration of people in these age groups, because in 1966, the total number of persons 18 to 28 years old in the metro area was 84,429.
Between 1961 and 1966 the housing industry produced about 19,000 dwelling units in Metropolitan Winnipeg of which about 7,800 were apartments. Between the same years there were 15,072 new households formed in Metro (the difference between the number of new dwellings and the number of new households can be accounted for by demolitions and vacancies). It is not possible to know, on the basis of the available data, how many of these were family households and how many were non-family households. Nor is it possible to know how many of the 84,429 individuals in the 18 to 28 years of age group formed part of these new households. Nevertheless, even if one assumes the extreme situation, i.e. that this age group supplied the members of all the new households (which is most unlikely), and even if some realistic allowance is made for members of this group who were not seeking new accommodation in 1968, it still seems clear that there remains an enormous pool of potential demand for dwellings, a very significant part of which is for apartment dwellings. If one were to add to this young adult group the potential demand which exists at the other end of the age scale the over 55's it becomes apparent that the apartment market at the present time is not saturated, and does not appear to be in any danger of saturation in the foreseeable future.
The demand for multiple accommodation is likely to remain high for at least the next ten years, again because of the population structure. In 1966 there were 91,367 persons between the ages of 10 and 19; they represented 18.4% of the Metropolitan population. Over the next decade the ten-year-olds will become 20 years old, and the 19-year-olds will become 29 years old, and again it is out of this group that a substantial part of the multiple accommodation market will be provided. It is interesting to note that in this respect we are just a little more favorably situated than both Edmonton and Calgary. Edmonton has about 15.6% of its population in these age groups, and Calgary about 14.6%.
At the other end of the age group scale, the same is true; 8% of our population is between 55 and 64 years old, a group which seeks apartment accommodation, and the members of which will be in the apartment market for the next ten years. In Edmonton only 5.5% of the population is in this group, and in Calgary 5.7%. And the group which is in the phase behind, that is the 45 to 54 year olds, which during the next ten years will be moving into the apartment dwelling category comprises 11.4% of Metro's population. In Edmonton the same group comprises 9.15%, and in Calgary the figure is exactly the same as Edmonton's.
The two main groups of our population which provide the multiple accommodation market the pre-children and post-children groups represent large proportions of the Metropolitan population, larger proportions than in either Edmonton or Calgary; and in absolute terms the numbers are of course even greater because Metro's population is greater than either of the two Alberta cities. these facts indicate a strong existing and potential market for multiple dwellings for the foreseeable future.
Although the change in housing taste represents the reversal of an historic attitude, perhaps the most unexpected element in this new trend has been the location of the new apartments. Traditionally the apartment block, and particularly the high-rise apartment block, was considered to be a central area feature, and until about twenty years ago, in Winnipeg, this was in fact the case. In the period 1930 1939, 805 new apartment dwellings were built in the Metro area, of which 646, or about 80%, were built in the City of Winnipeg and 321, or about 40% were in the Downtown. In the period 1940 1949, again 80% of new apartments in the Metropolitan Winnipeg area were built in the City of Winnipeg, but the proportion in the Downtown had dropped to 25%. In the following decade, 1950 1959, the massive change in the apartment situation began to assert itself. In that period, 6,137 apartment dwellings were built in Metropolitan Winnipeg, but the City of Winnipeg's proportion fell to just over 70% and the Downtown's proportion fell to 10.4%. Since then, Winnipeg's share of the new apartments in the Metro area has continued to decline between 1960 and 1966 it was only 53%, and for the years 1967 and 1968 it fell to 27% while the proportion in the Downtown fell to zero no new apartments having been constructed in the Downtown in the last two years.
For the purpose of this analysis, two significant facts emerge from the foregoing. The first is that there appears to be in the Metro area a large potential market for apartment accommodation large enough to provide the kind of catalyst necessary for the revitalization of the Downtown; the second is that apartments now being constructed in the Metro area are mainly going up in the suburbs and not in the Downtown.
Several reasons may be identified for the apartment developers' preference for suburban rather than central area sites. Probably the most important reason has been the relatively greater cost of apartment development downtown compared with the same development in the suburbs. This greater cost Downtown has been the result of such factors as the extreme difficulty in assembling parcels of land enough to take large-scale apartment developments, the higher cost of the land itself and the relatively higher tax assessment. Other deterrent influences have been the generally unattractive environment of the Downtown, the lack of amenities, the problems of traffic and parking, and the assumption that the same market conditions and consumer preferences which created the vast single family dwelling housing stock in the suburbs, continue to prevail in respect of the demand for apartment accommodation. The great thrust of new residential development has in fact occurred in the suburbs, and it is perhaps understandable that the developer would naturally think of his apartment development as part of that phenomenon and would continue to operate on the basis of suburban rather than central area sites for his apartments as he did previously for his single family dwellings, particularly in those instances where the developer has extensive suburban land holdings which he contemplates developing over a period of time.
All of these forces, and perhaps others as well, have conspired to inhibit the development of the Downtown. It is obvious that if the prevailing conditions in the central area are to be changed, and the present trends of stagnation and deterioration are to be reversed, then it will be necessary to overcome these forces. A plan for the Downtown which has as its objectives the restoration of the centre of the city to a condition of vitality and the creation there of a vigorous centre of the cultural, entertainment, and commercial life of the Metropolitan community, must be based on measures which will overcome the prevailing disadvantages of Downtown residential development.
It is true that most recently, in the last two or three months, there has been a stir of interest in development in the central area, and a number of apartment and commercial projects have been announced. This stir has been interpreted in some quarters as proof that development in the Downtown will occur as part of the normal course of events, and that no special measures are necessary to stimulate such activity. As indicated in an earlier section of this report, such a view is illusory. There may be the occasional project developed as part of the normal course of events the Downtown has in fact been receiving about two new buildings per year for the last fifteen years but the rate of such development will not be enough to effect any significant changes in the character of the Downtown, and will certainly not be enough to stimulate any large-scale investment and development programs, just as it has not been able to do so during the last couple of decades.
A program of specific action on the part of government is required which will create the circumstances which will make Downtown as attractive to developers as the suburbs now are.
Some steps in this direction have already been taken. Perhaps the most significant was the re-zoning of land in the Downtown to permit much higher densities of apartment development than were previously permitted. Prior to 1968, the by-law required a minimum site area of 800 square feet for every suite contained in an apartment building. If one assumes that the average size of apartment dwelling is about 800 square feet, then the required ratio of site area to building floor space was 1:1.
The cost of land in the Downtown is relatively high, running between $7.00 and $8.00 per square foot in the area between Assiniboine and Graham Avenue and much higher for Portage Avenue properties, and is relatively insensitive to normal market influences. In this circumstance, the limitation on the building volume imposed by the zoning by-law made it economically not reasonable to develop Downtown property for apartment purposes: the cost of the land was simply too high in relation to the development which could be placed on it and the financial return which could be derived from it.
In the summer of 1968 the zoning by-law was amended to permit a floor ratio of 10 in apartment development (There has been no height limitation on office buildings in the Downtown since 1965). As a result of this amendment developers may now build ten times as much floor area on a given site as was possible before 1968, and development of Downtown sites for apartments is now feasible because the high cost of the land can be offset by the greater number of apartments that can be placed upon it. This amendment has obviously had a considerable influence in stirring a new interest in the development of apartments in the Downtown.
Another factor which may help to encourage investment in the Downtown is the proposed abatement of taxes on new construction for a given number of years. At the time of writing of this report, the Bill seeking these municipal powers has not yet been tabled, and the precise nature of the proposed legislation is not known. However, it seems clear that if the tax abatement powers are to apply exclusively to the Downtown, then this device could have an encouraging effect in attracting investment to the central area; if the powers are to apply to new construction anywhere in Metropolitan Winnipeg, then its effect will be to leave the Downtown in a situation unchanged from its present situation with respect to taxes there will be no advantages to developers to locate their projects Downtown.
There are a number of other specific actions in the public sector which would help to stimulate and attract a flow of private investment capital. One of these is the provision of parking. At the present time, developers of Downtown apartments are required, under the zoning by-law, to provide 75% parking. Office buildings do not require parking under the by-law, and the rationale behind this differentiation is difficult to understand. Perhaps the explanation is simply that it would be prohibitively expensive for most businesses to provide the full amount of parking accommodation required by their customers and employees. Businesses have always been located Downtown and Downtown land is very costly. Apartments on the other hand don't have to be located Downtown; they are not thought of as an integral component of the central area, and if they are built Downtown it is assumed that their occupants should, and in fact would be prepared to pay the cost involved.
A number of very good arguments can be raised against our present practices with respect to Downtown parking. To begin with, there doesn't seem to be any really rational basis for differentiating between commercial parking and residential parking. If in fact it is not necessary to require parking for commercial enterprises, then it is not necessary to require parking for apartment blocks, since in both cases the same elements are involved.
The most serious objection to our present practices, however, is that they are inefficient. They are very wasteful of land and very expensive. The widespread development of surface parking lots Downtown, although "economic" in the very narrowest sense of that term, is socially very costly. It maintains large areas of land in an undeveloped condition and provides no incentives for placing buildings on them. It may be argued that this is so only in a situation where the general level of development activity is low; where there is a high level of demand, surface parking is only a transitional use, and soon is replaced by structures of one kind or another. While there can be no quarrel with the validity of this observation, it is at the same time important to recognize the fact that the prevailing low level of development activity is to a very significant degree a reflection of our attitudes and policies toward the Downtown; changes in those attitudes and policies could produce changes in the utilization of Downtown land which would result in a much more satisfactory provision of parking facilities and a fuller use of the land now devoted to surface parking.
Because Downtown land is expensive, and because parking structures are expensive, business enterprises cannot be expected to acquire land for parking in any greater measure than the absolute minimum which satisfies the by-law requirements or meets their own needs. Where there is no by-law requirement for parking, it must be expected that the demand for parking space generated by the business Downtown will not be met by those businesses. It is expected rather that the bulk of that demand will be met by the commercial parking lots and structures. However, commercial parking is sited only in marginal proximity to the building whose demand they serve (it is a generally accepted standard that the motorist will not walk more than 1,500 feet from the parking lot to his building. In Winnipeg's winter climate, walking even a shorter distance can be an ordeal.) Lots are scattered at random throughout the Downtown, the major locational factors being the cost at which the developer can acquire a piece of property of suitable size (the problems of land assembly, even for a parking site, are formidable) and within easy access of a high concentration of parking users.
It is relatively inconveniently located in terms of access to one's place of business; it uses large amounts of land for a relatively uneconomic purpose; and it intrudes an element of generally acknowledged ugliness into the heart of the city. Even the most cursory observation by the most casual observer must persuade him that our present ways of providing Downtown parking don't make much sense, and that there must be better ways of doing it.
The characteristics of a preferable arrangement are fairly clear, and in broad terms, would include the following principles:
In order to carry these principles into effect, it will require a very considerable degree of public involvement in the acquisition of sites, as well as in the development of the parking structures. Both the Metropolitan Corporation and the City of Winnipeg have the statutory authority to undertake such activities, and accordingly no legal obstacle lies in that direction. The successful implementation of these principles will also require the coordination of these activities within the framework of an overall plan of development for the Downtown. Such a plan is of course the subject of the present report.
Very real benefits can be expected to flow from the implementation of these principles for Downtown parking. Apart from providing a more effective distribution of parking spaces, and a more intensive development of parking sites, the principles outlined above could contribute toward the achievement of these very important and desirable objectives: they could help reduce the cost of renting an apartment, they could help to increase the amount of landscaped open space around apartment blocks, and most important of all, they could increase the economic attractiveness of building apartment blocks Downtown.
The cost of a parking stall in a structure above ground is about $1,800, and below ground is about $2,500. The cost of land for an apartment site is generally regarded by apartment developers as prohibitive if it exceeds $1,000 $1,200 per suite. It is obvious, therefore, that the cost of providing parking is greater than the cost of acquiring the site for an apartment project. If the apartment developer were relieved of the burden of having to provide parking for his tenants even 75% of his tenants the cost of constructing the project would be very substantially reduced, and perhaps the saving could be passed on in the form of a reduction in rent.
Similarly, the on-site land required for parking as part of an apartment development usually is very large, and thereby reduces the area available for open space. If there were no parking requirement that is, if there were an assurance that adequate parking would be made available in a structure off-site, but within easy reach the land thus freed could be developed as landscaped open space. In developments of high density, there is a need for enough open space around the high-rise structures to provide not only visual relief, but sufficient outdoor passive recreation space for the residents.
But of greater basic importance than either of these two results, would be the increase in the attractiveness of the Downtown for apartment development. It can be expected that if the apartment developer is relieved of the burden of having to provide very expensive parking spaces on the very expensive land of the Downtown, but at the same time having an assurance that parking spaces will be available to his tenants out of the general supply of Downtown parking, development of Downtown sites for apartments will become an economically attractive proposition.
A number of other factors may be identified as requiring specific public action, if investment and development in any significant measure is to be attracted into the Downtown. These all have to do with improving the quality of the Downtown environment as a place to live and to work, and include pedestrian weather-protection, the creation of attractive open spaces, and the provision of public recreation facilities.
The problem of weather-protection for pedestrians is one which has been discussed for many years. The need for some kind of shelter for pedestrians moving about the Downtown in the winter is obvious, and it is not surprising that there has been much discussion of the matter. Various proposals have been made from time to time including underground systems and skyways, none of which, so far, has ever come close to implementation.
The problem of creating a weather-protected pedestrian circulation system are formidable. Apart from any consideration of cost, the general principles which should govern the development of such a system are subject to widely varying views. Probably a surface system would be the cheapest to create, but such a system must be discontinuous where it intersects with a street -- you cannot continue an enclosed corridor across a street at grade level. An underground system has the decided disadvantage of becoming merely a system of subterranean tunnels unless activities of various kinds can be attracted to locate along most of its entire length. In Winnipeg's circumstances it seems unlikely that such activities (in the main these would have to be retail stores, boutiques, certain types of offices and similar kinds of commercial activities) would be available in sufficient number to line such a system for its entire length. And the question always arises as to the attractiveness of such an arrangement in the summertime. It is possible that people would prefer not to use such an underground corridor in the summer, and there could be a consequent falling-off in the volumes of business, thus making the proposition unattractive to commercial investors.
There are of course certain circumstances where an underground passage would be the most appropriate. The passage between the Civic Parking Garage and the Centennial Concert Hall is an example. Another example might be the proposed underground concourse beneath the intersection of Portage and Main. Such a concourse is contemplated primarily as a traffic device, to separate pedestrian from vehicular traffic using the intersection. At the present time the flow of pedestrians across the intersection seriously impedes the flow of vehicles, and this situation will become worse when Lombard Place is fully developed. There is little doubt that the most effective solution to this problem would be to provide for the pedestrian movement across the intersection to take place underground. It is also possible that in some limited and special circumstance, it will be most appropriate for pedestrian movement to take place in a weather-protected passage located at grade.
On balance however the moot feasible system would seem to be one which is elevated at about fifteen or sixteen feet above the ground, which bridges across the streets with enclosed bridges, and which uses special corridors created within existing buildings, or new buildings as the are constructed, as the elements of the system. Such a scheme overcomes the problem of crossing streets, and of lining the corridor with activity, since much of the corridor would in fact pass through buildings where commercial activity would be the normal condition. The question of summer use would not arise since the passages, particularly the bridges across the streets, could be opened in fine weather, and thus would be attractive to pedestrians in all seasons.
If a high density of apartment is to be encouraged, it is important to ensure that adequate public open space is provided to offset the crowding effect of tall buildings. Such spaces can be extremely attractive, and excellent examples can be found in many cities where there is a high density of Downtown development. In Winnipeg, where the winters are long and severe, one of the most exciting amenities which could be provided would be a "winter garden," or a series of them right in the Downtown. These would be enclosed green spaces or conservatories, where permanent greenery and flowers could provide a welcome relief during the bitter months of the winter. Ideally, they would be linked by weather-protected pedestrian passages to other parts of the Downtown, providing easy access between them and other centres of Downtown activity.
It seems reasonable to expect the public authorities to be responsible for the maintenance of these spaces as parks. But it also seems reasonable to expect that the developers of the high density apartments would convey the land for these parks to the public authority for one dollar, since the developers require parks as an amenity for their own developments, and since they are likely to prefer to have these parks maintained by the public, rather than assume this responsibility themselves.
Public recreation facilities should be an important part of any plan for developing the Downtown. This is particularly so if there is to be a policy of encouraging Downtown residential development. There is really no reason why such facilities as an aquarium, a conservatory, a skating rink, swimming pool, or any other type of public recreational amenity should not be located in the Downtown area.
At the present time no such facilities exist in the central area, (apart from those of such private institutions as the Y.M.C.A.) and none is being considered. All such recreational facilities are placed in the suburban areas, presumably on the assumption that in the suburbs they serve the population more directly. Thus, the Pan-Am Pool is in River Heights; Sherbrook Pool is in the west end; the Conservatory and the Zoo are in Assiniboine Park; Kildonan Park has a new pavilion and excellent winter skating facilities. And so on. If some of these facilities, or others like them were sited in the Downtown, not only would they work a profound change in the character and attractiveness of the central area, but would help to encourage the return of people to live there. The location of such facilities however would have to be carefully selected so that they would be able to exert their maximum influence in achieving the objectives of the development plan for the Downtown. One of the most important considerations in the placing of such facilities, for example, would be their interconnection with the weather-protected circulation system, and the parking structures so that people could move freely between these various elements with the greatest convenience, and in a comfortable, climate-controlled atmosphere.
In summary, a plan for the development of Winnipeg's Downtown should be based on the following elements:
* Reid, Crowther, and Partners Ltd. op-cit.
The plan for the Downtown is based on two premises: firstly that there are certain key areas which, if appropriately developed, will determine the function and character of the Downtown, and secondly, that if these keyareas are appropriately developed, whatever occurs in the rest of the Downtown can be accommodated without undue concern as to whether it is "planned" or not.
The implication of these assumptions is that for the key areas, a very high degree of "planning" is required. This means not only a strong measure of land-use control, but even more important, a strong commitment by the public to invest the sums of money necessary in the public sector of the plan to ensure that the concept will be realized. For the other parts of the Downtown, no such special measures would be necessary. The development of the key areas, it is expected, will stimulate development in other parts of the Downtown, but the key areas themselves will be so powerful in their influence that the development stimulated in the other parts of the Downtown could be absorbed into the general pattern of the Downtown without any special "planning" measures, other than the normal zoning controls.
South of Portage Avenue, such a key area is represented by the fourteen blocks which are contained between St. Mary Avenue on the north, Main Street on the east, Broadway on the south, and Edmonton street on the west.
North of Portage, the key area is the area bounded by Ellice Avenue, Colony Street, Cumberland Avenue and Carlton Street.
The plan for the Downtown is shown on Plates 16 19. The salient features of the plan embody the elements which were identified and discussed in the previous section of this report as being the appropriate basis of a development plan for the Downtown of Metropolitan Winnipeg. These elements include a large resident population housed in high density apartments, a weather-protected pedestrian movement system, an open space and "winter garden" system, a parking structure system, and entertainment, recreation, and shopping facilities, to serve not only the resident population but the whole of the Metropolitan Downtown market.
For the area south of Portage Avenue the fourteen blocks comprising the Broadway-St. Mary sector, the physical form of the plan is established by the major traffic arteries. Main Street is such an artery forming the eastern boundary of the sector; Smith Street is a major artery carrying one-way traffic northbound, and Donald is the other member of this pair, carrying one-way traffic southbound, and Edmonton is proposed as a major one-way street carrying cross-town traffic northbound over a proposed new bridge crossing the Assiniboine River, with Kennedy acting as the other member of this pair, carrying traffic south bound. The fourteen-block enclave is thus bordered on the east by Main Street, on the west by Edmonton Street, while the Smith-Donald pair passes exactly through the centre of the group.
Because of this arrangement the blocks abutting these arteries lend themselves to development as "movement corridors," containing such uses as automobile parking structures, and enclosed pedestrian ways with services and facilities for shopping, entertainment, recreation, and similar types of non-residential uses, while the blocks which lie between these corridors might appropriately be developed for residential uses.
In effect, the plan provides that the blocks between Main Street and Fort Street, Smith Street and Donald Street, and Carlton Street and Edmonton Street, be developed for these non-residential purposes, and the blocks in between, that is the blocks lying between Fort and Smith, and Donald and Carlton be developed to residential development.
It is intended that the non-residential blocks serve not only the local residential development, but the whole of the Metropolitan Downtown market. And in keeping with the analysis made in an earlier section of this report, it is intended that the residential blocks be developed with high density apartments 1,000 suites per block seems a suitable density in this context.
The plan shown on Plate 20 indicates a symmetrical development of the residential blocks, with the 1,000 suites of each block contained in six apartment buildings, two of which are about six storeys high, two are twelve, and two are twenty-two storeys. This arrangement is intended to be only schematic; it is not expected that the actual development would take this form. The concept is flexible enough to accommodate the designated number of suites in any arrangement which would suit the needs of the developers, except that whatever the final arrangement of buildings might be, the provisions for open space, the winter gardens, and the pedestrian movement corridors must be observed.
The plan does not visualize parking facilities as part of the residential development. One of the basic concepts of the plan is that the apartment structures will not be required to provide their own parking but that parking will be provided in the non-residential blocks to serve not merely the adjacent apartments, but the Downtown parking demand in general.
There are several reasons for this proposal, all of which have been discussed in the previous section of this report. One of the effects of relieving the residential development of a parking requirement would be to free a very substantial amount of the land in all of the residential blocks and make the land thus freed available for open landscaped space and recreation purposes.
The plan visualizes that all of the land not occupied by apartment structures will be conveyed to the Metropolitan Government, who will develop it partly as open public park and partly as "winter garden" that is, as a conservatory which will provide an oasis of verdant foliage, colorful flowers, open pools and playing fountains all year round. These conservatories or "winter gardens" would be part of the public open space system, and there would be one of these located in the centre of each residential block, accessible directly from the pedestrian movement corridor.
The pedestrian corridors are intended to form part of the walkway system which will ultimately provide weather-protected access to every part f the Downtown. The corridors will be located at the second storey level bridging across the streets from block to block. They will be constructed at the same time as the related apartment structures, and it is expected that the apartment developers in their designs will provide for access between their apartments and the pedestrian corridors. The corridors themselves are conceived of as public spaces, owned and maintained by the Metropolitan Government as part of its street system.
The non-residential blocks, as indicated, will contain parking, shopping, recreation and entertainment facilities. It is intended that in each of the six blocks involved, the basic development will be a parking structure. This will consist of two parking levels below grade, one at grade, and one above grade. Above the top parking level will be the pedestrian movement corridor, flanked on each side by shops, cafes, boutiques, restaurants and other types of commercial and recreational establishments.
In the non-residential blocks, the pedestrian corridors are oriented north-south. In the residential blocks, the pedestrian corridors run east-west. The two sets of corridors intersect in the non-residential blocks, and at the points of intersection it is intended that major clusters or nodes of recreation, entertainment, and shopping facilities will be developed.
On the level above the pedestrian corridor (and shopping and entertainment) level, it is intended that there will be a variety of structures such as an aquarium, conservatory, ice-skating rink, motor hotel, office building, and so on, all of which would be directly accessible from the pedestrian corridor, and some of which would be simply vertical extensions of the facility on the pedestrian level below.
All of the concepts described above are illustrated in some detail on Plates 20 to 25. These illustrations are sufficiently graphic to make it unnecessary for any further detailed verbal description of the various elements of the plan. However, something should perhaps be said about the convention centre indicated for the block bounded by Carlton, York, Edmonton, and St. Mary. A major convention facility for Winnipeg has been discussed for many years, but no decision has ever been made about it. Such studies as have been made of the matter indicate that Winnipeg is favorably situated to attract a much greater share of the national and continental conference and convention activities than it does at the present time. One of the reasons for the city's failure to host more conventions has been the lack of adequate hotel space. This deficiency is about to be overcome with two new major hotels under construction the Winnipeg Inn and the Northstar Inn and with a third, the Holiday Inn, having been announced.
There seems to be little doubt that the realization of these three major new hotels will revive serious consideration of a new convention facility; and there also seems to be little doubt that such a facility will be constructed in the city sometime in the not-too-distant future.
If a major convention hall is built in Winnipeg, it seems elementary good sense that it be located within easy access of hotel accommodation. It also seems good sense to try to ensure that strong supporting services and facilities are developed in close relation to the convention centre, such as shopping, entertainment, etc.
With these considerations in mind, the site for the convention centre has been shown as the block bounded by St. Mary, Carlton, York and Edmonton. This location would make it possible to link the convention centre directly with a number of hotels by means of a weather-protected pedestrian corridor. It would also make it possible to link the centre with some of the supporting facilities and amenities which are so essential to ensure the success of the convention function.
Accordingly the block to the south of the convention centre site is shown developed with the basic parking structure and pedestrian-commercial corridor at the second storey level. Above this pedestrian level, and accessible from it, the plan proposes that a conservatory-restaurant be created, in which the floral display would be so arranged as to form a background or setting for the activities of the restaurant; patrons would have their meals surrounded by an informal but lush decor of plants, flowers, and reflecting pools. Northward, the convention centre is shown connecting across St. Mary Avenue to the proposed pedestrian shopping level and the hotels in the block between York Avenue and Graham, thus creating a strong convention function spine extending for the length of three city blocks. This spine continues northward to Portage Avenue in the form of a weather-protected commercial and recreational corridor, crosses Portage Avenue where it becomes a major downtown park which incorporates the present Central Park, and extends to Notre Dame. When fully realized, there will be thus created a central axis on the alignment of the blocks running between Carlton Street and Edmonton Street, running from Broadway to Notre Dame, containing shops, places of entertainment and recreation, open spaces, and a weather-protected pedestrian corridor. Such a "spine" would be a major feature of the Downtown, serving as a strong element of identification and contributing an important component to the Downtown character.
Schools in the Broadway-St. Mary sector of the plan are not considered to be a major requirement. Studies have shown that high density apartments in Downtown locations do not generate any significant numbers of children. And in any case the plan is flexible enough so that any school requirement could be met in a number of ways, including the location of school facilities in one of the other proposed structures, or the provision of such facilities adjacent to but outside of the fourteen block enclave.
The proposals for the key areas north of Portage Avenue contain two essential elements. The first is the development of the site formerly occupied by St. Paul's College as part of the expanded campus of the University of Winnipeg; and the second is the extension of Central Park for at least one block to the south, as far as Ellice Avenue. These two elements are the major commitments in the public sector required by the plan, and if realized, would provide not only the physical framework within which other development would take place, but also the stimulus or catalytic action which would spark such other development.
It is expected that the creation of a University campus on the St. Paul's College site would stimulate a demand for housing for students and staff, and others associated with the university activity, as well as a demand for shops, entertainment, services, and all of the other kinds of activities which are required as part of the daily life of a fairly large concentration of people.
A large central area park inevitably attracts high density development. This is demonstrated by the central parks in all of the great cities of the world; Winnipeg's Central Park has also attracted such development. Already there are a number of major structures sited on its edges, and a new high-rise apartment block is about to be constructed there. Extension of the park southward would create the circumstances for further such projects. The most serious consideration should be given to extending Central Park as far southward as the lane immediately north of Portage Avenue. The illustrations of the plan in fact show such an extension, over the land now occupied by the Winnipeg Free Press.
There is no doubt that such a proposal will be considered prohibitively expensive, if not wildly irresponsible. Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that all of the great cities of the world, and a large proportion of those of lesser rank, have very extensive and highly developed parks, and even who systems of parks, in or adjacent to their central area. Indeed, it is the presence and the quality of these open spaces which give these cities much of their charm and character. Winnipeg has no such central open space, apart from Central Park, and Memorial Park, both of which are small, not particularly well located, and not as successfully related to the rest of the Downtown as such open spaces should be.
The extension of Central Park as far south as the lane above Portage Avenue would create a major Downtown public open space, well related to central area activities, and an integral part of the proposed central area feature or "spine" lying between Carlton and Edmonton Streets. Such a space, apart from drawing to its borders new high density apartments, would serve as a major activity centre for the community. It could be used for large-scale outdoor assembly in the summer-time: for concerts, for rallies, for the numerous activities for which such spaces are used in other cities.
But perhaps the greatest potential for such a park lies in its winter use. It could become the focus of a great winter carnival to rival the Bonhomme Festival of Quebec City or the winter celebration of Soporo, Japan. Besides having the possibility of development into a major tourist attraction, it could provide for Winnipeggers themselves a colorful and exciting diversion to relieve the starkness and severity of the long winter. Ice sculptures, torchlight parades, snow events, outdoor dancing and barbecues, which might form part of such a festival, require large open spaces. An enlarged Central Park would serve this proposal admirably.
The plan of course contemplates substantial development other than just the two elements described above. It is expected that the north side of Portage Avenue will also develop with mixed use structures, providing shopping, parking, and entertainment facilities on the lower levels, and apartment accommodation on the upper floors. A pedestrian bridge connection across Portage Avenue between Carlton Street and Edmonton Street would make possible a pedestrian "corridor" extending from Broadway trough to Notre Dame, which has already been discussed as one of the important features of the downtown plan.
In the easterly part of the area of Portage Avenue, the plan visualizes the strengthening and expansion of the existing entertainment enclave. A parking structure is envisaged on the site of the present surface parking lot at Notre Dame and Ellice Avenue, and the linking of this structure by means of weather-protected pedestrian corridors with new hotel, cinema and other entertainment facilities which can be expected to develop in this general location.
Another development contemplated for the area north of Portage is one which is contingent upon the development of the former St. Paul's College site for the expansion of the campus of the University of Winnipeg. If that were to happen, then Vaughan Street between Portage Avenue and Ellice Avenue would become the access route to the University used by a large number of students and staff. The character of this street would undergo a marked change, and it could be expected that the row houses on the east side of the street, between the Y.M.C.A. and the apartment block on Ellice Avenue, would be developed as specialty shops, book stores, gift shops, restaurants, etc. to serve the needs of this new university population.
On the west side of the street is the old Isbister School, used by the Winnipeg School Board as an adult education centre. If a new adult education building is built on this site to replace the obsolete Isbister School, then it, together with the University, the Y.M.C.A., the student and faculty housing and the boutiques suggested above for the east side of Vaughan Street together could comprise an extremely interesting precinct for this part of the Downtown.
A new main branch of the Winnipeg Public Library has been desperately needed for some time now. The present main library on William Avenue is obsolete. As an alternative to the Graham Avenue site now under discussion, the most serious consideration should be given to locating the new library on the site of the old Isbister School, and developing it as part of the new adult education centre suggested above. The functional relationship between these two facilities is so obvious as to require no explanation. But their functional relationship would be paralleled by the physical and visual impact which their combined structures would have, and the great increase in the intensity of use and the vitality and interest which they would bring to the precinct.
South of Portage Avenue, other developments of interest contemplated by the plan are the creation of a Provincial Government precinct in the area west of Edmonton Street, and the creation of parks on the land now owned by the Metropolitan Corporation, and on the bank of the Assiniboine River.
At the present time there does not seem to be any systematic program pursued by the Provincial Government to meet its space needs. Those needs seem to be met on the basis of improvisation and ad hoc acquisitions as the need arises, and seemingly in whatever locations space becomes available. The plan visualizes the adoption by the Province of a program of building construction geared systematically to its long-term requirements and located in the area between Edmonton Street and Memorial Boulevard. Such a program would create a coherently articulated Government precinct in the Downtown which would complement the other developments visualized in the plan.
One of the most important proposals of the plan is the development of a park along the north bank of the Assiniboine River extending from the Legislative Buildings to Main Street. The concept of this park arises out of three very important considerations. Firstly, the extend and quality of the park development in and adjacent to the central area is one of the principal factors in determining the character of a city. Secondly, Winnipeg's Downtown parks are small and not well located. Memorial Park is surrounded by major traffic arteries making access to it inconvenient; and Fort Garry Park, containing all that now remains of Fort Garry, a relic of the greatest historical importance for Winnipeg and Western Canada, is cramped between surrounding development so that its presence is almost unnoticeable. And thirdly, the reclamation of the riverbanks as parks has long been a hope of the people of this city. The intention of the Canadian National Railway to redevelop their east yard opens the prospect of extensive riverbank park on the Red River and at the historic junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The proposal being made here, in the Downtown plan, would link the junction of the rivers with the grounds of the Legislative Building, and would extend a landscaped open space from the river to Fort Garry Gate, opening up that historic monument to full public view and including the site of the first Metropolitan Government.
The Metropolitan Corporation has declared its intention of creating a park on its riverbank property now occupied by the Metro Transit garage at Main Street and Assiniboine Avenue. It is the Corporation's intention to name the park "Bonny castle Park" in honor of Mr. Richard Bonny castle, the Metropolitan Corporation's first chairman. The Corporation also owns the property at 100 Main Street, lying between Assiniboine Avenue and Fort Garry Park.The Corporation's offices are located in this building
It can be expected that in the foreseeable future, the Corporation is going to have to build a new building to house its activities because its operations are even now spread in a makeshift arrangement through a number of buildings which provide inadequate space and working conditions.
The plan visualizes that when the new Metro headquarters is built, it will be located elsewhere, and the premises of 100 Main Street will be demolished, and the site redeveloped as a park. This park will form a link with Bonnycastle Park and Fort Garry Park, and will open up the site of the old Fort Garry Gate in a manner appropriate to its place in Winnipeg's history.
The realization of this concept would surround the southern part of the Downtown on three sides with an unbroken park of green open spaces and quiet landscaped riverbank. The parkland would run from Memorial Park to the Legislative grounds, then along the river to Main Street, and then turn back to Broadway, between Main Street and Fort Street. When the C.N.R.'s plans are carried out, the riverbank section of the park, hopefully, will extend to the junction of the rivers and then along the Red for the full length of the C.N. holding.
Such a park would make an enormous contribution to the general attractiveness and character of the Downtown. But more than that, by opening up and restoring historic sites to their appropriate place in the civic scene, and by linking them with each other and with the seats of government, it would be a civic element of some considerable social and historical significance.
A discussion of the uses and the floor space which would be generated by the implementation of the plan, together with an analysis of its financial implications, is contained in the Implementation section of this report.
The period over which the plan should be carried out is twenty years. Within the overall twenty-year period of the plan two major phases may be identified, each consisting of a ten-year period. During the first ten-year phase the proposals for the two key areas (and the first part of the riverbank park, and extension of Central Park) should be realized; and during the last ten years the balance* of the plan should be realized.
The implementation of the proposals for the two key areas will require direct public initiatives in specific development programs. The rest of the Downtown will not require "planned" programs in the public sector. Whatever action may be necessary in these areas will be consequent upon development in the private sector, and will be undertaken as circumstances dictate.
But the two groups of activities the public and the private must dovetail together and complement each other. The principal role of the public sector will be to create the sites for parking, to develop the open spaces, weather-protected pedestrian corridors, recreation facilities, and other amenities which will improve the Downtown environment and render it attractive to private investment; and the principal role of the private entrepreneur will be to build the high-density apartments, and develop the commercial uses proposed in the plan.
It should be recognized that the proposal for a fairly extensive development of high-density apartment blocks in the Downtown does not pose any threat to apartment development in the suburbs because, in general, the two areas appeal to different markets. Suburban development attracts families with children; Downtown development attracts single people, or couples without children.
It can be expected that families with children between the ages of 3 and 17 seek a home in the suburbs, and in large measure will prefer a single family dwelling. Those who cannot afford such accommodation will find alternative accommodation in multiple family dwellings of one type or another. It can be expected that there will be a growing proportion of suburban multiple family dwellings provided in the form of garden apartments and town houses.
Everyone else the young single people, the married couples without children, and older people who are widowed, or couples whose children have grown up and left home are part of the potential market for Downtown apartments.
In 1968 about 4,700 dwellings were constructed in the Metropolitan area. if the average supply continues at about the 4,000 unit level for the next eight to ten years, and if about 25% - 30% of that number can be diverted from the suburbs to the central area in the form of high-rise apartments, then the housing component of the plan can be realized in about a decade. This is not an unrealistic expectation. About 3,000 apartments were built in 1968, and it can be expected that the proportion of apartments in the total housing starts will remain as high as that for the foreseeable future and could rise even beyond that level. To suggest that between 800 and 1,000 apartment units per year might be built Downtown, does not seem to be over-optimistic in view of the potential apartment market in the Metropolitan area, and particularly if the Downtown environment is made more attractive in accordance with the proposals of the plan.
The potential contained in the Downtown housing market is of great significance. It means, in effect, that the vast transformation visualized by the plan can be realized within the present means of the community, and does not depend upon some unforeseen new explosion of population or the establishment of large-scale new industries. The plan can be realized not necessarily through sudden new sources of revenues or masses of population, but through the relocation of our present resources in these fields. The shift of about 1/4 to 1/3 of the normal expected new population growth from the suburbs to the Downtown, and the re-allocation of relatively modest public expenditures in the same direction can bring the plan to fruition within the proposed plan period.
The matter of the weather-protected pedestrian system also merits some further discussion. There is amongst the people of Winnipeg widespread support of the proposition that there should be some form of protection from the weather particularly the winter weather, which would enable people to move about the city, and particularly the Downtown, in comfort. The plan described in the previous section provides for such a weather-protected system, initially in the Broadway-St. Mary sector of the the Downtown, extending within the period of the plan to Portage Avenue, and across Portage Avenue to the northern sector of the Downtown, and ultimately, it is hoped, to the major nodes of activity in the entire central area of the city.
One of the key elements of the weather-protected pedestrian system as it is proposed in the plan is that it is elevated about 16 feet above grade, and another is that it is lined with retail stores and other types of commercial and recreational activity.
At the present time, the ground floor level is considered to be the most important, if not actually the only level on which retail stores can be located. The is so of course because the ground level is the level on which all pedestrian movement now takes place, (apart from local movements within structures), as well as all vehicular movement. The ground floor is in fact the level of movement and transportation. This raises some very serious problems for the weather-protected system as it is here conceived. How do you shift pedestrian movement from its traditional and firmly-entrenched location on the ground level, and how do you shift retail and other commercial uses up from ground level to second storey level? the reasons for locating the system above ground have been discussed elsewhere in this report it is necessary in order to avoid interruption by the street system which would occur at ground level; and there are very serious objections to locating the entire system underground. It seems fairly clear that if Winnipeg is to have a continuous weather-protected pedestrian system, it must be located mainly above-grade. but there is little to be said for a circulation system through which people do not circulate; unless people will move up to the upper level, and use the system, there is no point in the proposal.
There seems little doubt that if the system is well designed, and provides the type of access which the public wants, it will be heavily used; the rigors of the winter weather alone will virtually ensure its use. But a limited seasonal use is not what is intended for the system, and is certainly not sufficient to persuade retail and other uses to locate above ground level.
In order to persuade commercial users to locate at the pedestrian corridor, it is necessary to ensure heavy year-round pedestrian use of the system; and in order to persuade the pedestrian to use the system all year round, it is necessary to make it attractive all year round.
It is here that the public recreation facilities and amenities have a major role to play. If attractions such as the aquarium, the conservatory, the swimming pool, and the landscaped plazas, can be established early enough, they will provide the magnet which will draw the pedestrian up to the proposed new pedestrian level. Once at this level, pedestrians will prefer to remain there, provided they can move to their destinations conveniently. The public recreation facilities can be used to establish the habit of the new level. As the development progresses, access will be extended farther and farther throughout the Downtown, and the convenience of the system will become established. Under these circumstance it can be expected that retail and other commercial enterprises will follow the mass of pedestrians up to the new level, and the system will function in the way it is expected. This objective cannot of course be realized immediately. It will be achieved gradually, with the evolution of the plan and the development of the Downtown. However, it is expected that with the early development of the public amenities, the second storey habit can be established, and the total concept of the weather-protected pedestrian system can be realized within the plan period.
For the key areas, the plan requires action by the public authorities to both acquire and develop land. North of Portage Avenue, in the Ellice-Cumberland sector, the plan proposes the following major public initiatives:
The provision of a site for the University of Winnipeg is of course the concern of the University and the Provincial Government. Nevertheless it must also be considered as an issue relevant to the development of Downtown Winnipeg, and as falling property within the sphere of interest of a plan for Downtown. The plan visualizes the acquisition of the property by the appropriate authorities, but the proposal is included here because the development of this site as a campus of the University of Winnipeg would provide a powerful stimulus to other development in the whole of the sector north of Portage Avenue and must therefore be considered as one of the key public initiatives in the plan.
The acquisition and development of property for the extension of Central Park raises questions of municipal jurisdiction. At the present time Central Park is under the jurisdiction of the City of Winnipeg. The proposal for its extension contemplates the creation of a new major public open space of an order and size and importance which is metropolitan in scale. It would therefore seem appropriate for the Metropolitan Government not only to undertake the acquisition and development of the additional area, but also to be given the responsibility for the whole park. On the other hand, the whole problem of jurisdiction in the Metropolitan situation is so complex, that the implementation of any of the proposals of the plan probably cannot be achieved by a simple, straightforward exercise of existing authority, but may require special arrangements. The question of the appropriate form of organization is discussed later in this section.
South of Portage Avenue, the fourteen block area referred to as the Broadway-St. Mary sector will require a greater public involvement for its development than the area north of Portage Avenue.
The major public undertaking in this sector is the acquisition of the six blocks indicated for parking, and their development in accordance with the requirements of the plan. This will involve the construction of parking structures, the development of recreation facilities such as the aquarium, and the lease of the commercial space and the development of the pedestrian concourses.
In addition the plan proposes the extension of the weather-protected pedestrian system from block to block; the development of the open spaces and winter gardens; and the development of a convention-exhibition centre, all within the public sector.
A detailed order of priorities cannot be established at this stage, much will depend on specific circumstances as they develop. However it is obvious that the first public action is the acquisition of land for parking. This land need not all be acquired at once, but can be acquired as demand or market condition dictate. Nor must the parking structures all be developed immediately. Parking can be provided gradually, beginning with surface parking and ultimately taking the form of structures, as the need evolves. The pedestrian corridors too, and the commercial space, will be constructed as market conditions dictate and as space in the parking structures become available. The pace-maker for all these projects will of course be the rate of development of the apartment blocks. Decisions on the location and the type of public project can be determined in detail as the plan unfolds.
The "public" referred to in the preceding paragraphs, and throughout the text of this document, is intended to mean that public or quasi-public authority created or designated, presumably by an Act of the Provincial Legislature, for the purpose of carrying out the "public action" proposed in the plan. It is expected that the Provincial Government would base this legislation upon the requirements of the plan and upon discussions with Metro and other interest groups.
* The full development of the riverbank park and Central Park may require more than twenty years, because acquisition of all the necessary property will probably have to wait until the existing structures have outlived their usefulness. In some case this may take longer than two decades.