Okay, so lately Winnipeg has definitely seen its fortunes look up. The question is whether or not this will be sustained.
The optimist in me says that the rough times are over. The pessimist says this is a blip. The stats are heartening but not convincing. What do you think? Have we turned the corner? In twenty years what do you envision for Winnipeg? Probably the best way to gauge this sort of thing is to get the sentiments of those that don't live here but at the same time acknowledging that we that do live here know better in terms of what's going on.

So what's the scoop? Those outside of Winnipeg are more than welcome to let us know (maybe we can dispell a few myths while we're at it. lol) and hopefully will participate in this thread. Those in the Manitoba capital are invited to share their opinions as well. No city bashing allowed but that doesn't mean you can't tell us what you think even if it's not necessarily positive. I'd like to correct some of the stereotypes I've heard around here anyway but don't worry, I won't jump on ya for saying them (that goes for the rest of the Winnipeg forumers too I hope)

I truly think, and I'm not just saying it because I love the Peg, that Winnipeg and Manitoba is on the come-back trail.
Hydro-electricity will be in high demand with Ontario running out of power and at the same time wanting to close it's coal generated plants. The ONt govt has already had talks with Manitoba about sharing the cost of a large Hydro project that would employ many Manitoban's.
Commoditiy prces are heading up due to growth in China/India. NewFlyer will continue to get even more orders due to large fleet renewal programs throughtout N.A.
Winnipeg has a well skilled workforce and a highly diversified economy....the most diversified in the whole country.
Manitoba has the third lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of all the provinces.
The Conference Bopard of Canada agrees as I went to their website and it said that Winnipeg will continue to grow between 5,000 to 9,000 per year for the next 30 years. They stated they expect greater Winnipeg to hit 800,000 by approx 2020. This helped by a very beneficial immigrant/refugee placement program with Immigration Canada.
Winnipeg continues to solidify itself with medical developments like the Centre for Disease Control which just stated it is going to be expanded even larger than first thought.
All this backed up with affordable housing, low insurance rates, the lowest Hydro rates in N.A {which will become even more important as gas prices rise}, a very cultured city with a lively arts scene, no smog, and high quality of life.

Even my brother has stated how he has heard about business seems to be bullish over Manitoba in the long-term.
Nope, this is no blip. Higher immigration and for the first time in two decades more people coming to Manitoba than leaving which means lots of housing starts. Also, very importantly, the Manitoba economy is more resilient from higher interest rates. Home prices, although rising, are still low so it won't effect the average Pegger when renewing their mortages or building new housing. This is unlike Vancouver where if interest rates rise people will have to renegotiate their 400,000 mortgage........a horrible thought.
Manitoba also is an exporter of CLEAN energy which means a huge amount,especially over the long-term.
If you don't beleive me than take the word of the Conference Board of Canada, Winnipeg and all of Manitoba are on the come-back-trail and it won't stop now. Its for the long-term.
The Peg is back!

This is something constantly on my mind. Yes, we have numerous projects in the works, but I think of how the city saw many projects built in the 60s, 70s and 80s...then from 1990 until maybe a few years ago, things were stagnant. Still, despite all of the buildings, etc constructed throughout those decades, the population still grew at a snail's pace. Now, we are finally seeing a rise in numbers, so hopefully positive things will continue. Plus, with the prices of homes finally starting to rise, hopefully we will see more densification (especially in the West End, as Osborne Village gets pricier), and West Broadway is coming along nicely. The Provincial government needs to abolish the payroll tax (why would companies want to grow when they have to be penalized for it???), and cut income taxes, etc. The city is doing a pretty good job (although I would like to see some form of rapid transit). I was told that Waterfront condos were to break ground in April--well it's almost over, so WTF? Areas like Point Douglas, etc, cannot be revitalized until developers stept up to the plate, or the number of people moving here increases dramatically while the number of those leaving drops significantly, creating the demand...

The greatest impediment to a resurgence in this city is the lack of political vision. For all the things that people hated about Glen Murray (our former mayor) I would have re-elected the guy in a heartbeat. Why? Because here was a guy who actually thought BIG. Certainly he had some pretty unpopular ideas but I never really found them to be all that unreasonable. He gave this city a sense of civic pride that we were sorely lacking for years. In fact, the last time we had a mayor with his kind of vision was with Steven Juba and that was decades ago. Katz may or may not be good for the city in the long run..I'm not sure. Based on his performance to date I'm not particularly heartened by his progress. What we need is a pro-business administration. Katz claims to be just such a guy but his deeds say otherwise. Free fare for seniors on buses? WTF ? If we could afford it then sure but we can't. That's just plain old vote buying IMO. But he claims he's going to do something about all the red tape at city hall. If he actually puts his money where his mouth is then I'll happily re-elect him when the time comes.

In any case, it certainly is good to see that people are actually moving to Manitoba. Houses are more valuable and alot of companies are consolidating INTO Winnipeg for a change. The diversification programs of the last governements appear to be paying off. I do actually believe that Winnipeg is seeing a renaissance but again, I'm just not convinced until I see some shovels in the ground.

They will come.
I can understand your trepidation but things look good for the Peg over the longterm. Manitoba has finally turned the corner and it is headed for a renasance.
Nope, this time its for real and like I said don't take my word for it take the Conference Board's.

I found yet another site that is encouraging to Winnipeg's prospects.
The gov't of Canada urban transportation showcase expects the city alone to grow from its present 640,000 to 710,000 by 2021. Thats a sizable amount of 70,000 just for the city......not Metro.
Another encouraging sign is that, unlike Quebec, BC, and all the Atlantic provinces, Manitoba's median age is slightly BELOW the national average and below Ontario's.
That bods well for future educational, commercial, and housing construction.
Like I said before this ain't no blip.
Note these are NOT city of Winnipeg or Gov Manitoba sites that might tend to look overly optimistic.

They can just as easily come back in a few months and say "things have changed now...we are forecasting that Winnipeg will nose dive anew..." That could happen.

The city is on the right track, Loose...it is the anti-business fucken socialist Doer gov't that is the roadblock...

I came across these population projections for Winnipeg.

You guys in the 'Peg will like both of these PDF files. Take a look. :D

http://www.winnipeg.ca/cao/pdfs/population.pdf
http://www.winnipeg.ca/cao/pdfs/population_projection_data.pdf

When I was in Winnipeg last year in late May, I was talking with a guy who is an air traffic controller in training and had been living in Winnipeg pretty much his whole life. He told me that while it wasn't exactly booming, it certainly wasn't suffering at all economically.

I liked what they've done to the Forks, although the docks were a bit flooded because the Red River was a bit high at the time. The Exchange District was neat too as well. But I did not like what those retarded planners did to Portage and Main.

Overall, I got a pretty good impression of Winnipeg in spite of the really crappy weather* and that I had a bad cold/flu at the time. I've noticed that it's an even more laid back city than Edmonton.

*Spring '04 wasn't very nice anyways - I was told by owner of the hostel I was staying at that there were only 3 nice days in the past month prior to my arrival. If anything, even Edmonton's spring weather wasn't terribly great in 2004.

They can just as easily come back in a few months and say "things have changed now...we are forecasting that Winnipeg will nose dive anew..." That could happen.

The city is on the right track, Loose...it is the anti-business fucken socialist Doer gov't that is the roadblock...
That's pretty much what I say too. Forced unionizations aren't too good for businesses IMHO. Especially when said unions won't even represent the people that pay them dues in this case. That just plain screams that the NDP is in bed with the unions. God I hate the NDP.

I came across these population projections for Winnipeg.

You guys in the 'Peg will like both of these PDF files. Take a look. :D

http://www.winnipeg.ca/cao/pdfs/population.pdf
http://www.winnipeg.ca/cao/pdfs/population_projection_data.pdf

When I was in Winnipeg last year in late May, I was talking with a guy who is an air traffic controller in training and had been living in Winnipeg pretty much his whole life. He told me that while it wasn't exactly booming, it certainly wasn't suffering at all economically.

I liked what they've done to the Forks, although the docks were a bit flooded because the Red River was a bit high at the time. The Exchange District was neat too as well. But I did not like what those retarded planners did to Portage and Main.

Overall, I got a pretty good impression of Winnipeg in spite of the really crappy weather* and that I had a bad cold/flu at the time. I've noticed that it's an even more laid back city than Edmonton.

*Spring '04 wasn't very nice anyways - I was told by owner of the hostel I was staying at that there were only 3 nice days in the past month prior to my arrival. If anything, even Edmonton's spring weather wasn't terribly great in 2004.

Last year was the second crappiest summer in my memory. For what it's worth though, I thought the whole country had that joke played on them.

Outsider here.
I think of Winnipeg as a big city but not spread out. Even on a map it looks like there isnt much developement outside the perimeter.
I think some of the buildings are dated and not that modern. Very brown looking in color.
I like that there are two rivers that run through the city.
I dont like that there are no freeways or rapid transit.
I like what I read about the city from you guys and see the pictures of the streets and architecture.

Myths: You guys need to confirm or disprove these.
Cold a lot of the year.
No trees outside the city just miles of grassland and then theres the oasis of Winnipeg with houses buildings and trees.
(I have been told just to the east of Winnipeg the land becomes heavily forested heading toward Ontario)
You guys sound like people from Minnesota and North Dakota.
That its soooo cold in winter theres nothing to do and people stay in.

Once again these are things I hear about Winnipeg not my own opinion but granted these myths do put images into my mind.

So come on guys educate me about your city.... I'm full of questions and just maybe I will check out Winnipeg on my next vacation (camping in Saskatchewan is already on my agenda this year)

Average temps: Summer 78 'F/winter 8.8 'F

As for the rest of your comments/questions...yep!

One of my pet peeves is how grey/concrete-looking the city is looking at aerial pics...too many parking lots, and too many concrete buildings.

Beautiful archetecture and the city, unlike Vancouver has preserved them.

That is a very good question. I'm not sure if Winnipeg is at the tipping point. With the current level of development it doesn't seem like it. However, more of the downtown renewal projects are being initiated solely by private companies like the Nygard plan. I just hope Winnipeg will keep growing and downtown will continue to revive despite what certain idiots at city hall are doing.

Outsider here.
I think of Winnipeg as a big city but not spread out. Even on a map it looks like there isnt much developement outside the perimeter.
I think some of the buildings are dated and not that modern. Very brown looking in color.
I like that there are two rivers that run through the city.
I dont like that there are no freeways or rapid transit.
I like what I read about the city from you guys and see the pictures of the streets and architecture.

Myths: You guys need to confirm or disprove these.
Cold a lot of the year.
No trees outside the city just miles of grassland and then theres the oasis of Winnipeg with houses buildings and trees.
(I have been told just to the east of Winnipeg the land becomes heavily forested heading toward Ontario)
You guys sound like people from Minnesota and North Dakota.
That its soooo cold in winter theres nothing to do and people stay in.

Once again these are things I hear about Winnipeg not my own opinion but granted these myths do put images into my mind.

So come on guys educate me about your city.... I'm full of questions and just maybe I will check out Winnipeg on my next vacation (camping in Saskatchewan is already on my agenda this year)

Ummm...well I'd like to tell you about how much you'd like the winters here but no....I seriously doubt you would. Think of it this way...Celsius and Fahrenheit meet at the 40 below point. In other words, when it's 40 below, its the same reading whether you use the Celsius or Fahrenheit scale. With that in mind, you can count on it to get pretty close to that mark if not past it in the winter around here. Now that's at night of course, usually in January and February. -30 degrees Celsius is more or less the average night time low during those months though. So if you aren't accustomed to that kind of cold, you'll consider it hell on Earth. I always feel sorry for people that immigrate to Canada from tropical countries...it must be insane for them especially if they end up here in the winter.

As far as the landscape goes...Winnipeg is in a floodplain. No hills to speak of and the only trees are used as windbreaks for rural properties. If you travel by highway you can usually see the downtown skyscrapers for a good half hour before you reach the city limits...that's how flat the Winnipeg region is. But don't let that deter you. It's no accident that Winnipeg is situated where it is. Outside of the Red River valley there are smallish rolling hills and plenty of greenery to see. In fact, drive for an hour any way but South and the landscape changes dramatically. South follows the Red River so that's why you won't see much that way. In 1997 the Red River flooded something fierce. The area that the river covered once it spilled it's banks would be comparable to The Great Salt Lake. It was massive. No depth of course but still plenty of water covering a lot of area. That was the same flood that left Grand Forks in ruins. We have a giant ditch going around the city and it barely saved us that time. It's supposedly being expanded....but nobody has bothered to actually do that yet. Still being 'studied' to death.

Winnipeg itself is definitely an oasis on the prairie though. It's tough to say what American city it would be comparable to. There are no freeways to speak of within the city but there are expressways and rapid transit corridors such as Bishop Grandin in the South end and Lagimodiere in the East. As you can see from any map, the city radiates outward and is about as good an example of the hub and spoke model of a city as you're going to find in North America. Part of the reason for no freeways actually...traffic just isn't that bad. The whole city is spread out evenly in terms of zones and density. That means that there is no destination for a freeway to serve for the most part. I can certainly think of some routes that should be freeways but for the most part we're doing alright here.

As far as the physical picture of the city goes...no, it really isn't a brown or grey place. There are many, many areas where the streets are literally entirely covered by the trees from above. The 'canopy' effect if you will. River Heights in particular is well known for it's old and graceful tree-lined streets. Very popular area. I've read in a few articles that Winnipeg is somewhat renowned for it's urban forest.
The core is another matter altogether. Twenty years ago planners and politicians actually started to do something about the direction it was headed. Thanks to the initiatives of these previous governments much progress has been made. In particular the Forks area. This was once an abandoned marshalling yard for the railways. Pure industrial rot. Then somebody decided to turn it into a park. It is arguably the most popular destination in Winnipeg now and is an anchor for many of the developments that are now being proposed. To the north of that area is the Exchange district. Thanks to Winnipeg's decline in the last few decades of the 20th century, this area was, while not abandoned, more or less left to decay. As a result, it is chock full of early 20th century buildings. It's like walking back in time to enter the Exchange district... a movie scene from the movies. It gets used as a period setting for early 20th century Chicago fairly often in Hollywood films. This area in particular is the new locus for downtown rejuvenation and it is really beginning to take off. The ultimate character neighbourhood.

Anyway, there is still plenty of work to be done overall but a visit to Winnipeg would probably be a pleasant surprise if properly guided.

Yes, a very pleasant surprise. Everyone I know who has gone therewere very impressed. Very cultured, historic, and beautiful city.

WOW LooseInThePeg very informative! Ive never been to any of the prairie states here in the us but here in florida we have the everglades and there arent many trees but theres nothing for miles and miles so I can imagine what it must be like South of you guys.
I can understand if the traffic volume is not terrible theres no reason to disrupt neighborhoods with building a freeway.

As for the cold..... damn thats frigid Ive been to Toronto in the winter and thats mild compared to there I suppose.

What is there to do when its this cold aside from the usual winter sports?
I am originally from Kentucky and lived in Ohio and when it gets to around 0 degrees out we go to pubs get drunk and then bust our asses on icy sidewalks.

In referece to that question and going back to the subject of Winnipeg on a comeback does the city have entertainment areas like cool neighborhoods with pubs cafes and stuff like that? Are they in the inner city or in the residential areas and is the city over run with fast food chains or original been there for 50 years type places?

Interesting note:
Winnipeg has the largest collection of American elms in North America.
It in fact is an urban forest
http://img243.echo.cx/img243/3636/1riverheights28mn.jpg
http://img243.echo.cx/img243/1016/1riverheights0bf.jpg
http://img243.echo.cx/img243/5905/1wolsely3fx.jpg

Winnipeg is definately on the comeback trail......it is Edmonton about 5-7 years ago.....

What is there to do when its this cold aside from the usual winter sports?
I am originally from Kentucky and lived in Ohio and when it gets to around 0 degrees out we go to pubs get drunk and then bust our asses on icy sidewalks.

In referece to that question and going back to the subject of Winnipeg on a comeback does the city have entertainment areas like cool neighborhoods with pubs cafes and stuff like that? Are they in the inner city or in the residential areas and is the city over run with fast food chains or original been there for 50 years type places?
Well, as to what there is to do...it's probably the same as anywhere else really. There's nothing generally special to do here compared to anywhere else. There is the Festival du Voyageur in mid-February (which really isn't much more than an excuse to drink for me lol) but otherwise I'm sure it's the same as anywhere else in the North. At least, nothing special comes to mind.
As I say though, in winter around here it takes a fair bit of prodding to convince people to go outside for anything. Of course, life doesn't stop here because of the cold. Everything is open even if it's 35 below. People learn to tolerate the cold and function in it so it doesn't just kill the city or anything.

As for areas...well, let's see here. The Exchange District that I mentioned earlier has bars but they come and go. Always a few operating and they tend to be pretty popular for a while but for some reason people tire of them quickly in that area and a few months later the bar gets reopened by a new owner under a different name. Still, it's a pretty happening area for nightlife most of the time.

There is Osborne Village. That's the 'funky' neighbourhood where you buy your pot smoking supplies (lol) and get your old vinyl LPs if that's your thing. Fairly quaint in a way but there's plenty of life. It's also the gay area, has tons of little shops, and is generally the center for urban artforms in the city.

To the SouthWest of there is Corydon village. It's basically a strip of restaurants and bars with an Italian flavour. Very popular in the summer, particularly with the 20 and 30 something crowds.

My neighbourhood is St. Boniface which is the French area. Make no mistake about it, French is spoken all over this area. You don't have to know it or anything but you'll hear it just about everywhere around here. As well, many immigrants choose this area because it is French and the language of their homeland is as well. There's no real part of St. Boniface that acts as a hub or center of French culture but the entire area exudes it.

For old world culture you go to the North End. This area is not really a place you send tourists to because if you're not familiar with it you won't like it probably. In a poor slum sort of way though (lol) it is probably the perfect example of multiculturalism and diversity. This is where most new immigrants live when they arrive in Winnipeg. You'll find Vietnamese and Indian restaurants side by side with a Portuguese bakery across the street. Unfortunately, this area is also generally the city's highest crime area. If there are slums or ghettos in Canada, this would definitely be one. But at the same time as I say, it is a vibrant area. It's also a fairly large one so you can understand how you can have two seemingly contradictory statements about the area. You basically have to know the city to appreciate the North End.
In some ways it is renowned for that diversity but gets overlooked because of the crime people associate with it. Some progress there but it is slow and staggered.

There are plenty more neighbourhoods and areas to describe of course but those are the main ones for culture and nightlife anyway.