Building Winnipeg to meet the lowest common denominator

Winnipeg has been slow to evolve. Slow and steady is the mantra of citizens and politicians alike. It seems that should someone come up with an innovative, never before done in Winnipeg idea, many Winnipeggers nix it even before the ink is dry on the proposal.

I wonder what it is with us Winnipeggers that drives us to shun progress with such vigour rarely displayed elsewhere.

Several good examples of late include the Human Rights Museum, the South Point Douglas/Stadium proposal, the Polo Park Stadium proposal, the Canad Inns Water Park proposal, the Assiniboine Avenue condo project...

The whining about not having these things is incredible. And yet the volume against those innovative proposals is deafening. For so many reasons. Especially the use of taxpayer money. What astounds me is the number of people who nix these proposals because they are not fully accessible by everybody.

While I believe it would be wonderful for everyone to enjoy equal access to everything, that is not the way the world works. What we get when we build to accommodate the lowest possible denominator is what we have now with many public amenities. Swimming pools and community centres are a couple prime examples. Vanilla.

Many people want other flavours. The trouble is with public amenities we cannot (or will not) afford chocolate or strawberry flavours. And the vanilla flavours are often under-used.

The proposal to redevelop Winnipeg's South Point Douglas area is a prime example. This is a part of Winnipeg that has been allowed to deteriorate to the extreme. Here is a tract of land on the banks of the Red River that is almost completely undeveloped, with little more than one or two dozen ramshackle, run down houses and some modest commercial properties.

Along comes the Aspers with a pretty neat proposal to fully develop that area. Beautiful new water park, retail development on the banks of the River and a $150 million football stadium. Nope, we don't want that here. Save the houses. Some even say we need to save the unaffected neighboring houses: can't have that, the taxes will go up.

Unfriggenbelievable.

The negative-naysayers of this city better give their collective heads a shake. And soon. What these whiners seem to ignore is the fact we don't have a whole lot of people knocking down our doors with fistfuls of loot looking to develop this burgh.

And don't whine 20 years from now at the snail-like pace of development in Winnipeg. We've had a chance to get what others have and we cavalierly waved them away.

Oh, and don't bother rebutting this post here. I see too much of that elsewhere.

Blue Bombers 2008 Quest for the Cup

Let the fearless prognostications begin... The Blue Bombers open the 2008 CFL season on Friday, June 27 against the Toronto Argonauts. The gap between the Stanley Cup final and the beginning of the CFL season seems to grow shorter each year.

But that's a good thing. Basketball does not do it for me and baseball is boring. The CFL is a terrific sport and enjoyable to watch.

In 1990 I had to give up what were great season tickets as a result of my transfer to Toronto. Since my return to Winnipeg in 2006 I have gone to maybe 4 games. This season I have acquired half a set of season tickets. Not just any tickets, but tickets on the 50 yard line, east side on the LAST row of the lowest section. Prime ducats, prime!

The bombers missed a glorious opportunity in 2007 to win the Grey Cup after QB Kevin Glen's arm was broken and the Winnipeg's were forced to start a green-as-grass rookie quarterback in the Grey Cup. In 2008 I fully expect Coach Doug Barry will have learned from that debacle by finding and playing a second string QB. It appears that QB will be Ryan Dinwiddie. The other soft spots included our special teams, all of them (except maybe Kyries Hebert). With place-kicker Troy Westwood released and a rookie in his place I don't know if we've improved there. A still suspect part of the team.

The defense looks awesome. The secondary is a weak spot but there is a gleam of improvement there with a new ball-hawking attitude. We should see an improvement on the minuscule 10 interceptions last year.

All in all I see a solid team that will improve on 2007.

My prediction? Winnipeg 14 wins and 4 losses. Winnipeg wins the Grey Cup.

Racism, profiling or good old fashioned police work?

Last week members of the Winnipeg Police Auto Theft group watched as a Chrysler 300 driven by a black man in gangsta-wear drove through a Starbucks lot twice in quick succession. That aroused their suspicions and the license plate was called into dispatch. The word came back: the car was stolen and off they went after them.

A few blocks later they and other police officers conducted a high risk take-down. Remember Winnipeg is a hostile environment where police officers are being deliberately targeted by car thieves. Several times this year punks have driven directly at police as they attempt to apprehend the punks.

In this case they had no idea who the driver was. He was black. He was dressed like a hood. He was driving a car not normally associated with a black man dressed as a hood. And they understood the vehicle was stolen.

So the police took the driver and passenger down as they would any other perp in any other situation. Guns removed from holsters, drawn and pointed at the bad guys. Forced to the ground. Then cuffed and placed into the back seat of a cruiser.

Only then did the police check the drivers ID, insurance and registration. Only then did the police realize their mistake. Only then were the driver and his passenger released.

Oops. Mistakes happen. The police officer at the scene apologized. The police chief apologized.

Was this profiling? Did the police act differently because the driver was black? Would the police act differently were the driver white but still dressed as a punk gangsta?

Watch the TV show COPS. Not every car pulled over results in a guns drawn and pointed scenario, but a goodly portion of them are. Unfortunately this is what our society has evolved to. There is such a lack of respect that the police simply don't feel safe in what at one time was a pretty innocuous event.

Call it racial profiling if that helps one's holier than thou attitude. The simple fact is the vast majority of crime is conducted by certain people. These people dress in a certain way. Combine these elements in a car not normally seen in those hands and there is cause for suspicion.

Place yourself in the role of the police officer here. They watch a car twice roll through the Starbucks drive through in quick succession. That is a little out of the ordinary wouldn't you agree? So the police did what we expect of them: check the vehicle out. That led to the unfortunate set of circumstances.

Now put yourself back in the role of police officer again. They notice the suspicious activity and do nothing. And it turns out it was a couple hoods casing the joint and eventually robbed it. I bet the uber-righteous amongst us would come down so hard on the police.

Can't win situation in my view.