Feb came and went. Somehow February is the month that you think, “oh we are still kind of in the new year and its still winter” and then by the end of it, the sun sets so much later and spring is just around the corner. This time last year I had a lot of anxiety of the future and what to do. I decided to leave the workplace I had known since graduating university in 2016. I started a new job shortly after. That only lasted a month until I started the job I am currently in. It seems wild that that was only a year ago. A lot can change. This February, there was a lot less skating on the river but a lot more peace about myself and what I want to do. Not that I know what to do next, but just that in my job now I feel like I am able to sit with the anxiety that is still there a little bit better. I went with friends to Minneapolis to see Maggie Rogers in the middle of the month and it was amazing. It had been 6 years since I had been back to Minneapolis and it was great to be there. Something that had changed in my mind was the sheer scale of car culture and its supremacy in the city. Driving on freeways, particularly in the states is surreal experience. It is at least for myself, since I have been inudated and, rightfully radicalized, by seeing historical imagery and reading about the disastrous impacts that the construction of said freeways had for communities in American cities. Roads and cars destroyed cities, and being there driving on one of those freeways was a sobering experience.
Lovely photos as always!
I still haven't been to Minneapolis but hopefully I will someday soon -- I'm very curious about it because of how hyped it is among Winnipeggers. However, looking at maps of it, it's insane how dense its freeway network is, even compared to other American cities that are larger.
Winnipeg's transportation system is one of my biggest gripes with the city, even coming from Edmonton, which isn't the best place for transportation planning, but feels like a breeze by comparison. What I find annoying is that there's just no space in discourse for pedestrians or transit. It's all about cars, and maybe cycling if you're lucky. And yet, Winnipeg is annoying to get around via either because the city hasn't properly developed the infrastructure. There's no freeways or grid of arterials and the bike lane network is a sorry patchwork.
It boggles my mind that a city that was built so much around rail transit has no vision for LRT or streetcars, just BRT. And BRT is fine and all, but not the way Winnipeg does it, based on the Blue Line. I'm a huge proponent of public transit, probably more than any other mode of transport, and it pains me to say that I avoid Winnipeg Transit as much as possible despite not owning a car because of how terrible it is. And there's no activism around it. Nor for pedestrians. Even the covid-era "open streets" thing that so many cities did for pedestrians and cyclists was technically only for cyclists in Winnipeg, and had huge backlash from entitled drivers in Wellington Crescent.
But then you walk around or go to a show and clearly see the urgent activist streak in Winnipeg. But it doesn't translate into anything for better urban policy. No push for limiting sprawl, free transit, bikesharing, eliminating parking minimums, banning drive thrus, or any of the newfangled ideas that have been floated around and even implemented in cities like Edmonton and Minneapolis. And it's so crazy-making because Winnipeg has such incredible potential.