News Article: Q&A: Jets owner Mark Chipman
- Thread starter cbcwpg
- Start date
- Jun 10, 2014
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If wall to wall surface parking is your idea of a vibrant downtown perhaps you need to travel more
I don't care how they do it but with both inadequate and unacceptably expensive downtown parking - and no good transit alternative, downtown Winnipeg will continue to go downhill. TN developments are helping to slow it, even get a slight uptick, but it is a losing battle. And it is all about transportation and parking.
I'm being forced (family event) downtown today. I have no idea where I will park. I'm allowing an extra 15 minutes to find a place. I know I will not like the cost. This will be the 3rd time in the last year I have gone downtown. Unusually high for me. Usually I just pass through.
It's only $26 a day for downtown heated parking. It's about $15 for the first 3 hours, so you might as well have 5 beers at the Jets game and take a cab home. Collect the car later.
Did you see the look on that tool Ludlow when the city clawed back huge money for affordable housing? Haha! If TN took the city to court TN would win but they gave up without a fight because of the optics.
No it's not all about transportation and parking. It's about having a critical mass of people actually living downtown. And not having to walk across dangerous, wind-swept lots is a big piece of that puzzle.
DowntownBooster
Registered User
The city only did so because the civic election is coming up soon. They're only trying to protect their jobs. It's a shame that anyone is rejoicing when True North has done so much for our city. Perhaps they should have left the spot as surface parking and not bothered to bring the NHL back. Maybe those complaining about the tax breaks would have been happier with our downtown the way it was and only being an AHL city.
Parking downtown is pretty easy actually. There are a lot of options including almost unlimited free street parking on a Saturday night.
AHL or NHL, downtown would be the same. The surface lot owners who charge 15 dollars for a Jet game thank TNSE every day.
Daytime even on Saturday sucks for parking. He could only park for 2 hours and then get a ticket or pay high rates in an outdoor lot. And then there are the break-ins, in winter.
I'm downtown a couple times a week for meetings and I never have a problem parking. I'm also a season ticket holder and drive to more games than not and find free street parking within a 5 minute walk without fail. It is easier and cheaper to park downtown than it is around the Health Science Centre.
DowntownBooster
Registered User
I hardly think so. I'm pretty sure all the bars and restaurants downtown prefer an NHL crowd in which a number of the fans will stop in before or after a game rather than the smaller AHL crowds who will head back to the suburbs right after the game.
Interesting read and gives a more cohesive picture about the Winnipeg market.
Also reminds how easy it is to criticize from the sidelines with nothing on the line.
Also reminds how easy it is to criticize from the sidelines with nothing on the line.
nobody imp0rtant
Registered pessimist
- May 23, 2018
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OMG, I live in the suburbs. Our shopping malls have parking lots 10 times the size of those downtown.
I did not realize I was taking my life in my hands every time I ventured across those great expanses of exposed wilderness. I could get lost, or fall down and not be able to get up, and it might be days before a search party found me. I had better move downtown where they're taking steps to remove these threats to life and limb. I'm not sure what point you are making. Downtown surface lots are fine, or...OMG, I live in the suburbs. Our shopping malls have parking lots 10 times the size of those downtown.
nobody imp0rtant
Registered pessimist
- May 23, 2018
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OK, let me make my point without the sarcasm. I don't consider surface parking lots dangerous (even if they are wind swept), and even if they were, I'm not sure why I would "have to walk across" one, so I just don't accept your position that surface lots are this great deterrent to people living downtown.
How do account for the fact that the police union wants its members escorted by security to their cars in parking lots downtown but has no similar concern for suburban detachments?
You may not agree with it, but virtually every city is trying to reduce its number of downtown surface lots. It's urban development 101. Anyways this is turning into an urbanism discussion which is probably best continued in other fora such as skyscraperpage..
- Jun 10, 2014
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I can remember when downtown was vibrant and busy - in several different cities I grew up in. The life of downtown moved to suburban malls. Easy to get to and plenty of free parking. That was the whole story. I watched it happen.
- Jun 10, 2014
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I found a decent place at a reasonable cost. It took a while though. Maybe easy enough if you are used to it and know the rules of the game. Not that easy driving around in the rain, trying to read signs and navigate the one way streets with restricted turns, etc. A very unpleasant experience that I will continue to avoid as much as possible. So I will continue to not know the game. Like most people I know.
Everytime I pay $15 for parking before a game I smile and go "Holy cow. I'm going to go and watch a NHL game in downtown Winnipeg." How fortunate we are to have NHL hockey back. As a 46 year old I lived thru the drama of Jets 1.0, the highs and the lows.
- Mar 10, 2010
- 34,895
- 31,337
Yup I am with you........I smile and think it’s minus 30 and I don’t have to wear a coat tonight to watch an NHL game live in Winnipeg.
puck stoppa
Registered User
Im really not impressed with the surface of the roof of the building. When I land my helicopter on there it's not level, the wind gusts up there and I can never land it with ease. So now that I don't fly in I don't go any longer.
nobody imp0rtant
Registered pessimist
- May 23, 2018
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I'm not saying I disagree with your point that downtown is still fairly dangerous, just that I don't think surface lots are worse than any other place. The vermin that infest the core can be anywhere. On the streets, in the skywalk system, in parkades. And these lots are heavily used. Where are people to park if you get rid of most of them? You want people to come downtown, give them parking near their destinations. Otherwise, I figure I'm putting myself at even greater risk of encountering the criminal element if I have to walk several blocks.
It's all academic to me, of course. Other than hockey games, where I have no choice, I avoid downtown like the plague. Everything I need I can get in the burbs with unlimited free parking.
Most if not all new buildings constructed on former surface lots have a comparable number of parking spots built within them to compensate for the perceived loss of spots. The statement above mine "other than hockey games, where i have no choice, I avoid downtown like the plague. Everything I need I can get in the burbs with unlimited free parking" is why it is of utmost importance to have thousands of new residents in downtown.
People that come downtown from far-flung suburbs like Whyte Ridge, Island Lakes and Bridgewater Forest and spend the entire duration of their stay inside an enclosed facility, get back in their cars and drive home are not contributing nearly as much to downtown revitilization as the thousands of individuals who have moved there in the past few decades. These people live, work, shop and play in downtown Winnipeg 24/7 for the most part.
The positive momentum in downtown population growth began long before the Jets ever came back to Winnipeg...started in the early 2000s actually. Thousands of new apartment and condo units in converted historic Exchange buildings, new mid-rises like those along the Assiniboine River, Waterfront Drive, new tallest building at 300 Main currently under construction; expansion of University of Winnipeg including new residences; expansion of Red River College into downtown and soon to come - the exciting new project at the Forks which will see the elimination of a huge ugly service lot to be replaced by a truly one-of-a-kind project featuring dozens of new buildings and hundreds of new units for...yep, you guessed it - people who live and shop downtown.
To accommodate this increased demand for downtown living, surface lots will be sacrificed making way for new and exiting developments. Don't worry though. As I stated earlier these lost parking spots will likely be compensated for in the new buildings. In the meantime, we should all rejoice in the positive growth of downtown Winnipeg. A more heavily populated downtown will be infinitely livelier, safer and welcoming.
People that come downtown from far-flung suburbs like Whyte Ridge, Island Lakes and Bridgewater Forest and spend the entire duration of their stay inside an enclosed facility, get back in their cars and drive home are not contributing nearly as much to downtown revitilization as the thousands of individuals who have moved there in the past few decades. These people live, work, shop and play in downtown Winnipeg 24/7 for the most part.
The positive momentum in downtown population growth began long before the Jets ever came back to Winnipeg...started in the early 2000s actually. Thousands of new apartment and condo units in converted historic Exchange buildings, new mid-rises like those along the Assiniboine River, Waterfront Drive, new tallest building at 300 Main currently under construction; expansion of University of Winnipeg including new residences; expansion of Red River College into downtown and soon to come - the exciting new project at the Forks which will see the elimination of a huge ugly service lot to be replaced by a truly one-of-a-kind project featuring dozens of new buildings and hundreds of new units for...yep, you guessed it - people who live and shop downtown.
To accommodate this increased demand for downtown living, surface lots will be sacrificed making way for new and exiting developments. Don't worry though. As I stated earlier these lost parking spots will likely be compensated for in the new buildings. In the meantime, we should all rejoice in the positive growth of downtown Winnipeg. A more heavily populated downtown will be infinitely livelier, safer and welcoming.
- Jun 10, 2014
- 57,393
- 29,209
Most if not all new buildings constructed on former surface lots have a comparable number of parking spots built within them to compensate for the perceived loss of spots. The statement above mine "other than hockey games, where i have no choice, I avoid downtown like the plague. Everything I need I can get in the burbs with unlimited free parking" is why it is of utmost importance to have thousands of new residents in downtown.
People that come downtown from far-flung suburbs like Whyte Ridge, Island Lakes and Bridgewater Forest and spend the entire duration of their stay inside an enclosed facility, get back in their cars and drive home are not contributing nearly as much to downtown revitilization as the thousands of individuals who have moved there in the past few decades. These people live, work, shop and play in downtown Winnipeg 24/7 for the most part.
The positive momentum in downtown population growth began long before the Jets ever came back to Winnipeg...started in the early 2000s actually. Thousands of new apartment and condo units in converted historic Exchange buildings, new mid-rises like those along the Assiniboine River, Waterfront Drive, new tallest building at 300 Main currently under construction; expansion of University of Winnipeg including new residences; expansion of Red River College into downtown and soon to come - the exciting new project at the Forks which will see the elimination of a huge ugly service lot to be replaced by a truly one-of-a-kind project featuring dozens of new buildings and hundreds of new units for...yep, you guessed it - people who live and shop downtown.
To accommodate this increased demand for downtown living, surface lots will be sacrificed making way for new and exiting developments. Don't worry though. As I stated earlier these lost parking spots will likely be compensated for in the new buildings. In the meantime, we should all rejoice in the positive growth of downtown Winnipeg. A more heavily populated downtown will be infinitely livelier, safer and welcoming.
Never disagreed with the idea of attracting more residents downtown. Only with the rant against parking. I don't care whether it is surface lots or multi-level parking garages, convenient, reasonably priced parking is a necessity. Downtown areas used to not need their own populations, but things change. Now they do. It is a good candidate to solve many of the problems.
there was never a rant against parking..only a rant against surface lots.
Downtown areas used to not need their own populations, but things change. Now they do. It is a good candidate to solve many of the problems.
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