Munch Madness III: The Famished Four

Councillors to vote on new parking plan that includes surge pricing

The City of Winnipeg has unveiled a five-year parking strategy that includes more spaces and “surge pricing” during busy times and special events.

If the plan is adopted, the $270,000 strategy would pilot electric vehicle-charging stations downtown, develop an app for all parking needs and update accessibility signs for drivers with disabilities.

The strategy aims to manage the parking stock amid increased curb use.

“With the federal government providing funding for housing and transit, the city is densifying and we need our parking policies to better reflect that,” said Coun. Janice Lukes, who is chairwoman of the public works committee, which will vote on it Nov. 6. It requires final approval from council.

Tent settlement remains a home for street family

Desirae has a pair of lungs on her. “Don’t stare at the zoo animals!” she screams, as people walk down Henry Avenue, past the encampment, just off the Main Street strip, where she lives. The world around her is chaos.

Cruise control: city mulls move to curb street noise levels

Sunday cruise nights on Portage Avenue are a Winnipeg tradition, but cavalcades of convertibles and muscle cars rolling down the street can come with a noisy byproduct.

Next week, the city's executive policy committee will discuss some changes — including noise cameras that capture licence plate data of particularly loud vehicles — aimed at keeping the volume down.

The recommendation, which would require provincial approval, comes on the heels of complaints from area residents about the Sunday night noise levels, says Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre).

"Most residents don't mind the cruise nights themselves," she said Thursday. "It's the revving and the screeching" and the modified mufflers.

Carney’s pragmatic political monster not much to look at, but… ‘it’s moving, it’s alive!’

Say hello to Dr. Carney’s Frankenparty, constructed of disparate — and in some instances, unwanted — body parts shed from other political parties that have come together around a common purpose.

We’re talking, of course, about the new, and possibly improved, conglomeration of stalwart MPs from the Trudeau years, new faces elected in last year’s general election and Monday night’s byelections and five MPs (four Tories and a New Democrat) who left the parties that brung them to Ottawa to jump on Carney’s seemingly unstoppable bandwagon.

In the annals of Canadian political history, what’s happening right now is fascinating, no matter which side of the partisan divide you occupy.

For hardcore Tories, and for some parliamentary purists, the floor-crossings that gave the Liberals a majority are a threat to democratic institutions. These naysayers, some of whom are drunk on wine made from sour grapes, lament the monster Liberal government’s lack of common philosophy or vision.

History, quirky features of city's first five parkades subject of upcoming walking tours

Known to generations of Winnipeg drivers as convenient, if slightly pricey, places to park their vehicles, parkades have the particular distinction of originating in Winnipeg.

To be clear, it’s not the ginormous concrete-and-steel parking structures that stack cars on multiple levels that are Winnipeg- famous. Instead, it’s the moniker “parkade” that was invented here.

“It’s a combination of (the terms) retail arcade and parking lot,” explains history researcher and writer Christian Cassidy of the name coined for the city’s first downtown parking garage at 285 Memorial Blvd., connected to the Hudson’s Bay Company store.

Cassidy plans to include that fact about Winnipeg’s unique name for parking garages, as well as dozens of tidbits and back stories about the city’s first five parkades, in a two-hour walking tour 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, and Saturday, April 23. Part of Design Month sponsored by Winnipeg Architecture Foundation, the tour from Memorial Boulevard to Smith Street will explore some of the quirky features of early multi-level parking in this city.