Terrible comparison. You cannot compare cities like London, Paris, Berlin, etc. to Winnipeg. Make a comparison to a similiar sized city in North America..
Why is it a terrible comparision? The simple fact is that the panhandling underworld is very visible, yet people don't alter their lives to avoid it, as they do in Winnipeg.
First of all, it isn't Winnipeg's program. Secondly, the Watch has been known to be bullies at times, especially regarding groups of kids (oh no, a skateboard). I've seen both sides.
50 is a number I've heard several times over the past year or so, from various outlets. Vancouver, a city three times as large as Winnipeg, indicates that panhandling is the most serious concern to downtown businesses:
www.cleansafeworldwide.org/doc.asp?doc=1110&cat=29 Hard to believe that less than 50 in a city notorious for being good to panhandlers and the homeless (especially weather wise) has fewer than Canada's coldest winters. Calgary has little to brag about either - its homelessness rate is approaching 2000 people. High house and rental prices aren't always a good thing.
For one, you don't see many panhandlers in ghettoized poor areas like Oakland... who's going to give you money? The other poor guy down the street? While their populations are quite different (I'll give you that... 700,000 isn't a good indication), the number of panhandlers, especially in a touristy area, is huge. Yet, tourists aren't not going there because of it.
Portage Place is buzzing every weekday, from 7am to 6pm. And no, not much has changed in 8 months.
They're the minority. As one of those 20-somethings in post-secondary, I can tell you that there's hardly anything akin to Montreal's McGill "ghetto" or even more than a couple streets that have a distinctly "student" feel to them.
Compared to other, thriving areas, Manitoba's and Winnipeg's population growth is hardly significant.
But, inner city problems can't be helping matters.
High-priced condos on the Waterfront are hardly the kind of solution needed. That's not to say they aren't welcomed, but, as Mr. Hansen says, surface parking right in downtown Winnipeg needs to make room for apartments and condos for the average income earner, people who won't zip in and out of their building's underground parking garages in their Lexus' and BMW's and who will actually populate the sidewalks as they make their way to buy groceries in the evening, walk to work in the morning and walk to the pub on weekends.
[qote]Again, the editor makes himself out to look like an idiot for not checking the fact that Winnipeg's population is growing at it's fastest rate in 20 years. [/qiote]
Winnipeg's population is growing, but compared to most Canadian cities, not very fast. And not with the young, car-less professionals he advocates who, in other cities, want to live downtown.
He's provided much more to the debate than someone who simply says "get the bums off the street, I don't wat to see them". He obviously has a vested interest in the city of Winnipeg.
Simply sweeping these people under the rug so that the rest of society doesn't see them is not going to solve anything. This is a problem that all cities face, some more successfully than others. The real solution that Mr. Hansen was getting at, and not the nitpicky details that could be debated for hours, is to get more people downtown. If there were no panhandlers on the streets starting tomorrow, would pedestrian traffic jump significantly? No. To suggest that is to place a much greater emphasis on the very small minority than should be and to avoid the greater problems that plague the downtown, such as lack of decent residential options for average middle class people. The downtown needs pedestrianization, for people to get out of their cars, if only to help the panhandlers get lost in the crowds.