North End Discussion with Winnipeg Internet Pundits

I was invited to attend the University of Manitoba radio station this last Wednesday as a guest on their weekly show "Winnipeg Internet Pundits". The regulars on the show are Progressive Winnipeg, West End Dumplings, Slurpees and Murder, and One Man Committee, with special guests Winnipeg Girl, myself, and Heart of the Continent.
It was interesting sitting down and talking to different bloggers in the city, in real time. We were talking about the North End, and issues surrounding it. The consensus seemed to be that the North End is worth saving. But we have to convince our fearless leaders to be cooperative in that matter. And we need to stress the importance of the rest of the City assisting in keeping the North End alive. The issues are complicated, exept the issues are also very basic. The solutions are equally complicated, yet basic, and sometimes as easy as buying a cookie.
We have a North End that is dying, a Selkirk Avenue turning into a Social Work Ghetto, and an old school neighbourhood turning into boarded houses and rotting garbage. And what can any of us do about it? Let me make a list, if I could be so bold.

• buy something from a shop in the North End. There are plenty to choose from. (Neechi Foods, Guns Bakery, Tenderloin Meats, Black Pearl, Neptune Seafood, Gimli Fish, Kelekis Restaurant to name just a few)
• stop tossing your garbage in the North End
• tell your councillor to start enforcing By-Laws in the North End to clean up the housing stock
• hold the city accountable to maintain one of their older neighbourhoods, or the other older neighbourhoods may be next
• set up your new business in the North End, lots of empty businesses on Selkirk Ave to choose from
• as a landlord, maintain your house(s)
• as a resident of the North End, pick up a piece of garbage, or better yet don't throw it on the ground in the first place
• as a visitor to the North End, look for the good and celebrate it. There's lots of great architecture, great people, and great food.

The North End has not been on this tragic path for that many years. Just 20 years ago, it was a thriving community. Selkirk Avenue was filled with businesses, and people lived and worked in a community called The North End. It is not too late to turn it around, we just have to care enough to do it.

When I went for my daily walk yesterday, I saw one of my neighbours, one of the new tenants at the rooming house. He was in the back lane, and he was picking up garbage that was lying around the dumpster behind his new residence. There is hope. If that sketchy guy from the rooming house thinks his back yard and back lane should be cleaner, and picks up the garbage he sees, there is hope. That's the change I am talking about, and it is as easy as picking up a piece of garbage.