I would like to formally ask the media to stop using such broad terms when referring to neighbourhoods. Forgive me, as I am out of town so it was through a friend that I heard that at least one media outlet was referring to the murders on Elgin as having happened in the North End. There was also an incident the other day at Arlignton and Logan that was classed as the North End. The North End starts on the other side of the tracks people.
Now, I know all the suburbanites would like to think that all bad things in this city happen in the "North End", but does this really mean they are afraid of anything north of the Assiniboine? Is that why the media has started this ridiculous mis-naming? From now on I request that the proper City of Winnipeg neighbourhood be attached to all negative news stories. Why just negative you ask? Because positive ones already work that way. Goodness knows if something good were to happen around Leila, Garden City (and I may just be sticking my own foot in my mouth here as I am sure there is a more proper term for the streets bordering Leila but I do not have a good internet connection to research this) would get all the positive press, however, if someone were to get mugged/murdered/carjacked it would have happened in the "North End".
Okay, enough ranting for now. On to another little geography thing - as we know, I'm new to this blogging thing and the stats never cease to amaze me - it's probably old hat to most of you but I am so curious as to who in Moldova was reading my blog? Are they friends with my reader from Paraguay? Maybe they meant to read my "Small world, big travels" blog? *shameless self-promotion plug* That's right kids, I've escaped a Winnipeg winter for a few weeks and am currently in Kenya. I've been meaning to do a travel blog for years and decided that this trip was as good as any to start, so if you get bored and miss my clever musings about Winnipeg, not to worry, even though I'm out of town you can still occasionally read a bit by me. In any case, please don't forget about me, I'll try to read you all as often as I can so I don't miss the 'Peg too much!
I'll bite on this, a bit.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually think there's any prejudicial effort in why you see things labelled "North End." And I also strongly disagree that a negative incident that occured in Garden City would be ascribed to the North End.
Terms tend to be a little broad -- and sometimes erroneous -- because a lot of the smallest neighbourhood divisions, well, to be blunt, most people don't know them. I really don't think most Winnipeggers know the difference between William Whyte and Dufferin.
Beyond that, occasional mislabelling is basically error. I know I've sat there staring at the map and trying to figure out exactly what neighbourhood a more borderline street is part of, for instance, when writing briefs. I don't THINK I've gotten any wrong, but who knows maybe I have, but I have seen errors before.
I believe very strongly that no reporter would name something that occured in what was clearly Garden City as occuring in the North End, other than through a pretty monumental error, and there are plenty of examples (ugh) of murders and assaults being credited to the proper non-North End neighbourhood, i.e. Garden City, Elmwood, and St. Vital on a quick Google check of those neighbourhoods.
Well, I will keep an eye out and try to remember to document it a bit better to back myself up (this is why I couldn't be a journalist!) but I know of at least the two examples that I cited (Logan & Arlington, and the Elgin incident) are not the North End.
ReplyDeleteI used my poor Garden City "example" because I remember at one time there was an incident that was negative and it was listed as being the North End when really it was West Kildonan and I thought to myself at the time that if it had have been a positive story that it would have said West K and all of a sudden not been the North End.
In any case, I'll try to be a bit more journalistic in my blogging - probably a good idea anyway :)
I don't doubt of course that I'm hyper-sensitive about the issue of negative media attention and the North End; since I probably don't have a hope of turning it into positive attention anytime soon I'll just try to make sure the negative stuff is justified!