I should clarify...

342 Boyd

By no means do I think that renters can't make good neighbours. There is a house for sale near me that I keep saying things along the lines of "needs to be owner occupied" when I speak of it.

The reason I hold a current bias to it being lived in by the owner is this: in its current state (which, is technically unlivable due to the pipes being stolen, probably for drug money...) being advertised as a "Handyman special" it unfortunately will attract many of what we not-so-affectionately call slumlords. These are the folks who will do the absolute bare minimum to make the house "liveable" again and then throw tenants in there with empty promises of future renovations. One of the problems with the cycle of poverty is what it does to your spirit. The people who don't know their rights, who no longer have the energy to fight for themselves, who don't believe enough that they deserve better are the people who will most likely end up in a house like this.

Now, of course, there have been many well intentioned landlords who take a property that is in disrepair and actually bring it to a standard that almost any middle class person would be willing to live in, only to have it destroyed by bad tenants. I wish I could even say that this is the exception rather than the rule. However, if you take a property that will likely only be rented to people who are out of options, however well intentioned they might be, it's going to be hard as hell for them especially with whatever other struggles they may have, to help maintain that house.

Add to that that this house is in what I would describe as a "key location". It is in a cluster of primarily rental housing that teeters on the edge of volatility. People tend to behave in a manner that is appropriate to their surroundings - if it becomes apparent that no one in this cluster gives a f*ck then all of the houses are likely to suffer. Put one strong, community-minded homeowner (because no matter how good a landlord is who buys it, they aren't there all the time) in the middle who won't put up with garbage from the other rentals and you slowly get a shift.

In fact, the current owner, whom I'm told is being foreclosed on, is not a good neighbour and it's had an impact. So no, not even all owner occupied homes are "good".

The owners previous to the current one LOVED this house. I always felt like they got lost on their way to Wolseley and we were the lucky recipients. When I first moved to the neighbourhood nine years ago (as of March 1st!) they were the people I gravitated towards because their passion shone out of their house like a beacon. I have not had a full tour of the house, but assuming it hasn't changed much since my mother-earth loving people moved to BC (as you do when you're a full-on hippie!) it probably needs a few coats of a more neutral paint as a start; the kitchen was an interesting shade of mauve last I saw it! It might have been described as needing TLC even before the pipe stripping incident...

So. Much. Purple.

So, if you have a bit of an imagination, a bucket full of elbow grease and another one full of sweat equity you can buy a gem of a house for TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS less s than 5 years ago! Please don't let the neighbourhood scare you off, I will literally give you a run down of each and every house nearby to help you understand your new surroundings - we are only afraid of the unknown. As an added bonus, I will also come over and lend a pint or two of elbow grease to that bucket.

Look at that loft!

Oh, and if you do buy it as a rental, you can be sure I will let you know if your tenants are up to no good. Or, even scarier, if you have good tenants but you treat them badly, I will help them find their voice to fight for their rights because I value all of my good neighbours, tenants most definitely included.

*All photos from original listing from 2011 - I haven't had a chance to see the house but I get the feeling that you might need to go into it with some positive images in your mind.

Officially, it doesn't really exist

The North End that is. Today the City released their new "Neighbourhoods of Winnipeg" section of their website (ok, for all I know it's always been there, but I saw people talking about it on Twitter today so I think it's new). Did you know that Winnipeg has 236 neighbourhoods? I sure didn't.

Interesting, because as we all know, whenever anything bad happens it is generally blamed on one of 3 areas: the North End, the West End and Downtown. According to the interactive map, none of these "neighbourhoods" actually exist. Their map is drawn on top of a Google map and even though Google (and the rest of us) calls it Downtown, it's actually South Portage.

Now, of course, I don't necessarily expect anyone (read: media) to always be super specific when detailing where an event happened, but maybe that's the way it should be, for accuracy. That way we avoid the many slip ups that erroneously blame one neighbourhood for another one's troubles. Because it's pretty much always related to troubles. Take for example the sinkhole that happened in Garden City, which for the record actually does exist as a neighbourhood called Garden City.

Now, the CBC reported the story saying it was in the North End. I believe they originally had it in the body of the story as well as the caption of the photo, but I'm not 100% sure because when I saw it, it was just the caption. But the comments section makes me think it was probably the body at first as well. One comment, by GoodN1GHT stood out to me in particular (after another commenter pointed out that this intersection was not in fact in the North End):

"If there is a shooting in Tuxedo, Tuxedo temporarily becomes part of the North End. It helps to keep outsiders thinking that Winnipeg's problems are in one small area."

I agree with this statement, but would also add that it keeps locals thinking the same thing.

I've been harping about this for literally years. Now, CBC did change their story/caption, but the internet, like an elephant, never forgets. This screenshot shows all the various other agencies, websites and so on that picked up their story - their stories never got changed. Also notice that I didn't bother to capitalize "North End" in my search - neither did the CBC in their original caption... I realized technically someone could refer to any part of the city by its direction, yes, Garden City is in the the north end of Winnipeg. However, in a city that has two neighbourhoods that already unofficially go by North End and West End, the way to state this without confusion would be to say "on the north side of the city" or something like that. I'm also about 99% certain that this story (like every other) didn't mean to inform people that it happened somewhere in the the northern part of the city. Obviously, when talking about a sinkhole it's not horrible to "accuse" the wrong neighbourhood, but the same can't be said for crime.


Winnipeg, especially in the core areas, has a huge PR problem already. Our media needs to realize that they are the ones who can help change that. People who choose to remain uniformed about what is really going on around them will keep reading headlines and making snap decisions based on that information. It's very easy to hate the North End or West Broadway (okay, well it was easy to hate it back in like, the 90s) when that's all you hear before or after the words stabbing and murder.

Challenge people and their perceptions. Maybe we do need to utilize the boundaries of the 236 neighbourhoods. In which case, I really don't like Eric Coy and all of its ditches. Or Elmhurst for that matter. If this isn't the way we go (because it would be very tedious to figure out every time, that's why we already have the broader neighbourhood terms), then we need to have the media adapt a standard format such as the ### block of Any St. (kudos does go to the Winnipeg Sun for often doing exactly this). This will slowly help retrain the brains of those that make their decisions based on media headlines.

As for defining those broader neighbourhood labels, I think asking organizations that have those labels in the name what their boundaries are - like the West End Biz, or the North End Community Renewal Corporation and so on would be a good start. If there are differences then maybe everyone just needs to sit down and hammer it out, once and for all.

Hallowe'en (sour) Apples!

Tonight is Hallowe'en. You might be wondering why I have enough time to write a blog post when I should be answering the door for 100's of little ghosts and goblins. It's because I'm sitting in my room with the rest of the house lights turned off. Especially the porch light, which stays on the other 364 days of the year. Although I suppose to be technical, this year it's 365 other nights...

First, lets get a few things out of the way. Do kids today (good lord I'm old) realize how good they have it? It's above zero and there is no snow. There was not a costume I owned that didn't go over a full snowsuit and Sorels were the mandatory footwear for the FOOT OF SNOW we had to wade through. Oh, and there were no pillowcases and giant reusable bags for collecting candy in. No no no, we had these:

This meant that inevitably you had to return home several times (losing precious candy gathering time) to dump out your haul and start again.

Moving on. So, I was feeling a little guilty for not handing out candy yet again this year. This is my 7th Hallowe'en here in the North End. I missed my first one because I was working in Churchill, MB (where, as an interesting fact, they have volunteers circling town on snowmobiles keeping an eye out for any polar bears looking for a seasonal treat) but in 2007, look out world, I was prepared!

I laboured over my candy choices and when I finally felt I had the perfect variety I spent time putting together little perfect Hallowe'en themed ziploc bags full of candy. I was prepared.

What I was NOT prepared for was to be overwhelmingly disappointed.

Instead of adorable little kids (yes, me, I just referred to children as adorable. I'm unlikely to do that again so maybe mark this down) in costumes I got sullen teenagers in hoodies and masks from Dollarama holding open pillowcases. Generally not even a "Trick or treat!" or "Hallowe'en Apples!" just a doorbell ring. The small children who did (sort of) come to the door were usually under about a year old, fast asleep, being pushed in a stroller by their teenage mother who was not in a costume. Call it a hunch, but I don't think the candy was for the babies. The even cheekier ones would hold out a second bag "for the other kid, who's at home". Yeah. Right.

I seriously almost cried when it was all over, this was not the Hallowe'en I had dreamed of! Now, I am very aware that my neighbourhood has some economic constraints. A six year old in a mask from Dollarma (or no costume at all) will of course get candy. Hell, a 47 year old in a full costume will get candy - the trade off for spending my hard earned money on candy is getting to see the costumes; I have my own economic constraints too.

I decided to go and evaluate my block, perhaps I could be shamed back into giving out Hallowe'en candy for next year?

Not likely. For shits and giggles I counted how many houses on my block had the "I'm home vibe". FIVE. And one of those is borderline. I think maybe their sheets as drapes just didn't block out all of the light from their living room. 5/40. I suppose to be fair, one of those 40 is boarded, and another one is the abandoned one with the rear section of the house caving in, but that doesn't really make it much better.

So, while Hallowe'en only seems to get even more popular (how that's even possible I'm not sure) it seems as though at least my street has basically given up. This makes me feel less guilty but more sad.

Dear cyclist...

Dear lady cyclist on Osborne yesterday at about 415,
You or your child are going to get killed if you keep riding like that. Why you would choose to bike down construction filled Osborne during rush hour, towing a child-trailer behind you is beyond me, but I suppose your choice to make. I mean, I don't like kids at the best of times, but even I wouldn't tow a kid (anyone's kid, let alone my own if I had one) behind me in bumper to bumper traffic where said child-trailer was effectively my bumper, but I guess that's just me. Never mind the fact either that Osborne in the village area is barely wide enough for the two lanes of traffic that it almost holds sans construction, biking down it solo seems scary even then. Add a two wheeled, wide trailer into the mix and it just seems suicidal, but again, your choice.

My beef with you trendy legging with skirt wearing hipster mama, is that, after assessing that you seemed to have a death wish for you or your child - ok, to be fair I didn't actually SEE your kid in the trailer thing, but since that is what is was designed for, and you were of child bearing age and not a scrap metal collector (the other common use for those trailers, at least here in the North End) - I treated you as I believed I should and I changed lanes to pass you. I did this because it was not safe for us to try and "share the lane" in this narrow, construction laden zone.

Then, much to my horror, after I respected you and your child and I had passed you safely, you seemed to want to try and edge up next to me and pass me as we came to a stop for a light. So, this is a letter from the woman you probably thought was a "mean, aggressive typical Winnipeg driver" who pulled herself even closer to the curb so you could not pass. May I suggest, that perhaps next time, you get off your bike, and walk you and your baby safely down the sidewalk in this stretch of road, because, if you don't, you will be but a mere tragic story lining a birdcage.

Sincerely,
The Winnipeg Girl who tried to respect you.

School Zone speeds

I am mostly needing to rant and a 140 character tweet just wasn't going to cut it.

Just this morning a motion was put forward to reduce the speeds in school zones to 40km/hr; and then another motion to reduce ALL residential streets to 40km/hr. None of this is news as such, discussions have been ongoing in the papers for a little while about this concept. There have been some good responses to this that I have seen, however I don't remember where, so sorry, no links - if I paraphrase what you wrote somewhere else, please forgive me.

So, first of all, does this seriously mean that they are wanting to lower stretches of major arteries like Grant, Pembina and Henderson to 40 near schools? Grant is already ridiculous enough being set at 50 - it's two lanes with a boulevard in the middle - why on earth is it 50 in the first place, it should be 60.

While I'm ranting, why on earth is the freaking number one HIGHWAY 70km/hr when the residential strip of Roblin in the same section (roughly the perimeter to Headingley) 80km/hr??

So, my proposition is this: since, as someone else already put it (somewhere) - perhaps 40 on residential streets wouldn't be the worst thing in the world due to the condition of our roads, lets say that any street that has two lanes in either direction must be at least 50 (school zone or not) and if those two lanes have a boulevard in the middle? Well, then it would be a 60km/hr zone.

I don't know how many children are injured near schools every year, but I do know that children are freaking everywhere not just near schools. Never mind the fact that the two options would then make the speed enforceable only during "school hours" (sorry kids with after school activities, no safety for you!) which would involve a lot of confusing signage, OR enforceable ALL the time, which would mean cash grabs galore as photo radar would be set up nabbing speed demons clocking 51km/hr on a Saturday night.

How about we teach kids about street safety instead? When I was growing up it was impressed upon me to look out for cars, that they couldn't stop on a dime. To this day, even after I push the crosswalk button (or especially at crosswalks without the lights) I wait until I make eye contact with the drivers of the oncoming cars, or at least confirm that they're slowing down for me, before I head out into the street. I constantly see people push the button and blindly walk out into the street; yes, technically people are allowed to do that, as drivers we are supposed to be scanning ahead for that sort of thing. Of course, if you end up dead, being right doesn't do you much good.

Have you hugged a street worker lately?

I have.

Not going to lie, the whole situation was really sad. The other day, while I was puttering about in the yard, as that's how I seem to spend ALL of my "free" time, I  noticed a girl spending a lot of time trying to catch the attention of passing vehicles. I had first seen her about an hour or so earlier, she had said hello as she walked by - and she seemed to be a bit out of sorts at that time as well. So, when I was making a trip to the dumpster I went over to chat with her.

She was young, I don't think kid young, but probably around 17-20. I told her that she probably shouldn't be doing what she was trying to do in her current state, but that I would be happy to drive her to a safe place. She didn't think she had a safe place to go. I suggested some of the places that I thought might work, but she wasn't interested, and besides, as she pointed out "she had no shoes on".

It was heartbreaking. I am so thankful that in my life whenever I have felt sad or desperate that I have never been in the state this girl was. The things she must have gone through in life to end up talking to me on that street corner are not even on my radar. I hope I managed to come across how I was hoping to; non-judgemental mixed with concerned. She didn't make the most sense, and she obviously is more familiar with "the systems" then I will ever be - she was concerned that seeking help would result in her children being taken away again. She also implied that if she went home she would just be sent out again. I kept expressing to her that she needed to be careful and that because she was drunk she would be more of a target; her response was to ask ME if I was okay out on the street - she was concerned that I would attract the wrong kind of attention being out there at that time of night. She kept hugging me, not quite my usual stranger on the street conversation.

After realizing there wasn't much that she knew of that I could do for her, I headed home to see if I could find out where she could be brought that would be a safe place for her until she sobered up. Besides the suggestions I had already offered her and she had refused there didn't seem to be anywhere I could bring her. I went back to bring her a pair of flip flops, it was the least I could do - but she was gone.

It was a really emotional experience for me; I hated that I couldn't help. I tried to tell her to make sure she realized that if and when she's ready that there are programs out there that will help her. I'm sure she already knows that, but I can just hope that one time when she hears it she will be ready.

It's finally here... sort of; Roof still caving in

A month or so ago I attended a meeting to talk about the new garbage collection system that will be going city-wide, but more specifically about here in the North End as they replace the aging autobins. I live tweeted the event, mostly because I couldn't just stand up an yell and shout like I wanted to (although that didn't stop one crazy dude who kept getting off track) and partly because I don't normally attend things that people might be interested in hearing updates from.

One of the pieces of information that I was most excited to hear about was the new "App" that the City was going to have for/about waste collection. One of the things I find most difficult with reporting bulky waste to 311 is the inane questions that I get back from the operators before they will submit my complaint "ok, so you say there is an abandoned sofa behind the address in question (because god forbid you don't give them a specific address), how many inches is it away from the alley? (because if they deem it to be on private property, you know, not FULLY in the lane even though it's clearly abandoned then they send a different department, who will issue an order, and then the resident of the house will move it the few inches into the lane, and then you have to call it in again to have it picked up...) Does the sofa have a floral print or is a solid colour? (ok, I may have made this one up, but I'm sure I'll be asked it one day) So, it was my belief based on what we were told at the meeting, that an App was on the way that would allow us to report these things direct from our phone, including sending photos!

Well, the App is here, but, disappointingly does not offer what I was hoping for. The majority of the links seem to direct you to contact 311, have no automatic link to have your phone dial it, and the email function is also not at all what I find user friendly. It will let you send an email only from your email address set up on your phone (which I don't have as I have had difficulty setting up my Hotmail/Gmail and having them sync with things in real time) which does not offer the option of attaching a photo even if I could manage to use it. What it really needs is a built in contact sheet, similar to what their website offers for contacting 311 that does not require you to send it from your email directly but just from that page. (I'm sure there is a technical term for that but I have no idea what it is.)

Notice there is not even a email link on this page, nor mention of abandoned wast

The App also does not make mention of what to do in the case of illegally abandoned waste and how someone might go about reporting that. To be fair, the City doesn't seem to have been the ones to develop this App, but they need to be sure they're getting their moneys worth from this "My Waste" company and have them help to tailor it to our community.

This whole thing brings me to an excellent example of how I would use this App, if it worked in the way I wanted to. Following up on the work of A Day in the Hood, it seems as though the house that has been collapsing upon itself since at least September 15th 2010 (MY first email to the City about this problem) still isn't fixed. Sure, the house has gotten some attention, it looks a lot better from the front street now, but why the heck is the back addition still in this condition?

The roof keeps falling down further, and further...

This house is not occupied and the person who owns the property owns numerous properties in the community - if the cost of dealing with the problem is too great, perhaps they can sell off a property or two to help with that. If this property was actually occupied (as a primary/only residence) I could see the City extending leniency to allow the owner to raise the funds needed to fix the problem however I see no reasonable reason for this problem to continue.

Let me elaborate...

This is a follow up post to my last one, because I realized that I had left out some very important information that I had planned to put in that sort of post one day ("one day" turned into the day when I either needed to vent here or tell off the gift card toting table and lose my job).

When it comes to tipping there are basically 3 types of people: those that tip decently pretty much all the time (15% ish or more), those that tip 10% (seriously people, 10% is so 1970's) and those that tip anything less than that, which frequently is about the equivalent of throwing pennies at h00kers. Oh, wait, sorry, there is a 4th type - the person who when this sort of conversation comes up claims to be around the 15% mark but is really a 7-10% sort.

Now, giving my lovely readers credit, I shall presume you all are in the "15%+" category, but in case you know someone who isn't this post is for them, please pass it on. I think that most of the people who are in the 10% or less category think that servers already get paid to do a job, and they don't get tips at their job so why should they have to tip, blah blah blah. I will do my best to explain why (dad, I hope you are finally listening!)

Their job probably offers some sort of security in the form of a guaranteed number of hours per week. Servers don't get that. A "full-time" server probably averages 30-35 hours a week, often taking 6 days to reach that many hours, or numerous split-shifts that essentially make their work day 11+ hours as there isn't really enough time to do anything in between those shifts. Servers only get raises when minimum wage goes up. Imagine if after years and years of service you were at the exact same wage. Servers don't get health care. I know not all other jobs do either, but servers almost exclusively do not. Servers, with few exceptions are not "allowed" to call in sick. Many restaurants will demand that a server fill their own shift if they want to call in sick - you try doing that while exploding from both ends.

Servers, particularly in chain restaurants have very shaky job security. As corporate almost always tends to err on the side of the customer being right, even the most untruthful complaint can cause a server to lose their job, god forbid that lying customer come back and see that that someone wasn't fired for the supposed injustice. Thankfully I work at a pretty decent place now, with good management that trusts their staff, but I have seen this sort of thing happen at other places many times.

A big thing that you may not realize is that most servers have to pool their tips, so you are not just subsidizing their wage, but also that of the cooks, hostesses, bartenders, bussers, dishwashers and expediters (the people who put the finishing touches on your plate before it hits the table). I love when I have a table that hands me my tip (usually a really sweet senior citizen type) and says "now, this is just for you dear, don't give any to anyone else". If only it worked that way. I always take the opportunity to explain it to them and usually they are quite surprised.

Restaurant owners underpay almost all of their staff because, in theory, etiquette in Canada dictates that customers will tip 15-20%. Let me give you an example, it is a bit of an extreme, but I want to make sure everyone understands just what I mean...

Flo (as that is such a fantastically stereotypical server name) goes into Chainy McChainigan's for her Friday night shift. She sees that she has a party of 10 coming in for dinner as well as a couple of other tables in her section. The timing of everything goes well that night, the party is in celebrating Grandma's 75th birthday and everyone is having a good time. Food comes as ordered, refills on drinks are prompt and Flo even makes a special birthday moment for Grandma*. Number one son picks up the tab for the whole table, joy! One bill is so much easier and means that service doesn't suffer for Flo's other tables while she processes multiple payments. The bill is $439.61. Flo quickly calculates in her head that the host should probably round that up to $500 even** The host hands her the billfold and tells her to keep the change. There is $450 in it. Oh yes, this happens far more often than you would think. Especially at the holidays.

Thankfully Flo has other tables tonight, some days aren't as lucky. This table just cost her money out of her own pocket to serve. What? How you ask? Well, let's break Flo's table down, using tip out at my restaurant.  Their bill was $386 before tax, Flo will have tipped out $4.82 (1.25% of all sales) to the host/cook/dishwasher tip pool, $3.86 (1% of all sales) to the bartender, the expediter gets a minimum of $2 (however, on a Friday night, $5 is generally the amount given) and there are 3 bussers on so at a minimum of $2 each that is $6. So, the $10.39 tip that Flo received does not cover the $16.68 that Flo is tipping out (minimum), if this was her only table for the night she would have gone home with $6.29 less in her pocket than she came with.

Obviously with this example it is a bit extreme, and yes, servers usually have other tables and it mostly balances in the end, but how would you feel if you came to work and your wage for the day was at the whim of the patrons? Serving is like a form of commission sales, but without a guaranteed rate. At least if you sell cars you know exactly what commission you are getting, the customer can't lower the price of the car by deciding that they don't want you to get commission on that sale.

So if it's so horrible, why don't we all go get "real" jobs? Well, some people genuinely enjoy serving and they are very good at it and why would they not deserve to earn a living wage? Sure, if you're a good server, serving is pretty easy and can be pretty good money, but most certainly not everybody can do it. Yes, a trained monkey could physically bring you food, but when it comes down to it, that's not what serving is. Just because an engineer finds their job easy (as it is a skill set that may come easily to them) does that mean that they should only be paid minimum wage? A bunch of you just piped up with "but they went to school for years for that!". Please don't underestimate the humble server - many of them have university degrees as well - perhaps serving is just what it turns out they are best at. Plus, if we all went out and got "real" jobs - who would serve you dinner?

So, and I promise this will be my last "world's colliding" post for a while, if you are out for dinner, please keep this post in mind. If someone else picks up the tab, don't be afraid to discreetly pull the server aside and confirm that they received a proper tip; don't use an open ended "did my friend tip ok?" that is very awkward to answer, a better question is more specific - "did my friend tip at least 15%", and top up if they didn't. And on the off chance that you genuinely received poor service (remembering rule #1 from my last post - Intend to enjoy yourself) speak to a manager. If it was a food issue rather than a service issue, again, speak to a manager, chances are they will adjust the bill accordingly and then you would still tip for the service on the amount of the original bill.

*Do not make your server do this. No one likes birthday songs/announcements/moose antlers etc. If you just want whatever is free for a birthday the server will still be obliged to bring you the dessert, and seriously, so long as you tip well, they don't care if you ask for the free dessert, it doesn't come out of their pocket. Just don't ask for the damn song.

**I believe that in theory tipping occurs on the before tax amount, however in practice I think that most people, myself included, tip on the after tax amount as it is the number in large font at the bottom. On smaller cheques it is sort of neither here nor there. With Flo's large table it means the pre-tax was about $386, so a $58 tip would be 15%, on the after tax amount it would be almost $66. When this happens, I am okay with rounding to whatever makes sense, in this case $500 total would make sense.

How to dine out in Winnipeg

After this post the world may end as it will be a case of worlds colliding. That's right, I am letting a little bit more than usual of Winnipeg Girl's "real life" slip into this post. When I'm not busy writing my little blog, scouring second-hand stores and estate sales, up-cycling crap treasures from same, working at my regular 9-5, I am but a humble servant server at one of the many eating establishments here in the 'Peg.

Before I get on to the real meat and potatoes of my post though, a question: Is Stella's the new Grapes? Branigans? Now before any Hipsters spit out their fair-trade, locally-roasted java and start camping out in protest, let me explain. At one point, we'll call it the ninty-eighties, Grapes was King of the Locals. In the years leading up to my 18th birthday I dreamed of the day when I would finally get my turn to dance the night away on a Sunday (!) night at Pier 7 or Grapes on Main. Even when I started my first serving job, lore of the bartenders for Grapes was legendary. If I'm remembering correctly, in its heyday there were at least 6 Grapes locations, including bizarrely 2 barely 500m from each other downtown (at Main and on St. Mary where Pony Corral is now).

Stella's, while an entirely different concept is also expanding quicker than you can blink an eye. What was once a quaint little place that needed no explanation as to which location, simply "Stella's for breakfast?" Branigans, which for the record, the worst restaurant I have ever worked in - by far, is another one-time local favourite that expanded too big for its britches - even having a location in Grand Forks at one point! If you've ever wondered why the employees at Branigan's at The Forks tried to unionize I will offer this as one example: It was demanded that I be at work 15 minutes early, unpaid (or they would write me up for being late) and then, on their whim they would change my start time to later because it wasn't busy enough to start paying me.

So, while I wish Stella's the best, and I hope they enjoy their surge in popularity, I also hope they don't end up wearing out their welcome. Most of the hipsters will inevitably turn into boring assimilated adults with middle-class lives that keep them from sitting in coffee shops for hours on end and going for brunch every Sunday and Stella's will either need to adapt or the next local mega-chain will be ready to take its place. Although, perhaps in their case an expansion to Grand Forks would give me somewhere to dine besides the soulless theme and chain restaurants that dominate there.

Which brings me to the instructional part of this post which was prompted by the recent influx of diners using gift cards they received during the holidays. Near as I can tell many of these people have never dined out before. How nice of someone to give them the chance.

How to dine out in Winnipeg (in no particular order except #1)

1. Intend to enjoy yourself and not find fault with everything. You'd be amazed at how much of a difference this makes.
2. If you are dining at a chain restaurant do not get annoyed with the server for constantly interrupting you to ask how everything is or introducing themselves by name. We don't really want to do that but management makes us. If, for some reason a server does not interrupt you to ask how everything is and you have a problem, please politely get their attention and tell them what is wrong, your server genuinely does want to make it better. You are an adult, part of the onus of enjoying your dinner is on you. You may not eat everything on your plate and then complain that it wasn't good. Yes this happens. All the time. Oh, and all the "you guys" haters, get over it, we have limited ways to address mixed company.
3. This goes hand in hand with #2, do not order your steak well done; that is why you did not enjoy it. Further to that, do not specify you want it "well done, but make sure it's not burnt". I love that at fude on Osborne they won't cook it past medium-rare.
4. Do not come in 10 minutes before close. If you notice that there is only one staff member around and one other table in the restaurant, this is a good indicator that they are closed soon. Ask.
5. The entire point of a reservation is so that the restaurant can prepare adequately for your arrival by staffing properly and having tables available. Hold up your end of the bargain and show up on time with the amount of people that you reserved for. A reservation for 25 where only 15 show up probably means that someone got scheduled for a shift that they weren't needed for. Yes, this also happens all the time. One day I will write a more detailed post as to why proper reservations are so important.
6. Say please and thank you.
7. Tip. I didn't invent the way our society works, but sufficed to say, if tipping wasn't a common practice in our society it would be built into the price so that the staff could be paid more. I know all of the cheapskates out there are referencing Mr. Pink in their head right now, but I assure you, if I was only paid minimum wage with no chance for tips you would actually see what bad service was like. Why on earth would any server or bartender play mediator/psychologist/babysitter/mindreader etc. when for that same 10 bucks an hour they could __________________ (I don't want to undermine any other job in particular, but there is more than one minimum wage job where being alive is about the only qualification).
8. Let me expand on Tip. This means that you tip on the total of your bill before any coupons/discounts/gift card amounts were taken off. According to Trip Advisor, you should be tipping 15-20%. Just because you drank 7 free refills of pop and the 8th one came after #7 ran out, you did NOT have poor service. So, if you went out for dinner and it was $100 and you used the $75 gift card you got from Grandma for Christmas when the debit machine asks what you'd like to put in for a tip, in this case you wouldn't want to use the "%" button as it will only calculate it on the remaining $25. I dare say if you had a gift card/coupon tip more to the 20% side, heck, you had a nice dinner out for not much out of your own pocket - pass on the good tidings.
9. You are not allergic to _________. You may not really like _________, or it may give you the shits later, but you are not allergic. Tell me that you don't really like it and I won't take you any less seriously and I will still try really hard to make sure it doesn't end up anywhere near your food. However, now my cooks will not have to stop everything, clean off all of their tools and grill so that you don't die. See the difference? Ever wonder why sometimes your food takes a little longer, it might just be because someone is lying about an allergy. That said, if you have an allergy please don't be afraid to tell me so that I can make sure we take all the proper precautions. Dead people don't tip.
10. Intend to enjoy yourself. Seriously, you have no idea how big a difference it makes. I have served people where all sorts of things have gone wrong (as I am a human and so are they) but because they weren't looking for excuses to save a few bucks on the tip they still had a great time, rolled with the punches and probably couldn't have remembered the next day what had gone wrong. It's just dinner people, not the end of the world.

Now, these rules are by no means an exhaustive list, and if you have ever worked in the service industry they are probably pretty redundant. However, if you haven't, please pass it on. For some additional reading may I suggest pretty much anything by the Bitchy Waiter or this exquisite response to a bad customer at Fuck My Table.

New Year, same Girl

First and foremost - let me say that just because I don't have you in my blogroll, does not mean I don't like your blog. I just haven't had time to go through and update and it's been quite a while. Feel free to send me a scolding message.

New Years is the time of year that we all tend to make resolutions that we are unlikely to keep. I get it, it seems like a good idea, a perfect day to start fresh and be able to keep track of our successes (and failures). But I think that I read somewhere that most successful diets start on a Tuesday, less pressure that way or something. It seems the same could be said for any New Year's resolution, so I figure why bother today if it's doomed to fail anyway?

With the holidays I have been absent from the blogosphere, we could pretend that I was doing something super interesting, but I wasn't really. I tried to keep up with all the goings on city and world wide, but I think the story that stuck with me the most was one that probably struck a chord with many of those who keep up with Winnipeg related blogs. The fire that reduced a condo building on St. Paul Ave to rubble was that much more real because I know someone who was so close to the situation (Christian, still so glad it wasn't YOUR building). As well, being an animal lover, and cats in particular, I was overwhelmed with emotion when I heard that Wyatt the cat had been rescued. My heart gets tight when I think of the other cat, Fraidie, and the sad reality that if she hasn't been found yet (if you know that she has please let me know!) that being that wet and cold, it might be more of a recovery situation.

In the early hours of the reporting on the fire, all the usual suspects were trolling the comment sections of the FreeP, and when it was reported that Wyatt (at that point unidentified) had been found a couple of people alluded to the fact that they never would have left their animals behind, and admittedly I was curious as well; but I have never had to run for my life, so I can't pretend to say that I absolutely wouldn't leave without my animals. I like to think that I wouldn't of course, but I also don't think I could necessarily pass judgement on someone else for saving their own life. When it emerged that the couple who lived in that suite were away on holidays it reminded me how important it is that we build relationships with our neighbours.

I don't know if Fraidie's fate would have been any different in this particular situation, and for all I know, attempts to save the cats were made because of input from another resident, but we need to remember to talk to our neighbours. Recently I had a situation with one of my neighbours, and I could just hug my tenants next door for bringing it to my attention. Even though neither of them have been with me for long, they were concerned because something seemed amiss with the house on the other side. It turns out my neighbour was out of town, which if it wasn't winter I probably would have known from friendly chats in the yard. I will remind her when I see her next to please let me know next time so I can help keep an eye on her place.

Neighbours and a sense of community are your first line of defense when it comes to safety. I'm not sure where I developed the idea that this is so important - I don't think my parents really communicated with the neighbours. I suppose if you know who is around you it is harder to turn a blind eye to things, they are no longer nameless people, they move more into the circle of friends. Now, I'm not saying that you need to monitor every movement everyone on your street makes, that's just creepy, but take an interest. If your house caught fire wouldn't you hope that someone piped up and was able to alert the fire department that you have a cat inside? Or what if you could save the life of an elderly neighbour because you noticed that something was amiss, like the newspaper wasn't brought in for a few days and you were able to contact a family member so that they could check in?

So, lessons learned from the December fires of 2011:

1. Get tenant insurance - the residents of the apartments on  Beverly St. learned the hard way, it is extremely valuable to have, and many don't
2. And this isn't just because of fire, but let at least one neighbour (ideally who is around a lot) know a little about you and your schedule so that there is at least one person in the world knows if something is amiss or can recognize your pet if gets out or worse, trapped in the house.

Well, that's it, clearly I didn't make a resolution to become less long winded. I hope everyone had a pleasant end to 2011 and of course an even better 2012. See you around the 'hood - murder free so far this year, crossing my fingers it stays that way!
 -

A tale of two neighbourhoods

Last week a Winnipeg family suffered a terrible fire that will change their lives forever. Of course the commenters who troll the comment sections of the various media outlets were out in full force. What a difference being rich makes. Almost a year ago, another Winnipeg family suffered a catastrophic fire where they also lost everything, but the commenters were a little less sympathetic. Now, strangely, the comments on the FreeP stories seem to have disappeared; all the links I followed on the North End fire offered me the chance to be the first commenter - somehow I don't think that everyone forgot to comment on that site.

The one comment on the Linden Woods fire that took a shot at the comments that usually end up on any story about the North End (or other supposedly less than desirable place) got deleted; I don't remember what it was exactly and it wasn't as articulate as it could have been but it touched on the fact that if were to comment in the same way about this we would need to question if this was perhaps a grow-op (even though the article clearly stated it wasn't, but that never stops the genius commenters normally, although I do think it was all said tongue in cheek) Of course if it was a true mirror of they type of comment generally made about the North End it would have read more like this "What do you expect in a neighbourhood like that, it was probably Asian gangs growing marijuana, houses there are always getting shot at"

In the North End fire, although there were sympathetic comments on the CBC story many of them also chose to zero in on the father of the 10 children, attacking his character and the fact that he had so many children. I can only presume that in the mysteriously missing FreeP comments section there was the standard "burn the whole neighbourhood down" comment that I see every time there is reference to fire in my neighbourhood. Curiously in the case of the Linden Woods fire, the commenters lambaste the the Free Press for daring to mention who the victim was or what he did for a living, saying it wasn't relevant. Yet telling the world that the father of 10 was unemployed and on welfare was apparently relevant to the North End fire. To be fair, the FreeP only mentioned he was unemployed, it was the commenters in the CBC story that felt the need to mention that he was on welfare, and link to a story (that I couldn't open because I'm not a paid Globe subscriber) that implied it would dish all sorts of other details about this man and his life.

I think that more than anything, what the reporting for the Linden Woods fire stories are missing are more details about the cause of the fire. We've now learned that it was caused by a heater in the garage, but I want to know way more details and I think the media is missing out on a great opportunity to educate the public. Forgive me if one of the media outlets did go into more detail and I just happened to have missed it - I was pretending to have a bit of a life this weekend and reading excessive amounts of news is usually more of a weekday thing.

So what exactly caused the Linden Woods fire? Was it because they plugged a heater in with an extension cord? Did they drape something over the heater? Was it a baseboard heater with faulty wiring? Was the heater just plain left unattended like all the instruction manuals warn us never to do??

On a very random note, did you know that it seems to be Linden Woods not Lindenwoods? One of the main streets that crosses through there is Lindenwood Dr. so I suppose that's where the confusion comes from. It also seems as though business are split on what to call it as there are both when they use the community name in the business name. I think I corrected all my "errors" but I will likely revert to my old ways eventually - I've apparently been spelling it wrong for about 20 years already!

Love thy neighbour

You know when one of the strangest and most unexpected things totally changes the entire tone of your day? First a little background I guess. I know I tend to harp on the suburbs, and obviously I'm aware that there are all sorts of good people who live in the suburbs and that lots of the things that I love about living in the North End could apply to every part of town. But that wasn't my experience growing up.

Growing up in Charleswood, I got to experience what we're all supposed to want - a nice big yard, we didn't lock the door when we were at home or in the garden, streets that were safe to walk day and night and playgrounds within walking distance. The problem I found is that none of us talked to each other. I mean, that wasn't entirely true, I was the papergirl so I knew everyone (and damned if I didn't curse the people who thought it was no big deal for me to just come back again and again to collect for it, serious child labour there).

I don't know if my parents knew anyone one on the street. In fact most of the neighbours probably hated my parents - if the Neighbourhood Liveability By-Law had existed back then they were probably violating it left right and centre. We can talk about the livestock my parents kept IN THE BASEMENT another time though.

Oh Arborite, what a colourful addiction!

So today was great for two reasons, one, a neighbour with whom I've had many chats about the aforementioned Neighbourhood Liveability By-Law, is getting ready to move and thankfully one time I had mentioned that if she was to ever get rid of her fabulous arborite buffet that I hoped that she would call me first. She did. A biiiiiiiiiiig thanks goes out to her for enabling my hoarding! Now one day when I use my cache of 50's kitchen tables to open a cafe (as there is no other logical option for what a person can do with 7 kitchen tables. I don't want to open a cafe, but I may have no choice) I will have a funky matching buffet, maybe the cash register can sit on top. So I suckered a friend into helping me move it down the street - we didn't quite do it North End style (with a shopping cart) but we did use a borrowed dolly to roll it down the middle of the street.

The second thing was the thing that really tugged at my pride in my neighbourhood (kind of like this post, but no murder tie-in). As we were tucking the buffet into its new home in the corner in the bar what? it's not the 1970's? people don't have bars in their house anymore? shame the doorbell rang. And contrary to every person the media has ever managed to interview in the North End, I went to answer it. Of course it's a full glass door that was unlocked with the main door behind wide open so it would have just seemed silly to try and hide...

So who was at the door? No idea, one of my poorer social skills is that I forget to ask, and then remember peoples names, but they were both neighbours. Turns out they had been meaning to stop by for a while and took advantage of seeing the lights on and door open; they noticed that I have a collection of old leaded and stained glass windows hanging in my sun porch, did I perhaps want to buy another one? The gentleman works in renovations and knows that people like those old windows, so I promptly followed him home to take a look at it. Now of course he didn't pull that window out and keep it just for me, but in their small but tidy little apartment, there it sat, waiting at least in part because he thought his neighbour might be interested in it.

It was both a happy and humbling experience. As much as I love the North End I do see the bad things as well as the good and I sometimes need to be reminded to not pass judgments on people based on appearance; my initial reaction of seeing those folks at my door was not that they were there as some of my "good" neighbours, yet after chatting with them for a bit I'm reminded what happens when we assume.

MY North End has people that I've never met that think about me, just because my house is part of what they associate with their community
MY North End has teenagers that wear their pants half off their butts (and don't commit crimes) just like yours does. Forget hockey gear drives, we need belt drives
MY North End has a recurring cast of characters that may look a bit down and out, but that also deservedly feel that they belong as well (one day I hope to chat with some of them and hear their stories and pass them on)
MY North End has a crazy blogging arborite hoarding chick who is going to try to pay it forward just a little more often

I didn't know what to call this post

...everything I started to typed seemed a bit cheesy. I'm having one of my moments where when thinking about the North End my heart starts to swell and I feel a sense of pride that I've never felt towards anything else. I guess what got me started thinking about it was the anniversary of the still unsolved triple shooting from a year ago. Yeah, I know, not usually a topic that would spur on warm fuzzy feelings. In the story linked above, I'm told that one of my neighbours is still too frightened to open the door and that children no longer play outside. Really? Because I live probably no more than 200m from where the Boyd shooting took place and all of my neighbours still open their doors and just the other day one family had a large celebration and the children happily played outside.

MY North End has hundreds of volunteers that make sure picnics and street festivals happen and that walk the streets keeping an eye on things
MY North End has more than a dozen agencies that do the best they can with the resources they have to help people receive an education, feed and house themselves and find jobs - a hand up not just hand outs
MY North End has hands down the best secondhand store in the city - the MCC on Selkirk Ave, some of the best coffee in the city at Black Pearl, and more meat shops than you can shake a Kulbasa at
MY North End greets me with one of the best views in the city every time I cross the Slaw Rebchuk - sunset behind the Arlington Bridge could be on a postcard
MY North End has industrious, hardworking citizens from all races and backgrounds
MY North End still has the most affordable housing in the city which has allowed many people to get their start on the property ladder, not all of those people leave as soon as they get the chance
MY North End has church dinners, bake and craft sales just like your neighbourhood does
MY North End has shops within walking distance and it's possible to live without a car - bus routes aplenty
MY North End has history on literally almost every corner

Yes, MY North End also has some criminals and there a more theories than there are perogies at an all you can eat fundraiser as to how to solve those problems. I am one person, and I've decided that they way I will help the North End is to love it. Love it unconditionally and when it stumbles, love it more. If the rest of Winnipeg, and the negative Nellie's in the North End itself would stop kicking and whipping it, eventually it might just stop attacking back. Negativity breeds negativity. Come visit and let me show you MY North End, it's a beautiful place.

Call me a prude but....

...I would think most people would prefer to buy their sex toys and games from the privacy of their own home. And of course being Winnipeggers, we would want to price compare - you can't beat online shopping for that!

I'm referring of course to the announcement that Discreet Boutique is closing their doors. According to the article in the FreeP the owner is blaming the demise on "harassment from downtown panhandlers". Downtown pandhandlers have been all over the news lately, scaring away Air Canada employees from their hotels is another of their trademarks, perhaps if only those cranky uptight Air Canada employees had been able to make it to Discreet Boutique to purchase some "relaxation aids" then we might not even be in the position of them talking about striking (as usual). My disdain for the general attitude of Air Canada employees aside, I just find it hard to believe that panhandlers have scared away all the delicate flowers wanting to purchase sex toys in Winnipeg.

In Winnipeg, where local gossip travelled at the speed of light (okay, maybe the speed of a cross-town bus) long before facebook, if you were buying something at DB with that gift certificate that you won at a social to get your rocks off, chances are, someone saw you; that's one of the drawbacks endearing qualities of a city like Winnipeg. Zero anonymity. I mean, most of us have probably stopped in to DB at some point, or maybe you just went to Dominion News as a giggling teenager to look at the various wiggling battery operated devices, or for the truly less adventurous, the 80's/90's mall staple - San Francisco. On a side note, did you know that Dominion News sells, y'know, like magazines? I went in there quasi-recently to find a small print magazine - totally forgot to look for dildos while I was there - maybe they don't even carry them anymore?!

We live in a society that doesn't freely talk about sex and masturbation, it's just not what we do for the most part. While respectable men and women, rich and poor may have shopped at DB over the years, the freedom to discreetly shop for these things from home on the internet without accidentally running into another mom from the PTA bakesale was probably what killed DB off rather than  the panhandlers. I mean, if you're willing to risk everyone in Winnipeg finding out what your sexual predilections are, then someone asking you for a dollar isn't going to keep you away.

WAR ZONE!!! Uh, probably not.

I, like many Winnipeggers was born and raised here.  I mean, I love it here, but fair enough if I was from somewhere else I would probably need a pretty compelling reason to move here, and that's mostly because of winter, not any other reason.

With the election happening tomorrow, and I dare say I'm looking forward to regular commercials on the radio again, there has been a lot of talk about crime in particular. Well, that and health care, but I know nothing about health care really, so I'll focus on crime. This morning as I hit the snooze button one last time I caught a snippet of  John Vernaus, the PC candidate for Point Douglas telling me I live in war zone. A war zone? Really? Again, I'm very lucky to have grown up in Winnipeg, a city smack dab in the middle of one of the best countries in the world to live in, so I have been very blessed to have never actually seen war, or so I thought, so maybe I have the details wrong on what exactly war entails.

This just seems so insulting to so many people - all around the world and immigrants who have come to Winnipeg to escape real wars at home. Wars where hundreds of people might be killed in a certain day. Innocent bystanders killed by bomb blasts on a regular basis. People murdered because of their religion or skin colour, murdered by strangers - not wannabe gangbangers playing what they seem to think is a video game. I guess I don't know for sure, but I would be surprised if a soldier who has returned to Winnipeg from serving in Afghanistan feels as though they haven't left a war.

Yes, Winnipeg is on track to rack up the most murders ever this year, but I don't think that the average person needs to quake in their boots about it; and I don't think putting 50 new police officers or whatever your party is promising on the beat would have changed the murder count one bit. Money for youth programming so that maybe these youths who are committing these crimes don't end up criminals in the first place? Yup, I'll buy that. But how would those 50 officers have saved the lady from the suburbs who was killed and stuffed in the trunk of her car? Or the grandmother who was killed by her granddaughter, or stopped the woman who set fire to the house on Austin St. and killed multiple people? Or even the 15 year old stabbed to death - unless they were there at exactly the right moment, it still would have happened. I'm pretty sure that all other conditions (the mindset of the murderers in particular would likely not have changed if a different party was in power) remaining the same that Winnipeg would have the exact same number of murders no matter what political party had been in power for the last 4 years.

Back to me living in a war zone, well, based on recent events I live in the epicenter of this war we are having and I imagine folks who are living in a real war zone would trade me places one million times over - this weekend I saw families having BBQ's and children playing in the streets and not one person being persecuted or killed for their beliefs. Even compared to the London riots in August, for which likening that to a war zone may have been closer to the truth, we really have little to complain about.

So, John Vernaus, please do not tell people that I live in a war zone, it is insulting to the survivors of war and the residents of the community that you hope to be elected in. Your commercial has only served to perpetuate the negative beliefs about a community that is indeed wounded but that will bounce back because it is filled with hardworking, resilient, caring people.

Okay people, if you didn't already vote at one of the ridiculously accessible advance polls, don't forget to get your vote on tomorrow, starting at *shudder* 7am!

It's my birthday - what can I get for free?

This post will serve as both a mini-rant and a genuine post. Being a Winnipegger, I of course love free things. However, as someone who has spent years working in the service industry, I hate people who just want free stuff because it's their birthday. I mean, really, it should be your mom that gets something free - she's the one who had a tough day xx years ago. As a server, there is almost nothing that you dread more than a squeal coming from the table and someone saying "like, omg, it's his birthday, do you guys like do anything for birthdays???!!" Assuming it's someone middle aged, the omg and like can be omitted, but the vibe is the same. The more the table expects you to do for them is directly related to what they are likely to tip. For example, the table that wants you to dress up and play some silly character that's part of a running joke (this really happened to me, and yes, I went along because in theory it should have paid off well for me) and sing/dance/give free everything will tip 7-10% if you're lucky. The table that quietly celebrates a birthday complete with cards/presents etc. but never specifically tells the server that it's someones birthday - probably more in the range of 15-20%. Yes Winnipeg, 15-20%. Get over it. That is what it's supposed to be. Not 10%. However the longer version of this rant is for another post.

So, tomorrow I celebrate being 29 with yet another year of experience (although, 23 was my favourite year so I prefer to pretend I'm holding there) and I'll be darned if I can think of where to get me some free birthday goodies. Of course all the chain restaurants will do something - Montana's would make me wear the cootie infested moose horns and sing and give me some sort of dessert if memory serves, CRApplebee's would also make their poor servers sing and bring me dessert, Old Spaghetti Factory same deal. Tony Roma's is slightly more clever, they give you a card to come back for a free appetizer on your NEXT visit, and The Keg, my general exception to my I hate chain restaurant rule, would give me a slice of their fantastic Billy Miner Pie. If I was in North Dakota I could visit every Manitobans favourite quasi-Mexican restaurant, Paradiso. Paradiso gets points from a server standpoint for only providing free dinner on the actual day of your birthday, ID required - I don't know if you've noticed, but on Friday/Saturday night at a chain restaurants it's EVERYONE'S birthday.... coincidence? Not likely.

One of my absolute favourite places in the city to nosh, fude, also does a free birthday dinner, but I keep putting off joining their VIP club thing (which you need to do) because my friends are all to cheap frugal practical cheap to ever want to eat there on a regular basis, so I always figure I won't get to take advantage of it. I seem to recall a few years ago that a car wash somewhere in the South End would give you a free car wash on your birthday, and I think Dutch Maid did free ice cream.


It seems to me that years ago there were a lot more places that offered something free on your birthday, maybe I'm wrong, please comment if you know of one that I have missed, or a favourite from days gone by. In any case, tomorrow, I'll be the one opening presents (hopefully) with a great group of friends who unless they wish for death, will not dare mention my birthday to the server. If that establishment offers something for birthday folk and the server takes it upon his or herself to provide it - so be it (and a bigger tip).

So what is the moral of this post? Well, basically if there is free stuff out there because it's your birthday, obviously take advantage of it, after all, it would almost be wrong as a Winnipegger not to; however, don't be obnoxious about it, take your free stuff with no singing and dancing (the staff will appreciate it, you're not 7 years old after all) and tip appropriately and we can all get along :)

...now onto some pre-birthday Bailiey's....

Sofa King many things I could say about this...

Let's start with kudos for the juvenile joke in the name - I amuse easily, so points for that. If you do not have the sense of humour of a 13 year old*, say the title of my blog post reeeeeeeeeeal fast. However, you would think that the Sofa King, would sell, oh, I don't know.... sofas? The sign went up on this Selkirk building a few months ago and a bit of busy work seemed to happen, but now all has grinded to a halt.

Selkirk Avenue could certainly use some real storefront retail businesses, and a furniture store would be an alright addition I guess. I mean, there's Gill's in the old ice cream place on Salter just south of Selkirk and still two side by side furniture places on Main (the old Kern-Hill store and the space next to it, incidentally owned by the same people as Sofa King, based on the website address) so we don't really need another one, but I suppose at least it's not a social service agency.  Windows and doors (as the Sofa King claims to sell)? Well, since the majority of the population in the immediate neighbourhood are renters, I don't know how useful that is either.

Do you know what I wish for on Selkirk Ave? Sofa King many other things besides another storage space for a business that has an amusingly inaccurate website. No really, go to www.oxfordwholesale.com - it is a far cry from the reality of their retail space on Main. I think they spent Sofa King much money on the website that depicts a furniture store that exists only in their mind that they are Sofa King broke that they don't have much money for Sofa King's castle on Selkirk. I'd be Sofa King mad if I were the Sofa King.

Oh, one last thing and then I'm Sofa King done this post, it's the long weekend and I have things to do, people to see (ok, not really, but it sounds better than saying I'm repainting my rental). I'm Sofa King confused as to why if the Sofa King is a window and door place that they have broken old windows. Just saying.

*Note to readers: Winnipeg Girl is not actually a 13 year old boy who spends all of his time looking on the internet for dick and fart jokes, she just seems that way today.

Spring has sprung

For better or worse (mostly better) I think it is safe to say that spring has arrived!  It looks like 3 of the 4 mini lilacs that I planted last year survived the winter, the fourth may still pull through, so that is nice. The trees have wee little buds on them and although not really a huge fan of rain on the weekends, the snow/rain of the first weekend in May and then the rain of this past one seem to be doing wonders for greening things up.

A big heartfelt thanks to the folks who came out on Saturday for the St. John's Clean-up; two of the people I coerced into coming out won prizes (besides the obvious prize of my charming company) for their valiant efforts. I was also able to make sure my street probably got the most thorough cleaning, although that being said, it took 5 people two hours to clean just the front of about 6 blocks - the back lanes didn't even have a chance to get touched.

Spring is a great season because there is so much hope in the air; you see folks who you never normally see out in their yards cleaning up, wanting a fresh start and you can't help but feel like this is the year it's all going to be different. Sadly, in a few weeks, once the grass starts to grow much of the hope gets abandoned and too many people just give up again. With absolutely no scientific evidence behind this statement I think spring is the best time to suss out the absolute rottenest apples in the neighbourhood - if they can't be bothered in spring, if they don't have that initial burst of pride in their surroundings then there is basically no hope.

The house I was having a bit of a dilemma with has sprouted two broken windows since my last post, which can only lead to trouble. That being said, if only arsonists took requests.... It's one in a cluster of no so great houses, but there is hope on the horizon - I hear through the neighbourhood grapevine that the owner is thinking of tearing it down to build a nice shiny new house. Combine that with the other houses that are hopefully going to get some fix-up orders from the City and Voila! all should be good with one little section of the North End again.

Spring also means flowers. Oh how I love flowers! If you need flowers, please skip the Home Depot's and Wal-marts of the world and pick them up at a little family owned garden centre - I suggest the Jolly Green Thumb at 6905 Roblin Blvd - it's only about 100m outside the Perimeter, but there are dozens of them all around the city. Since Mother's Day came about as early as it can and spring has come about as late as it can come this year I didn't have my flowers out in time to have them stolen re-gifted to someone's mother. I know flowers get stolen in all part of town, if I had better googling skills you'd have links to the articles that have made the papers, so this isn't just another plague of the North End, but let me tell ya, it sucks when it happens.

Spring also means the neighbourhood gets a little rowdier. I'm at an awkward age - I'm very much an adult but not so old that I don't still almost remember what it's like to be a teenager. Being a homeowner makes the fist shaking "kids these days..." old person come out a lot but I try to remember that some of the stuff the kids are up to here is no worse than what we got up to in the suburbs. It doesn't make the petty vandalism or theft feel any better but I know that most of the kids I grew up with turned into mostly functioning members of society regardless of if they stole a garden gnome or two when they were young. 

Firecrackers were going off with abundance this weekend, which I hate mostly because they always turn into tales of "gunshots all the time" by "a neighbour who didn't want to be named" in the paper later on when they are reporting on some other crime. We used to do that in the suburbs a lot too, it was a big thing in the late 80's/early 90's to bring a bucketload of firecrackers back from the States (was it legal then? I'm so confused, because EVERYONE seemed to have them but now you can't bring them back, what gives?) and we'd shoot them off. So I mostly hate them not because life has come full circle and I am now the cranky adult but because every time I hear one I see a quote.

I am also excited for spring as it means outdoor projects can get underway for the year. Last year I painted the house (still hoping Google street view will come back for a new shot of the place!) and this year I am putting in a new sidewalk. One of the best things about living in the North End is that I got double the house at half the price so I get do way more projects than if I had bought elsewhere. Even with how property values have skyrocketed the North End is one of your best bets for value for money and a chance to be able to afford to personalize.

So now that spring is here, bring on summer!

It's all relative

*Reminder! Tomorrow, Saturday April 30th, 1 to 4pm, is the Community Clean-up in the West End. There are numerous starting points, the old Library (Ellice at Arlington) being one, see you there!*

So today I had occasion to spend a lot of time in one of Winnipeg's more marginalized neighbourhoods. But Winnipeg Girl, don't you live in a neighbourhood just like that? Good memory dear reader, why yes I do! However, I was in a neighbouring area and a few streets in that particular area made me feel an erroneous sense of superiority if even for a brief minute.

People are like that. In general we have ideas (right or wrong) in our heads as to what a particular neighbourhood is like and we make assumptions based on that. As I was on my very very long tour of said area I scolded myself for being a touch snobby, and I realized it's all relative. When I grew up in my extremely socially acceptable postal code and went to my sufficiently snobby high school I lived in the house that was the bane of the neighbour's existence. The grass didn't get mowed, the garbage cans didn't get taken in after garbage day, and at one point we had a goat in the backyard. No really, we did. For the record, I am adopted and am mortified to this day over the actions of my parents, but I digress.

Now, otherwise the house was in good repair, the eavestroughs were up and functional, the paint wasn't peeling and we didn't have any broken windows, nor did we run drugs out the back door (of course in the suburbs that would be tough without the back lanes), these are all pretty common things in my current area. I recently had a friend over from London, England - you know the place you are all PVRing to watch the nuptials of Kate and William (oh the Royal Wedding! How exciting! What an obvious attempt at tricking random googling folks into reading my blog!) and she was completely surprised that I live in the worst* part of town. Had I not informed her she would have thought I lived in a fairly average area. Why? Because dropped in London, my street would be pretty close to average. Some houses need repair, some look cute and tidy, garbage everywhere... If you've never been to London it's baffling how dirty it is - in EVERY part of town.

So now that I live in a not so great part of town (or so the media tells me), my perceptions have changed a bit. However, to a person from the suburbs the subtle differences between where I live and a "worse" part may not be so obvious. But Winnipeg Girl, what is with your hate-on for "the suburbs"?? Nothing really, but it's easier than singling out one particular neighbourhood, and hey, I know it'll take at least a 1/2 hour to get here if any of them want to come after me. Ba dum dum ching!

Now that being said, just because you live in a not so great place is not an excuse to treat it poorly, two wrongs don't make a right. I saw some absolutely great looking rooming houses today and they looked that way in part because the tenants chose to care. I also saw some very scary looking houses that were probably owner occupied.

So I will finally bring myself around to a genuine point of sorts. Yes, Winnipeg has some absolutely deplorable housing and people live in it, for any number of reasons. Maybe they came from a place that had no indoor plumbing and a housing stock that is even worse and that house you call a slum is an improvement. Maybe they were homeless. If you think about it, it's all relative.


*to be fair, I usually say I live in the medium worst part of the worst part of town, I don't deserve the street cred for living in the totally worst part of town.

I made a smaller difference this time, but it still counts!

Fresh off the high of seeing a house transform from derelict to delightful, I got to come face to face with Uncle Murphy.  Yup, him of "Murphy's Law" fame (not to be confused with Murphy Brown, a fine television show from the 80's/90's). See, after my Geography post I've been trying to keep an eye out for crime being mislabeled as having happened in the North End and of course it hasn't happened.  But then today it did.

Barry Burns, if you're out there, sorry for the rushed semi-irate phone call that you got this afternoon - I was in the process of running from one job to the other and didn't have time for pleasantries - I just needed to get the word out.  During the 4:30 news update I was shocked to hear that the triple homicide that happened on  Alexander Avenue in March 2008, was located in the North End.  I know that Alexander Avenue is a pretty long street, but at no point does it cross the CPR tracks and venture into the North End.

Now, I never saw what CJOB had up on their website earlier in the day, it sure does say Weston now,as did a news update at 11:00pm (it may well have changed by the 5 o'clock update, but I was at work so I have no way of knowing).  Was it just a slip of the tongue? I don't think so, because when I first stated that Alexander is not in the North End his response was "it's not?" or something to that effect, as opposed to agreeing with me. So my smaller success of the day is that I've hopefully scared a suburbanite away from a different neighbourhood instead of the North End (sorry Weston!) and that I got a media outlet to polish their reporting just a touch.  Okay, not that I actually want suburbanites to be scared, but it couldn't hurt for them to hear the word murder followed by something else besides North End.

Sorry for the multiple posts in one day - I would have stored them up but they all just had to be shared - must be the warm weather thawing out my brain!