Next thing you know we will get a Starbucks...

Well. The news is in.
Never has a store opening excited me this much. Oh, IKEA was great, I even got a sneak preview, but this, THIS is epic.

What could be getting me, generally against chains, quite so excited?

First, let's talk about the location of this new store. Salter St. and Flora Ave. Arguably the absolute core of Winnipeg's infamous North End. So, what have we got at that corner? Well, there is a grubby feeling Esso/Laundromat, Children of the Earth High School, Gill's Furniture Warehouse and, up until recently, a Petro Canada gas station with perpetually for sale fried chicken business inside.

Quite a few months ago they started what seemed to be dismantling the Petro Canada (the gas price on the sign last read 129.9 if that gives you an idea when it shut down). Only recently did it become obvious that it wasn't a complete tear down, but rather a massive renovation.

Then, the other day, this:

I literally cheered out loud as I drove by the sign.

Now, 7-11 is not without its faults, it truly is a convenience food store - should you want anything remotely healthy be prepared to pay through the nose for it. However, they are clean, their milk is always in date and they adhere to the maximum milk prices set out by the Province.

Oh, and they have SLURPEES.

I don't know how you missed it if you're a regular reader of my blog, but I bloody well love Slurpees. I can't explain it.  Otherwise I'm quite normal (ok, not really, but I can skip most of the things that other people can't live without and I'm indifferent to regular pop). 7-11 has always been my first stop when travelling to get a sense of what basics like bottles of water (in places where you can't drink the tap water - bottled water is ridiculous otherwise) should cost; it sets a benchmark. They are always brightly lit, open and clean. Oh, and in Thailand, serve as an excellent bill-breaker for those ridiculous 500 and 1000 Thai baht notes that no one else will accept.

What else does this say? Well, I think it demonstrates that the North End has come a long way. Many years ago there was a 7-11 at the corner of Salter and Aberdeen (now a mom and pop convenience store) but it closed, if I had to hazard a guess it was probably because between shoplifting and robbery it wasn't a profitable location. The fact that they are setting up shop again tells me that perhaps the North End is turning a corner in the minds of people who analyze risk for a living.

So, rarely will you see me quite so excited about a big corporate store opening up shop, but since I buy about 80% of my milk at 7-11 (in one litre containers only, otherwise their prices are absurd) and 100% of my Frozen Carbonated Beverages (tee hee, that's the generic name for Slurpees) there and it's perfectly placed to be a pit stop on my way home if I've headed south, I am over the moon!

Oh, and to any of you negative Nancys who are making snide comments about poor people/large sized people etc, just remember, it's a 7-11 deep in the heart of Southern Suburbia that sells the most Slurpees every year.

Port-a-potty

You may not know it, but the simple port-a-potty can almost complete sum up why you don't need to automatically be afraid of the North End.

Last week the City started some sort of project on the street next to my house. Despite the fact that in stereotypical fashion there seemed to be one worker for every three guys standing around supervisor, and that actual hours worked didn't seem to be too many, they brought in a port-a-potty, or port-a-john if you prefer (port-a-loo if you're British!)

And then they left it there.

All week and weekend.

Now, much of the bad stuff that happens here in the North End is the result of teenagers with not much else to do. Arguably, some of that could be fixed with increased funding to recreation programs, family programs, housing allowances (so that they actually have a space of their own wherever they are living - nothing says get me out of the house like sharing a bedroom with your siblings!) and on and on and on.

Of course, sometimes, teenagers are just going to get up to no good because that's what teenagers do. As I've mentioned before, I grew up in a relatively privileged part of town, so much so that new McMansions were built in a former deer-filled meadow across the street from me.

With construction workers on site for months at a time, they needed somewhere to relieve themselves. Enter the port-a-potty.

Watch the bored suburban teenagers burn it down. I did. My bedroom window had a perfect view of it.

Goodness knows this wasn't the only act of vandalism that happened while I grew up in the 'burbs, but to this day I can't see a port-a-potty without thinking of the pile of melted plastic and uh, other stuff, that it turned into.

Moral of the story? Bored, under-supervised youth get into trouble in every part of town; it just doesn't always make the news. Much of what happens here in the North End is "typical" bored teenager stuff, not quake-in-your-boots-lock-your-car-doors-when-driving-through sort of stuff.

*Note - the port-a-potty was gone this morning, and not because anyone burned it down, tipped it over etc. We will chalk that one up in the "win" column :)

Here I go again...

In a post that ties in with my last one about boundaries and how they relate to the perceptions of crime in this city, I have another example of how the media often gives a negative bias to the North End. In this article from the Free Press on Saturday, there were 6 fire incidents reported (well, 8, but two were 2-for-1 deals). The two fires that were OUTSIDE of the North End simply had their approximate address given, no neighbourhood. 3 were listed giving both the xxx-block of xxx AND pointed out that was in the North End, and one was listed as being in Shaugnessy Park (so, they do get points for not calling it the North End, since, y'know, it wasn't).

I've taken the liberty of tweaking this article for the Free Press.

THERE were two house fires and six garage fires in the city overnight Friday.
The first fire broke out in the 400 block of Boyd Avenue in the North End St. John's in a garage late Thursday, causing $8,000 in damage. This was followed by a fire at a home in the 1300 block of Raleigh Street in Munroe West at around 12:40 a.m. There was a total of $20,000 in damage to the home and contents.
Hours later, police were called to a garage and shed fires on Magnus Avenue in the Shaughnessy Park area at around 2 a.m.
An hour later, another fire broke out in a home in the 600 block of Selkirk Avenue in the North End William Whyte* (*could have been Dufferin, depends what side of the street it was), causing $80,000 in damage. Soon after, at around 3:30 a.m., there was another garage fire in the 100 block of Enfield Crescent in Norwood, causing a total of $35,000 in damage.
At around 6 a.m., firefighters were called to another two garage fires in the 200 block of Pritchard Avenue in the North End William Whyte. The total damage from the first fire was $10,000, while there was no damage estimate available for the second.
No one was injured.

Of course, it also could have been written in a more simple way that would force those hell bent on coming up with a negative attitude towards a particular area to do some research:

THERE were two house fires and six garage fires in the city overnight Friday.
The first fire broke out in the 400 block of Boyd Avenue in the North End in a garage late Thursday, causing $8,000 in damage. This was followed by a fire at a home in the 1300 block of Raleigh Street at around 12:40 a.m. There was a total of $20,000 in damage to the home and contents.
Hours later, police were called to a garage and shed fires on  in the XXX block(s) of Magnus Avenue in the Shaughnessy Park area at around 2 a.m.
An hour later, another fire broke out in a home in the 600 block of Selkirk Avenue in the North End, causing $80,000 in damage. Soon after, at around 3:30 a.m., there was another garage fire in the 100 block of Enfield Crescent, causing a total of $35,000 in damage.
At around 6 a.m., firefighters were called to another two garage fires in the 200 block of Pritchard Avenue in the North End. The total damage from the first fire was $10,000, while there was no damage estimate available for the second.
No one was injured.

 See how easy that was to stop shouting NORTH END?  I am no dummy, I know there is crime here, and I'm not against it being reported; the crimes are a fact, facts should be reported. All I ask is that in a city already so biased against a particular part of town is that the media don't fuel the fire. As you just read, we have enough of them here already.

Boundaries

Sigh. Well, looks like the North End is to blame again, even when it isn't. By now you've all heard about the story about the puppy found in a dumpster, but what I bet you didn't know is that Jefferson Ave. is in the North End. That's because it isn't. Although according to the Free Press story it is.

A little Rayne never hurt anyone, so why would someone toss the cute little puppy into a city Dumpster?
That's what staff at Winnipeg's Animal Services Agency -- and a whole bunch of Free Press online commenters -- are asking after the eight-week-old shepherd-collie mix was found wet and cold in a North End Dumpster last week.

...

Rayne was given medical care and vitamins, and "(has) been eating a lot while she's been here," said Gordon, noting the puppy has gained a pound in the few days since she was found in a dumpster on Jefferson Avenue.

Now, admittedly, I'm more sensitive to these sorts of things and although it would be hypocritical of me not to complain if this was a positive news story that was being pegged as the North End if it happened on Jefferson, I don't think that kind of mix-up generally happens the other way around. I don't know where exactly on Jefferson Rayne was found, but it was likely somewhere in West Kildonan or The Maples, NOT the North End.

However, I do have a North End quick story for ya. So last night, after finally falling asleep (I've somehow injured my rotator cuff I think, and boy, does it make everything uncomfortable, especially sleeping!) I was jolted back to life by a hard and fast pounding on the front door. My roommate was first to answer it, but it appears the police had been led to believe that someone at my residence was being stabbed. No idea where they got this thought, but they seemed content with my roommate's simple, "um, no" and went on their way, waking neighbours up across the street, trying to find a stabbing in progress. 5 police cars later, they all left, not having been able to figure out who was being stabbed. My roommate wondered as to where our "regular" cops were - the ones who have come to take statements on more than one occasion.  Must've been their night off.

Set the counter back to zero

Sigh. Well, we almost went a year without a murder on my street. Actually, I suppose if I want to be technical, it sounds like the 15 year old who was murdered a couple weeks ago was ultimately stabbed on my street as well, but the media was kind enough to primarily report the incident as being at College and Aikins; although, I suppose with my obsession with the media labelling neighbourhoods correctly in their news stories that is a touch hypocritical, but hey, my blog my rules ;)

Now, the police are being extraordinarily tight lipped with further details regarding the incident on Saturday night, and in one article I read apparently the RCMP had also been by the crime scene. I wonder if this means it's tied to one of the big gangs, with Canada wide ties, rather than the kid stuff we normally see in the North End? When the police were going door to door earlier in the summer to advise folks that there were gang members in the community, to which my reaction was along the lines of "Really??? Oh my goodness, I had no idea!!" (*insert sarcasm font between quotations), I learned, that apparently we actually do have "real" gangsters lurking about the neighbourhood - not just the kid and misguided barely-adult gangsters. The kinds that ride on motor-bikes instead of pedal-bikes.

Of course they found the neighbour to quote for the paper who wants to move because now they are too afraid to leave their house and so on, that's good, I always worry if they haven't found that person, although the other neighbour who "always hears gunshots" didn't seem to be quoted (as per almost every murder story, especially those involving firearms), I sure hope that wasn't the person  that was found dead. More sarcasm aside, right now I just feel a little curious about the who and if we're lucky enough to find out, the why.

I don't think the incident makes me feel any less safe on my street, I guess I don't really know what it would take for me to feel less safe. When I was searching to see if they had released any more information on the crime or the victim, I came across a story from 2007, also a murder on my street, and that one was random, with the police saying that it was a case of mistaken identity. It's odd that I don't remember that event, and I wonder why it didn't stick in my mind. At that point I hadn't even lived on the street for all that long. Perhaps I naively believe I'm safer because I think it's extremely unlikely that anyone would ever mistake me for a gang member, a gangsters girlfriend or the girlfriend of a rival gang member; except when putting my garbage in the autobin whilst in my pj's I generally look very generically lower-middle class So no, incidents like the one a few weeks ago, this weekend, or even in 2007 don't really frighten me. If I was going to be completely honest, my biggest fear that might actually come true is getting mugged, but since although I dearly love my handbag, genuine leather and all (I'm cheap and it was a treat to myself!) I would likely give it up in exchange for my safety. I also of course realize that sometimes that's how murders where a victim and culprit don't know each other start out - something as simple as a mugging. I also admittedly take slightly more precautions when out for a walk here than perhaps I would in the 'burbs, no more cash than I need for wherever I'm walking to, heck, I usually just bring my trusty friend Visa, no sense needing to replace my whole wallet if something happened.

Of course, part of the not necessarily bringing the purse thing is because do you know what a pain those things are??? Seriously, I miss my teen angst days with my chain wallet and when the only key I needed was a house key - now, between work keys, car keys, other car keys, house keys... and then there's the phone. Back in the day I had no cell phone, so I didn't need somewhere to put it; I think that is half the reason I ended up with a purse. I met a 6 year old with a purse the other day - if only the poor girl knew the half of it; what's fun and playing grown-up now will just end up being a catch all for everything and anything and likely holding all of her husbands stuff too (oh yes, you men do that - mock our giant handbags and then give us stuff to put in them for you!). Of course if I was ever in a roving edition of Let's Make A Deal I would likely have whatever they were looking for.

Speaking of purses, I actually know two people who fell victim to having their purses stolen while at cemeteries this summer - those are thugs that will hopefully get what's coming to them. Yeesh. Well, I'm off to reset the Boyd Ave. murder counter, so long as I don't keep it in my purse I should hopefully be okay.

This just (not) in...

Well, Picnic in the Park seems to have been very well attended, I didn't hear visitor counts but the line for the free food (samosas, pork on a bun, sauerkraut perishke, apples and bannock) was as long indicating a good turn out. Locals were in luck because there was also an event just up the road at Mountain and McGregor hosted by the Manitoba Metis Federation (or so I believe) so they had their choice of family events.

Two events stand out from the time I spent at Picnic, neither of which made the news. The first, which actually happened later, is the type of even less likely to make the news, but was indicative of the aftermath of what was a very active "cheque day" here in the North End (I also wonder if cheque day played a role in the incident on Garfield). For those of you scratching your heads as to what cheque could possibly cause an entire neighbourhood to change dynamic, it's the same one you quite possibly got, the Child Tax Benefit (I think that's it's real name - I always think of it by its colloquial name, Baby Bonus Cheque). Unfortunately, when this cheque comes out in the North End, in particular in summer, the place actually resembles the place that suburbanites think exists all the time. Cheques that are intended to cover the extra costs associated with raising children all too frequently end up being spent on alcohol and other intoxicants. This is certainly not to say that this is the case with all North End families, however, like any stereotype, the roots stem from actual events, and a few bad apples definitely spoil the bunch.

Since this cheque day fell on a Friday, in summer, it was was bound to be more terrifying exciting eventful than some of the others. A friend who has been enumerating here in the neighbourhood stopped earlier in the day than usual because things were getting rowdy earlier than usual, the sirens more prolific throughout the night than usual, and the North End seems to have had more than its fair share of stories in the crime section. As a side note to that - this summer has been the most calm in years, or so it seems - even a glance at the headlines throughout this summer has had most of the crime happening in other places, refreshing for a change!

So back to my original story - there was an incident at Picnic involving a knife and a fight of some sort, which is a shame because it's a family event. I wasn't witness to the fight but I would be surprised if the participants didn't still have some of the effects from some imbibing from Friday night.  The other story, which I'm extremely surprised doesn't seem to have hit the news at all, was a dramatic river rescue. Okay, I've never seen another river rescue so I don't know if it was any more or less dramatic than usual but it seems that it should get the dramatic adjective.

Just around 830 Saturday morning, while we were setting things up for the Picnic, there was shouting coming from the direction of the Redwood Bridge. As we all know, shouting in these parts is fairly par for the course, so we didn't think too much of it. A few minutes later, sirens could be heard, ending at the bridge. Thinking that perhaps there was a fight or maybe someone threatening to jump, we continued about our business.  Next thing we knew, a guy came running down the river path with the police in hot pursuit. Then they passed him.  Confused as to what the situation was, we headed down to the river bank.  That's when we could see the head and waving arms and the guy we thought was being chased shouting to the river victim that help was on the way, to just hang on.

The police were nothing short of spectacular in their efforts to rescue the man, I was particularly impressed by the way they didn't hesitate to commandeer the rowboat attached to the docked MS River Rouge (man do my posts tie together nicely!) and attempt to row to save the man. As a spoiler (but a happy one), the man was rescued, so I can then comment on some of the amusing scenes that unfolded with the boys in blue. The officers that jumped in the rowboat looked nothing short of comical in their attempt to coordinate how exactly to row a boat and two of the officers who scrambled along the riverbank lost (and found) items off their belts and I couldn't help but think of those pesky taser cartridges. Another onlooker said that an officer fell in the water trying to get in the rowboat but I must've missed that.

So as the officers tried to row out to the man, who I was told by another man on scene who had run down the river path as well (and I believe was the person to call 911) that he had been in the water from at least Burrows, so didn't end up in the drink by the Redwood bridge after all. It was absolutely incredible how quickly the current moved and how far the man drifted in such a short amount of time.  Ultimately he was rescued (or at least certainly seemed to be - it was too far out at that point to see exactly what was going on) by a what looked like a police motorboat.

It strikes me as so odd that this didn't hit the news, not even as a blip; so here on my humble little blog I will give the shout out to the police officers involved for a job very well done, and despite my amusement at their attempt to row a boat (I'm thinking that the motorboat would have eventually had to "rescue" them as well, that's one heck of a strong current) they were nothing short of heroic in their attempts to save the life of a man who ended up in the river. I suppose we will all just have to guess at the rest of the details, like how and where he ended up in there in the first place.

When gunshots don't sound like gunshots

First some random housekeeping...

For the person who googled Root Beer Slurpee (a close second to Dr. Pepper) - if you're still looking, try the Sev in EK by Rona, just off Panet. They had them a week or two ago.

For the person looking for VW hubcaps - send me a message, I might have what you need if you didn't already find it. I, and most of my friends seem to hoard VW's.

For all of you that are looking for some variation of Winnipeg and h00kers (streets for h00kers in Winnipeg, Winnipeg h00kers, where to find Winnipeg h00kers and so on), please consider not looking in my residential part of the North End. I'm genuinely a little disturbed as to how many hits my blog gotten based on people who seem to be googling for h00kers.

To expand on a rant from way back when, Geography, where I expressed anger at negative news being attributed to the North End when it didn't belong there. At the time I didn't really have evidence that I could link to (as my own memory doesn't record details like dates and times that I get angry. Ok, well, now it does a bit more that I have a blog, but I digress...) so every time I come across something now, I try to add it to the list. So, Mike McIntyre, this one is for you. The intersection of Ross and Isabel is NOT in the North End. Thanks. While I'm thanking people, thanks to Winnipeg Cat for a daily chuckle and the link that led me to the story.


Oh, and the Wolseley project? Well, we're two weeks in and going strong. Only a little disturbance to the flowers and one lost due to natural causes.

Now on to my attention grabbing post headline...
Picture it, Saturday night in the North End. It was a nice enough night out, which generally means it's a little bit loud, but this past Saturday night was actually pretty quiet.  At one point, we'll say, maybe around 1130, I hear a series of noises that "sounded like gunshots". Or at least slightly less identifiable than most of the other noises that people claim sound like gunshots. For the record, most of the noises that are "gunshots all of the time" (see almost every story involving a shooting in the core area for this quote) are fireworks, backfiring cars, cars driving over glass bottles, cars driving over juice boxes, or pretty much any other noise besides gunshots. Of course, sometimes they are gunshots.

So Saturday night I hear a series of noises that didn't quite sound like the usual fireworks, but I wasn't really sure what they were either. Since there were no sirens immediately after I didn't really think about it too much. About half an hour or so after that, there was a loud BANG! sort of noise, but more like the sound two train cars make when they're joining up. I thought it sounded like it came from the government housing units across the street so I looked out the window, saw nothing of note, listened for a minute or so and went back to watching tv. Another minute or two later I heard the same sort of noise again so rushed to the window to try and figure out what the heck was going on. Was someone tipping over autobins again? There was not a soul in sight and no other noises to be heard. Back to my PVR I went.

About ten minutes later a vehicle tore down my street, like it was in a NASCAR race - it went by so fast that by the time I jumped up to see what kind of vehicle it was, it had already passed. I returned to the TV only to jump up like a jack in the box like 20 minutes later to the sound of a bunch of voices outside my window. This time I meandered outside to see what was going on. There were numerous cop cars milling about and the neighbours said there had been gunshots. Wait, you mean the banging noises half an hour ago?

Apparently. I wandered up to the next block where the most police activity was and asked one of the few officers who was not looking all over the ground with a flashlight, what was going on. I was asked if I heard anything, I repeated the above story and was very amusingly given a "ma'am, I can tell you that there has been a gun fired, perhaps it's best you return home". Eventually the intersection was closed off with police tape. Now, I can see most of that intersection from the window I was looking out, it can't be more than 50m from my house, and there were no people milling about after I heard the sound that didn't sound anything like what TV, Movies and my own one confirmed account of gunshots have told me that gunshots sound like.

Interestingly, right around the time they were closing off the street with police tape, about 25m to the other side of my house there was a number of cop cars all of a sudden and they had stopped a car and had 4 people down on the ground. I was led to believe (can't know for sure of course as the police tend to be tight-lipped on these sorts of things) that the two things were connected however the time delays between all of the events confuses me.

Oh, and Choppy (forgive me, I don't remember which blogger called the Police helicopter that, but it amuses me so I'm going to use it too) was there circling around for quite a while. Well surely an event of this magnitude made the papers and you're just desperately searching for where I've hidden the link to the article... nope. Nothing. Nada. No hint of a story.

I don't write this post to highlight yet another negative thing that has happened in the North End, I mean, I don't want to hide the negative either, but more to point out two things. One, we need more information from the Police. When something of this magnitude happens there should be a website that explains at least the basics so we can arm ourselves with the most powerful weapon out there - information. Perhaps a rule such as if more than XX cars are dispatched (I would say 4 is a good number) to a call, a brief summary should be made available to the public. Two, sometimes gunshots don't sound like gunshots.

An unusual dilemma

Those that know me (or read me) know that I'm usually pretty quick to report by-law violations, especially in rental properties. There is a property close to me, I've affectionately dubbed it the "drive by shooting house" due to an incident from a few years ago, that violates at least a few by-laws including missing eavestroughs, a questionable fence and through the neighbourhood gossip line I'm told that the basement is caving in on itself, among others.  Now, I've actually reported all of these violations before, in an Al Capone sort of way of dealing with problem tenants (getting the landlord to pay attention to his property and therefore being aware of his problem tenants because he's getting nasty notices from the City).

Now the dilemma ensues... the most recent batch of problem tenants have disappeared into the night. I'm pretty sure it was a midnight move and no idea what prompted it but it certainly wasn't at a "traditional" moving time of the 1st or the 15th. They've been gone for a while now and it's kind of nice - no garbage being thrown in the yard, no poor dog tied up and barking for hours at a time, no sketchy van coming and going 17 times in an afternoon (I run that many errands every day, don't you?). Oh, and I certainly miss the home visits by the Street Connections Van to that place - can't keep your yard clean, but hey, you're using clean needles - I suppose it's a start *eye roll*

So my dilemma is this: If I push the by-law issues, as I am currently not sure where they are at, I can likely have the house repaired. However, I have no idea where the landlord's head is at and if he even realizes yet that he has no tenants, and if he is suddenly (finally) forced to fix up the house he is probably going to want to have tenants living in the house to help pay for the repairs. In the past 5+ years there has yet to be one set of "good" (quiet, tidy) tenants in the place, I'm thinking that the next batch won't be great just because they have fancy new eavestroughs on the house...

I think I'm going to leave it for a while and push the issue again when there is bad tenants in there. The house may be unsightly but in theory it won't get worse quickly all on its own, however if a new batch of people move in there might be more problems than there are right now. This particular time I'm not going to chase down the by-law folks to make sure they are enforcing.

Updates! - because you want to know more

Well, I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for this post to finally come along.  First, let me say, would the snow just hurry up and melt?!  I can almost feel spring coming, it's peeking its head out, the city feels lighter, people were out without jackets on the weekend. As much as I know that we don't really need any more precipitation, I'm looking forward to rain to wash the dirt off.  I also have a bunch of outdoor projects I want to get started on, by the time I'm done this summer I'm going to need the folks at Google to send their little Street View car back so they capture a new shot!

So, first update - in my attempt to provide some sort of journalistic integrity to my little blog I have been waiting to pounce on the media for inappropriately labeling crime as having happened in the North End and cite specific examples.  Of course it I haven't managed to catch it since my Geography post, which is probably a case of Uncle Murphy interfering. However, as a glass half-full sort of person, I've decided that the Winnipeg media was just so ashamed of their previous villanization of the North End that they have corrected their ways. Oh, and a shout out to all the criminals for spreading it around a bit as well - multiple stabbings in one day and only one was in my neighbourhood!

I know you've all been dying to know what happened with my roof - well, it seems as though they are going to fix it and they came and shoveled the snow off. I'm also getting the plaster repaired inside, which is particularly long overdue in my house (and that will finally enable me to finish my sunroom off as it will not be missing half a wall as it is now).

What happened with the blue roof from that other house? Glad you asked!  It seems as though By-law enforcement has decided to revisit the issue and maybe, just maybe, it does violate the Neighbourhood Liveability By-law after all. Neat. Who would have guessed? *cheeky eye roll*

Some good news for the Inner City neighbourhoods - City Council decided not to adopt the motion that was made to cut the funding by $500,000.  It is still very interesting that less than 0.1% of the the City budget goes to Housing and I hope that this wasn't Council testing the waters for how the community would react if the funding was to be cut permanently.  Our aging housing stock needs more help not less.  While we're at it, MB Hydro really needs to expand their Lower Income Energy Efficiency Program (LIEEP)to include renters as they are likely the demographic that is hit hardest by high heating bills.  It's not an impossible thing for Hydro to do, it would just require an agreement similar to when landlords get funding for creating/maintaining affordable housing to continue to rent to families that meet the LIEEP criteria (which in disadvantaged neighbourhoods happens pretty much by default anyway).

That's it, that's all I've got folks. I spent most of the weekend pissing around with artfully tiling with mini mosaic tiles so I didn't really see or do any of the fabulous things that Winnipeg may have had to offer up.  I did however, consume 3 of the big clear cup Slurpee's - Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper at the Sev on Henderson at Harbison if anyone is looking for it - to be honest not much different than a regular Dr. Pepper Slurpee (nectar of the gods) Did you start your Spring Cleaning yet?

**Oh, and still looking for my picture of the ladies urinal**

Geography

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!

Crime

I read an article published in today's Winnipeg Free Press that made me perk up a little. Which is quite a feat today since I'm dosed up on Buckley's so that I can resemble a functioning adult.

For years it has irritated me that crime stats are sensationalized - yes, based on per capita, we have been the murder capital of Canada many times over. I know they have different categories for cities of various sizes when they come up with these statistics, but why don't people see how easily the statistics can be skewed, especially without context?

Using the biker murders in Shedden, Ontario as an example, I'm guessing that in 2006, Shedden was the murder capital of Canada for small towns. Now, was the average resident of Shedden quaking in their boots? Probably not. Obviously, a series of murders like that is an anomaly, however it would still go into the statistics. I personally wish the statistics could somehow be boiled down to show how many average folks had _______ crime happen to them.

For example, if a gang member is murdered by another gang member, it doesn't count. Now don't get all up in arms on me, I don't mean the person didn't count, but does the average citizen need to fear for their safety if gang members are killing each other? The same thing for domestic murders - if a husband murders his wife and kids, is the city as a whole, a more dangerous place?

The same thing applies to other sorts of crime as well; if 90% of sexual assault charges stem from prostitutes who have bad "dates" (I pulled that statistic out of thin air, merely for an example), should I, as someone who is not a prostitute be worried about being randomly sexually assaulted? I would much rather know how often a woman is sexually assaulted by a stranger while going about "normal" "low-risk" activities.

Basically, if you lead a lifestyle that is known to have these sorts of negative elements, you can expect more bad things will happen to you. This is not rocket science, it's common sense.

Remember, be careful, ALL crime ends on days that end in the letter "y" - now that's a scary statistic!