Latest news with #Durand-Wood
Winnipeg Free Press
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘Felt great, but also unremarkable:' pedestrians cross Portage and Main as city preps for official opening
The barricades are down at Portage Avenue and Main Street and Winnipeg's landmark intersection will soon be officially open to pedestrian traffic for the first time in more than four decades. No longer will pedestrians be forced to walk an additional block, or divert through an underground concourse, to cross the street. Friday morning rush hour was in full force as construction crews cleaned the last bits of dust and debris from newly finished sidewalk crossings on all four corners of the intersection. By 8 a.m., a small crowd of supporters had already gathered in anticipation of an official opening ceremony to be led by Mayor Scott Gillingham around 10:30 a.m. Construction crews remove the last of the barriers while impatient pedestrians cross the street at Portage Avenue and Main Street just hours before the crosswalks officially open Friday morning. (Mike Deal / Free Press) 'This intersection being closed has been such a chasm or an abyss in the middle of the city. Really, it just takes away from people being able to move,' said Emma Durand-Wood, a proponent of the Vote Open movement which has long advocated for removing the concrete barriers. 'It's just crazy that it was so difficult to (cross), and you'd be forced down into these kind of bunkers that smelled like urine and just so unpleasant.' Durand-Wood had her two children and bicycle in tow as she mingled with Vote Open supporters and other bystanders. The small crowd cheered on pedestrians who were already walking the intersection, stepping past temporary orange barricades and seizing the opportunity to cross between traffic signals. 'I already crossed last night,' Durand-Wood admitted, smiling. 'It felt great, but also, like, completely unremarkable.' When the intersection closed to pedestrian traffic in 1979, it was billed as a way to revitalize Winnipeg's downtown and streamline vehicle traffic through one of its busiest interchanges. Debate over whether to open the intersection has continued for years. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. In 2014, then-mayoral candidate Brian Bowman pledged to re-introduce foot traffic to Portage and Main during his election campaign. That move was later halted after the results of a 2018 plebiscite, in which two-thirds of voters rejected the reopening. A pedestrian crosses at Portage Avenue and Main Street on Friday morning.(Mike Deal / Free Press) The debate was settled in recent years, after a city report estimated it would cost $73 million to replace a leaky membrane protecting the underground concourse. Over the past several months, the large concrete barriers that corralled pedestrians away from the intersection have been removed. In their place, the city has installed new curbsides, crosswalks and electronic crossing signals which — although currently covered — will be unveiled after the mayor says a few words. More to come. Tyler SearleReporter Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press's city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic's creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler. Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Emerging authors land $10K prize to kickstart career
The Writers' Trust of Canada has announced the winners in three categories of the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, which aims to help developing authors land a book deal and further their work. Vancouver author Jess Goldman won the short fiction award for the story Tombstone of a Tsaddik, beating out Toronto's Alexis Lachaîne and Victoria's Hana Mason. In the creative non-fiction category, the top spot went to Toronto's Phillip Dwight Morgan for White Trucks and Mergansers; Morgan beat out fellow Torontonians Graham Slaughter and Huyen Trân. And in the poetry category, Vancouver author Dora Prieto took top honours for Loose Threads, besting Vancouver's Cicely Grace and Saskatchewan's Nicole Mae. Each of the winners receives $10,000, are invited to networking events and have their work published in both print and digital formats. For more about the authors and to read their submissions, see ● ● ● The Forks Market launches a new literary series on Friday with a discussion about Winnipeg, affordability and more. The first instalment of the Lectures and Lagers series kicks off at 6 p.m. with Michel Durand-Wood, author of You'll Pay for This! How We Can Afford a Great City for Everyone, Forever, published by Great Plains Press. The event, which takes place in the second-floor event space at The Forks Market, will see Durand-Wood read from the book and then take part in a Q&A with Johanna Hurme of 5468796 Architecture. Registration is required, with a suggested donation of $20; Durand-Wood's book can also be purchased through the registration page, which is at The lagers of said event (as well as ales, wine and non-alcoholic beverages) will be available for purchase from an on-site mobile bar. Buy on ● ● ● Spring book launches at McNally Robinson Booksellers' Grant Park location are in the final stretch before the quieter summer months set in. On Wednesday at 7 p.m., Winnipeg educator and filmmaker Kevin Nikkel launches Founding Folks: An Oral History of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, published by University of Manitoba Press, which includes interviews with folk fest staff, volunteers and performers. The event will be hosted by David Knipe and will feature the musical stylings of Big Dave McLean. On Friday, Nikkel's documentary about the Winnipeg Folk Festival, When We Became Folk Fest, opens at the Dave Barber Cinematheque (100 Arthur St.); the opening-night screening will be followed by a Q&A featuring Nikkel and Winnipeg music historian John Einarson. Buy on Back at McNally Robinson, on Thursday at 7 p.m. York University English Prof. Robert Zacharias launches In Search of a Mennonite Imagination: Key Texts in Mennonite Literary Criticism, published by CMU Press. The essay and review collection, edited by Zacharias, compiles over 50 pieces of writing from 44 authors spanning more than 150 years; Zacharias also provides an introduction to the book as well as to many of the pieces of writing in the book. Buy on Then on Friday at 7 p.m., Manitoba sheep farmer and wool mill owner Anna Hunter launches her book The True Cost of Wool: A Vision for Revitalizing the Canadian Industry, published by Nine Ten Publications. Hunter examines how the Canadian wool industry has changed over the decades, and how Canada could rebuild a local wool industry to the benefit of farmers, consumers and the environment. Buy on books@ Ben SigurdsonLiterary editor, drinks writer Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press's literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben. In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press's editing team before being posted online or published in print. It's part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
