Musings on Winnipeg (by cockatiel_art)

[crowdog66]

cockatiel_art wrote this a couple of days ago, and I liked it so much that I asked her permission to reprint it here.

Musings on Winnipeg, by cockatiel_art

Winnipeg is an incredibly culture rich city. We're on the small side as cities go, but we have enough things and stores to put some of the larger cities to shame. We're said to be one of the most restaurant rich cities in canada, and our art gallery has the largest collection if Inuit art anywhere in the world. The scary thing is, the inuit collection keeps getting bigger! Our small ethnic communities, such as china town and little italy, are jam packed with stores and speciality shops that can keep you entertained for hours. It doesn't take days to see all the stores, but you come away, totally pleased and wanting to see the stores again ... and again and again. The cultures include Pakistani, Indian, Aboriginal. Chinese. Japanese. Filipino. French, British. Scottish. You name it and they're probably here. Their influence is seen everywhere, from individual homeowner's gardens to the paintings of political leaders splashed on living room windows. Churches spot the landscape, being influenced by everything from aboriginal teachings to being built by the numerous german or korean congregations in the city. The chinese and aboriginals are among the more common races. They walk side by side in the street, talking and joking. Sometimes you can find a restaurant run by a scottish fellow, while the entire cuisine is chinese. It's unfortunate that racism still exists in this town, but I feel that things have come a long way since the 50's, when the Natives couldn't vote in elections. It's very unfortunate that many, especially the natives, still live in poverty today. You still see them begging for coinage along side the street kids and skinny, scruffy men with torn and smelly clothes. They're a contradiction with those at the bus stops, where shoppers have their carts and bags, and are adorned with everything from multi coloured hair and piercings to old ladies with bonnets neatly tied up under chins.

Cars are everywhere. So are pedestrians. Downtown, as much as we complain, is alive and I feel the newly built MTS centre, where all the Moose Hockey games and concerts are held, has helped breathe life into the biggest city centre in the country. Buses usually run okay, and there's always a bus that runs to some tiny section of town that nobody has heard of. If you want to do some serious hanging around, there's several shopping malls to keep you busy. There's ST Vital Mall. It is by far the most interesting centre, with it's huge food court with fire places and wooden plant pots. Polo Park is the biggest mall in the city, but it has started showing its age. It still bears the aqua blue and spotted tiles from it's heyday in the 1980's. However, it has almost everything near it. There's three grocery stores a short walk away and a Chapters. There's no less than seven major restaurants and two A&Ws. There's the food court, with it's sea of plastic and metal seats and a tacky advertisement screen that you can watch if you really feel its necessary to kill brain cells. There's a Petland and a Spencer's. Spencer's is renown for it's funky do hickies and speciality jewellery. I find it's the best place to pick up my pagan jewellery! There's a few gothic style chalices and mirrors I'm eager to purchase them one day.

Then there's the tiny plazas around town that hold the various restaurants, such as Subway. There's one obscure chinese restaurant called Dim sum Cum, which is often joked about because of its overly erotic name. China town easily has some of the neatest shops, with the little resin chinese horoscope animals and the huge decorative kites that some places love to hang in their windows. In the summer you can find the occasional busker. There's several who you get to know, such as the fellow who used to play his bagpipe in full uniform, and the harmonica man with his portable amplifier and battered up chair. Sometimes you'll see the odd individual playing his guitar while waiting for the bus, and most will cock an ear to hear the tunes they may be playing.

Even odder are those who walk their pets downtown, or around the various vet hospitals in the city. There are several who have been spotted with their harnessed iguanas, or some, such as I, who regularly walks around with a mystery creature in a plastic carrier. If you ever carry a pet on city transit, you're guaranteed a conversation about the mystery critter in your possession. People are always astonished to hear that I have a bird or rat on hand. I find it amusing when my birds start to scream or call and everyone on the bus starts looking for the source of the mystery noise!

Then there's the art gallery and the park around the legislative building. It's full of beautiful statues of historical figures and monuments to the different individuals who have served our country at one time or another. As of this writing, we have a sea of painted, cememnt bears lining Broadway, which is one of Downtown Winnipeg's major streets. The bears are bright and most are friendly. One of my favorites is the bear sitting beside an actual bathtub with foam bubbles and actual glas soap containers!

Winnipeg can't be described without the Basilica in ST Boniface, which is home to Louis Reiel's grave. Louis is said to be the founder of my provence, Manitoba. Without him, the Metis would not have been recognised as a peoples unto themselves. Perhaps, without him, Manitoba would have never been hatched from sketches of dreams and onto the canvas of reality. I still think of him as a relative and a hero. He may have been considered a traitor during his time, but he worked hard for the Metis people to be recognized as a peoples unto themselves and he died in the process.

There's so much to this city that people seem to miss. I love it here. We're not New York, or Toronto, but I don't want Winnipeg to become that. I like our small stature, even though we have our faults. We're not perfect. No city is. But it's home. I want it to stay that way.