Wow! This Could Almost Be An Essay.
Yeah, I promised to tell you about Calgary in this post, but nothing much happened, except that I acquired an old Game Boy Color (released in '98). It's Green...ish.
In reflection of my travels I have come to the realization that Winnipeg really is a Minor league city. It's just the little things that I noticed while in Vancouver and Calgary. Three examples are public washrooms in the airports, the Public Transit system in Vancouver and the variety of newspapers.
The thing about the airport washrooms is that in Vancouver and Calgary, pretty much everything is equipped with motion sensors, so the toilets, urinals, faucets, soap dispensers, hand dryers, and paper towel dispensers are all fully automatic. Coming back home, the airport washrooms remind me of the dirty and disgusting washrooms in pool halls and arcades back in the '80s. When you realize that McDonald's has cleaner washrooms than the airport, it really opens your eyes. I'm hoping that this will be rectified by the planned expansion of Winnipeg Airport. Hoping, but not holding my breath.
With Vancouver's Transit system the two things that really impressed me were the the buses and the all day pass. The buses in Vancouver are very roomy, until it gets really packed. In Winnipeg, even an empty bus seems claustrophobic in comparison to a half full bus in Vancouver. One of the newer buses had leather seats! Well, maybe not leather, but damn the seats were comfy. As well, the buses in Vancouver had a small rack on the front of the bus with space for a couple of bikes, so even cyclists can use the bus if need be. And I really liked the idea of the all day pass, usable for the bus, skytrain and seabus. It sure beats the 1 hour transfer in Winnipeg. These 2 ideas are light years ahead of Winnipeg Transit.
In regards to the newspapers, I was amazed at the variety of daily newspapers. That were free. Winnipeg only has 2 newspapers that are free, but they're weeklies. One is a community newspaper that catches the stories not "exciting" enough to be in the "real" newspapers and is delivered to your door. The other is mostly dedicated to entertainment. The best thing about it is that it likes to cover local bands (interestingly enough, it's called "Uptown", but I see it available mostly in the downtown area. Strange.).
And yes, I do realize that Winnipeg is smaller in size than the other 2 cities. I'm not trying to rag on Winnipeg as I see most of the problems stemming from city hall. One major problem in city hall is that many of the councilors are there just to collect a paycheck, they don't give a shit about their own city. I always knew that they were backward thinkers, I just never realized how extreme the problem has gotten (lets combat graffiti by banning minors from buying spray paint. Yeah, that'll work, almost as well as Prohibition....ooops.).
City hall sure is stupid....
Later Dayz!
In reflection of my travels I have come to the realization that Winnipeg really is a Minor league city. It's just the little things that I noticed while in Vancouver and Calgary. Three examples are public washrooms in the airports, the Public Transit system in Vancouver and the variety of newspapers.
The thing about the airport washrooms is that in Vancouver and Calgary, pretty much everything is equipped with motion sensors, so the toilets, urinals, faucets, soap dispensers, hand dryers, and paper towel dispensers are all fully automatic. Coming back home, the airport washrooms remind me of the dirty and disgusting washrooms in pool halls and arcades back in the '80s. When you realize that McDonald's has cleaner washrooms than the airport, it really opens your eyes. I'm hoping that this will be rectified by the planned expansion of Winnipeg Airport. Hoping, but not holding my breath.
With Vancouver's Transit system the two things that really impressed me were the the buses and the all day pass. The buses in Vancouver are very roomy, until it gets really packed. In Winnipeg, even an empty bus seems claustrophobic in comparison to a half full bus in Vancouver. One of the newer buses had leather seats! Well, maybe not leather, but damn the seats were comfy. As well, the buses in Vancouver had a small rack on the front of the bus with space for a couple of bikes, so even cyclists can use the bus if need be. And I really liked the idea of the all day pass, usable for the bus, skytrain and seabus. It sure beats the 1 hour transfer in Winnipeg. These 2 ideas are light years ahead of Winnipeg Transit.
In regards to the newspapers, I was amazed at the variety of daily newspapers. That were free. Winnipeg only has 2 newspapers that are free, but they're weeklies. One is a community newspaper that catches the stories not "exciting" enough to be in the "real" newspapers and is delivered to your door. The other is mostly dedicated to entertainment. The best thing about it is that it likes to cover local bands (interestingly enough, it's called "Uptown", but I see it available mostly in the downtown area. Strange.).
And yes, I do realize that Winnipeg is smaller in size than the other 2 cities. I'm not trying to rag on Winnipeg as I see most of the problems stemming from city hall. One major problem in city hall is that many of the councilors are there just to collect a paycheck, they don't give a shit about their own city. I always knew that they were backward thinkers, I just never realized how extreme the problem has gotten (lets combat graffiti by banning minors from buying spray paint. Yeah, that'll work, almost as well as Prohibition....ooops.).
City hall sure is stupid....
Later Dayz!