We’re sending out this call to action while there is still a chance. Today and this weekend is your last chance to call, email or send a social media message to your councillor asking them to do the right thing. Alogn your voice with us to extend open streets this season.

If not, in spite of massive and continued popularity, all open streets will revert back to the “old normal” after this weekend.

It is clear to many that the city made a poorly timed decision to shut them down just as kids are headed back to school.

But people always have the power to change that. We need to. 

Open streets was a beginning. Our need for them is not over. Covid is not over. Kids are going back to school with an unreliable bus system. Parents with more questions than answers. Canadian Tires  across the city are still sold out. Your elderly neighbour is still enjoying having somewhere nearby to that is safe to walk and talk with her friends on the road. 

We need these right now more than ever. 

We also need time. Winter is going to bring recreation challenges we haven’t begun to prepare for. So instead of shutting down solutions, we need new ones, bold ones. We need every safe road and safe route and safe path connection we can get to make walking and biking easier, and we need it now more than ever. 

Setting arbitrary time limits on these streets and neglecting to expand them into a network has been a failure of leadership. 

And an ongoing survey - supposedly meant to gauge public opinion before deciding what to do next - wont even be looked at until after they shut the open streets down.

 At the very least, the right thing to do would have been to keep open streets going until your surveys are look at...

While we’d settle for a two month extension (now people are talking about extesbsion until Hallowe’en, Christmas..) we think that what we really need is some leadership and sone certainty. A paradigm shift.

We want to know our open streets are here to stay for good. Flip the coin. Make someone else argue in favour of allowing cars to keep taking over all of our streets and all of our neighbourhoods. We’re tired of having to defend good things. Let someone else explain the good part of closing streets to people.

The fact is every day people of all ages enjoy the quiet and safety of the open streets. The fact is Winnipeg is a city that embraces winter. The fact is the outdoor world is our ally, and something we have grown to appreciate in a way that is fundamentally changed aince March.

The benefits of opening the roads back to cars are hard to defend when outcomes like friendship, lifestyle, safety, community and hope have been clear outcomes of allowing people to use their street again. 

So...

Call your councillor. Leave a message. Tell  them how open streets make you feel. Do it right now.

Winnipeg Trails