Reason #4:Bicycles
The preferred method of transportation around here is the bicycle, all year round, and especially once the snow leaves the streets. Even if people own a car, many choose to cycle to work/school/everywhere. House porches, outside restaurants and coffee shops, on the fences along the sidewalks, and apartment building hallways are all filled with bikes, the most treasured possession of many. There is a certain community around cycling in this area, where you are 'in' so long as you own a bicycle and pull it out for a spin once in awhile. It is not uncommon for friendships to form simply on the basis of admiring another bicycle. Though I greatly admire the cyclists and bike-enthusiasts that populate this downtown community, I remain an outsider without a bicycle. Reason #5: Great Neighours
From experience and observation, this is a community where you actually see and know your neighbours. People spend a lot of time outside walking, sitting on their front porches, or gardening, so it is easy to become familiar and acquainted with those people and families living around you. Growing up for most of my life in a suburb outside of the city, I never knew the people in the house next door or would even be able to recognize anyone who lived on the same street. I appreciate that I now can walk down the street, wave and greet many by their name. I am also spoiled in having some close girlfriends live three doors down, friends in the apartment across the backlane and on the corner of the block - all within talking/shouting distance.
My house (White with a wooden porch) is separated only by two houses and a blossoming crab-apple tree from the girls house. Cute, right?
Reason #6: Music
If you have not picked up on it yet, this beautiful neighbourhood is highly artistic, filled with musicians, artists and many creative types, making for quite the cacophony of color, expression and sound. Now with nicer weather, more people outside, and open windows, music comes from every direction - whether it be from porch steps and impromptu jam sessions with neighbours and passing pedestrians, to buskers on the sidewalks, to authentic record players floating melodies out of apartment windows, to churches chiming hymns though the streets, the downtown traffic white-noise becomes engulfed by another symphony.
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| Buskers serenading with great folk music |
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| Westminister United Church chimes hymns |
Reason #7: Old Houses
Perhaps the first thing that intrigued me about this neighbourhood are the old, historic homes. I sometimes get caught up in thinking and imagining what this community would have looked like in the time when all the houses were being built, and get drawn away into dreaming of a time long past. Brightly colored doors and trim, large windows and porches make this definitely a different looking neighbourhood, and I absolutely love it!
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Reason #8: Location
Nestled between Wolsely, Downtown Winnipeg, Osbourne Village, the West End and River Heights, West Broadway is within walking distance of the Manitoba Legislature and the entire urban centre of the city - the best dining, cafe's, shops, businesses, entertainment, and only ten minutes from the University of Winnipeg (where I spend much of my time). Another reason why bicycles are so popular, it is not really necessary to own a vehicle when everything is within walking and biking distance, or even a short bus ride.
