Can Winnipeg Become a Real City?

In 1972, Winnipeg was formed from the "amalgamation of 12 small municipalities into one city, with one city council. [Now] there is a large division between the inner city and the suburbs. But it's more than that. The fact is, Winnipeg is not a city at all. It is a grouping of 29 (or more) neighbourhoods that make up a large town.

Let me explain. I know, for example, people who live in St. James who have never gone downtown or, for that matter, to any other community in Winnipeg. They were born, they live and will die in St. James.

This is the 21st century. Small towns are dying out. It's time to grow up. Winnipeg must develop an urban culture -- that is, as Richard Florida suggests, a creative class of artists, architects and entrepreneurs who work together and have a vision of the city as a whole."