The Downtown BIZ’s persecution of building owners who allow graffiti to flourish (Angry Councillor Wants Graffiti Removed, Nov. 8) is typical of the intolerance they’ve displayed for anyone who exists outside societal norms (the “Feed My Addiction” campaign being an obvious example of this aversion)*. They would have our core become a monotonous and indistinct police-state in order to facilitate commerce.
But downtown Winnipeg does not belong to these zealots and their clientele, despite the economic prosperity they represent. It belongs to artists, anarchists, freethinkers, day labourers and the marginalized “street people” as well as the suits and suburbanites. The businesses at 91 Albert offer alternative services and perspectives that many Winnipegers identify with; all the more so because they do not conform to the totalitarian edicts of the BIZ and its lapdogs at City Hall. The graffiti on the building is indicative of this and deserves to be seen.
* Last year the Downtown Biz Launched a campaign to discourage panhandling using the slogan and image in the poster below. Personally I think the campaign is pretty offensive, not to mention sanctimonious.
Unfortunately I cannot publish a link to the original article because the Free Press is only available on-line to subscribers, and reprinting it would likely be a copyright infringement. But as you may infer from the letter, the story was about how a city councillor, on behalf of the BIZ, wants to create stricter "guidelines" to enforce the removal of graffiti from downtown buildings. 91 Albert is a privately owned building that houses a political bookstore/vegan cafe, a courier service/bike shop, and offices for various independent artists, writers and activists.
3 comments:
yes, lets continue to feed the addictions the street people, and to hell with all the groups on the front line who are really helping in them with food and shelter.
time to get out of Uni and join us in the real life bucko.
I've been out of Uni for more than a decade bucko, and I happen to work on the front lines with mentally handicapped people. Your not reading me correctly. I object to wealthy business people trying to restrict the freedom of others and disguising in some P.R. stunt that is offensive to people who are already marginalized. Furthermore, I count among members of my own immediate family two addicts, so I'd say I've been living in the real life for quite some time.
And remember their "street people" ads? Where the street people were the BIZ's bright and clean downtown ambassadors?
I'm convinced the BIZ is a callous bunch.
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