No issue has galvanized the attention of developers, politicians and planners in Winnipeg over the past decade as much as achieving a critical mass of inhabitants in the city’s downtown.

Many hundreds of millions of private and public dollars have been spent on converting old buildings into condominiums, constructing new buildings and preserving heritage ones, and opening new restaurants and bars in downtown Winnipeg.

So, with all this hustle and bustle, new attractions and non-stop activity, you’d think that moving trucks would be making regular stops within a few blocks of Portage and Main, right? Wrong.

Despite an unprecedented focus on boosting the city’s downtown population, new data from the 2011 census shows that a grand total of 16,673 people lived in the five neighbourhoods that make up downtown: that’s 700 more residents than a decade ago.

That’s an awful lot of fuss and bother for such a small number of people. So, what’s keeping people away from being at the centre of all the action?

First of all, we’re not crazy about change. There are still people in Winnipeg who believe it was a bad idea to tear down the abandoned Eaton’s building a decade ago and replace it with the MTS Centre, a popular sports and entertainment venue that is widely credited with encouraging many people to venture downtown again once the work day is over.

Second, there is still a significant population of beggars, drug dealers and drunks who call the downtown streets home. And while there are fewer of these elements than there were a couple of years ago, there are still enough of them to cause many Jets fans to speed-walk to their vehicles after a hockey game. That’s often the image that’s burned into people’s minds when they think about downtown.

But there are signs that the downtown soon may gain that one elusive characteristic – momentum. Jeoff Chipman, president and CEO of the Stevenson Group, which includes Longboat Development Corp., says the much ballyhooed sports, hospitality and entertainment district, a.k.a. SHED – a more than $600-million project designed to revitalize 11 blocks of downtown Winnipeg that includes the Winnipeg Convention Centre and the Metropolitan and Burton Cummings theatres – has to be completed. Then, and perhaps only then, will there be sufficient activity to reduce crime in the core.

“I think it’s a critical part of redeveloping downtown,” Chipman says. “The best way to bring about urban development is people. When people are around, they feel safe and they are safe.”

Of course, turning a blind eye to the underprivileged isn’t the answer. But if downtown Winnipeg can grow, then perhaps the rising tides will also lift their boats with money dedicated to assistance programs and affordable housing.

Downtown advocates have been quick to point out that one of the fanciest projects now being marketed – the 195-unit Glasshouse Skylofts – is being spearheaded by a Toronto-based company, Urban Capital, along with Longboat.

“It’s about confidence,” says Ross McGowan, president and CEO of CentreVenture Development Corp., the agency leading the downtown redevelopment charge. “You have a major urban-development company from another city saying, ‘I think this can work here’.”

If Winnipeggers believed the same thing, we’d really have something going on.

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