Tuesday, 4 January 2011

The 'Peg's Little Africa

Central Park, Winnipeg
The African-Canadian Foundation today announced that it is purchasing a vacant lot on Hargrave Street, the former YMHA site across from the Malabar Building. On it will go an $18 million dollar cultural centre, resource centre and housing development.

Bravo !

Central Park, African Market
In a few years the African community has taken ownership of the Central Park area of Winnipeg. If you haven't around there this summer you'd hardly recognize it. The park now has a soccer pitch, a weekend African Market and a lot more life.

Africans have also opened a number of shops and restaurants in the neighbourhood. Investing there and, for many, want to live in the area, not use it as a stepping stone for elsewhere in the city

Central Park Area, Winnipeg
This is a win-win-win situation: for downtown development (they seriously want to put a new development on an almost block long surface parking lot ?!); for the province who have been strengthening their immigration programs in recent years; and for the African community who decided a few years ago that, rather than just complain about the area, they will take ownership of it.

I look forward to following this project.

Also, we're not the only city where the African community has come into its own. In Toronto, it appears that a Little Ethiopia will be popping up (there are 70,000 Ethiopians in the GTA). There's also a proposal for an AfriCana Village and Museum on the Waterfront.

Central Park, Winnipeg
Related:
A look at the new Central Park Winnipeg Downtown Places
A History of Central Park Winnipeg Downtown Places
My Flickr album of Central Park and area

Media:
African community plans $18m downtown complex CBC
A boost for the inner city Winnipeg Free Press
An African Savannah in Winnipeg Observations (et al)

4 comments:

  1. John Dobbin5 January 2011 at 20:07

    Think the fast this project goes through, the more positive in getting more students to our colleges and universities in terms of the housing offered and the merits of a strong cultural center for the 50+ African communities, the better integration with Winnipeg overall.

    I think most immigrants look for connection to their new community. This will be a great way to see that happen.

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  2. The Rise and Sprawl3 February 2011 at 16:53

    Hey Christian, do you know anything about the tiny neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood invariably called the "Black Belt" or "the Loop," which was a concentration of blacks who lived on either side of the CPR tracks in North and South Point Douglas (ie, along Higgins and Sutherland Avenues) in the 1920-1950s?

    I've found this unknown piece of history so fascinating, but it's hard to find info on it. Pilgrim Baptist Church on the corner of Maple and Macdonald Ave. is a remaining legacy of this little community.

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  3. Christian Cassidy3 February 2011 at 17:14

    A few days back I did a quick look through to see if I could easily put something together for Black History months but didn't find a lot, including any reference to the Loop.

    I guess given the train porter - black connection it would make sense that there was a community near the CPR station.

    I know in more modern times, Percy Haines (sp?), owner of the Chicken Shack just a few blocks up at Lulu and Logan was a respected black leader.

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  4. Christian Cassidy3 February 2011 at 17:19

    One thing I did find in that search from a while back was that there was a local 'Negro publciation' called "The Appeal". There was one mention of it in the FreeP in 1914 as sponsoring a Black US author to come speak in the city.

    I searched everywhere I could think of to see if I could find some further reference to it but couldn't.

    That would be a gold mine for finding out about Black history in the city.

    ReplyDelete