Divided City
WINNIPEG, MB – The University of Winnipeg’s Institute of Urban Studies (IUS) is releasing a book entitled The Divided Prairie City: Income Inequality Among Winnipeg’s Neighbourhoods, 1970-2010. This book brought together twelve experts to talk about the people, places, and spaces impacted by a growing gap between rich and poor neighbourhoods. The study adds a geographic perspective to the conversations about Winnipeg’s economic and racial divides.
The IUS is part of a Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Led by the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto, the focus is to examine income inequality in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Vancouver.
The Winnipeg study traces how middle-income neighbourhoods are vanishing: from 1980 to 2010 one in four middle-income neighbourhoods experienced sharp drops in income. The middle-income group is getting progressively smaller in older suburban neighbourhoods while wealth moves to the city’s edges. Co-editor of the study Andrew Kaufman explains “When we say Winnipeg is a divided city, we say the walls separating have and have-not neighbourhoods are growing higher and wider.” For Jino Distasio, Director of IUS, “neighbourhoods are places that give cities identity. The changes documented began, in some instances, more than 100 years ago. We need to support neighbourhood-based organizations in addressing income inequality with strong policies and funding at the community level.”
PUBLIC AND MEDIA WELCOME to the release of The Divided Prairie City: Income Inequality Among Winnipeg’s Neighbourhoods, 1970-2010 (Press Packages available):
WHEN:
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
7–9 PM
WHERE:
Good Will Social Club
625 Portage Ave
PANEL:
Rosanna Deerchild (Storyteller, Broadcaster with CBC and NCI-FM),
Molly McCracken (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives),
Richard Milgrom (City Planning, University of Manitoba), and
Steve Lafleur (Frontier Centre for Public Policy).
MEDIA CONTACT
Diane Poulin, Senior Communications Specialist, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135, E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca
