When Google started its Street View program, people flocked to the service to find the most outrageous things captured by Google's sneaky cameras. So far people have found fires, flashers, fights and frogmen in various cities around the world.

Today I was made aware of a picture taken by Google on Elgin Avenue that unfortunately has 'Winnipeg' written all over it. Below is a static image, just in case Google chooses to remove this candid view of our city:

Winnipeg: One great city!

There isn't any need to go into depth about this, since I'm pretty sure everyone has heard about the Doug Ford's ignorance regarding Canadian literature. I have to say that watching this unfold is like watching a train wreck - it is a horrible tragedy that you simply cannot look away from.

Looking at the picture that the National Post has of Doug Ford, I think I have found a rational explanation for his actions. My theory, supported by photo evidence, is that Glenn Beck and Doug Ford are identical twins who were separated at birth. In what I consider to be the definitive answer to the nature vs nurture debate, both brothers managed to have identical political ideology despite being raised separately.

At this point I think we should start a betting pool on what gets privatized in Toronto. Who wants to bet it's the zoo, the libraries, the fire department, or the police?

Today the Free Press reported the latest in the rapid transit saga, and I quote:

The second leg of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor may wind around Fort Garry residential neighbourhoods instead of running parallel to Pembina Highway as originally planned.

The latest twist in Winnipeg's long-running rapid-transit saga has city officials considering a less direct bus or rail link between Jubilee Avenue and the University of Manitoba, using undeveloped land in the Parker neighbourhood and a Manitoba Hydro corridor.

Winnipeg Free Press - Detour for rapid transit?

In my humble opinion, this seems downright bizarre. Originally I thought rapid transit was designed to take buses off of Pembina highway, allowing them to move faster while still providing similar service. Placing the transit corridor next to Pembina highway makes sense since it allows the route to go through the major population centers in the area.

Now we hear that transit is supposed to encourage development and should be placed not where the people are, but where we want the people to be. This newest route runs between an industrial park, some greyfield land, and an aging neighborhood. Not exactly the area that I would choose to live in. It's also worth mentioning that most people who can afford to live in a new development don't ride public transit.

Looking back at Pembina for a minute, the section of Pembina highway between Jubilee and McGillivray is not exactly inspiring. Why don't we build alongside Pembina highway to encourage the re-development of Pembina highway? It would be great to see some more high density residential development and the corresponding commercial development along this stretch of road. It seems like city hall is blind to the fact that progress is not only measured in new development.

I think it would do more good for the city to focus on improving the neighborhoods that we have instead of focusing on just constructing new ones.

This weekend, join a diverse group of people in taking guided walking tours focusing on better knowing and understanding our city. It's the 2011 Jane's Walk.

Jane's Walk is a annual event to honour the urbanist Jane Jacobs by getting people to explore their surroundings and meet their neighbours through free guided walking tours. The events started in Toronto in 2007 but have quickly spread across the world.

In Winnipeg there are currently 18 walks ranging from a tour of the Seine and Red rivers to a walk of the much debated rapid transit system. The website currently appears to be broken so all you can get is summary information, but this should be enough to help you make a choice.

This seems like a great idea for an activity this weekend. Even given the less than favorable weather forecast I might see if I can take in a walk or two.

The Downtown Winnipeg Biz, keen followers of trends that they are, have launched an event entitled Let's Do Lunch Downtown. A group of downtown restaurants have agreed to offer reduced rates on select menu items at lunch time in April. This appears vaguely similar to Dine About Winnipeg, only without the high-end dining aspect.

While Dine About Winnipeg interested me, Let's Do Lunch Downtown has far less of an appeal. Perhaps its the fact that three course meals aren't being offered, or maybe it's that some of the restaurants aren't exactly independent local outfits, but the issue I have is that some of the 'deals' really aren't.

The one example I noticed is that Boston Pizza is offering a pizza and salad for $9.99 which is a princely discount of ($0.04) from the normal price of $9.95. While I only checked three restaurants, there could be a couple other deals of this caliber hidden in the list.

That having been said, restaurants like Modern - East African Tapas really could use the additional business so this might be beneficial to them. I just have some lingering doubts about just how great these 'deals' are.

From Manitoba Historical Maps on Flickr.

As anyone who lives in Winnipeg knows, the biggest campaign promise of last year's election was to freeze property taxes. This has long been a staple of Mayor Katz's platform. Mayor Katz attacked his opponents during the election stating that property taxes are regressive and unfairly affect the disadvantaged, which makes his latest budget all the more interesting.

Yesterday's budget revealed an expected property tax freeze, but in addition to this he also announced increases to recreation fees and frontage levies to cover the difference. While neither increase is regressive in the strictest sense, both are problematic and could have adverse impacts on lower income families.

Recreation services provided by the city are used by everyone regardless of their income and social status. Lower income families will be the most affected by this since they have a limited pool of funds to work with and will need to make difficult decisions about what they should sacrifice in order to afford the increased recreation fees. This is a smaller pressure for higher income families since they have a larger pool of funds to allocate and more discretionary expenses to choose from.

Frontage levies are also problematic since they are applied without consideration to the value of the property. You could own a practically worthless house with a wider lot and be charged more than a well-kept house on a narrower lot. This tax does a poor job of discriminating between the haves and the have-nots of society since it is based on an arbitrary measure which has little link to a families income level.

While Mayor Katz has kept his word about the property tax freeze, it is readily apparent that the cost of this policy is rapidly mounting and will have negative impacts on disadvantaged families. One hopes that future tax, fee and levy increases will be more balanced in their impact to families in the city.

A good chance to explore some local restaurants for cheap is coming up soon.

Dine About Winnipeg is an event where local restaurants serve a three-course set-menu dinner for either $25 or $35. The event runs from February 2nd to the 11th this year and the list of restaurants and menus can be found at the Dine About Winnipeg website.

This seems like a great opportunity to do some culinary exploration. I'm curious to visit La P'tite France, if only because they are serving escargots, coq au vin and crème brûlée. I can't say no to crème brûlée.

I don't use Twitter so I'm late to the game on this one, but apparently the citizenry of Winnipeg is taking to creating their own civic slogans.

The business of slogans in Winnipeg is a tricky one. The current slogan is downright uninspiring; however, it replaced a slogan which dated back to the Unicity amalgamation in the 1970s. Change was needed, but the marketing bureaus hired to do this type of work these days will not generate anything with true meaning.

The slogans proposed on Twitter are all self-deprecating since this is an exercise in humour, but then again, this tends to reflect the feelings and opinions of most Winnipeg residents anyway.

Here are some choice selections from #unofficialwinnipegslogans:

• Underdemolished, not overbuilt
• Home of the 1990 Grey Cup champions
• One great suburb
• We hate things now, but we hate change more
• Bringing back the Jets since 1995
• The economic conditions of the maritimes, without the ocean.
• We were born here. What's your excuse?