The Winnipeg Free Press

In an apparent about-face, Mayor Sam Katz is asking Portage and Main business owners to help remove the intersection's concrete barriers and turn the intersection into a pedestrian attraction. In a letter sent late last month to the intersection's six major landowners, Katz asked each to help fund a detailed study of a $10-million redesign of Winnipeg's most famous crossing. That's in sharp contrast with Katz's position last summer, when he said it was foolish to hold an international design competition before the surrounding property owners agreed to remove the barriers. And he said the city was bound to honour the terms of a 1979 agreement to put up barriers when the underground concourse was built. "I still feel very strongly about this point," wrote Katz last month. "However, I also recognize that agreements can be changed by mutual consent." As a first step, Katz asked each property owner to chip in about $11,500 to pay for a feasibility study and business plan. It will flesh out the original design, laying out the cost, traffic impacts and phasing in of the plan.