Winnipeg's Parks

Image: (Hydesmith, 2022)

Winnipeg has approximately 7% of its land as parkland, equally 47,570 ha of total city area (Park People, 2021). This is a large amount of space dedicated to parkland, so how were these spaces created? Who were they created by and for? How are these spaces used today and how are they used? These are some of the initial questions that interested me in studying the urban political ecology of urban parks within Winnipeg. This page is a summary of the research I have conducted so far into this topic.

The objective of this project is to begin to understand the “relationships between social process and spatial forms” (Harvey, 2005) through investigating the processes that built and continue to maintain Winnipeg’s urban public parks. The focus will be on understanding the production of urban green/naturalized spaces within Winnipeg through the theoretical lens of urban political ecology. Urban political ecology (or UPE) is a “conceptual approach that understands urbanization to be a political, economic, social, and ecological process, one that often results in highly uneven and inequitable landscapes” (Cornea, 2019).

To begin to understand the relationships between the spatial form of urban parks and social processes let's first look at the term urban nature. For many the concept of urban space is understood most directly as being in opposition of natural space (Dempsey & Dobson, 2020). The urban landscape can be understood as a space that is entirely human, and as evidence of our ability to transform and overcome nature (Bourdeau-Lepage, 2019). This separation, or dichotomy of nature and human (or environment and society) is what allows us to understand nature as only existing in ‘wild’ or ‘uninhabited’ spaces such as parks, forests, lakes, etc. These understandings of wilderness and nature as being “the one place on earth that stands apart from humanity… is quite profoundly a human creation” (Cronon, 1996 pg. 1). Ylva Uggla describes this phenomenon: 

The meaning of nature is continuously negotiated in relation to its supposed counterpart – human culture and society. Negotiating nature and culture, drawing boundaries between the two, defines and justifies certain ways of action and assigns responsibility… Any understanding of nature involves and understanding of society and certain social choices (2012). 

Nature, only existing in opposition to humans, must then be re-imagined and re-constructed, as something that no longer exists outside of society. As William Cronon reminds us, “the tree in the garden is in reality no less other, no less worthy of our wonder and respect, than the tree in an ancient forest” (1996, pg. 24). Urban parks can then be understood as a sort of nature-culture hybrid, where the natural and the social combine to produce something new. With this understanding of nature, we can begin to interpret parks as artefacts of both ecological and human social processes.

Research will be conducted through the lens of urban political ecology, as a means to understand the relationships of power that shape the urban public park landscape of Winnipeg. Urban political ecology “understands urbanization to be a political, economic, social and ecological process… that often results in highly uneven and inequitable landscapes” (Cornea, 2019). Urban political ecology also removes the dichotomy between city and nature to instead begin to understand the relationships we as humans have with the natural world more deeply (Pietta & Tononi, 2021).

The built landscape is a "powerful arenas of cultural debate, mediating between public and private world... [and is] a manifestation of personal and historical ideology" (Taylor 1995). As spaces designed for use by the public, public parks have been argued to be highly representative of the values of their time (Taylor, 1995), making them an an ideal spatial phenomenon to study power in the urban ecological landscape.

To ground the investigation into space and power within the context of Winnipeg’s urban parks I will be focusing on the relationship between urban nature of parks and those experiencing homelessness. Homeless individuals experience the city in many different ways from individuals from other communities. These include the "use and access to community space [which] is rarely equitable or inclusive; people experiencing homelessness are not able to exercise their same right to public spaces that other community members do" (Dej et al., 2021).

Through preliminary research into the dynamics of power in urban parks I found that for the scope of this honours project I would be unable to collect sufficient data, and that the area of study as a whole would require a more detailed study to reveal patterns of inequality. This is why I decided to reduce the scope of the project to specify the relationships between the homeless community and Winnipeg’s public parks. 

The urban political ecology research framework will allow interrogation into two core research questions:  

Image: (Waghorn, 1895).

Through this project my hope is to make visible some of the structures and processes of inequality in Winnipeg's urban park system as it is by “making invisible the processes through which planning structures are developed and organized, [that] the normative processes of the dominant society are maintained” (Cooper, 2009, pg. 42). 

Urban parks are important to the urban landscape for many different reasons. They exist as biodiversity hotspots within city scapes, creating corridors for wildlife and can be essential to connect urban populations with a variety of flora and fauna (Talal & Santelmann, 2019). Urban parks have been found to be beneficial to human health (Kardan et al., 2015), both socially and psychologically (Chiesura, 2004; Ulrich, 1984; Ohly et al., 2016; McMahan & Estes, 2015). While many might consider the recreational value of parks they also are culturally important, contributing to community development and connect people to nature (Ellis & Schwartz, 2016). Urban parks also provide green infrastructure (Talal & Santelmann, 2019), an essential element for cities as they are begin to adapt to our changing climate "by producing a variety of ecosystem services, [green infrastructure] enhances our ability to deal with climate change in urban scale" (Ramyar et al., 2021). While each park is unique, the way we interact with, and relate to these spaces is different, depending on factors such as “identity (eg. race, gender, age)” (Park People, 2021).  

One group that has a unique perspective of urban parks are individuals who have, or are currently experiencing homelessness. The 2018 Winnipeg Street Census found that 14.3% of homeless individuals "were unsheltered, that is, staying in a public space like a bus shelter or park, in a tent, a car, or walking around all night to stay safe" (End Homelessness Winnipeg, 2018). The relationship they have with urban parks and open spaces is "a relationship based in intimate everyday practices of belonging" (Speer & Goldfisher, 2020). These individuals have "no alternative but to use public spaces for daily activities... unlike housed residents who have access to private spaces for daily activities" (Addo, 2018).

The parks are profoundly valuable resource for homeless people (Speer & Goldfisher, 2020). They are "sites for homemaking and privacy, survival in an increasingly commodified urban landscape, and emotional solace against the violence of policing and domesticity" (Speer & Goldfisher, 2020). In reading memoirs of homelessness the authors Speer and Goldfisher discovered that urban parks and open spaces are "where those most excluded by property relations can find reprieve from the hyper-surveilled and policed logics of capitalist development" (Speer & Goldfisher, 2020). However some individuals noted that highly manicured spaces are more difficult spaces to survive within than more 'unkempt' or 'wild' spaces (Speer & Goldfisher, 2020.

Urban parks exist within complex urban landscapes, where social power dynamics influence the process of placemaking, contributing to places being understood as reproductions “of social and cultural forms” (Pred, 1984). Our past, present, and possible future social, economic, environmental, and political dynamics “manifest themselves in the… [urban landscape] and through spatial interactions and relations” (Gieseking et al. 2014) (Bourdeau-Lepage, 2019). These social, economic, political and environmental relationships influence park design and management, in ways that “deliberately or unintentionally produce spaces inhospitable to particular classes and culture groups through the modification of park landscapes and rules to serve goals such as historic preservation and habitat restoration” (Low et al, 2005; cf. Seymour, 2012).

To being to understand public parks as landscapes where these social, environmental, political and economic tensions of power transpire we can take a look at the community that was once called Rooster Town. Rooster Town was a community of mostly Métis inhabitants that existed on the land that Grant Park, including the Pan Am Pool Park and Grant Park Athletic Ground now exist. The community existed from the 1800's up until the early 1960's (Turner, 2016) when it was torn down to develop the Grant Park Shopping Mall and Grant Park High School (City of Winnipeg, n.d.). The residents were removed under the guise of sanitation and public health (The Winnipeg Tribune, October 9, 1952). This story of Rooster Town shows us that Winnipeg's urban parks do not escape processes of power, as they are truly embedded within these landscapes.

Urban public parks, like other landscapes are uneven geographical developments, as the results of social, economic and environmental processes. Public parks and open spaces in Winnipeg are available for use by any and all citizens. However, these spaces do not serve all groups equally as their design and maintenance privileges the wants and needs of some groups of citizens over others. Their development and regulation demonstrate a particular set of values that are set upon these spaces of ecological and social construction (Speer & Goldfischer, 2020).

Parks are spaces exclusionary towards homeless communities based on social norms of what the correct and incorrect activities and behaviours are within these spaces. Constructed views of "homeless individuals’ actions in public spaces as violating the norms of society has led local authorities to enact policies to exclude homeless individuals from using public spaces and redefined public spaces as a preserve for only those who possess properties" (Addo, 2018).

Institutionalized methods excluding certain individuals or groups from urban parks can be exemplified through the laws forbidding individuals from using the park at night or during restricted times (City of Winnipeg, 85-2009 8(2), 34) the use of hostile or defensive design (Pelly, 2016), nuisance laws (Canadian Bar Association, n.d.), "a person must not set up a tent or a recreational vehicle in a park and a person must not sleep overnight in a park" unless otherwise stated (City of Winnipeg, 85-2009 20).

Whether it be through the process of establishing a park, or through the ongoing maintenance and regulations of urban parks we have begun to see the both historical and ongoing displacement or limitations that different communities of citizens face, as tensions of social, environmental, political and economic power occur through the urban nature of Winnipeg's parks.

This research is not complete. Further investigation will be done into uses of parks by homeless citizens, both in Winnipeg and in other metropolitan areas. This research will include using archives such as the City of Winnipeg Archives, University of Manitoba Digital Archives, grey literature such as the Winnipeg Free Press Archives and Factiva, as well as any recorded stories (written or oral) from homeless Winnipeggers about the value of urban parks to them and experiences in these spaces.

Research into the topics of urban parks, power and homelessness will be investigated further through the theoretical lens of cleanliness, environmental racism and social justice.