Transit shuffle has Graham Avenue ‘circling the drain,’ area businesses say

For now, Aimee Peake can visit fellow shop owners along her strip — at the convenience store, the barber, the bong shop.

She’s questioning how long that’ll last.

“As you look out on the street right now, you see that there is not one person on that block,” said Peake, who peered from her window in Bison Books, surveying Graham Avenue.

“Nobody’s on this block. It’s like the city’s pulled the plug and we are all circling the drain.”

She’s among the downtown Winnipeg business owners sounding alarm bells: some shops along Graham Avenue, near the former Hudson’s Bay Co. flagship store and further east, risk closure.

Stakeholders had hoped to see foot traffic increase as post-secondary students returned downtown, but little has changed, according to seven businesses the Free Press spoke t