Members of the Rubin Block advocacy group spoke with the Winnipeg Free Press regarding this hopes for the vacant building at 270 Morley Avenue. The Rubin Block has been abandoned since 2014, despite the efforts of Heritage Winnipeg and community advocates. Heritage Winnipeg created a petition for the rehabilitation in the Rubin Block, and twice an anonymous South Osborne Resident has posted poetic pleas on the side of the Rubin Block. Concerned citizens penned an open letter to the mayor and the City of Winnipeg in December of 2020.

Now, the Winnipeg Free Press has spoken to Cindy Tugwell, Executive Director of Heritage Winnipeg, and members of the Rubin Block Advocacy Group, about their hopes for the building.

“Our hope is to have it become affordable or low-income housing, with a community-based commercial (tenant or tenants) on the main floor,” said Jean Altemeyer, who has lived in the neighbourhood since 1968. “Bottom line: folks would like the building occupied.”

Read the rest of the article, including Tugwell’s statement, here.