Whyte Ridge is known as a home for some key people in Winnipeg: the Premier of Manitoba used to live here, and the MLA and city councilor are residents of our community. And our first Kid Mayor comes from Whyte Ridge as well.
Nazar Viznytsya was chosen out of 250 kids to become Winnipeg’s first Kid Mayor. Nazar goes to school at Henry. G. Izatt Middle School, plays soccer for the Whyte Ridge team and loves to code. He says that he was encouraged by his teacher to participate in the contest and the following week he sent his submission about putting more streetlights into downtown. “I thought about where our culture is and thought about downtown. Then I thought about how to improve it and the first thing that popped into my mind,” said Nazar when asked about how he thought of his idea. Not only did he propose his idea to the EPC but he also got to open a candy shop, get a private tour of the police station and spend the day with Brian Bowman.
This is the letter Nazar submitted to the contest that made him the winner:
In Canadian cities a mayor is elected to represent the city. However mayors have no veto power and must argue for their decisions just like any other council member. The mayor’s office is located in a city hall. Mayors also are promoters of their city trying to influence tourism and urbanization to their city. In short a mayor is basically a salesperson for his or her city. Along with this mayor’s also have another crucial role which is to motivate the people of the city during disasters. This is very important as without motivation people will do nothing. To achieve this, mayors must be strong leaders and great public speakers.
To make Winnipeg better then it already is I think a simple little thing could be done. This thing is to put more streetlights downtown. Now I know this will take a lot of money and time, however the amount of tourism it will bring back into the city, and even the amount of regular citizens it would bring back to downtown Winnipeg will surely make the city a profit. I say this because the number one reason of people not liking Winnipeg is how scared they get when they walk outside in downtown at night. After all downtown is where most of our culture really is and if people are scared to go to downtown then our culture is as good as nothing. So this is why I think the city needs to put more streetlights in downtown.
We are very fortunate to have our first Kid Mayor to be from Whyte Ridge. This shows that young people do have great ideas on how to make our city a better and a safer place. We would like to encourage the young generation to take a more active role in shaping the future of our city and our wonderful community as well.
Below you can see some pictures (taken from the City of Winnipeg, and Winnipeg Police):
