The sound of smashing glass and twisting metal filled the air in front of Portage Place Mall Monday evening as the crime-ridden bus shelter was torn down.

People walking by stopped to watch as demolition crews worked to take down the shelter that's stood at the corner of Portage Avenue and Edmonton Street for decades.

"To see this thing go, to me it's like an icon, like a heritage place," said Sam Bair who stopped to gaze at the rubble.

"I'm sad to see it go."

"It's part of the whole place here, it's been here forever, and now it's going to be gone."

Downtown resident Sam Bair said he was walking by and had to stop and watch as the shelter came down. He said he's sad to see it go but hopes something better can replace it. (Holly Caruk/CBC)

Bair has lived downtown for 14 years and said he never had any issues with the heated shelter, though he'd heard about it in the news.

"I guess there's a lot of drugs being trafficked here and other illegal stuff happening," he said.

Last year, Winnipeg's police Chief Danny Smyth called the shelter a "hot spot" for crime and the mall said it wanted the structure gone.

"I don't think a week goes by where we don't have some kind of criminal incident, whether it's an assault or a robbery, and this [bus shelter] is the common denominator," Smyth said at a safety summit in May.

'Glad to see it go'

Others welcomed the sight of the structure being torn down.

"I think it's kind of good it went, it hasn't really been used for anything good," said Oliver Murdock.

"I'm glad to see it go; it's just kind of been an eyesore."

Oliver Murdock said he was glad to see the bus shack torn down because it became 'an eyesore.' (Walther Bernal/CBC)

Both Bair and Murdock said they'd like to see something else go up in its place.

"I meet a lot of people here and go places, especially in the winter when there's -40 [temperatures] and the buses come and you have to wait and they're never on time of course," said Bair.

As for crime in the area, Bair doesn't think tearing down the shelter will make much of a difference.

"They'll just go somewhere else though ... I think they'll just move off to another neighbourhood," he said.

Last week, city council voted unanimously to approve a transaction that would see the shopping mall, land and parkade sold to Starlight Investments for nearly $70 million.

Starlight plans to redevelop Portage Place with new residential towers, including a student housing component. The deal requires the other levels of government to sign off on the sale.