Victoria’s Chinatown
Details. It’s all in the details.
During a recent visit to Canada’s west coast, I made a point of travelling over to Vancouver Island. I spent all of my time there (aside from travelling from Nanaimo) in Victoria, British Columbia’s capital city.
I loved Victoria. From their incredible parliament buildings and historic architecture, to the lively, bustling downtown, to the integrated and well-used downtown harbour. It is everything I want Windsor to become.
I made a point of visiting Canada’s oldest Chinatown, in part because of Peter Lui and Al Teshuba’s plan to formalize that kind of neighbourhood on Wyandotte Street west, and secondly because I love the culture. I’m a big fan of establishing a twin here in our city, so if there was anything that I could learn from this visit I wanted to be able to pass it along. (ed: all photos are linked to their full-sized images)
After spending a few hours there, and countless dollars, I came to the conclusion that attention to detail was what made Victoria’s Chinatown successful. It was obvious that the foundation for this success was laid with the communities collective buy-in to the entire concept. There were very few (if any, I’m just assuming) storefronts and municipally provided infrastructure that didn’t augment the flavour of this district. Even the street trees were Big Bansai!
My favourite places tend to be the secret, hidden spaces that make you feel as if you’re experiencing something that the regular Joe/Anne on the street misses. Places like Fan Tan alley, whose whole goal is to delight the pedestrian who happens upon it. A car travelling the speed limit would zoom right pass this space without even knowing it exists. 
Can you imagine living and working in a place like Dragon Alley? The intricate attention to detail of this pedestrian space delights the senses, and then you realize that this is newer construction unlike older, organic, European 
pedestrian-only spaces. The rooftop residential units, with their greenery overflowing into the public space below gives the vistor a taste of nature while preserving a high floor area ratio.
So if this little city could accomplish a neighbourhood as wonderful as this way back in 1858, why can’t Windsor follow their lead 150 years later? I would encourage Mr. Lui and Mr. Teshuba to follow the trailblazing Victoria has provided and get the entire community backing you up on this idea. Establish a Chinatown Business Improvement Association. Get those details in place, because if you can bring this idea to fruition, you will be community heroes!
Tags: community building, economic development, independant retail, pedestrian, place making, walkable
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Wow, look at the design elements and decorations!!! even the telephone booth looks great
A chinatown is about creating a sense of place, that isn’t done through the amount of businesses that are asian alone. That is done through design and decoration of that design
Lamp posts, planters, wayfinding signage with chinatown or asian themed.
Thats how you begin a chinatown.
I think people underestimate the impact of these changes. They might question the cost for benefit of a signor post but when it all comes together it can be significant. And its the only proven way of creating a district
Sorry MArk but Windsor has to get a loan from Ontario INFRASTRUCTURE for $75 million to get the rights to OPERATE, not own, the tunnel. We also need to spend $20 million on shvole ready lands at the airport and we need to spend $60 million minimum on a canal scheme.
This will NEVER happen in Windsor….but it should. I have been to Chinatown in Vancouver and Victoria and they are wonderful places.
Windsor’s may not be as large but it could be spectacular if only our administration and elected officials start to think QUALITY OF LIFE is first and their ego’s second.
Did you know that Windsor’s “Chinatown” businesses don’t even have a BIA that can collect funds and lobby for the advancement of this district? For something like this to actually hapen, active businessmen like Mr. Lui must do the groundwork and unite the areas businesses into one collective voice. Until that happens and they are all “singing out of the same hymn book” (so to speak) this will not get off the ground even if there were buckets of cash lying around.
We all know it is the grassroots that lead, and the politicians follow when enough of a critical mass of people get behind the grassroots plans. It’s time to fertilize Windsor’s Chinatown grassroots.
Victoria’s Chinatown is only two square blocks, but it is loaded with detail. Mr. Lui’s plans are actually just as large, but they are very uni-dimensional. They would be a great start, but he needs more community buy-in.
Maybe that’s why the asian district on the west end is acutally a good place.
No BIA’s to allow for infighting, and no involvement from the City.
The less this administration is involved in, the better those things are.
Naysayer!
Look at the smaller, less bureaucratic BIA’s and see that they can actually accomplish things (Walkerville, Erie St.) Let’s learn some lessons from the dysfunction that’s happening with the DWBIA, who can’t fill the ED position, are arguing over the necessity of the HRP position and just tend to piss off the city. (no offence, Mark)
I still believe that our asian district would fare very well with a little unity and cohesion of design. Clean the district up a bit and business will boom. You may be happy with knowing about these “diamonds in the rough”, but I’m sure that the patrons the restaurants and grocery stores are losing because of a dingy physical environment are costing them plenty.
If the city would allow it to happen it more than likely could. It would take years and resident participation. Unlike the BIA in Windsor who try to delegate rather than let shop owners thrive.
Many historic buildings have been well preserved in Chinatown and also in the larger area it once occupied along Government Street, Herald Street, Store Street, and Pandora Avenue. The modern Chinatown continues to be a key component of Downtown Victoria with many tourist attractions, hotels, bars, restaurants, theatres, services, and shopping areas nearby.
Municipal government in Victoria actually want proprietors to succeed with as little interference as possible.
One by-law can freeze development for years. West end anyone? Let a residential area be kept in squaller, while a proposed muti-million dollar ditch is on the drawing board. What a shame.
Victoria is also different in the aspect where they want to revitalize the older buildings and keep the historical significance.
Kdduck, there is now another by-law on the westside in the City Center West Lands. Can’t build anything because Eddie’s folly…errr, canal. So if a developer were to come today and ask to do something they couldn’t anyway.
I just love business….Windsor style!
I personally think that Erie Street could learn a thing or two from Victoria’s China Town as well. I am sad to say that Erie Street has really gone downhill in the past few years. It’s probably due to a few reasons… but the main one being that the older Italian’s who immigrated from Italy are all passing away. Not only that, but I brought my Nonna to Erie street a few weeks ago to do some shopping, and only ONE worker at the store spoke/understood Italian!
Windsor areas seem to miss something very important when they try to develop an area. People want to feel like they’re somehwere. Erie cam call itself Little Italy or whatever but when you go to Erie St. do you feel like you left the city and are “somewhere else”? Does it look “Italian”? Same goes for downtown. You have to give an area a certain uniform look or feel to get people to want to go and experience it. Downtown looks like a bunch of individual run down stores, Erie st. really is just a bunch of restaurants. Even little old Amherstburg the main “downtown” has a uniform look and feel to it. The various BIA’s have to get everyone on board to make the area feel or look a certain way. I’m in real estate and I know people will pay for “pretty”. If downtown wanted to go for a warehouse look put in facade and sign bylaws to give the storefronts those looks, Erie St. should look like Italy, Chinatown like China. We seem to just give an area a name and then believe people will come. On a completely different note. This area is surrounded by water, which means boaters. The fact that nobody can come from out of town, dock their boat and walk to the Casino and downton is ridiculous. The fact we don’t have a marina downtown is beyond a joke. My 7 year old even wonders why no boats stop when we’re down at the waterfront. Even he can figure it out.
Neighbourhoods like these were created by two unstoppable things: people and banks who give people a chance. If downtown Windsor is to become more people/restaurant/artist/writer/musician/trilobite friendly it simply must provide the oppourtunities for people like the people who visit this amazing site flourish.
Hypothetical;
Let’s say you were a guy who had an idea for a business, let’s say an art gallery/studio with a few apartments and workspaces above. You wanted to locate said business in Windsor’s downtown. You need a loan to start this business, so you go to a bank. You have a good business plan, all put together and air tight, everything seems hunky dory. The loan officer looks your proposal over, perhaps compliments you on such a “neat” idea, then comes the inevitable question. “Well, do you have any assets?” Lets say all the assets you have is a beater car and a sectional from Tepperman’s. You suggest that the business itself will be collateral. After a snicker, you are told a resounding “no” by the once friendly, cherubin loan officer and you go on your way, detesting the unfriendly attitude this city’s banks have to creative businesspeople.
Our banks are a large part of the problem. They need to take chances with young entrepeneurs who want to establish something other than a drinkin’ hole or a rub and tug downtown. The city needs to put a leash on the number of bars and gentlemanly release facilities, and be actually supportive to the youth of this city.
Just a thought…
The banks will never give loans in those situations. No matter how nice your sectional is. For start up capital in that situation it has to be done through government backed loans. There is start up money out there. The problem is the governments like to yak about numbers and programs to make it sound like they care and are doing something. But after the fact they don’t tell you where or how to actually access this money. It’s election time count how many times a candidate talks about providing money for new business and then after the election and the millions is promised funding try to find it. Cynicism aside there is funding and start up venture capital money out there in programs it just takes a monumental effort to find it, then do the paperwork and jump through the hoops to get it. The process does weed out the people who’d probably fail though. By sheer frustration in dealing with the system.