Up the 401— Again!
Even before the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway (the 401) was built, I can remember my grandparents and their generations, my parents and almost every other citizen in this city always looking at London, Ontario with envy and always thinking it a better city and a better city for shopping than Windsor. It wasn’t out of place in my public school days here in Windsor, that teachers always brought up the fact that London was home to most of the millionaires in Canada and was Canada’s Forest City!
And with today’s article from the London Free Press and Alan’s Halberstadt’s editorial “Big Splash Silver Bullet No Downtown Salvation” the July/August edition of BIZ X, I’m becoming even most dishearten that this city is at a standstill almost turning a blind eye to our neighbourhoods and our languishing CIPs. And the sad enviable tradition continues.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/08/22/10559191-sun.html The large rubble-filled craters you see today where crumbling buildings once stood Nearby, Queen’s Park, the inconspicuous piece of green space by the Western Fair Across the street from the park, two old red-brick duplexes will be buffed, What’s going on is a blend of investment, development and personal touch Already, cheap rent in the traditionally rough neighbourhood has meant artists’ The two, with their families, live in Old East — Tedesco says they have a “vested interest” “By next spring, the exterior should be done and they’ll look renovated,” Tedesco says. The lofts will also feature two ground-floor residential office apartments, adding to Just east of the duplexes, Queen’s Park, already in the first stages of redevelopment, When it’s finished, the city will have put $3.2 million into the park over several “There’s only a little piece of green space left as a public park, and a couple of years “The park is a priority because this project is really at the heart of the Old East Village, With the farmer’s market at the Western Fair right next to the park, the area has Vafiades Landscape Architects and Stantec Consulting are “looking to capture Eventually, the park will have an entrance at Quebec street with an entry feature It’s an essential part of what will soon be the new Old East Village, with an eight-storey That development will change Dundas and English streets and will include retail and Across the street, two apartment towers — one 24 storeys and the other 21 storeys “This was my father’s vision, to introduce a property that could revitalize the area Neither the Medallion or Terrasan developers have applied for building permits yet. Terrasan will open a sales office this fall or in the spring, depending on the “We understand the Old East Village community is eagerly anticipating our The buildings could add as many as 1,500 residents to the Old East Village — it’ll add “Hopefully it’ll become more family oriented in this neighbourhood,” says Brenda Hoing, Since then, there have been some problems with prostitution and drug deals in front “There’s a lot of nice people around here, and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback, She’s also excited about the London Potters Guild moving in down the street in September. Buildings coming down and development taking place is exactly what the Old East “It’s very exciting,” says executive director Sarah Merritt. “We’ve gone from talking about it to planning it, to mobilizing the community, to it
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What they didn’t say in the article was that the police through co-ordinated efforts and intense pressure cleaned up the crime with zero tolerance tactics.
Compare that with WPD, who use arbitrary tactics at the whim of each officer when walking the beat downtown. In fact where are officers walking the beat in our neighbourhoods? Now I will give credit to WPD for getting the police onbikes to ride through but what is still missing is the one on one interaction with the residents. It is getting better but enforcement and vigilance must still be pushed.
Thanks Mark for sharing this article. I do agree with your opening statements about this city and it’s typical do nothing, sit on the fence mindset.
That area of London, its original downtown actually, has some houses in the area that are beautiful. However, it has been very hard to shake the “EOA” stigma attached to them. (For those that do not know, in London Ontario, EOA means East of Adelaide, which is the area to avoid because of drugs, crime and violence). There is often prostitutes and street people walking around, as well as squatters in abandoned houses (hence, the fires).
There have been modest changes in the past few years, and one of which has been the designation of the area as historic. (see any parallels with Sandwich yet?)
Before Windsor was Windsor, there was a settlement known as Sandwich. The Windsor as we know it was a amalgamation of Sandwich, the Ferry, Walkerville, and Ford City. It seems that Sandwich was abandoned as the downtown for the more-active “Ferry” region, where the boats all docked (Our current downtown) [aside: wouldn't a passenger ferry service to Detroit be the perfect prescription for revival? -I was hoping there would be a post on that topic] . It seems that the moving of downtown to the more happening centers is not new to Windsor (ie. East End), as it has happened in London as well.
Now that London is gentrifying the old-East downtown, is this a sign that we should perhaps put more focus in Olde Sandwich as a region to attract more and better housing and retail? What a university district that would be! U Windsor would be an easier sell to out-of-towners if it had its own student area.
I think the take home message here is that we need to keep pressure on city government to make sure these important regions to not fall out of grace, and that they remain attractive and bustling, because it is far more expensive to redo these regions or build sprawl than it is to put the right rules in place to keep these regions great.
The Windsor as we know it also included a municipality called “Windsor” that was established as a village in 1854 and became a town in 1858. The Ferry was a ‘nickname’ for a certain part of Windsor.
If a ferry service was financially viable, it would be operating now. But it isn’t financially viable. Besides, we can’t have it at the foot of Ouellette, because a few Councillors (and a few residents) will complain about the view being destroyed, the noise and the pollution (or some other nonsense). So it will have to be located away from the main street, reducing it’s attractiveness and viability.
By “focus” you mean money, right? It can’t be more studies because Sandwich has been studied to death over the past 30 years.
What do you mean by a “student area”? We already get enough complaints at the City from property owners about students.
I have one suggestion for Sandwich: drop the “Olde” and “Towne” from the name. I can live with something like “The Historical Community of Sandwich”, but the whole “Olde” and “Towne” thing, especially with the silent ‘e’, is nonsense.
“put the right rules in place to keep these regions great.”
And there is the crux of the problem. Which set of rules is the right set of rules? The interesting thing is that places like Sandwich thrived in a period where land use rules were non-existent. In today’s world, you wouldn’t be allowed to locate heavy industrial uses beside residential uses - at least not without proper mitigation.
I thinketh that thou does not know howeth to speaketh properly and are an outsider in Olde Sandwiche Towne?? Thou shalt be hung frometh the windmill!!!
This is kind of unrelated but here is something I’ve been thinking about related to the canal and GLIER proposal.
What role does tourism play in a city? JP, in another conversation you noted how Halifax uses tourism as leverage to create a vibrant downtown and waterfront. Dave, you have always been this city’s most vociferous opponent to the “teen night club and gambling” tourism strategy of Windsor. So, if tourism acts as leverage to create the kind of city we want, does our tourism strategy amplify mischief, drugs and other types rowdy behaviour and criminal activities?
The canal and GLIER proposal through a shift in the type of tourism we go after holds the promise to amplify different aspects of Windsor. To amp-up a Windsor that is environmentally responsible, yuppie and family friendly.
After a first blush of the proposal, I would say “Amp-It-Up Windsor.” This is exactly the type of idea we need to explore to shake-up long held stereotypes of our city.