What lessons does a revitalized Pittsburgh have to share?
You’ve got to hand it to the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association. They’re moving the discussion forward in positive ways.
If you haven’t checked out their new blog, you need to head over there. Managed by downtown businessman Tom Lucier (if I only had 10% of this guys energy…), the blog hopes to tell untold stories of the people and places that make our downtown a unique experience. HERE’s the link
The DWBIA has something else up their sleeves. Something called the “Re:Vision Downtown Windsor” series is underway. As a kick off, they are presenting a free screening of “My Tale of Two Cities” written, produced and directed by Carl Kurlander (St. Elmo’s Fire, Saved by the Bell) at Windsor’s historic Capitol Theatre, 7:00 PM on February 26. (click HERE to view the trailer) This film not only explores Pittsburgh’s recent inspiring re- vitalization as a city which President Obama called “a model for the future” at the recent G-20 economic summit, it’s also a personal journey about returning home and coming to terms with the past.
Chris Edwards, the BIA’s executive director says “(w)e are very excited to launch this first event in our new series, Re:Vision Downtown Windsor, as part of the BIA’s efforts to implement creative and best practices to rejuvenate Windsor’s core. ‘My Tale of Two Cities’ is about a major industrial city re-inventing itself; the fact that the film’s director, Carl Kurlander, will be here to show the film and participate in the panel discussion afterwards will make this event even more pertinent to the future of downtown, and indeed the entire city.”
Presented in cooperation with the Windsor International Film Festival, the film’s director Carl Kurlander will also be in attendance. Immediately following the film, a panel discussion and an open mic for audience participation, “What Windsor Can Learn from Pittsburgh’s Comeback“, featuring Kurlander will take place. The panel will also include;
Thom Hunt, MCIP, RPP
Executive Director and City Planner
for the City of Windsor
Veronique Mandel
Journalism Program Director
St. Clair College
Steve Whibbs
Downtown entrepreneur and restaurateur
Check out the DWBIA’s blog for an interview with ED Chris Edwards about the event.
FREE tickets available at:
Coffee Exchange – 266 Ouellette Ave.
Milk Coffee Bar - 68 University Ave. West
Pause Cafe – 74 Chatham St. West
Ray & Kim’s Super Convenience – 353 Ouellette Ave.
DWBIA Office – 474 Ouellette Ave. (or call 519-252-5723)
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My wife and I relocated from Pittsburgh to Windsor about four years ago for school. We’re planning to stay on in the area, and it’s nice to see other people are seeing the same parallels between the two cities.
Windsor is Pittsburgh 25-30 years ago. The main industry is gone for good, and the city now has to decide which direction it is going to take. Pittsburgh benefited greatly from two well-known research universities in addition to another half-dozen universities in the area plus a much larger population base; however, Windsor is effectively in the middle of a metro area of about 4.5 million people. We just need to find a way to build from our strengths.
Are you going to make it to the screening, Jason? I’m sure that you would have a lot to add to the discussion, having lived in both communities! We could learn a lot from your experiences.
Chris, ask Jason to guest a blog before the movie if he can, it would be interesting to have some fore thoughts before we see the movie, maybe something to keep in mind.
Just wondering what you think those strengths are?
Real Estate?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/the-home-price-puzzle/article1475073/
Real estate isn’t a strength. It is a benefit that bolsters our strengths. Housing is expensive in Vancouver and Toronto, yet both cities constantly rank in the top of various livability indexes. People are willing to pay a premium for livability.
100% agree with Vincent, years of low property prices haven’t helped Detroit and Flint. I can buy houses in Detroit for a buck and still don’t want to retire there
A true Retirement Community strategy means a plan to increase programming for seniors and their participation rate in that programming. Making Windsor a place for seniors to be well and live vs. storing them until they get sick and dying.
Manufacturing infrastructure. We have the impression that old manufacturing infrastructure is ugly but in fact lots of it is beautiful. And we have lots of it. Why not conceive of a revitalization that makes old manufacturing infrastructure into retail, homes, walkable space?
Hey Jason? Did you see the film? What were your thoughts?
All three of those people listed can make a big difference, and are making those differences seen.
Here is another article(s) that show what is about to happen to suburbia. With those people above I don’t think Windsor will be the typical Windsor that we know in the next decade or so; that being always 10-15 years behind everyone else.
http://realestate.msn.com//article.aspx?cp-documentid=23482112>1=35000
Now if only we can get a regional gov’t….
Here is a nice link to an article about the future of our (not really ours) lovely suburbs.
http://realestate.msn.com//article.aspx?cp-documentid=23482112>1=35000
That was odd. My previous post did not show up and now I have another waiting on a moderator. Is this new?
It usually happens when someone leaves a comment with more than one external link, but I have no clue as to why your comments were getting sent to moderation. There’s been quite a few wonky things going on with the site as of late…
A shining example of how to revive a dowtown can be seen closer to home if you look at what Kitchener has done with thiers. I was there Friday and was amazed at the number of people WALKING around, no empty store fronts, and the myriad of different types of property uses from non-profit to government, to private enterprises.
As I said, a shining example for Windsor to aspire to.
Kitchener is reviving a downtown that has been subject to many revival initiatives for the past 30 years. The biggest factor in the latest revival is the location of Manulife Financial in the former King Benton Centre (the shopping and office complex that was supposed to ’save’ Kitchener’s downtown over 15 years ago). That got the ball rolling.
Windsor, on the other had, spent millions of dollars to locate the head office of a soon to be bankrupt multinational corporation - Chrysler - at Riverside and Ouellette, only to watch the head office of a local company - Green Shield - move out to Twin Oaks Business Park. That worked out well.
It’s too bad that the Mayor focused on trying to the Engineering Building downtown. He should have been working with St. Clair College and the University of Windsor in setting up a health sciences campus downtown.
Also, Kitchener was willing to spend money to build a new City Hall. Would the people of Windsor agree to such an expenditure, one that is desperately needed (our Council Chambers is so woefully out-of-date, so inadequate, it must be one of the worst in Ontario)?
The Christian Science Monitor asks, “Are all workers at an automaker green if a few of them make hybrid cars? Does the janitor’s position at a wind-turbine factory count as a green job? What about the urban planner who designs a mass transit system one year and a strip mall the next?” The problem is, the Des Moines Register notes, “There is no national definition of green jobs.” For Ashevillians, a green job means installing weather stripping or solar panels, as the AC-T lede suggests. So, that’s it?
Those might prove decent-paying, sustainable jobs and they might not. Six hundred might exist in our region and they might not.
Let’s suppose you are unemployed. Your factory has closed and you desperately need a job. What kind of skills do you need to get a green job? What will you be doing all day at your green job? Where can you go — today — to apply for a green job? Most importantly, how much will that green job pay? Can you build (or rebuild) a career on it? Can you buy a house with it? Send your kids to college? Save for retirement? Or will your green job be just another of several odd jobs you and your spouse piece together hoping to keep the bill collectors at bay for another month?
Ask those questions of green jobs enthusiasts and they may get dazed looks on their faces because they don’t know and can’t tell you. But they like the sound. Green jobs. Kewl.
A stinker of a film at a great venue - that’s how I would sum up my Friday night.
I wish we could have learned about Pittsburgh’s revitalization from the film! Unfortunately, the only thing it chronicled was the life a an oddball screenwriter! What a dissapointment! If it was true that Chris Edwards (as he stated) viewed the film prior to the screening, it surprises me that he would still show it and spend the DWBIA’s cash in bringing the director down. I could think of at least a dozen other films that would have been a better choice.
As far as I’m concerned it did nothing to further the conversation of Windsor’s rebirth.
On the bright side though, I loved spending the evening at the Capitol again! What a beautiful theatre!!!!
Also disappointed, it was more a tale of a confused man in two cities and gave nothing to the conversation we need in this city, it wasn’t even a good promo for the city and the only brilliant comments came from Frank O Harris. Happy that I didn’t have to pay admission.
Perhaps showing this film did it’s job. It got people talking about revitializing Windsor.
I believe we can’t be shown how to change Windsor we can only do it ourselves. Copying other cities won’t work, we must find a solution that fits Windsor. However, we can take tidbits from other cities and apply them here.
I wasn’t here to view the film so I have to ask. Was the attendance good?
Vincent, of course not. Peole will go nuts if the city built a much needed new city hall. They would rather the smoothest roads in the world to drive their soon to be repossessed cars.
Dear Chris/Mark:
The overwhelming response from the 300-plus folks who attended the movie was extremely positive. Not sure where your comments are coming from but am a bit surprised by your note.
Did you stick around for the panel discussion? Over an hour’s worth of debate on how we can revitalize the region.
Respectfully, regarding your comments: “As far as I’m concerned it did nothing to further the conversation of Windsor’s rebirth,” and ” gave nothing to the conversation we need in this city” are off the mark.
Having an opinion is one thing but the reality is that half the audience stuck around until 10:30pm to discuss the film and its implications for our region- this on a night when the rest of the city was watching the hockey game.
Perhaps you can send me a list of “at least a dozen other films that would have been a better choice.” Maybe this could be the start of a new film series in the core.
At Your Service,
Chris Edwards
DWBIA
Having promoted the film to most folks in the SD circle, the common belief would support my sentiments, Chris. I know people have congratulated me on events I have produced, knowing full well that they were stinkers. I guess they were too nice to tell me the truth to my face.
Which is the spirit in which I offer these criticisms. I know that platitudes aren’t going to fix any scenario, and felt that I could either sit back and say nothing, or voice many attendees concerns.
That being said, I feel my critique may just have been off the mark a bit.
I think the film may have been a decent primer for the uninformed. I hope that after viewing it, and participating in the panel discussion afterwards, have spurred people to get involved in their community a bit more. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) I brought my two kids with me and had to get them home and wasn’t able to stay for the whole discussion afterwards.
And yes Mark, we had these types of discussions years ago and I sort of wish we’d move forward a bit since then. Especially when organizations (other than ours, that is) are willing to throw a significant chunk of cash into bringing filmmakers into town.
I’d still like to find out how Pittsburgh did it, though…
Hey, I thought the filmmakers made it personal, which brings it home.
Its easy to discuss theory about how to make things better, but when it comes down to it, making it personal is what will bring about change.
I left the panel discussion early not realizing how long it was going to last. but what I saw of it, it was great.
In reality the panel discussion was what the evening was about, the film was there to show that our problems are not unique, they’re solvable and we’re not alone. The only thing I can think of to possibly explaining Chris’ Holt opinion is that guys like us have had these types of discussions so many times, that they seem like old news to us.
That would however disregard the need to bring in the masses who have not yet begun the discussions that are necessary.
It’s appears that everybody in almost every city in North America are having these conversations. I just spent one hour listening to TVO’s recent Agenda Camp from Brockville, which was this weekend and sounded just like Windsor’s Agenda Camp a year ago!
Pittsburgh has lost its steel industry and the population has been halved (from roughly 600,00 to 380,000 - what would Windsor look like with 100,00 people?) but it is still home to Fortune 500 companies and two very large universities that employ a lot of people. They’ve bulldozed half their city over twenty years. But even still Pittsburgh had a lot going for it without the steel industry,
I stayed for the first five questions and I’ve heard them before and the answers that go with them. When you have a mayor that does not listen, doesn’t care what your vision or your what ideas are, it’s pretty impossible not to be frustrated and angry and that goes for most of city council also.
The movie title: My Tale of Two Cities, Kurlander didn’t tell us much of either city and their present situations or how they got there. There was no visioning or even a look of or at downtown Pittsburgh, it was his personal journey to return home and stay there.
I give you credit Chris and the DWBIA for trying to engage the public in visioning a different city, I just personally wouldn’t have used this film.
Did you know that we had a young couple from Pittsburgh in the audience who are now landed immigrants in Windsor, you might want to interview them.
While looking for documentaries of other films on Pittsburgh, I came across this blog: Pittsburgh’s Future a very accredited writer but all of you might be interested in this posting on the blog.
Pittsburgh: The Steel City Transformed
http://tinyurl.com/yzylqn3
In part here is the first part of his blog:
The eyes of the world will be on Pittsburgh this month, and those expecting to see a dirty, smoky steel town will be amazed to see clear skies and people fishing in the rivers while the world’s leaders meet in one of the largest green buildings on the planet. They’ll also likely hear that the region has weathered the recession better than most places in America.
The obvious question will be: How did Pittsburgh do that?
Unfortunately, even many Pittsburghers won’t get the story quite right. They’ll say that Pittsburgh is no longer the Steel City; that manufacturing is gone; that most of our Fortune 500 companies have left; and that the region now has a “service economy.” But the truth is very different.
First of all, we’re still a Steel City. The 10th largest steel company in the world – United States Steel – is not only headquartered in Pittsburgh, it still makes steel here. Allegheny Technologies, one of the top specialty steel makers in the world, has eight manufacturing plants in the region, and several other specialty steel companies have facilities here. As a result, we still have 7,000 steel jobs in the region, and over 12,000 in the primary metals sector.
Manufacturing? Although we lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs in the 1980s, 90,000 are still here, and manufacturing is still the biggest contributor to the region’s income, providing nearly $10 billion of the $75 billion in earnings workers in the region received in 2008. What’s changed in 30 years is how diversified our manufacturing sector is, with cutting-edge companies in life sciences, robotics, information technology, and energy joining leading firms in traditional industries like steel and chemicals.
Fortune 500 companies? After years of hand-wringing about the companies that left, few people have noticed that today, 8 of the Fortune 500 are located in our region, almost as many as in 1980. The City of Pittsburgh has more Fortune 500 headquarters today than all but eight cities in America.
A service economy? Sure, but we’re not talking about barber shops and laundromats. Our economy is being powered by global service businesses like K&L Gates, Reed Smith, and Burt Hill, and by leading financial services firms like PNC and Federated Investors.
But the most dramatic change in the region’s economy in the past 30 years can be summed up in three words – CMU, Pitt, and UPMC. Few remember that in 1980, UPMC didn’t even exist, and Carnegie Mellon and Pitt were merely good regional universities…”
Moody’s Economy.com March 2010
http://tinyurl.com/yekeq4e
Pittsburgh Economic Outlook
How Does Pittsburgh Rank?
EMPLOYMENT GROWTH RANK
Best=1Worst=392
2008-10
135
2nd quintile
COST OF DOING BUSINESS
U.S.=100% 104%
COST OF LIVING U.S.=100% 89%
Strengths
Presence of top-tier educational and research institutions.
Large intellectual capital base in healthcare and finance.
Extremely low cost of living for a large northeastern metro area.
Weaknesses
A declining population base.
Aging infrastructure and dependence on old-line manufacturing.
Households are heavily leveraged.
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For Pittsburgh, There’s Life After Steel: New York Times Jan 7 2009
http://tinyurl.com/8zlf6c
“..Pittsburgh’s transition has been proceeding for decades in fits and starts, benefiting some areas much more than others. A development plan begun in the 1980s successfully used the local universities to pour state funds into technology research.
Entrepreneurship bloomed in computer software and biotechnology. Two of the biggest sectors are education and health care, among the most resistant to downturns. Prominent companies are doing well. Westinghouse Electric, a builder of nuclear reactors, expects to hire 350 new employees a year for the foreseeable future. And commercial construction, plunging in most places, is still thriving partly because of big projects like a casino and an arena for the Penguins hockey team.
The question is whether Pittsburgh can serve as a model for Detroit (or Windsor) and other cities in the industrial Midwest as they grapple with large-scale cutbacks in the automotive industry. Even with the federal government’s $17.4 billion bailout, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are expected to continue shrinking…”
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Economy of Pittsburgh - Wikipedia http://tinyurl.com/yzg7hnb
Scroll down the page to: Transition into the Present Economy and then the Present Situation
Pittsburgh Livability - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh#Economy
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Below is a very good website for everything you want to know about Pittsburgh right now by the numbers.
Pittsburgh Today: Key Indicators for Understanding Our Region
http://www.pittsburghtoday.org/home.html
The film was fine…it was cute, comedic, told a great story and was a great part of an enjoyable evening (thanks for the freebie Chris and the BIA)……the magic came in that the film, with just a tiny bit of hype, had the ability to pull 300 plus people “with like minded ideas and concerns” off the chilly streets of Windsor and into one our most underused gems…nobody walked into that theater without a smile on their face!
If we learned anything from the film it was that the city isn’t going to do it for you…why?…because they don’t necessarily know how….and its really quite that simple. i’m not going to rip on the roster of decision makers in our town and their backgrounds, but i will point out that our council is not made up of people that “really” know what it takes for a city to click. ( don’t read this as hostile…being sympathetic) They aren’t city planners, urban planners, architects, designers, musicians, artisits, or even really strong business people (in fact few of them live in what you would consider “the city”)….so how can they be expected to “invent solutions”? They can’t, so the ideas need to come from us…the community…the thinkers, the dreamers, the people that form the culture and life of our city…..we need to package clear thought and present our ideas and concepts in a manner that council can understand, grasp, feel good about and pass! Progress comes from being progressive. The only way i have ever passed something through council was by overwhelming them with good, solid and acurate information or concepts….don’t just think it can work. know it can.
The only damaging factor that we share with Pittsburgh is our inability to look beyond the “one” hand that feeds us…..the Auto industry. The Auto industry is here….its not growing, its not shrinking, its not doing anything but “adjusting”….we would be foolish to turn our backs on it but on the same note we can’t keep pouring tons of cash into tax incentives etc for them and ignore our fine crop of small businesses that spawn an idea and leave the city immediately. What is Boston known for?…What is Chicago known for?…What is Toronto known for?…none of these towns are single minded…and that should be our goal…the goal of losing our identity…it would be great to be not KNOWN for anything in particular….but not at the risk of losing what is here now.
I think our city is right on the very edge of something great…..its up to us.
Maybe “critiquing” the film for cinema sake is a bit off topic, but for many of us, our criticisms of the film was the notion that this was seemingly touted, in a sense, the “Holy Grail” of solutions for disintegrating cities worldwide. What we were served with was a personal diary of a disenchanted citizen of Pittsburgh.
The positive thing about the evening was seeing familiar faces with the same hopes for revitalizing Windsor. We need more of that energy to spark interest outside of our common-thinking circles into the other areas of Windsor that are suffering, and maybe even out towards the prospering areas as well to show that not everything outside of their doors is all peaches and cream. Sustaining Windsor as a whole is important, in the same that a beautiful tree won’t last long if its roots are rotting underneath the soil. Sounds hokey, but it’s the best analogy I could come up with…
And yes, like Pittsburgh, Windsorites are jumping ship to other cities - not even necessarily for jobs but for opportunities for better things. Better does not mean bigger or flashier. Better to me is a quality of life which includes a miriad of things. Maybe we need to figure out what Windsor needs to increase its quality of life?
For me , what is of importance is “sustaining” that quality of life many are asking for.
From Chicago to Pittsburgh - those cities invested heavily in quality of life amnenties; but have been unable to financially sustain them without resorting to large scale tax increases and new fees.
In fact, Pittsburgh is/was contemplating taxing university tuition among other fees instituted to address it’s $1-billion debt.
Without a solid foundation to support these amnenties; there is a problem. While we begin the slow transition to high-tech/green-tech jobs, the reality is, these jobs will not replace the thousands of unemployed (and dare I say considering several factors - unemployable - without significantly investments in retraining).
I’m not pooh-poohing quality of life issues - I’m only raising a point that is typically lacking in these types of discussions.
Chris S, agreed, people contribute to the quality of life of their surroundings but with out the folks all you have is stuff.
simple math…
density (people) = revitlization (business to fill the needs of these people)
solve the tax issue that discourages developers from filling our downtown with residential units and you will fill the storefronts with them….business (small…which is what we need to grow) goes to where the people are…all the jobs are in our “metro” area, all the people are in our “metro” area….we just need to offset that shift outwards….i pay 4800 bux a year on a 50′ lot in walkerville..a guy in the burbs pays less than half, for a bigger lot….my house, street, sewers, power, water, sidewalks and park system have been there for 100 years…why am i paying more money for someone else to get it all brand new for half the cost?…(and yes they get to use our infrastructure sytem)….on top of that (here’s where i get bitchy)…i have to watch my streets get pushed wider and wider to accomodate the influx of these very same people and their minivans, to come rushing through my village at 8am and 5pm everyday to make their trip that much more pleasant…heaven forbid they slow down and admire what the villages have to offer…our taxes actually encourage people to leave the city….and with it the businesses goes with it.
so thats our biggest hurdle….whether windsor, pittsburgh, detroit, toronto or anywhere…even our that tax issue and you even out the battle for the people (density).
Who wrote that this film didn’t do much to stimulate discussion on revitalization?
LOL!
Welcome to ScaleDown, Chris. Any excuse to party!
In my opinion, what the film tried to show its viewers: the people were the revitalization. It is about people acting, not just talking.
I thought it showed that it wasn’t grandiose plans or projects that helped turn Pittsburgh around, but, the people’s belief in and love for their city. Sadly, I believe that is one thing that is lacking within a large percentage (not all) of Windsorites…a true love for their city.
I’ve seen it so many times with friends and acquaintances who move away and hold ill feelings for their hometown of Windsor. It is this negativity and lack of emotion for our city that makes us our own worst enemy.
Last week while attending an event in Detroit, I was blown away and I have to admit a bit jealous at the love Detroiters have and show for their city. Even with all the problems they face, which dwarf Windsor’s in comparison, Detroiters still have love for their city.
I just wish the majority of Windsorites started to show their love for our city. Maybe then a true revitalization would begin here.
Maybe I missed something, but I didn’t see them mention once what it was the actually turned Pittsburgh around.
I did not attend the showing, but Adriano makes a valid point. It is action and not squawking that will turn Windsor around. I especially like his point that we can’t rely on grandiose plans but need to get back to basics in order to cure Windsor’s ills. Isn’t that what scaling down is all about?
Aw, this was a very nice post. Finding the time and
actual effort to create a really good article… but what can
I say… I procrastinate a lot and don’t seem to get nearly anything done.