Hang Onto Your Ego
Why do we let buildings fall like casualties to the wrecker’s ball? Why do we ignore the streets we live on and scoff at what is old and grey with the dust of a thousand summers?
We in this city are consistent. We have, for over a century, felled our history that stood all around us, using the excuse of “progress” and “for the good of the people” like daggers in the corpse of a convicted felon. We have let those who have no interest in this city but to make a quick buck off of the sweat and hard labour of our residents for as long as anyone can remember.
Our story isn’t a unique one. In many cities and towns, developers have come through using the guise of change and progress to systematically destroy the fabric of an untold number of communities. In some cities, simply walking to the park is a luxury only for those with an automobile, and in those parks stand a few shabby trees and a set of rusted playground equipment.
Some blame television and the great spectre of mass media for society’s demise. Others blame the oblivious and jaded youth, and others blame corporate greed. This may be true in other cities, but in Windsor, we are different.
We have neglected our city’s landscape and open spaces due to complete and utter ignorance. As we see more and more pieces of our city fall away, only to be reborn in a grotesque, inconvenient regurgitated form (WFCU Centre) in the far reaches of our city.
I blame the automobile, source of many generations of our employment, but it is a double, or even triple edged sword. The automobile has brought us two things which have nearly destroyed our society as we know it, the suburbs and pollution.
The automobile made it possible for someone to live very far away from where they worked and did their shopping, so this robbed the neighbourhood as our forebears knew it of its soul. The soul of a neighbourhood lives in its eccentricities that set it apart from other sections of the city.
Think of Old Walkerville, and Old Riverside, for example. These boroughs were created so that people could live close to where they sought employment. They also had a lovely commercial district cut right in the middle of them so that people wouldn’t have to travel long distances to buy groceries, or other goods.
They both had stately high schools and elementary schools built in their borders to educate the children and to free them from having to travel long distances just to be educated, as many people did before the majority of people lived in towns and cities. Gone were the days of one room school houses.
Since time began, humans were a finicky bunch, and rightly so. We love convenience. We have built entire industries around that maxim. We built neighbourhoods as we did because they were convenient to the average person. What is really convenient anymore?
Do people call convenience driving for an hour just to arrive at work? Do people call convenience driving to the nether regions of our city just to fill their trunks with groceries, or having to drive far away to watch a hockey game? I’d like to think not, but we all have been sold the dream that having an automobile frees us from the rigors of a pedestrian life, but I happen to think the opposite; it makes things much more complicated.
We substitute our neighbourhoods for the faces we see on television. We compartmentalise our art and neglect our buildings simply due to ignorance. How can we appreciate and have a passion for our history if we speed past it at 50 kilometres per hour? It is this type of thinking that made St Mary’s Academy just another ignored whistle stop on the way to grandma’s house; ignored by many when it was standing, missed when it finally succumbed to demolition. I could name other whistle stops and “eyesores” but I will save you the entire casualty list.
I wish I lived in Walkerville just so that I could see the snow on all of those old buildings. Winter there feels as if you were in the middle of a Norman Rockwell painting, it is perfect and idyllic. The buildings there are loved and fought for.
When will the rest of this city get the hint, and hang on to its ego?
Tags: big box retail, culture, health, mom and pop, urban sprawl, walkable, walkerville
Post Feedback
Walkerville is an incredibly beautiful place! I just came in from shovelling the snow, and in the middle of this task I couldn’t help but linger on the pretty, Rockwellesque postcard image that is my neighbourhood.
I wish I could bottle that sentiment and give it away to all those people that don’t have the same connection with their neighbourhood. If everyone felt the same way, Windsor would be in much better shape!
Don’t forget the impact on property taxes!
With sprawl comes higher property taxes…eventually. Someone has to pay to keep up the infrastructure and eventually when it erodes, as we are seeing now, it has to be replaced. Where does the gov’t go to get those revenues? Your property taxes.
The more sprawl, the more taxes because we cannot keep building without maintaining (think WUC bills folks). If you think it is going to get better, think again.
All of the suburbs we have produced in the last 15-20 years is agoig to erode over the next 20 and it will have to be replaced. Now think of the areas that are already old and being ignored and add them together. This task is going to become monumental! Maybe we are heading back to the days when renting wasn’t seen as such a negative. Maybe we will see a return to the apartment homes of yester-year.
Chris, I agree with you. Last night I stopped numerous times just to enjoy my surroundings. One last thing. Don’t forget to shovel your neighbours sidewalk (if you have any) especially if they are elderly. You would be surprised at the response and you may meet people you never knew.
My wife and I were just talking about community and neighbourhoods last night. It’s funny, nobody ever decides to go someplace to look at the suburban sprawl yet people will travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles to view areas like Charlottetown, PEI, Old Montreal, etc. etc. Sprawl is a non-starter, in so many ways. It’s a wonder we even allow sprawl for all the poison, fiscal, social and environmental, the it brings with it.
One of my favorite transportation resources is Victoria Transport Policy Institute. I love their concept of smart growth.
http://www.vtpi.org/
At a time that we will be rebuilding our infrastructure for the next 50 years the concept of smart growth is critical. I fear, if we get this wrong, we will LOSE a golden opportunity to change our fortunes.
The following comes from:
Understanding Smart Growth Savings
What We Know About Public Infrastructure and Service Cost Savings,
And How They are Misrepresented By Critics
By Todd Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Smart Growth (the future of Windsor?)
Density:
Higher-density, clustered activities
Growth pattern:
Infill (brownfield) development
Land use mix:
Mixed land use.
Scale:
Human scale. Smaller buildings, blocks, and roads. Designed for pedestrians.
Services (shops, schools, parks):
Local, distributed, smaller. Accommodates walking access.
Transport:
Multi-modal transportation and land use patterns that support walking, cycling and public transit.
Connectivity:
Highly connected roads, sidewalks and paths.
Street design:
Streets designed to accommodate a variety of activities. Traffic calming.
Planning process:
Planned and coordinated between jurisdictions and stakeholders.
Public space:
Emphasis on the public realm (streetscapes, pedestrian environment, public parks, public facilities).
Sprawl (current attitudes in Windsor?)
Density:
Lower-density, dispersed activities.
Growth pattern:
Urban periphery (greenfield) development.
Land use mix:
Homogeneous (single-use, segregated) land
uses
Scale:
Large scale. Larger buildings, blocks, wide roads. Less detail, since people experience the landscape at a distance, as motorists.
Services (shops, schools, parks):
Regional, consolidated, larger. Requires automobile access
Transport:
Automobile-oriented transportation and land use patterns, poorly suited for walking, cycling and transit.
Connectivity:
Hierarchical road network with numerous loops and dead-end streets, and unconnected sidewalks and paths.
Street design:
Streets designed to maximize motor vehicle traffic volume and speed..
Planning process:
Unplanned, with little coordination between jurisdictions and stakeholders.
Public space:
Emphasis on the private realm (yards, shopping malls, gated communities, private clubs).
Why do we need to make the shift? Smart Growth can provide various economic, social and environmental benefits.
Economic
Reduced development costs.
Reduced public service costs.
Reduced transportation costs.
Economies of agglomeration.
More efficient transportation.
Supports industries that depend
on high quality environments
(tourism, farming, etc.).
Social
Improved transport options and mobility, particularly for non-drivers.
Improved housing options.
Community cohesion.
Preserves unique cultural resources (historic sites, traditional neighborhoods, etc.)
Increased physical exercise and health.
Environmental
Greenspace & habitat preservation.
Reduced air pollution.
Increased energy efficiency.
Reduced water pollution.
Reduced “heat island” effect.
I think sprawl is a direct result of the american way: bigger, better, faster, cheaper. If materials and land were more expensive, you will see inner-city housing rise (higher density projects like apartment buildings and multi-unit houses). I say sell the burbs off to “new communities” and let them be self sufficient… Focus on the core. You need a few things: 1. Immediately freeze all suburb permits. 2. Make incentives to attract PEOPLE and BUSINESSES to core areas. Choose a few focal points and start there. 3. Make these places attractive and inspiring… like squares, paths, cinema’s, markets, etc.. 4. Enforce strict building/reno permits that ensure that any new projects “fit” in the neighborhood plan.
That is not ME above but another poster. Though he/she is correct in their post. I think squares need to return as do small parkettes. They always seem to be used and they don’t cost a lot to upkeep nor build.