Downtown is dead! Long live downtown!
“When you came to Windsor, that must have been a huge step.”
“It was.”
A couple of weeks ago I went to hangout with my mom for the evening. She lives at my sister’s place. My sister and her husband were out of town for the weekend so I went over with some snacks to watch Hockey Night in Canada and talk about “the good ole’ days”.
I’m the baby in my family, the youngest of five and there’s a big gap from myself to the next oldest. Mom and dad were both born in the 1920’s and came of age during the Second World War. My mom was born in Leamington. When she left the Big Tomatoe, in 1942, for Windsor it was a big deal. Eighteen and single, a young woman studying business and book-keeping at a downtown college. At that time, moving a distance many people now commute daily, was rare. Much less striking out on her own, leaving her family and friends behind.
After the war ended my dad came back to Windsor to work for his father, to learn the family business that he would one day take over. Mom helped out at the store at 575 Oullette. Ma worked in the downtown core from 1942 until 1983. She lived the hustle and bustle when downtown Windsor was a dynamic hub of culture and commerce and she has lived the sickness and decline of our city’s core.
Consider a couple of things; our “downtown” peaked, in the early 1950’s, once everyone was home from the war and back to work. Business - professional and retail - was conducted differently. It was done face-to-face; it made sense to have your office close to the people you did business with. It required a lot of people to get it done; pre-computer every office had at least one person to answer the phone and direct calls, engineers and architects employed “teams” of assistants and draftsmen to do computations/design and produce drawings. Accountants had “pools” of book-keepers to maintain and review clients’ ledgers. Downtown was teeming with working people and professionals six days a week and that is why retailers and restaurants thrived.
With the rise of the suburbs and the development of malls people’s need to go downtown started to change.
Today I question the relevance of “downtown”. Back in the day, the main street business district of every amalgamated town was a downtown. For a time each held their own. Today these BIAs want what “downtown” has, each has its place in their respective communities and each deserves the opportunity to “compete” for businesses, investment and community events. Will we ever see “downtown” or any central business district regain the economic and cultural importance they once had?
People have gotten very excited about the Freedom Fest/Summer Fest moving to WFCU. It would seem that, at the highest levels (political and business) that Windsor is refocusing to the east. Largely because that is where the money is. The city has put a lot of money (mine and yours) into WFCU and its not earning it back. Developers have put money into the Lear land and land to the east of Little River and if they don’t get traffic, if they don’t get interest in their property they will not see the ROI they planned. Keep in mind, this is not a new practice. Downtown Windsor developed because it was profitable. Walkerville, Ford City and so on all developed because their was money to be made.
In 2010 the trip from Leamington to Windsor is a regular workday commute for many people. In a wireless world we don’t need face time with customers or co-workers. In the global economy manufacturing is done at centralized factories. The way we live and do business has changed completely. Why do we expect things to stay the same? What makes us think we can return “downtown” to its former glory or, even its level of importance of twenty years ago without a major shift in the machinations of the world?
You can preach to me the importance of local commerce, local culture, local history and civic pride but I’m starting to feel the whole “we must save downtown” is more dogma than anything else. Part of Scaledown’s mission is to connect all communities to be walkable and livable. The East Riverside Development Area is - well, it’s developing - and that community will need its own central business district to be walkable and livable. I’ve considered this in past posts, perhaps we are seeing our city’s next evolution, a population shift, a new focus.
This town isn’t like Toronto, or Chicago, or Detroit not even London. It’s different here.
Tags: community building, culture, Downtown, economic development, investment, Official Plan, Urban Design, urban sprawl, walkable
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For a community to be walkable, it needs to have a high population density. Suburbs will never be walkable.
You also say “Will we ever see “downtown” or any central business district regain the economic and cultural importance they once had?”, yet many cities RETAIN the economic and cultural importance of their CBDs.
I vehemently oppose James Stance
DOWNTOWN IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT IS THE SUMM OF 5 DISTINCT DISTRICTS, NOT JUST ONE
The relevance of Downtown that I have tried to show is that it is the equivalent of 5 districts of our city, each being very significant
1. Pelissier St. Village - potential to be the neighborhood that any other BIA.
It should host neighborhood support businesses and artist work/live spaces
2. The Arts - District includes Capital Theater, Chrysler Theater, Artcite, the Art Gallery. This area’s hosts the majority of the city’s arts assets. IT is important district as such. It should have more gallery spaces
3. The Square - Hosts City Hall, The police station, the court bldgs, the Casino, Charles Clark Square. Why don’t the people who live in this district live in Downtown. Someone needs to approach them to find out what it would take
4. The Ave - Main street, all the bank headquarters in the city, Great Restaurants (minor shameless self promotion) Pitt for Pasta, Mazaar, Chanoso’s, Oishii, Marathon, Coffee Exchange, Pour House, House of India, Basil Court, Mandarin, Milk. Entertainment venue’s encroaching on this area but still distinct
5. Ouellette Avenue South - Entertainment district with bars that every successful city contains. Causes problems due to mismanagement of the area but it is something that we should manage properly and be proud of instead of always bashing.
Steve and Mark
Here are some things to consider:
There are very few professional jobs left downtown.
Companies that used to have offices in the Windsor area have consolidated in other locations. Worse those that remain have left the core - Green Shield comes to mind.
People that work in Windsor don’t all live in Windsor - never mind downtown workers that leave the core every night - they live outside the city and investors are looking to where the people are - hence sprawl.
To sum up - unless something very radical happens to bring prominence back to downtown it will remain what it is.
People don’t have to go downtown to work, to find good restaurants or to be entertained anymore.
I’m not saying pull the plug on downtown just yet but the reality is that downtown has limited appeal among the masses.
Cut out Downtown James and we loses 30% of the districts that make WIndsor Unique and Distinct.
If Downtown dies, 1/3 of our city dies along with it. If you give up on downtown it will become the black hole that will suck the rest of the city into it.
The high crime / high victimization area that will follow will need somewhere to steal from to pay for their drug use. It will be the nice adjacent neighborhoods
correction….cut out downtown and you don’t have a city.
also…you solve the residential problem by solving the the business problem…you solve the business problem by solving the tax problem
I’m not nearly as knowledgeable or passionate about these issues as Mark and others so don’t blast me here
I spent time with Mark at the BIA and he’s got some intense passion for Downtown and making things work. Downtown is lucky he’s stuck around as long as he said.
That being said,
From my point of view - Downtown Windsor is just trying to be too many things at once.
Kingsville and Leamington both have the same issues (on a much smaller scale) Big box stores move outside the city and it decreases traffic downtown.
However, I was Downtown this past Saturday and it was dead. We had lunch at Mark’s restaurant. It was enjoyable, but being Downtown on a Saturday was like being dropped into a ghost town.
The other areas of Windsor? Jammed.
My feeling is that what you’re saying, Mark, is part of the problem.
The Arts, The Dining Scene, The Bar Scene… etc…
Like I said, I’m not nearly as knowledgeable on these issues. I just don’t see how Downtown Windsor can expect to be so many things and do it well?
It seems the easiest solution is just need to pick one and embrace it.
Is it food and killer dining scene?
Is it a killer bar scene that embraces the American crowds?
Is it an art scene?
Is it a gambling paradise?
Is it a mini sin city?
Is it business building ground where startups like Red Piston will get the encouragement and support they need?
To me, it seems like a mismatch of all the above and each one is trying to pull in a different direction.
How can such a small Downtown core support so many districts tied so closely together?
I REALLY enjoy this blog. Keep up the good work guys. I think that disagreements and debates like this are extremely positive. I know a lot of people who share similar feelings to what James has expressed in this post.
Noah
That should read
“Downtown is lucky he’s stuck around as long as he has.”
Downtown Windsor, striving to look like Detroit 20 years ago…
Hey, let’s not slag downtown.
My point here is to draw out the reality of the situation - not pull the rug out from under downtown.
Noah, Successful downtowns have all of the elements you and I speak of.
Successful downtowns are neighborhoods that have a thriving residential sector
Successful Downtowns have entertainment
Successful Downtowns embrace the arts
Successful Downtowns have great dining scene
I can’t imagine anywhere else someone asking a downtown to pick between these elements. Thats why we call it the downtown mosaic
James, I reject the premise
“There are very few professional jobs left downtown.”
Royal Bank, TD Bank, CIBC bank, Bank of Montreal, Price Waterhouse
City Hall Administration including the 400 bldg. Countless law offices
You are correct in that outsiders don’t need to come downtown if they don’t have to which is why we need to focus more on our own residential sector and grow it.
We haven’t even came up with a strategy with achievable numbers attached. Why can’t we get target the creation of 50 net new residents per year? Thats how you grow it, one resident at a time
However, no part of the city has all the amenities that Downtown has in one shot. Riverfront park, central library, art gallery, symphony, capital theater, dozens of restaurants vs 3 or 4 elsewhere. Amazingly cool places like Milk and Phog.
WHere you gonna go Monday nights in your neighborhood and see music like the Monday night Milk men or get all you can eat sushi mondays?
Downtown, its not the only choice, its just by far the choice with the most opportunities
can’t forget the casino/arena/convention center professional jobs
James, I reject the premise
Mark, you may reject my reality and substitute your own - anyone can - won’t hurt my feelings one bit.
“There are very few professional jobs left downtown.”
Refer to the history of downtown in mentioned in my post. Sure there are a number of professional jobs downtown but, if you did a historical study of the distribution of professional jobs downtown vs. outside of downtown I would bet the result is that there are proportionally fewer professional jobs left in the downtown.
Royal Bank, TD Bank, CIBC bank, Bank of Montreal, Price Waterhouse
City Hall Administration including the 400 bldg. Countless law offices
See above: how many people do those employers have today vs. 10, 20, 30 years ago? What is the potential for these employers to expand their payrolls? CIBC moved much of its downtown business to Tecumseh Road East (in the Wal-Mart parking lot), TD is consolidating two branches into one and the City is very likely to be shedding jobs over the next five years.
You are correct in that outsiders don’t need to come downtown if they don’t have to which is why we need to focus more on our own residential sector and grow it.
In a mortally wounded city, with a declining population or at best flat-lining population, in an area abandoned by the school boards, neglected or ignored by city powers (business/political/administration), with a perceived crime problem and so on - how do you propose to grow the residential population of downtown? (Seriously, because this is the ultimate factor in the whole thing for a downtown rebirth it needs jobs, people and all those things that the suburbs offer in addition to the bonus of urban life.)
We haven’t even came up with a strategy with achievable numbers attached. Why can’t we get target the creation of 50 net new residents per year? Thats how you grow it, one resident at a time
As I said before, without something radical happening, you’re tilting at windmills. When a downtown lifer like Urbanrat talks about moving out to the county, or an arts community fixture like Christian Aldo packs up and leaves town you have a problem - keeping what you have.
However, no part of the city has all the amenities that Downtown has in one shot. Riverfront park, central library, art gallery, symphony, capital theater, dozens of restaurants vs 3 or 4 elsewhere. Amazingly cool places like Milk and Phog.
True, downtown as a concentration of activities and venues. Just last week me and the fam ate dinner at Bubi’s and went to a lecture at the AGW. But, the city and county are full of restaurants. I can even go to Tecumseh to eat at one of yours ;-). My end of town has the Ganatcho Trail and Little River linear park and a beach. Each part of the city has unique features and cool places.
WHere you gonna go Monday nights in your neighborhood and see music like the Monday night Milk men or get all you can eat sushi mondays?
Where can I go downtown - take my family to a movie and then next door to bowl (with a discount on the bowling because we went to the movie theater)?
Downtown, its not the only choice, its just by far the choice with the most opportunities
Just like Wal-Mart is not the only choice? Just because it has the most crap under one roof doesn’t mean I’ll shop there.
Geez Mark, your making me work
I hear ya Mark.
I don’t believe cities need to specifically choose one.
I guess I have always just felt we’re leaning too far in one direction or another and not accomplishing the mosaic or maybe it’s too much of a mosaic….. It’s more like a big bowl of noodles, some tasty veggies mixed in, and sprinkle of delicious sesame seeds on top.
The noodles taking up the majority of the dish and being all the things that make people rather disinterested with coming Downtown.
Maybe it’s too much of a mosaic.
I am probably not being clear enough with my thoughts and perhaps I haven’t formulated them enough to even be commenting…and now I’m using noodle metaphors.
I’ll shut up now.
“I would bet the result is that there are proportionally fewer professional jobs left in the downtown.”
Ok, but think about it. I just read that after all the U.S. manufacturing Jobs lost over the past few decades, the U.S. still has more manufacturing output than the next two biggest countries put together.
Sure we lost a lot but we still have more than everyone else
“how do you propose to grow the residential population of downtown? ”
I LOVE THAT QUESTION!!!. the problem is no one else but you has asked it.
And more importantly, no one likes the answer because its not sexy enough
You grow residents one at a time. I’ve been to other cities and they said they set targets and a strategy how to achieve those targets. Of course at first they mostly guess but what they do report on why they failed at achieving those targets or why their they achieved them by coincidence.
No one has asked the professionals who remain in downtown, what would it take to live next to where you work? is it crime, is it a canal, is it a type of residential product that we don’t offer that we should like a brownstone?
The answer to increasing residential is to first start asking the right questions in a public manner
Just like Wal-Mart is not the only choice? Just because it has the most crap under one roof doesn’t mean I’ll shop there.
Ahh but what we have IS NOT CRAP, we have arts, entertainment, hospitality, parks. We have all the things you want and strive for, we just do a shitty job of getting that across and eliminating the negatives
One of the reasons downtowns are important is because it is the “face” that is shown to visitors and residents alike. Without it what identity does a city have (good or bad)?
Yes it is different here but it doesn’t and didn’t have to be that way.
Our politicians allowed it to happen and didn’t think to change the mindset of the people as it was happening.
Also downtowns are the heart of any city. Yes BIA’s are important to each neighbourhood they are attached to (just like a downtown) but the downtown is the place that is supposed to bring everyone together. Even Mississauga has a growing “downtown”.
I too support the death of downtown! Why? Because it has only one place to go and that is upwards. So bring on the funeral, move on and get this city looking like a real city. With a functioning downtown and cohesive neighbourhoods throughout the city.
If the above column is true then I say pack in Scaledown, allow the sprawl to move on unabated because after all; Why would we need BIAs if we can just build more crap as we move outward?
If you think it is just dogma I would like to beg to differ. For the most part more councillors are starting to understand the importance and that to me, shows something positive and that we are getting through to the “machine” that is Windsor.
Mark:”Ok, but think about it. I just read that after all the U.S. manufacturing Jobs lost over the past few decades, the U.S. still has more manufacturing output than the next two biggest countries put together. Sure we lost a lot but we still have more than everyone else”
There are no manufacturing jobs downtown. I am saying that there a far fewer people working downtown today. Downtown thrived because it was the economic/commercial centre of the city - even the county. Downtown was the driver of everyday activity and if a company wanted a piece of that action, downtown was the place to be.
Yes, downtown can claim to be the cultural hub of the city. But, arts and entertainment alone will not drive a resurgence in downtown. Jobs, a concentration of working people with the means to support services and retailers on a daily basis is what is needed.
You get people working downtown again, then they can be shown the appeal of urban living.
And it all starts at the top over at city hall. Give downtown special status - lower taxes, cut development fees. Push speculators to develop their holdings by changing the rules so that taxes are collected even when the property is vacant.
getting people working downtown isn’t enough
I remember many cities reporting that they did keep the office jobs downtown but people went from their house garage in the suburbs to their office parking garage back and forth each day without ever venturing outside
Thats why the college and university campus’ are important to me, not for the students but to try to lure the graduates and instructors to stay and become a part of downtown
Where people are getting wrapped around the axel is by failing to recognize that business is not done the same now as it was 10-20-30 years ago, as James has pointed out. To revitalize the downtown there needs to be an acceptance of that difference and not by hanging onto the traditional dogma of what a downtown was in prior generations. We can’t ever go back to how it was. Scaleback may has a few good planks in its platform but I’m sure others have workable ideas that can augment the Scaledown foundation. And some ideas on Scaledown are not workable and need to be jetisoned. But downtown will never be how it was and may not even be something we recognize as a downtown today.
Windsor needs a healthy and thriving downtown core with locally-owned businesses to survive the great economic contraction that’s going to reshape North America in the next half century. The non-renewable, natural resources that have allowed cities like Windsor to spread and develop large suburbs out have either reached peak production or will very shortly. When that happens you can kiss big-box retail, franchise fast-food and long workday commutes good bye. Where the hell will we buy the basic necessities of life once the big retail and grocery chains go out of business and gas hits five dollars a litre? The global economy won’t rescue us because by then it will be impossible to import manufactured goods from overseas in the vast quantities we’re used to.
There are TONS of professional jobs downtown…just sit and watch the massive influx of traffic that clogs the drive, ouelette and all of our major arteries every morning…our biggest issue is to solve residential density…because these same people all leave at 5 oclock and clog the same streets in the opposite direction. People love downtown, people want to live downtown….its just that city doesnt make it as easy as the burbs.
Interesting. As one commentator in the Star called the TFCU area “Little Lebanon,” in the boil up over Summerfest moving, that area of our city regardless of how dense our mayor and the developers want to make it, it will not be a walkable community, unless they want to do a mass makeover of the street and neighbourhood layouts, the car will still have its royal status.
Cities have to be dynamic or they die, and to be dynamic means that things have to change. I’m old enough to remember downtown in the 1950’s and it was busy, with shops and department stores and tonnes of people, although I can’t comment on the night life. But I can also remember when Dorwin Plaza opened, not a true mall in today’s standard but different from downtown, a new “super”market, when there were at least two I can remember downtown, which by the sixties were closed.
The demolition of Patterson Collegiate went a long way in destroying the downtown for families and the two school boards haven’t helped this city at all.
Then Canadian Tire closed, then the two hardware stores, Chatham Street Hardware and finally Douglas Hardware, then Canada Salvage moved. You can’t buy a can of paint downtown anywhere, even though there are what 5,000 plus people living in the core including myself, who also live in the core. The closest gas station is the Mac’s Milk on the corner of Erie and Ouellette but there are five thousand plus cars also downtown. So population wise, downtown is about the size of Kingsville but the people of Kingsville have more stores and services in approximately the same area of Old Windsor. So what’s different?
Most of the residents in the core owning their own condo or a home are middle class the same as the burbs or Kingsville, So if we rule out density, income and yes class perception, then what is left that does not attract retail and people to the core? Taxes! For the property taxes I pay on a 650 square foot condo, twenty stories up, I would be better off living in Kingsville and have a larger home and more retail within walking distance than I have now! And I have thought about it when I retire in 21 months! And I still wouldn’t need a car!
Most of this city was paid for by residents of Old Windsor, when there was absolutely no development fees for our outward growth, the burbinites got off to damn easy and they still do! So I am in favour of a multi ring tax system, almost zero in the core and more expensive the farther out you live. If you want to live in a greenfield field development but still have the amenities of a city near by, then you will damn well pay for it and a twenty year surcharge for maintenance and upkeep!
Hamilton because it is cheaper than Metro Toronto and good part of the GTA has seen a huge influx of artists et al because of the cheaper taxes and living expenses. Artist are one of the greatest urban developers a city can have, they need space to make art, make movies etc. So change those zoning and by-laws so that an under paid artist can live and work in the same dewelings. Soho in New York was an old warehouse district that the likes of Jackson Pollack moved to because he needed a large cheap space place to paint, other artists followed, then boutiques and coffee shops, the up scale carriage trade moved into the same type of lofts. Now you have Victoria Secret super store, Guggenhiem Soho and stores that you and I can’t afford to shop in! Now two generations later, the artists have been kicked out of Soho and are moving to Brooklyn! And eventually the same thing will happen there as did Soho, as it did in Yorkville in Toronto, and now Queen Street is becoming yuppiefied and the artist will eventually move from there. Can we work with city hall to change the laws to attract artists here? Can we change the zoning laws to allow mixed use, light manufacturing in residential areas, remember, an artist is a manufacturer! I know this because I am artist, my parents were artists and each of us never had the income from our art, that we could afford a factory space (studio) and a separate residence, so our house was a very crowed family mix use resident.
We can’t go back to when, whenever! I haven’t abandon all hope of and for the downtown and I personally don’t need much of the rest of the city and what it has to offer, twenty years of not owning a car, I’ve learned to live with my limitations on what I can do on any given day and for that I have more freedom now than ever having to use a car to get about this city. Some day a few more might understand this liberating idea.
I think Noah is wrong somewhat, a city is many different things to as many different people there are. I live four blocks from the Casino, yet I’ve been there twice since it opened in the new location. I don’t need Cheetahs or the Million Dollar but they are there. I might visit the Art Gallery of Windsor once in a blue moon but it is also there three blocks away. More than enough restaurants to satisfy almost every graving I have but I cook more meals at home. Yet one of my neighbours in this condo, eats out all the time, is in and out of the Casino and bars constantly but doesn’t go to the coffee houses or live music venues but has live beside me for fifteen years. A city is what you want to make it. The best is it is all within a walking distance.
A good city is rude and sinful, prissy and straight with everything else in between and that is what I love about it! You don’t get that in a suburb, suburbs are basically sterile breeding grounds for those who bought into an old American dream that never was sustainable. A city is robust, dynamic and changing, a suburb is for all the anti human race people, they don’t want to mingle, rub shoulders with their neighbour or even know them, let alone strangers! Stand outside the Milk Bar Cafe any time of the day and I’ll bet you will start a conversation with someone you didn’t know before, even before your coffee gets cold, does that happen a Timmies in the burbs! Not very often from my observations.
Yes James, it was and it will be again. We know there is a perception problem and our news media don’t and won’t help it. And yes the other neighbourhoods are just as viable but they aren’t the heart.
As we change from a middle twentieth century model to a 21st century model our city will be different. The old model can’t be sustained and that is what is ripping this city apart, a lot don’t or want change, they don’t want to give up what they have now - the status quo - can you blame them? They have an investment also in a dream and way of life that they bought into. It’s our job to present an alternative reality of the possibly a simpler less expensive life style. Not owning a car, I took that money and bought a condo which is mine now and in the twenty years or so, if I had lived in the burbs, I would have gone through at least three or four cars with no return on investment.
But history does show us that indeed cities do die and disappear. This city has a choices to make. We have to present a different reality than there is now.
Mr. Bradley,
I have always been in agreement with your observation that:
“Most of this city was paid for by residents of Old Windsor, when there was absolutely no development fees for our outward growth, the burbinites got off to damn easy and they still do!”
And I’ve had some ideas of how to fairly distribute the cost of development and maintenance, but your idea (quoted below), is, at first glance anyway, stunning and elegant in its simplicity and “common sense appeal”. This is an idea that merits further discussion and exploration.
“So I am in favour of a multi ring tax system, almost zero in the core and more expensive the farther out you live. If you want to live in a greenfield field development but still have the amenities of a city near by, then you will damn well pay for it and a twenty year surcharge for maintenance and upkeep!”
Mark Bradley, well written and thought out. The ringed taxes are a great idea, I only wish Windsor wasn’t in such bad shape to implement it. LOS, who wouldn’t want some big box stores downtown?
Mark, Very good points and a very good read. Well thought out and considered. You have much to bring to the table.
I am not trying to be critical, but I would like to look at one of the issues you raised.
The Victoria Secret superstore in Soho. Is something like that alright? Would you like to see a Restoration Hardware in the downtown (not that it will happen any time soon) rather than at Devonshire Mall? Would you rather see an Indigo in downtown rather than in LaSalle?
Is big box the issue or where big box decides to locate?
I think your idea of concentric tax rings is a very workable step in the right direction.
LOS, cities have always fed on themselves as one area becomes hot, everybody including developers and businesses/corporations want to be part of what they see as an in place growing gold mind. Plumbers right now, can’t afford to live and work in Metro Toronto, the condo’ers have raised the stakes on everything around them, along with the upscale shoppes and restaurants. Only the well off can live there now. It will happen in Windsor, someday.
Windsor is a working pseudo middle class lunch bucket town. The past super high obscene wages they made with the big three, with no education, no accountability and no skills with the minimum of education made them be the middle class of Windsor. Everything revolved around what they made, if you were unskilled, under educated and had no trade or profession and didn’t have the the mana from heaven job on the line, you were economically the lower class and struggled to live in this city. I know, I worked on the line for seven years, then years off the big tit and felt the difference in income status.
It will take a generation to move from the past and present mindset in this city. But the sons and daughters of those auto workers have also had their dream shattered of following their father and mothers, grandparents into the bowels of the big three, now they have to get an education and just not compete locally but globally for their jobs, that’s a huge change in thinking and living, the iron rice bowl is gone, they can’t can’t have what their parents have right now, which was the dream of their parents for them. That is a psychological blow to the body and soul.
To address your question directly, a mini Wal-mart downtown won’t change the mind set and Wal-Mart is now seeing their sprawling big boxers dying and are now focusing inward. A Victoria Secret super store won’t make our downtown either, nor a Gap or Old Navy but the future students of St. Clair College can.
I don’t have any answers and I’ve lived with and through all my thoughts of density, gentrification, upscale, walkability in the last twenty years of living in the core! I don’t have any ready set fixes!
But personal post secondary education is one fix!
I’d actually welcome one of the chain stores to the core. Aaaak! I know - stunning.
Except Windsor would have to have the cajones to force them to build appropriately with respect to the fabric of the neighbourhood they’re building in. Smaller, multi-storey retail, zero lot-line built to the sidewalk and honourable building materials (ie: no cheap-assed stucco)
We all know that the money train of cheap oil is in its dusk stage, and these stores will no longer be able to exploit cheap labour and dubious human rights and environmental legislation of third world countries. Combine that with escalating transportation costs and we will see a more local economy resurrected in its shadow.
Then, we can move our local grocer, butcher or baker into that vacated but well built core-big-box store and resume life as we want it.
You might be able to buy a can of paint in one of those crazy stores on Wyandotte E. You never know what’s in those places but they seem to disappear and pop up again all the time.