Unbuilt Windsor – # 4

View Comments

• These renderings look great, but a lot of projects never get beyond this stage. Why would Windsor need all this hotel space, even if some of these projects were built? I'm not being sarcastic, I just wonder what would bring people to Windsor on a regular basis in the 20s and 30s to require this much hotel space. Wouldn't places like the Book Cadillac compete with these projects too? It's not like East St. Louis is on the other side of the river. At the time, a growing prosperous Detroit was competing for guests with these projects. Detroit, Paris of the Midwest, remember?

  It nice to dream and wonder what could've been, but these buildings would likely be in bad shape now if they were built. It would be nice to have a skyline that didn't follow Riverside drive as much, but extend inland a bit.

• No, I think it's uneducated idiots like you, Paul, who keep this city down and hurting so bad. If it wasn't for entrepreneurs and their initiative and vision, you wouldn't even have a high paying autoworker job. I think a politibureau in communist Cuba or Vietnam would love the way you talk and welcome you with open arms. You should move down there.

  And, yes, the big bad unions do scare me, Paul, when I think about what's going to further happen to this city down the road, which they are partly to blame for. What's that? This morning's Windsor Star said that the axed Pacifica at Windsor's Chrysler plant is gonna cost another 1,000 jobs in the Windsor area. I didn't hear about any layoffs at the Toyota plant in Cambridge Ontario. Oh, but Buzz Hargrove absolutely will not accept a two-tier wage system like the UAW did in the US. Bring it on, Buzz. Windsor can handle it because we have morons like Paul championing the CAW in this city.

  But, hey, CAW doesn't take all the blame for Windsor's plight. A good chunk of it goes to local money lenders like WFCU for all the vacancies in downtown.

  And, no, I'd never drive a Toyota. My current car is made by GM. I still buy North American. Besides, if I drove a Toyota in this city, one of you guys would key it. And chance would probably have it that it would be done by you. So, keep keying those cars Paul, you'll never find mine.

• Now, now children... :)

  My wife drives a GM and guess where it's made? North Korea. But's it's considered more North American than a Toyoto made in Woodstock... Go figure...

  JB, while it seems silly now, there was a need for the hotel space in Windsor. Back then, business was booming, and many US companies had factories in Windsor, which in turn gave them access to the whole British Empire. It was for more for business than for pleasure.

• I'd like to change the subject a bit if i can. With tourism being hammered by the high value of the loonie and Casino Windsor losing business to Detroit casinos, what will we do with all the vacant hotels that are no longer patronized by American gamblers? Does anyone see the Hilton or Radisson finding other uses like luxury condominiums or will vacant high rise buildings be allowed to decay until they are no longer structurally sound and have to be razed?

• This loonie situation won't last forever. The Canadian dollar will tank again soon enough and go back to normal, and the Americans can resume the Monopoly Money jokes about our dollar, and everything will be good again. :)

• That may be true but almost every building outlives the purpose it was designed for. Old factories are converted into loft apartments, houses become museums etc. It's only a matter of time before everything built either finds a new use of it gets torn down. The problem with nearly everything that's being built today is that they are designed for only one purpose and when their usefulness ends they end up being abandoned or torn down. Wal-Mart is a good example of what I'm talking about. Every Wal-Mart ever built was designed to have a useful life of ten to twenty years after which they become so decrepit that they can only be abandoned or torn down.