Last week I took a drive out to the sprawled out mess at Walker and the 401. My reasons were two fold.
1. I was trying to get a few shots to display at the Check Out This Sprawl exhibit, and…
2. I wanted to see what all the crying was about, although I must confess I feel little pity in my heart for those who build/buy a crappy cookie cutter house hard up against a highway. I think you get what you deserve…
Anyway, on with the show!
Crammed in like sardines.
This is living. I heard it compared before, how street in new sub divisions serve the same purpose alley’s did for old neighbourhoods. A place to park you car, put our your trash, and access to your garage.
Every street looks the same. Seriously.
Yay! Triplets!
Seriously?
Yup. Unicorn Street. I would be embarrassed to tell people I lived on Unicorn Street.
Here’s someone with a nice view of the machinery rebuilding the 401. Three cars too… A pickup and an SUV. Glad I don’t have that gas bill.
Garages with attached houses. The landscaping might look like crap, but at least they got that fancy stampcrete driveway installed.
I know it all comes down to personal preference, but I couldn’t live in a place like that. I like the fact that I can park my car on the weekends, and walk and/or ride my bike wherever I need to go.
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I just sold my house in Olde Riverside. It took quite a long time because most people seems to actually want the cookie cutter home. I'd always have plenty of people wanting to look at the house but they'd always say that it's not "open concept" enough.
I was always so insulted when people preferred the new cookie cutter raised ranch over my 5 inch baseboards, beautiful doors, and 100 year old trees.
All the garages in the pictures are nauseating.
Coming back from T.O. I was also in Mississauga and noticed a subdivision called Gooderham's Estates or something like that and each was a neo-victorian. I was floored to see how interesting each was was and how nice some of the details were. I do understand that these are not cheap and probably quite expensive (notwithstanding the high prices in that market anyway) but it beats the crap that has been put in Windsor over the last 15 years. Raised ranches? Uggh!
Something along the lines of the houses they built in Nova Estates (I think that's what it is called) in Lasalle, ME ?
Rauti built some tradtional type homes just off matchette north of bouffard some years ago. I think it was promoted as a 'new york style' at the time. They still look good with detached garages set back from the house.
Similar John but these were much nicer without the size of those in LaSalle. I was shocked by the gingerbread on the houses as they had both victorian style and gothic style homes on the same street.
Cookie cutter, okay. As a homeowner in this neighbourhood I've tried to add individuality by planting many trees and creating pretty garden beds. Our neighbours are wonderful, too. Sure, how great it would be to live somewhere full of natural beauty but it's not Windsor's strong point. Neither is our economy, with so many people leaving the city for jobs elsewhere or losing their home to the banks, I'm just as happy here in my cookie cutter with a roof over my head. Yes, we do have sidewalks and decent bus service, too. Raised ranches weren't my first choice but having lived in this one for 2 years I consider their layout to be efficient. My family needs a house that works, not a house requiring us to work on updating it, etc. You may not like this same-on-same design, I can understand that. I do, however, feel this neighbourhood looks less depressing than some of the run-down, bleak, and faulty-wiring/ plumbing problems of the homes in many of our city's neighbourhoods.
We only buy organic fruits.
I'm revisiting this post from the future. I saw a number of comments asking how this subdivision would hold up in the future, or that it was Windsor's newest ghetto.
16 years later, in 2024, 4575 Unicorn Ave is for sale for $759,000. If you thought $150k was expensive in 2008, this property seems to have appreciated 500% in the last 16 years. There are a few houses in this "Walker Gate" subdivision and most are in the $700-800k range.
And I'm certainly no proponent of sprawl. My only point here is that "the market has spoken." And just wanted to look back at this post in posterity.
Well, the house on Unicorn Avenue is still up for sale, so the market hasn't really spoken, has it?