501 Erie Street West

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• Thanks for bringing attention to that dump. It's been like that for close to 10 years. A few of us gave up trying to get anything done about it along time ago due to a lack of response from anyone at city hall. That building is unsafe and a stain on an otherwise decent neighbourhood in which to live.

• Why would residents worry about falling bricks when there's that red sign that says "Danger" to protect them all? :P

  This sucks and I can't believe that when it comes to demolishing something of value they do it about 1 second after they get the okay; but if it's something that could be a crack den, then let's just leave it so the neighbourhood families can enjoy their area even more.

• I have said it before. It is indicative of this city's administration, the mayor and council. NOTHING gets done in Windsor unless it is an idea of an elected official or if one of the higher ups in administration needs a favour.

  Take look at some of the burned out houses in Windsor. Some have been that way for more than 2 years! Two frigg'in years!

  I didn't realize that the Sandwich development freeze Bylaw extended throughout Ward 2 you wouldn't that it was for only a few square km's by the look of Ward 2. How shameful!

  I know Eddie had a good relationship with KK and likes Ken Cockrel from Detroit but that doesn't mean we have to emulate Detroit. It is really sad to me to see that we are following the example of Detroit in a few ways.

  1) The hollowing out of our city core as we keep building suburbs.
  2) The idea that Windsor is hard to deal with when it comes to business (same has been said of Detroit)
  3) The knocking down of historic buildings while burned out houses remain in the neighbourhoods.
  4) And us (elected offical) against them( taxpayer) mentality. Or rather we (elected official) know best mentality.

  I would have thought Windsor would be trying to follow Detroit's lead by investing heavily in downtown (which Detroit has been doing for 10 years to great success). Investing and listening to neighbourhood champions in areas such as Corktown, Brush Park, Indian Village, Woodbridge, condos on Woodward....

  But we all know city hall knows best...In the summer you can smell the mould and urine in that place as you drive by. It is absolutely disgusting.

• Am I missing something here? From the front, it looks ok for this area of "downtown". It looks like it's in way better shape than that stucco'd duplex with the boarded up window on Bruce from a few days ago or the fire bombed house right across the street from it. That's more of a hazard than anything. In fact, there's dozens of boarded up fire bombed houses that remain sitting around that area for years. At least, the guy didn't stucco or side it with vinyl, which would probably take care of that falling brick problem since the guy is too lazy to repoint (like most downtown homeowners).

  But seriously, aside from it needing the back repointed and a few boarded up windows, what's wrong with it? Is it fire damaged from the inside and beyond repair? Is the foundation unstable? Is it just the unit at the corner that needs to be severed and demolished from the rest of the complex? In comparison to a lot of other buildings in that area. it doesn't look like it needs to be demolished. Is there some additional informaton I'm missing here? Maybe I am. Please fill in the missing details. Yes, it does look a little bit messy and I would never let my place look like that, especially with boarded windows. But If this is all a building needs to get a demolition order from the city, the city should send demolition orders out to demolish half of downtown 'cuz that looks like nothing compared to the rest of downtown.

  What about the houses in Sandwich on Indian Rd just sitting there boarded up? What about Hotel Grace, which has been boarded up for how many years or that atrocious siding from the side of the Radison Hotel on Riverside Dr next to the filled up Doherty's hole? Why was't the siding job finished? That's just atrocious. That's a way more heavily travelled road an a real embarrassment as that's what the tourists see. Why isn't anything happening with that?

• For the same reason nothing is being done on this building...incompetence or just plain ignorance of our neighbourhoods.

  By the way that building is structurally unsound that is why it is being demolished.

• Please explain why this buiding is structurally unsound? I'm not criticizng or anything. I just want all the information. Thanks.

• David, if you had clicked the link in the post: http://internationalmetropolis.com/images/2008//order.pdf for a close up of the order, you'll see the reasons why listed by the building inspector, under the Defects section.

  If the slumlord had cared about this building it would have been repaired years ago.

  I say level it, and asses the charge on his taxes. If he doesn't pay, seize the property.

• Wow, curiousity got the best of me and I just came from there and had looked through the curtain gaps in the main floor bay windows. There's more to it than meets the eye from the above pictures. The pictures you posted don't do it justice. The corner unit had holes in the ceilings on the main floor from water penetration. Some of them in the middle looked ok. I can't believe that that idiot let the gutters fall off the corner units to let allow that water damage. It's certainly not liveable.

  BUT, it is fixable from what I saw. I've seen people renovate fire damaged properties that looked a lot worse.

  But, it's probably not worth renovating in this market and location. You're right. It's probably best for the city to level it. I don't know why he didn't try to sell it years ago since it was vacant anyway. More density lost. Another building with a brick facade in this city gone. Damn shame.

• I tried taking pictures of the inside from the outside but the glass kept bouncing the flash! You should all take a walk through the allies of downtown Windsor and the amount of garbage that is being dumped behind those derelict buildings!

• there are some pretty cool/ancient garages in all those allies of that neighbourhood. some that you, quite clearly, could never fit a modern car in....i'm not sure if something from even the 30's could fit. maybe a "smart" car, but that's it.

  i don't imagine anyone would reclaim those bricks, eh?

  that tarp should flap around nicely from the radiant heat when someone finally sets it a blaze.
  ahh yes, and, in turn it will make a wonderful bridge for the fire when it gets stuck to that houses vinyl siding. good luck neighbouring home!