Lear Demolition

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• I'll have to go out and take a look tomorrow. I spent a few years behind those fences.

• i went by a few days ago and couldn't believe all that insulation is just left hanging off the building and flying all over the place. at least that's what it looked like to me.

• I'm still annoyed that the new arena wasn't built downtown.

• ...and magically when the new arena needs MORE parking they will get it with the demo of this building....from Francis' new buddy, Farhi, from London.
  Yes, the same developer who got the sweetest land swap deal in decades. Windsor got this horrible location (and all the costs with it) for the arena while he got cash, postponed taxes, and land on the water next to the art gallery. Plus more money when it was revealed that there was still a foundation on the site from a former brewery. That cost an extra $300,000 to taxpayers. But of course the city doesn't have any money so expect (from what the birdies are telling me) a TAX INCREASE of at least 5.6%! Fun times!

  Now Eddie is looking to expand the tunnel plaza (duty free store owned by his cousin) while vehicle trips are down to their lowest in decades and with a 3rd border crossing, it is expected to reduce traffic anotehr 25%. So why again are we expanding the tunnel plaza if projections are correct? Hmmmm......

• How much parking would be available for the riverfront location? I think it would certainly add a lot of traffic to an already busy riverside drive. I thought I read in the Star that this Farhi guy wanted to build a hotel there and some higher density homes/condos/apartments, and some shopping as well. If so, the hotel would be handy for visiting teams and tournaments.

  It's obvious that the trim plant's days were numbered. With costs increasing and the dollar advantage shrinking, the plant didn't have much hope to survive. It's sad but just another step into turning Windsor into the retirement Mecca of Canada! CARPers rejoice!

• Reading the Windsor Star this morning, there is talk of a nursing home being built in that neighbourhood.
  "RBJ Schlegel will add 32 beds to its planned 160-bed facility near the new WFCU Arena."
  "Construction is to begin June 1, with a completion date sometime in spring of 2011."

  The project's start date seems to coincide with Lear's demise, that is the only reason I think it may be built on this site. Obviously I don't work for the city planners, so this is all just speculation upon a perceived coincidence.

• I was told that the guy who bought the land will make a parking lot for now and in time Build a Hotel and a strip mall. Not sure how much truth is behind that.

• Great. Because we could sure use another strip mall. :P

• If you folks think an urban village is going to be built there (WFCU arena area) I have land available that can be built into a ski resort. It isn't going to happen. Those nice glossy pictures they through in the Widnsor Star is just that; Glossy pictures.

  Even if Edward our King were to start that, he would be tarred and feathered by the downtown area because this was supposed to happen (without the arena) with the downtown. But then again it wouldn't surprise me because everything this city does is ass backwards.

• To me, the site of the WFCU Centre and what surrounds it is a true microcosm of Windsor in the first few years of the 21st century. The crumbling factory, once a place of secure, high-paying employment now being torn down. A proposed strip mall to serve people from the suburbs.

  A perfect site downtown overlooked seemingly on purpose in brutal disregard for the city that carries the Spitfires' name, and to top it all off, instead of looking for another large scale industrial employer we give up and attempt to become some sort of retirement capital by building a retirement resort which is a spit in the face of the youth of this city.

  That whole site is the Shangri-La of the utterly mundane.