Ouellette Avenue 1970

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• "when you visit another city, i’m pretty sure you dont’ head to the suburbs to get a feel for what that city has to offer"

  ditto

• Gosh, a nostalgic visit to Windsor for me seems more and more remote after reading this wonderfully-put-together blog (Windsor was my domicile in the '50s and '60s).
  But, wait a sec: what if a tall (dare I say it) CONDO was built downtown? With good prices, decent mortgage rates, it would attract people, who would demand retail (even if it was in their condo building street level) -- people bring money, people demand retail, people spend money! There would be lots of spin-offs for merchants, peripheral businesses, etc. This retail demand of condo owners would eliminate driving out to the burbs to shop, wouldn't it?
  Thoughts on the above?

• unfortunately there is already plenty condo space available and vacent downtown, and the mortgage rates are pretty reasonable too, i think we have the room for people, what we need is the retail to draw the people, i think we would be better off with something like sears, or macy's opening up a store downtown. i think it would be a magnet to attract other stores. if people saw that there was a good reason to go downtown for shopping.... it would also start to attract residents again.

  what if one of the parking garages or blocks that is mostly parking were demolished for a large department store with some small retail on the ground floor

• why demolish anything? we have a "giant" office tower downtown sitting empty. who says it MUST be offices? why can't you put multi-level shopping in there? if you could get let's just say Sears for example, to occupy 2 or more floors, you're pretty much garunteed more will follow. and for those that can't really afford the space in the tower, well they're going to start moving into the empty stores because NOW it will be a worthwhile shot to open up downtown with people flocking to the tower......which can supply parking for itself leaving other spots around the core open. on alot of our under used parking lots, you build street level buisness and living above, parking for those stores and a sperate for residents can go under the building itself.
  even the ground floor of the tower's garage is empty. why not divide it up into stores while we're at it? those themselves would be two stories. you could make your buisness two floors, or lease/sell the second floor to another buisness. the highest of availiable stores can either go to high paying condo owners or again, retail.

  we've all got such great ideas (maybe not mine, but still) why don't city councilers read this site to get an idea of what the people want? i would. there are sites like that for video games for crying out loud. on the whole it's just a forum about the game itself but people bitch and complain about issues with the game, or something they would have liked featured in the game. the designers and software guys read those things and then try and taylor the next game to suit those peoples needs (the FANS, the ones who SPEND money)

  rant #3 complete ;)

• why demolish anything? we have a "giant" office tower downtown sitting empty. who says it MUST be offices? why can't you put multi-level shopping in there? if you could get let's just say Sears for example, to occupy 2 or more floors, you're pretty much garunteed more will follow. and for those that can't really afford the space in the tower, well they're going to start moving into the empty stores because NOW it will be a worthwhile shot to open up downtown with people flocking to the tower......which can supply parking for itself leaving other spots around the core open. on alot of our under used parking lots, you build street level buisness and living above, parking for those stores and a sperate for residents can go under the building itself.
  even the ground floor of the tower's garage is empty. why not divide it up into stores while we're at it? those themselves would be two stories. you could make your buisness two floors, or lease/sell the second floor to another buisness. the highest of availiable floors can either go to high paying condo owners or again, retail.

  we've all got such great ideas (maybe not mine, but still) why don't city councilers read this site to get an idea of what the people want? i would. there are sites like that for video games for crying out loud. on the whole it's just a forum about the game itself but people bitch and complain about issues with the game, or something they would have liked featured in the game. the designers and software guys read those things and then try and taylor the next game to suit those peoples needs (the FANS, the ones who SPEND money)

  rant #3 complete ;)

  p.s. - i had no idea i could edit my comments!

• Aaron i lived in Toronto for 3years in the hye park area itther is a main drag that runs north/south called rocesvilles it's basically a traditional Polish are of toronto it has tons of small shops ..ie a library, a few polish deli's but one thing that i found very handy was that Sobeys had an express grocery outlet everything the bigger stores had and it workd well i don't know why the city isn't going after some of these grocery chains to do something like that in the core i know we have food basic's on Goyeau but it's a dive very dirty

• i agree with gary

• How great to see this photo! One of my cousins put me onto this website. My dad is the guitarist in the photo. They played their strolling music for many years all around town. While these three musicians are long gone, their legacy lives on.My cousins in Windsor are keeping the strolling music tradition alive . Thanks for a wonderful trip down memory lane.