Riverside & Ouellette – 1978

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• Things were downtown instead of in the suburbs. Instead of slowly growingoutward we swapped one for the other and have been paying a higher and higher price ever since (think taxes people, roads don't maintain themselves).

  Hopefully when this recession ends we will have learned to build from within instead of outward. But I doubt we will ever learn...sheople led.

• The Windsor Star can shoulder a lot of the blame for the demise of downtown Windsor in the past 20 years. They created a lot of anxiety about the traffic gridlock that would follow the arrival of Casino Windsor. Therefore, instead of coming downtown to join in the activity, a lot of offices and businesses packed up and left. Then they portrayed (and coninue to potray) downtown as a place that was no longer for Windsorites but rather for casino and bar patrons. Businesses moved out, bars and massage parlours moved in. Then they waged an editorial campaign against a downtown amenity and institution for over a century, the Windsor Market. They succeeded in building public opposition to a City owned market by repeatedly suggesting that it was competing with private enterprise. A century old city market was competing with a "proposed" Ottawa Street market??? We suffer in this city because we have long been condidered a one media source (Windsor Star) town and our city council actually listens to what they editorialize about. All the while, London built a new market and arena downtown and has established policies to promote and improve their downtown. A tale of two downtowns.

• Having visited London several times, I seem to notice how development just stops - with farm fields from a certain point. It almost appears as if there is an invisible line. Windsor and sprawl has been spotty in contrast, at least from what I have seen. I think living in a city, with street parking and/or alleys, does not appeal to some people. Parking tickets, alternate side parking rules, etc. also diminish the charm of city life. Many families dreamt of having their own yard (not a public park blocks away) where their kids could play safely. A lot of people live in dense cities because they have no choice, commuting in and out is either too time consuming and/or expensive. Once they have the means, they move out, or they never get the means and stay. Take Chicago for instance. They have high sales taxes compared to suburbs, and a higher cost of living overall. Many people get fed up and move out, replaced by newbies who like the idea of living there, for the time being.

  I also noticed how every car is from the Big 3. How times have changed.

• Within that apparent gridlock, I cannot spot one foreign built vehicle. Or could that be a UK built Ford product that is just behind the Ford pickup---the car with the child wearing a hood that is staring out at the photographer?

• I love the photo (and yes, the first thing I noticed was the lack of foreign metal--my second thought was that the Chevette is probably still on the road for Pizza King). Seriously though--y'all have had your best pairs of rose-coloured glasses on for your recent visits to Downtown London...what would make Downtown Windsor better for you--a largely vacant mall?

• JB, there are plenty of houses with large enough yards in the back for everyone. In fact, I seem to see that the new subdivisions being built have hardly any backyard space at all; Surely smaller than the lots in downtown Windsor.

  My commuting would be a heck of a lot quicker if we actually had stores downtown to shop at. Now it is a detriment to live downtown when I have to drive to the suburbs to do basic shopping. But I will say it only takes me 10-15 minutes to get anywhere in the city (using one way streets, Riverside Dr, Dougall Ave and Expressway. Unless you count in the Costco badlands then it is a suburbanite's dream.

• Steady traffic of the kind shown here is something that disappeared long before The Star got involved. I worked downtown in the '70s and Devonshire Mall was sucking the life out of the downtown long before this photo was taken. Judging by the date, July 4, could this possibly be a traffic snarl caused by Freedom Festival activities or some other riverfront celebration?

• Hmmm..let's see- a Chevette, Ford F-150 (or 100), Ford Fairmont, what looks like a T-Bird in the foreground, A lincoln, a Dodge cab, Dodge Monaco heading the other way, a Pontiac Parisienne turning the corner, and what looks like a Ford LTD in front of the motorcycle. True, no foreign cars in this pic (unless only one in front of the truck)is an ironic statement of a bygone era (in relation to the state of our city). Hate to say it but as we have steadily shifted toward a 'global' world and sent off our manufacturing sector overseas, our country's economy has been on the decline.

  On another note, I still think the city missed the boat by not building the new arena downtown or close to it. It would have been a HUGE first step in revitalizing it.

• Whoa…This is a shot of cars leaving the Dieppe Park parking lot, heading south to the Riverside and Ouellette intersection.This likely is an International Freedom Festival event breaking up and cars leaving. It is not symbolic of the downtown in 1978. To put things in perspective Bert Weeks, in 1978, a downtown merchant and very skilled mayor was in office. The downtown was not being neglected but it was fading fast. Much like today, the auto manufacturing industry was in a disastrous down cycle. The cry was for diversification of business and it was thought “convention and tourism” could offset the manufacturing losses. Problem: there were no modern hotels here. Weeks was elected on the promise to get a hotel next to the Cleary Auditorium. We eventually got one, but not until unemployment was so bad, a federal unemployment support government program (chaired locally by the late Ron Ianni) handing out grants to especially needy areas, was located in Windsor. Plus local contractor Bill Docherty was willing to build it when no developer outside Windsor would volunteer. (Windsor, the loser-town, was not a place to invest.) If you look at Riverside Drive, with its two hotels west of the Cleary (now St. Clair College Arts Centre) and the original Casino site, they were born
  from these desperate times. As for The Windsor Star, it was a family owned newspaper into the 70’s. Herman Secondary School and the Adie Knox Herman Community Centre are part of the legacy the family left. The newspaper offices remains downtown and the Canada Building on Ouellete was one of the principal’s related properties. It is difficult to find hard evidence of the claim (in a posting above) the newspaper was unattentive or hostile to the downtown needs.

• rws Go back to the columns written by Gord Henderson. They were an almost dailt occurrance for 6 months deriding City Council for wanted to keep or build a downtown market. The evidence is all there. Go look for them if you don't remember. This all happened long after the 1970s. Sorry, I'm too young to remember the Windsor Star then.