WFCU Centre Open House

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• Oh, and let`s not forget King Francis sitting back while Boardwalk converts their 35 highrise apartment buildings in the city to condos so those apartment buldings get billed at a residential rate when they should be paying the apartment building rate which is two and a half times higher. Who`s gonna pay for the missing several million a year in lost property tax revenue. Me and you.

• Of course, an outside law firm is gonna say come back with a crappy offer and sue. It's in their financial interest to do so. That's how divorce lawyers and a lot of other trial lawyers make most of their money, so why would they suggest anything that would lead to negotiated settlement would lead to less billable hours. They need to pay for their million dollar mansions in Russel Woods somehow. But, King Francis is supposed to be representing the interests of the city and he's a lawyer. That whole affair should have been negiotated and mediated through Alternate Dispute Resolution, not this nonesense in Superior Court. Now, it's gonna get tied up and remain empty for years while the courts process it. The mayor didn`t represent the taxpayer's interests here.

  Well, each to their own. I enjoyed the brickwork architecture of the Cleary Guest House. I thought it fit well for a parklwaterfront setting. It's similar to other brick structures in parks around this city. There was nothing wrong with it. I prefer brown brick to cement and glass exterior walls any day of the week. But, the price tag to replace it with something else was ridiculous. It was a can of worms that never should have been opened. And, the chief at the Bunker doesn't even know how to cook a low fat meal. He needs to go back to cooking school. Subway, McDonald's and Burger King all have healthy choice menus. I go to the "bistro" and order a chicken breast sandwich. It comes with greasy fries and coleslaw mixed with high fat mayonaise. They don't have fat free dressing for their salads. No, they won't substitute the greasy fries for a baked potato because the chief doesn't know how to cook one. I told them to just give me the chicken breast sandwich with no mayo, no greasy fries and no coleslaw. The waitress brought it to me anyway. Why are they giving me this high fat greasy poison? Do you think I want a heart attack. The fries end up getting thrown in the waste basket. The Terrace Restaurant at the Hilton has a healthy choice menu with a whole page of items saying how many grams of fat are in them last time I was there. The second floor view is even better than the crappy bunker. So, what good is the bunker if I have to take my friends to eat at the Terrace at the Hilton instead of the Bistro? What a waste of taxpayer dollars.

  For something as expensive as the arena, it should have gone to referendum, not to left up to voting for the candidates. I don`t even remember any candidates being against the arena. His only strong opponent, Dr. Wingham, was also in favour of the arena.

  Boardwalk is smart enough to not convert all their apartment buildings at once so they don`t blow their application fees by setting everyone off. When I look in the paper, I notice the announcements saying they`re converting two at a time to see what happens each month. Yes, council can stop it. Council can put a moratorium on condo conversions. Take a look at how long Council has stonewalled the Twin Spanning of the Ambassador bridge with the OMB. Another waste of taxpayer dollars. What`s worse with condo conversions is that the city planner told me that By-Law 8600 requries 1.25 on site parking spaces for each apartment for a condo application to succeed (but the committee has the discretion to make a special case exemption if they wish, but you risk blowing the application fee by technicality if you go ahead). 1547 Ouellette by Boardwalk went right on through and it has less parking spots than apartments. These were grounds to get it thrown out by technicality, but it wasn`t. Sept 14 A7 of the Windsor Star was an anouncement to amend by-law 8600 with By-Law 166-2007 to allow apartments with less than 1.25 parking to pass the application process in a condo conversion in the Central Business District. King Francis is sitting back and letting his friends at Boardwalk pass these condo conversions on these high rises and leaving the honest taxpayers with the burden of paying for this lost tax revenue. This is backdoor politicing at it`s worst and he should resign.

  Who says WFCU has community support. Not me. Both of them are wrong for this city. I know what WFCU is about from personal experience. That`s why I discredit them. King Francis has done more than enough to discredit himself without the WFCU.

• I've been a fan of this site for a couple of years now. Love all the old photos and history lessons. Even enjoy the back and forth debating between visitors to the site . However the seemingly personal attacks are too much DAVID . Even your opinion is valued , but is not the be all end all of all human knowledge . Tone it down and keep it relevant. Thanx again for all the great information and photography Andrew.

• I don't believe the arena issue should have been put up for a referendum. Whether you agree with their decisions or not, Francis and council were elected fairly by the people of this city and we need to live with their decisions. These people are elected to make choices for our city. If you believe the arena was a referendum issue, what's stopping every other major decision from being put to a city-wide vote? Now we're talking about a completely different political system...

  The point is, like it or not, these people have been chosen to lead by a majority of the people of Windsor and those people wanted an arena.

  P.S. I kinda like the fries at Bistro.

• Thanks JAYPEE.

  I try to leave the comments on here as open as possible. So if David or others say things that people don't agree with just ignore him :) . As long as the back and forth bickering on the comments doesn't cross "the line", I'll try to leave it to stay.

  There aren't many open forums on the internet for people to argue and discuss things in this city, and as long as it isn't profane, I would like to give everyone their say.

  While the site is mostly about history and architecture, sometime it runs into current events, that's usually where things get heated...

• I agree with David, some good points but what can you do except vote differently. We the small guys n they're the big guys.

  P.S. The greasy fries at Bistro are pretty good.

• Downtown is the right place for the arena just as City leaders from the 1980s had envisioned and planned. Parking is really not an issue downtown because we already have a lot of parking garages which are not being used to anything near capacity and another could be built if need be. Sadly, the reasons the public gave their three cheers to the arena in the east end were born out of political and personal frustration and the need for more community ice pads. After all, we need someplace for our kids. No real thought was given to the commercial viability of the arena's main venues. That is, the Windsor Spitfires and top rung entertainment; the latter being the critical money maker. Ask Londoners about this one. It is doubtful that you will see any Springstiens or Celines playing there. Especially because of it's lopsided multiple use function. As popular as the John Labatt Center is now, it is still not fully solvent and remember...it is operated by a private consortium specialized in such operations. It's packing in just under 6000 tops, about double what Windsor is currently pulling. What few Windsorites are aware of is that London went through a similar learning curve before the Labatt Center was planted downtown. The original hockey venue was built in the suburbs very near the 401 and Wellington Ave. It turned out to be a bust; never filling to more than 3000 users. So here is my bet: The new arena will not be a commercial success where it is. It will do fine as a community recreational center which caters to the hockey families. It will fail as an entertainment venue. Hockey crowds will spike with the novelty of it's newness and settle back down to a maximum of 3000. Walmart, Zellers, The building Box, East Side Marios, Burger King, Montanas and the A&W will not see any spin off business. East Windsorites will bitch about traffic. Downtown Windsor will remain status quo. Call me on it if I'm wrong.

• We can whine all day about the dumb location for this arena (and the political favours it drew because of said location). But it is what it is.

  How abot getting this lame mayor and council moving on making a better downtown. Open up the Capitol theatre, give tax incentives to business AND HOME OWNERS who are trying to gentrify an area or refurbish old houses/buildings.
  These things will improve a downtown quicker than most "schemes" of the day.

  The status quo of spend, spend spend with little to show has got to stop. Especially in todays economic market (which contrary to popular belief will not be cyclical this time around).
  Look at everything this city has and the majority of it has been done on the back of small groups or individuals. Little has been done by the city itself as everything this city touches becomes a nightmare of increased costs and half expectations.

  If you are all waiting for the city to turn itself around then you are one of the mindless apathetic voters in this community who have helped create the issue we have in fornt of us. It is US who makes this city, not the other way around! I implore all of you to put yoru time or money where your mouth is and help make this city a shining example to the rest of Canada and the world. DO SOMETHING to make a change!

• Rah! Rah! Rah! Now, hands up everyone who has been downtown in the last week? OK, the last month?? The last year? Now, be honest.

  You've heard the phrase, "use it or lose it". For those who say they love downtown, the best thing you can do for it (after one is done bustin' council's chops and pointing fingers on the local blogs) is to go there and support a local merchant, restauranter, etc. Don't tell me there is not at least ONE downtown business that deserves your support.

  ME said it is "US" who makes this city and he is probably closer to the truth than he realizes. Windsor keeps shouting at council "do something to save downtown" but will Windsor put its money where its mouth is, leave the minivan in the driveway and rediscover downtown?

  If you believe what the blogs say, downtown is a wasteland, which is a self-perpetuating prophecy that will come true if we keep this negativity up. Yes, the Norwich Block is gone, and the Capital is in limbo for years to come, we can't change what has happened. But we can change the fate of what is still there, and in doing so perhaps encourage other businesspeople to join the club. It will take more than 11 people to turn things around...

• How about commercial property owners stepping up to the plate and making some solid investments in the downtown core without continually looking for incentives and hand outs? (you would do it for your own home) How about establishing proper property standards and enforcing them accordingly? How about offering something that more than one market segment can utilize? How about planning and establishing the RIGHT mix of retail, service and entertainment businesses to bring more variety into play? How about pitching properly for new anchors? It's not about naysayers at all. People are trying to communicate why they are NOT going downtown any more and they are offering up advice. It appears as if no one is listening.