WFCU Centre Open House

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• Maybe things have changed recently in that area if there are plenty of people walking around that strip of Queen between Landsdowne and Dufferin. I don't know about gentrification though. But, put a several major anchors there like Ikea, Sears, the Bay, Chapters Superstore and it might. It is still one of the cheaper areas of Toronto to find rent because no one wants to live there. I had a girlfriend who lived there. She found a room for rent for $300 a month with utilities and when she was looking around she found a lot of them like that in this area. That kind of rent is dirt cheap for Toronto and it tells you something about that area. People generally don't want to live there. They want to live near a bunch of major anchors like you see in downtown Toronto. Downtown Windsor has a Starbucks too. So what?

  Yes, that's it. Dufferin Mall. It had a grocery store there too and as I remember all the little retail stores there were rented. Walmart is a major anchor. Walmart brings in a lot of traffic, as noted from the almost filled parking lots. Walmart is right across the street from Tecumseh Mall in Windsor and there's still tonnes of small retail shops in Tecumseh Mall. All the commercial businesses, malls and plazas around that whole intersection are fully rented and all the parking lots are almost filled with cars. Walmart did not destroy everything around that intersection. Just the opposite. So absolutely, even Walmart would help revitalize downtown. It's not my first choice, but it's certainly a giant step in the right direction.

• George, until this city helps people gentrify an area (as the entire downtown is filled with low-income residents and many slumlords) it will never happen. Businesses will not locate until there is enough people. Start by enticing people to live in a nice, crime-free area and help with restoring some houses or demolishing the ones that are unsalvageable and then people will come.

• David, the cheap rents in Parkdale have little to do with a lack of "major anchors" and more to do with the negative perception of Parkdale as a crime-ridden hell hole. Yes, it's still a little rough around the edges, but I've seen major changes in the few years I've been living here, and it's bad reputation is largely undeserved. I think it's a great place to live - vibrant, multi-cultural, interesting, and only minutes from downtown via TTC.

  And yes, you could probably find a room for $300 (maybe), but for a 2 bedroom apartment you're looking at around $1000 (at least), just like anywhere else in Toronto.

• Every area has crime in it. Crime free areas don't exist unless there's no people in it. But, when you're lacking in positives like major anchors for an area, people generally avoid visiting it and just focus in on the negatives about the area. Are you saying that break and enters, car thefts, aggressive panhandlers yelling and mugging at passerbys, purse snatchers, pick pockets, shoot outs, etc., don't occur in downtown Toronto?? You get crime everywhere, even though people more openly trash Parkdale than downtown Toronto as crime ridden. Not only do major anchors attract lots of people to visit, but it also changes people's perceptions of an area and what they focus on when they get into a general conversation about it. If you live in an area, your perception changes as you focus on the positives, just like anyone else. You can defend it all you like, but without a lot of people motivated to visit the area, the city's general perception of Parkdale isn't going to change. And, that's where the major anchors come in to the rescue.

  Same with downtown Windsor. No major anchors there anymore except the casino (worth very little now since Detroit's casinos like the MGM are now light years ahead) and the waterfront (for whatever that's worse since Windsor is surrounded by waterfront, so you can go anywhere to see it). That's why it gets trashed so much. Bring some major anchors in like the Bay, Costco, Ikea, and some more casinos (like Niagara Falls has) and you'll see people's general perceptions towards it change for the better. You can thank King Francis for his piss poor planning of downtown Windsor.

• I just came across an article in the DFP about Commerica Bank. In 1998 just across the river in Detroit, Commerica Bank paid $66 million for naming rights to name the new Detroit Tigers stadium Commerica Park. So, in downtown Windsor where office rents cost more than downtown Detroit, WFCU paid 2% of what Commerica Bank paid for naming rights, yet the arena is bigger than 2% the size of Commerica Park.

• The way I see it, the bars and the casino's aren't going anywhere anytime soon...so instead of trying to fight what we have, work with it. Glitz and glamour doesn't always mean beer and bodies. Let's work some family features into downtown tourism. Get a Dave n Busters or ESPN Zone type family/arcade restaurant and drop it next to the AGW....we have a whole greneration that never had a fast eddy's (norwich block for the newbies) and why in the hell can Niagra Fall have a Great Wolf Lodge and we can't....there's a half dozen water park hotels that have popped up Ohio and Michigan within a 2 hour drive of Windsor and yet we haven't thought gee..families might come and stay in Windsor if we had one of those?

  WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!! If you build it they will come. How many people do you know that are naive enough to take a family vacation at wheels in chatham (no offence) but we can do better than that! With the dollar being what it is, we have to stop the Canadian Tourist dollar on this side of the border or we may never get it back.

• Wow!!

  Leave a city for a couple of years and see how it transforms itself, or implodes.

  David, a lots of interesting comments, although I really didn;t read through all the diatripes I got the gist. On the mortgage aspect, you as a small business owner are one step up from a sub-prime candidate - you are what the mortgage industry call an ALT-A loan. Which means the documents you prepare for the institution are done by you, and not a lending firm. Meaning, not implying, that as a small business owner you can represent yourself in what ever light (and documentation wise) you need. But unfortunely, those docs are prepared by you, and not a bank, meaning you are ALT A. Meaning, a conservative, Schedule B Bank- ie Credit Union - will not chance the loan. If your established, then go to a Schedule A bank and quit complaing.

  As for Francis, LOL, when did we start blaming all of Windsor's problems on the most recent pol? LOL...since day one? Well, lets get educated a bit.

  Windsor's problems date right back to the point when the mayor and board voted to move an Art Gallery to a Mall and move a casino into that Art Gallery. Plain and simle. Defining moment. Greed over culture. Greed over City wants. Greed over citizens of the downtown core. And lets go back to that point in time......pretty much every single shop, store, restaurant voted for it to happen. All thinking that the casino would bring wealth. Look how wrong they are now. I fought against the casino. Look over this city's history, it has never had such crap going on in downtown.

  Now, I do not know Francis, but he has this to deal with based on Mike Hurst's lousy leadership and crimalistic ways two decades back.

  So, to get to the point. I am glad that an arena that may host tournaments for minors, is not located a half block away from Jason's /$$$ Dollar or whatever ballet is open at the time. Nor would I like to have my kids walking down the street with a bunch of underage am's looking for a place to get another molson's. Glad they put it out close to what windor may have for suburbia.

  And if you want to revitalize the downtown core............move the casino to a rural farm that was once an indian reservation.

  That way, you won't take away from the city stores and you can add more stores along the route to service those who want to drink / gamble.

  Just me two cents...or nowaday's...my one loon.

• Why would you take and put an arena on the east end!!!! where is the logic in that?? Where has looking out for the downtown business gone. Thank our mayor, as long as his pockects are full, Why even bother caring for the downtown bussiness. Let down town become a ghost town mayor EDDIE !!!!!!!!

• you guys need to think of who these new owners are targeting. They are not targeting the downtown crowd, they are targeting those in the higher economic chain (tecumseh). It is almost common knowledge that Reichel wants the arena in an area where he can attract the 'wealth off', not the average ticket buyer. think of what the maple leafs have. going to any leafs game and you will find the whole lower bowl riddled with suits and business owners who have SEASONS TICKETS, not the average joe who is going to buy one game tickets and not come back for a few weeks. I wish this arena would have been built in the downtown area. a look at london's JLC is an example of the benefits a city can enjoy in having an entertainment area in a downtown core. But Reichel is is it for the profit of money and the spitfires, not the city.

• The WFCU Job fair was horrendous. I waited in line for 2 and a half hours, there were at least 2,000 people there over the course of the day and I heard they were only hiring 50. Ridiculous, I've lost all hope for finding a decent job in this city.