Armouries Open House

View Comments

• This is definitely a city without a vision and this is the same Percy Hatfield who suggested Windsor could become another Flint, Michigan by cutting the parks budget and not having enough funding to keep the city beautiful. This is also a city that is willing to waste millions on countless studies and feasability options and then do nothing. Who says the citizens of this city only want a hocky arena and not a first class venue for the Windsor Symphony?

• $50-60 million seems ridiculously high for an adaptive re-use for a building that looks like it's in great shape. How the heck do they justify that kind of spending?! The symphony could just buy the Walkerville Theatre for half a million and use it as a concert hall for chissake. The Walkerville Theatre is already accoustically setup for it and all they need to buy are new seats for the main floor. Just turning the armouries into a war museum or displaying the historical archives from the current historical museum and having it staffed by volunteers with a box for donations wouldn't cost the taxpayers anything. Do the politician's friends pocket $59.5 million and really only spend $500,000 on it's renovations. Do they know how to count? How many square feet is this building in comparison to the new overpriced arena? It's outrageous for the taxpayers to spend that kind of money! The nerve of the symphony to even ask the taxpayers for such an amount..

• Andrew, lets not forget that this arena when all is said and done (land transfer, new road built to the arena...) this arena is going to cost closer to $85 million+. But hey! The Spitfires are worth it don't you think?

  I really like this proposal for the downtown and for Windsor. I had the luxury of hearing the Symphony on the 20/20 program on CBC. Here's the link (Thanks to ScaleDownWindsor for providing it).

  http://www.cbc.ca/windsor/features/2020/av.html

  Scroll down to Nov. 1. I mean the acoustics are absolutely astounding even on my computer speakers. But I guess Fulvio (full of it is what he should be called) thinks spending over $150,000 on Detroit venues are more important (and also cutting down on the number of Christmas dispalys because of the cuts to the Parks & Recs budget...how are we goign to pay for the Greenlink maintenance again?) than spending some money are bringing WORLD CLASS attractions to Windsor.

  Didn't Eddie say THINK BIG? Well with a lot fo Federal and Provincial money floating around I am sure this could be done. But then I think about The Capitol Theater and what this city has doen with it and I am bgrought back down to reality. I forgot I was living in Windsor. The city that CAN'T do anything for it's citizens but has a CAN DO BUT WON'T mentality.

• David, you are forgetting that there is no parking in that area. I like the idea of transforming the Walkeville theater as well But the Symphony is trying to make downtown a cultural centre and add to what is a decrepit part of the city.

  I have advocated using the Armouries for the Chimczuk (sp?) money left to Widnsor so that it could encompass all of our museum needs (automotive, local history, military, ethnic...) but again this city has a difficult time focusing on any issue let alone one. I think that maybe they have a severe case of ADHD due to the jumping from one crisis to another.
  As a coach said to me long ago, keep your eye on the ball. In this city just posting that logic is enough to be denounced as the "enemy".

• There's probably more empty parking spots available around the Walkerville Theatre on a Friday/Saturday night than downtown, which turns into nightclub central. When the convention centre opens up at the casino, parking will be a nightmare. Even during the day, there's not a lot of parking in downtown as the St. Claire students seemed to have filled up the remaining spots. I was in downtown at 9:30am on a Tuesday a couple weeks ago and I couldn't find parking in the 7 storey Goyeau/Chatham city garage. I found finally found a parking spot seven blocks away. Whether you believe it or not, parking is a problem in downtown.

• David, could you've taken the bus?

• Ah, more of the non-existent parking problem in Windsor.

  --

  This would be a great adaptive reuse for sure. I could imagine other concerts being played there -- small indie rock bands, etc. Maybe the neat architecture and downtown location could appeal to the US market as well.

  The thing about Hatfield -- there was a wonderful study/report last year about Canadian habits (which I cannot find online at the moment) that pointed to the ratio between the attendance at cultural events vs sporting events, with the vastly higher amount being on the cultural side (that is, any kind of cultural event). So, potential for spinning off into other areas is greater when cultural facilities are supported rather than sports. Not that sports should be cut or are in anyway the "enemy" -- but it always seems politically easier for a politician like Hatfield to not show leadership and go with the general thinking and be cool with arena funding and not cultural.

• David, the Walkerville was at one time the home of the WSO, however, the building is far too small. The Walkerville seats 579, The Cleary give or take a few, almost 1200. The proposed Armouries plans call for 1500 seats...

  The plan for reuse is being partly based on Portland Oregon:

  http://www.viamagazine.com/top_stories/articles/armory_reborn06.asp

  http://www.voicesofthearmory.com/

  It's also a LEED showpiece:

  http://www.portlandfunds.com/news/Armory%20Goes%20Green_Oregon%20Natural%20Step%20Network_14Apr05.pdf

• The neglect of the Windsor Armouries is just another example of bad leadership at City Hall and a good reason why we've become a national joke. Why the hell do we have to live in a city where the unelected heads of City Departments have more power than the elected members of City Council or The Mayor. You can bet dollars to donuts that if the head of Parks and Rec or Public Works wanted to turn the Armouries into a world-class concert hall, it would happen without delay. How much did the city spend building that ugly restaurant and in Dieppe Park just so the bigwigs at City Hall could have someplace to eat lunch?

• george, approx. $2.1 million. How much for the arena? How much for the new 400 City Hall building? How much money has the 1% tax levy on property (instituted since 2002) that was supposed to go to infrastructure has been used for said use? Zero! They used it to build the building on MacDougal and also for teh 400 City Hall building. What about those watermain levys?

  Don't kid yourselves. This city is awash in money. We get cheques for the casino slots, money from Roseland Golf Course, the marina, plus we have Enwin. So for those who think we don't have the money, we do. We just don't spend it where it is supposed to be spent. We like to spend this on grandiose schemes, and legacy buildings. Maybe one day the city will actually spend money the citizens instead of themselves.

  (By the way, the arena doesn't count because it was done to spite the Town of Tecumseh and reward the new buddies of Eddie, Warren Rychel and friends).