Continuing to make our south along Ouellette… The Park Building is quite possibly the worst and most un-needed stucco job on the strip. The person responsible needs to really give their head a shake…
Stuccoed and vacant…
A detail shot shows how marked up and chipped the cladding is. Looks like crap IMO.
More vacancy along the Ouellette side…
Uncleared sidewalks. There is no excuse for this. The major snowfall occured on Tuesday night/Wednesday day. On Sunday the sidewalks are packed and still snow covered. SHAME!
Yup. Rub n’ tug.
Vacant.
Yup, vacant too… What’s with the mess of paper taped up in the window? Looks junky.
What is brought to us by the DWBIA? The vacancy?
“We want U” – and you’re not getting it! Please take down the garish lime green posters.
Stucco and a cheque cashing place… A sure sign of a vibrant downtown.
More sleaze.
If you don’t feel like a Shawarma, you can always go next door and grab… uh, … a Shawarma.
Lazare’s tries to evolve and reinvent themselves. The facade looks nude without the “FURS” at the top.
At least the classic neon sign remains along the Maiden Lane side.
Thanks Andrew….I kept checking the site every few minutes since I got to work, for part III. That said, how dreadfully boring, and pitiful do the streets of downtown look. Just when you think it can’t possibly get any worse, part III proves me wrong. I just love the variety you pointed out Andrew on the Shawarma shops, not across from one another, but next door to each other. How pointless is that…LOL That is a great people grabber, if you don’t like ours, go next door for the exact same thing.
The snow covered sidewalks are another alarming issue which I guess living in Windsor, we expect, but this is downtown for goodness sakes, you would think it of all places would be cleared, OH WAIT, I guess since the city never see’s anyone down there, and half the buildings are vacant, they can save the costs of cleaning the walkways and hrrrmmm…perhaps invest it in the much needed pot hole repairs!! What a crying shame. At least there was one poor soul at that day!! The rest of the block has no life for as far as the eye can see. Oh, and why is there a rub and tug on every friggen corner, what kind of image is this sending out to all the tourists we are supposedly trying to attract, I mean with that new “ fresh fronts†approach . It’s disgusting!!, and yet another reason why city council and alike, need to heed the call for action. Shame…Shame…Shame !!
Ross, agree 100% except for one quibble – while the city should be down there issuing tickets, it is not the city’s responsibility to actually clear the sidewalks in front of the shops. The shop owners (like you, the homeowner) is responsible for that. By-law aside, it’s a matter of civic pride, respect, and responsibility to one’s patrons. It doesn’t take long, only 10-20 minutes followed by a few minutes of tossing rock salt down if required. It takes even less time to collect garbage, pop cans, cigarette packs, wrappers, sweep up unsightly butts in front of kiddie bars, throw around some rock salt on the ice, etc. DWBIA’s “clean team” could use a little support from its members in that respect. Some of the windows and surfaces in the first two blocks of shops that have been vacant for years are covered in dirt. How long would it take the owner to wash those windows and make the vacancy at least look presentable and tidy? As the state of vacant buildings deteriorate, it just makes the street look more ghetto’ish. It is possible to have a vacant building without drawing all kinds of attention to it by virtue of its lack of care and maintenance.
If each property owner (vacant or not) did their part, downtown would at least look snappy, safer, and inviting to pedestrian traffic. Some ARE doing their part, and damn well – acknowledged – but many more are not. I know of two businesses on Tecumseh who are out shoveling the overnight snowfall between 6-7am because they are terrified of getting a ticket from the bylaw enforcement officer or, worse, a lawsuit from a slip-and-fall. Yet blocks away from city hall, many property owners leave the snow accumulate with impunity.
This is not to say businesses failing to clear snow is unique to downtown, but given downtown’s dependency on pedestrian traffic and its current sorry state (outside of bar hours), its property owners can’t afford to let little easy things like this be neglected.
Andrew, the plain streetscaping design has a rationale that was set out years ago before I joined the DWBIA.
I don’t personally agree with the rationale but I understand it. Personally I think it makes the downtown look cold
The rational was that the streetscaping was to become a blank canvas for what was to be put on top. There was a concern that whatever “theme” or palette the city went with could possibly become dated. By keeping everything neutral, it wouldn’t go out of style.
The warmth or color etc.. would then be added by the decoration of the streetscape
Thats why I brought the motion to expand the use of the DWBIA streetscape reserve to add streetscape decoration. Thats where the LED lights come from, thats where the flowers will soon come from. The rest is banners and wayfinding signage that will hopefully come out of the districting. Thats why the marketing campaign is important as it sets the vision for what we want downtown to become and what decorations we want to put on that streetscape
A Downtown magazine is in th works right now that will help to explain much of this. (For the life of me, I don’t understand why those explanations are not already on the DWBIA Website)
Also, I’ve been pushing for consideration of an idea by the former ED Judith Veresuk to clad the planters in mosaic tile art. We could hold a competition for local artists for design and turn the ugly planters into public art. What do you think???
Mark, the concrete grey look on everything adds to the overall drabness of the core. Not your fault – just an observation.
Overall I like the mosaic idea on planters, but… Who maintains them? Once water gets behind and one or two falls of they will look horrible. Who’s responsible for installation? Walk across the street sometime today and look at the shawarma place. I’m not sure which one it is, but one of them is clad in what looks like bathroon floor tiles. Look at the bottom near the sidewalk. There are missing tiles and it makes a bad facade job look worse.
I’m tempted to say that it has the potential to turn out poorly and I would rather not do it. I would rather see the benches and garbage cans painted another colour.
Whatever happened to simple tree grates? Grates are still the best option. Its too bad all that money is spent on planters which require their own maintenance and just get in the way!
What’s done is done. Concrete can be stained even after it is set by using and acid based stain – we’ll be using on our Engineering Club’s concrete canoe this year. As for vacant store fronts – could the DWBIA provide a cover-up for the windows, and sinage like they do at shopping malls. A shopping mall operator knows that empty stores look bad so they at least cover them in a neat and tidy way.
James part of the problem can be seen in the second photo today. The vacant storefront had the windows covered from the inside. With no one looking after them, the covering falls and looks like junk.
While not free, but maybe custom printed covering could be made? Feature current or historic photos of Windsor on the coverings, add the city or DWBIA logo and pass it out free of charge to the vacant storefront to cover the shops from the inside.
However I think your temporary art gallery idea is a good one.
Another thought; could chronically vacant property owners entertain the possibility of offering leases with a 1st month ‘free’ incentive to new businesses? I know it generally runs counter to standard business principles to give anything away for ‘free’ but in a case where you have a property that is chronically vacant and will likely remain vacant for the foreseeable future, a little incentive for a new “mouse” with typically limited startup funds to get a foothold might not be such a bad idea. If the new mouse dies after the one year lease is up, the property owner will hopefully still have 10-11 months of lease payments. Or is there something about property management that makes this sort of arrangement impractical vs getting $0 per sq. ft. year after year for an empty store?
John, that to me would be a great idea, similar in form to what landlords offer tenants on their vacant apartments. I wonder why this hasn’t been thought of, my thought is that because these properties sit vacant for so long, the landlord refuses to loose any more income than they have to, even if it does mean a year worth of tenancy at the least. Does anyone know if these properties are leased per square foot or are they based on a flat rate similar to how apartments are priced? I think it’s a great proposition tho…I really do. I hope someone reading may just take that suggestion to heart, and perhaps initiate a new trend. For a small business owner, a month’s rent could make a huge difference when they are just setting up shop.
I wasn’t aware that the city wasn’t responsible for maintaining the store frontages, my bad, however as you mentioned John, would it hurt the city to provide a safe walkway for it’s pedestrians in an effort to help encourage the feel of some type of care downtown. It truly to me is a matter of civic pride, no question in my mind. I also feel, since it’s not an obligation of the city to clean the walkways, the owners of the buildings should be served citations for improper care of their facilities. Impose new by laws for this. If they don’t want to contribute to keeping the core clean, but wish to belong, and operate in the core, they should have no choice but to obey, or face fines, evictions, or other disciplinary action.
Fausto, the tree grates are not a very good idea because they actually choke the tree as teh tree grows. The tree then has to be replaced and the grate cut open. Walkerville has had this issue and are now replacing them.
As for the stucco issue. Why does it always have to be beige or brown? How drab can it look with beige and concrete grey? Where is the vibrancy?
The sidewalk issue is very simple. Call 311 and complain. The owners will get one verbal warning followed by subsequent tickets. I have called 311 when neighbours in my area take a long time to shovel their snow bevause we have elderly people near by who can’t traverse the sidewalks due to the laziness or cheapness of the rental property owners. Which brings me to my next statement.
The reason we see such poor shape of buildings downtown is because of absentee landlords who don’t live in the area/city who really have no pride in themselves nor their properties. They exist only to make quick money and really don’t care who rents the place nor do they care about the city in which their building is in. I still believe there should be some kind of regulations as to the condition a developer (read: speculator) or property owner has to keep their building.
I like the idea of the lights and baskets and I am sure it will add a bit of much needed colour downtown.
With all of the shawarmas in downtown the idea is simple. Cater to the bar crowd at night. Quick and easy and due to the size of the crowds it makes sense to have so many inone place. Too bad the hotdog carts were pushed out of downtown. I quite enjoyed having them around becaus it too gave a feel of vibrancy. and I doubt the impact on the restaurants was that large considering the high cost of rental properties in the area. Teh downtown hotdog restaurant couldn’t make a go of it either.
I like the idea of using art or large historic photo posters on the vacant property windows. But again the issue with the buildings is due to cheap owners. Just look at Shanfields. Cripes wit the cost of the stuff they sell you would think they would have done something with their facade…
Ross, right now lease rates on downtown properties appear to start at around $5 per sq. ft. That’s actually pretty insane considering these are what should be prime downtown properties commanding multiple times that rate. Putting a positive spin on that, it gives the “mice” a chance to get a foothold in an area that would otherwise only be open for new business owners who already have a buttload of startup capital.
John, Agreed I would have assumed the same thing, much more than $5 / sq/ft, that in mind then, there are practically giving away these spaces. Pehaps this is why there are no incetives offered?
As far as I know, with commercial buildings, if the storefront is vacant, they can get a refund on their property taxes for the unrented portion. Unlike apartments where if it’s vacant there’s no rebate. If storefronts are rented out, the general norm with net leases is the tenant pays the property taxes on the building, all utilities and they are even responsible for shovelling the snow and picking up the garbage. They even have to pay for roof repair. The landlord of a store or a mall doesn’t even have to lift a finger. So, now when it’s empty, they still think they can get away with doing nothing. Definitely report them to 311.
My reasoning is that even at those fire-sale rates, the first month lease payment is still painful on top of all the other associated expenses of starting up a business. I could see a potential new small business owner being more inclined to pay a slightly higher lease rate with the first payment essentially being deferred over the next 10 months. Just a thought. You are right though, the rate is a bargain to begin with, to the person who has the means to pay it.
Properies are rented on a per sq. ft basis as is the tax rate set by the city.
Here’s another reason why downtown is having a hard time recovering. Take a look at that vacant storefront with the “We Want You” sign on it (443 Ouellette St.) It’s a 105 foot wide, 3 storey glass building. The agent, Mark, listed it on MLS.CA for $2.8 million (CANADIAN DOLLARS, not monopoly money). http://www.icx.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=&SearchURL=%3fPage%3d3%26Mode%3d0%26vs%3dSearchAll%26ptgid%3d2%26ci%3dwindsor%26pro%3d2%26st%3douellette%26mp%3d0-0-%26mrt%3d0-0-0%26trt%3d2%26rpmu%3d-1%26ld%3d0%26o%3dA%26of%3d1%26ps%3d10%26uts%3d0-0%26fpud%3d1%26frntd%3d1%26lsu%3d1%26mls%3d%26mxls%3d&Mode=0&PropertyID=6401657
Someone should phone up the agent on the window and ask, “How the hell is downtown supposed to recover when greedy speculators are carpet bagging downtown properties with these ridiculous prices??”
Are these guys mental?? Did these speculators just step off the plane from Manhattan or Toronto?? How can you ask such a price with the kind of traffic downtown gets?? Can you imagine what a storefront owner’s share of the property taxes has got to be on a net lease on such a small building even if they offered a free month’s rent??
Dave, its a weak argument against tree grates to say that they choke the tree. The grates come in varying sizes and styles to accomodate any circumference of tree any time. If the tree is choked its because its not tended to. IMO planters suck and are in the way and are ugly no matter what they’re made of.
So, the property tax is less if the building is vacant? Where is the incentive to occupy the space?
A speculator can ask as much as they want for a building, it is still only worth what the market will bear. I suspect that real estate is going to go south here in Canada just like it has in the U.S. How long can these speculators hold on to their “investment” properties before they are forced to sell or hand them over to their creditors?
Doesn’t matter who owns the buildings, someone should make an effort to tidy them up. How about the real estate agents? As for the shwarma shops, I can’t really complain about them, they are independently owned, their signage (at least in these phots) is fairly tidy and they are maintaining some kind of presence in the downtown. Its not like you couldn’t go to three or four coffee houses downtown without much trouble either.
Dave, there’s a beauty of a colourful stucco disaster on Tecumseh Rd E across from the Golden Griddle. I think subtler colours is best for this type of renovation.
The EIA just released their weekly report, oil stockpiles are up, the price of oil dipped immediatly after but has come back and sits at 109.61 perhaps this summer less folks will be hitting the highway and instead we will be able to draw them downtown to walk around.
Let’s hope James. Fausto, It is not my argument but the city’s.
Vacant property tax being less is legislated provincially. Not sure how the incentive works there.. seems backwards to me. I already sent my note on this to pupatello. no response…yet.
James, if you own three buildings, and two are occupied, and one is vacant, there is a bigger incentive for you to have the thrid one vacant for a loss and a tax write off. There are many reason why that is so wrong, but as long as you have people owning these building who don’t care, things aren’t going to change. The only way is to apply pressure with fines for property standards, uncleared snow, etc…
As for gas prices, I doubt it will make any difference. As it is now we have people who drive idiotic things like Hummers and Escalades in from Lakeshore or Kingsville everyday. The elevation change during their drive is non existant over fully paved roads, yet they think these gas guzzling 4 X 4 SUV’s are a nessecity. Until North American attitudes change about cars, and the required size of them, gas will have to be $2.00 or $3.00 a liter before anything changes, in the meanwhile we’ll have to just listen to them bellyache about how much it cost to fill their F-150 with a tonneau cover on the back that has never had a 2 x 4 or sheet of drywall or a dresser in the bed.
Fausto – Don’t hold your breath waiting.. 🙂
Andrew, I agree with you about the planters. We thought about the cladding’s non permanence as it is a condition of the city allowing it to occur. The DWBIA would have to budget for maintenance or complete removal as they got damaged but realistically there will always be a lag time (I can’t see more than a couple months hopefully less)
If it gets to the proposal stage there will have to be public input and even a council session as the DWBIA does not have any unilateral say over the use of public space
I, however will personally support pretty much any initiative that decorates our streetscape with some sort of public art. I don’t have any other solution for improving the streetscape
As far as the window coverings for vacant bldgs. There is a proposal that was before the DWBIA development committee for this exact measure but the meeting ended before it got to it. (necessary free Wireless internet details discussion went on for over an hour)
Vacant window coverings have all been priced out and hopefully the board will support this intitative to be timed for the refacing and new signage of the DWBIA office which is also way too dated
As far as the speculation of properties goes, that was the main reason for giving up the arena fight. To this day I firmly believe that preventing an east end arena would simply have prevented an arena anywhere in Windsor. That the City Center West property would have been doomed to remain vacant and designated arena lands forever with the 50 surrounding acres never developed. Dave Feehan, PResident of the IDA and 3 other executives from that association agreed with my assessment when presented all the information.
Unfortunately, the result was not as I had planned nor hoped, now the City Center West lands will go undeveloped throughout the wait for the next designation.
As for rents, people can ask $5 bucks but remember that is only an asking price. Most downtown landlords would gladly settle for common fees.
I personally think there is something dramatically wrong when property taxes are greater than the rent. Thats a tipping point for me. As a business person, I always understood that the government becomes your silent partner through taxation. I’d never thought I’d have to accept the government as the majority partner in my operation.
Anyone know why the city never offered the urban village lands to Ikea? If I ask any employee at the Home Depot next to Devonshire Mall what’s going to be put in it’s place when it moves to Walker this month, they all say Ikea. But, why is it gonna be next to Devonshire Mall? The city should offer Ikea the urban village lands for free as an incentive to get a major anchor in downtown again and more people visiting downtown. I doubt they’ll be using the same building as it was so poorly built, with buckets all over the store catching the roof leaks.
dave, easy answer is ikea wouldn’t take the land for free even
if you added a million cash to the offer
Ikea has never and will never be interested in windsor
I wouldn’t want them with the parking they’d require
those parking lagoons would isolate them enough to
negate any spinoff
true.. Ikea would require a huge parking lot and a huge store. Not fit for downtown windsor that’s for sure.
The parking could be underground, underneath the store. If Detroit streets were once bustling when the once 28 storey Hudson’s Department Store was glowing in their downtown, then the same could happen here with an Ikea in our downtown. But since no one cares about setting up major anchors in downtown anymore, I guess it’ll end up next to Devonshire Mall and downtown Windsor will continue to focus pandering to kiddie central.
David – It would be great to have a national retailer of Ikea’s stature choose to locate anywhere in the Windsor area, however I don’t see it happening.
They typically like to build on greefield sites in suburban locations. Manning and the 401 would be far more realisitic a location than downtown WIndsor or even the current Home Depot site. The recent Canton, MI store was the reuse of a parcel that was a K-Mart. I believe they demolished the previous K-Mart and erected the Ikea. I’m not certain the Home Depot site even with the purchase of the union gas site is sufficent for an Ikea.
I hope you’re right, as the infux of visitors to a destination store like Ikea, would be a boom to the retailers at the mall and possible reverse the trend of vacancy at the Roundhouse Centre, but I’m not very optimistic, it doesn’t seem to fit the mould of the way the company operates.
Speaking of the Roundhouse, what is happening with rooftop signage there? I always liked the turret and shed dormers. It seems now thats all getting reworked or something with huge signs. I just noticed in passing last week.
Looks like it’s getting a facelift to make it fit in better with is blander, boxier cousins at Walker & Provincial.
I’m not a big fan of relying on “major anchors” to save downtown as it goes against this vision of an idyllic mix of indy businesses making for a unique downtown experience, but after seeing how much worse things are than I even imagined, it needs all the help it can get from anyone that isn’t peddling alcohol. And I suppose if a major anchor like Ikea happens to represent a departure from the current crop of kiddie bars, then it can’t be all that bad of an idea to at least consider. The parking concerns can be addressed as David proposed, underground.
Oh and additionally to the parking concerns, remember we’re supposed to focusing on walkability and more reliance on better public transit anyways, so parking shouldn’t be wrench in downtown’s gearbox to begin with – I hope.
Anchors are ok if they’re the right anchors. We missed an opportunity of having the 400 city hall building become an anchor in a mixed used development. ANy progressive city hall that is rebuilt today in North America is not done as a stand alone but as a commercial, residential mixed use anchor.
A campus makes a good anchor in a mixed use since you can build residences and commercial, the arena probably wouldn’t have since it was to big to allow ancillary development.
In the end, we don’t need to wait. Flooding the cut adjacent to caron avenue and allowing boats to dock would itself draw enough commercial, residential to make a good anchor. The mayor spoke of a previous cost estimate for flooding the cut at 12 million, I doubt that is the true cost but even if it is double that cost it would yeild enough development and property value appreciation to justify it.
BTW for the sustainability, walkability, environmentalists in us, those boats I refer to could be sailboats, paddle boats, kayaks etc..
Mark! don’t flood the cut just yet! That cut happens to be a rail bed with grade seperations already in place at university and wyandotte. VIA will still see this as there new Windsor Station yet.
If you want to flood something, how ’bout one of those parking lots at the river!
I wonder why it would cost $12 milion to flood the cut next to Caron Avenue? A crane and a dump truck to remove the mud can’t cost that much. Even if they put up a retaining wall, it couldn’t cost that much. How far would that extend to? University and Wyandotte? Doesn’t BASF Chemical need rail lines beyond that? Would that include the cost of a bridge for Riverside Dr? It sounds like an interesting idea. How would someone be able to view this study the mayor did a cost estimate for?
But its already a rail bed!!! It was once used a for rail and can be used again! The tracks are right there at universty!! they’re already there!! They just need to a little further!!! This cant be a bad idea!
What about Docherty’s hole? You could’ve filled that in for boats too? Maybe still can!! You can dig a hole anywhere and fill it in! We have the technology! But try and get a new ROW for rail. This shouldn’t be dismissed to quickly!!!!
I agree with Fausto, giving up the ROW really limits our future potenital to adapt to rail and/or light rail along the exisiting corridors as a viable alternative form of mass transit.
I have heard some pretty strange ideas tossed out of the years, but flooding the rail cut at Caron shoots towards the top of the “dumb” list pretty quickly. Even at $12 million dollars, I bet I could come up with 12 other things that could use a million dollars more than flooding a rail cut.
I went to Caron’s slit earlier today just to see how viable this whole Francis flooding it for a canal is. There are bridges on University and Riverside Dr. You’d have to move the flying saucer in front of the Riverside Dr. bridge though. But, that’s a a lot of land that needs to dredged from the valley to make it work. It looks like the lowest point is about 30 feet above the Detroit River waterline, then you need another 20 or so feet to accomodate the hulls. So, like 50 feets. It’s probably more trouble then it’s worth digging up.
I’m curious. This isn’t some kind of previously approved project hidden somewhere in the Riverfront redevelopment plan? Or was that plan completed with the bunker? I’m just puzzled as to why the mayor would be costing it out. Where’s the city supposed to get that kind of money anyway?
Fausto: As for Doherty’s Hole, if you’re referring to that put next to the Radisson, I drove by today and it was completely filled in.
I think this flooding of the cut was previously appoved by the city. I faintly remember reading something a year or two ago about the city putting up a marina somewhere around the Ambassador bridge. Maybe, it was meant to be at the belly of this canal. I guess if the city was renting out docks to a new marina it could pay for itself. Now, I found something. Downtown waterfront marina approved by the Ministry of the Environment for 271 watercraft in 1996. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/env_reg/ea/English/EAs/windsormarina.htm
Interesting story about IKEA locating in downtown Tampa:
http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/newswire/story/ikea-opening-in-tampa/
I’ll let the experts here dissect it..
would like to see more on street parking on Ouellette and I think both the patios, which I find are a great asset to downtown, and on-steet parking can be accomodating.
Mark, I am puzzled? Why would a property tax freeze help with vacancies? Less taxes would make it easier to rent a vacancy shouldn’t it? But again it is the mill rate that is unacceptable. As I stated previously the rent rates in T.O. are about the same as Windsor! But could it be that insureance in Windsor is much higher due to the vandalism caused by the kids coming and shitting on our city (local one’s as well) for their weekend “funâ€.
sorry about that post it was a cut and paste mistake
Just to clarify, from what I remember the mayor said was just using a previous cost estimate and did not specifically cost it out himself.
I also was under the impression the stretch that would be flooded would not be lengthy or deep and would only serve as a water feature for a strip of commercial buildings with residences above them that could access them for pleasure craft.
I’m sure whatever could be flooded could be filled in if the railbed was needed. I’m assuming, light rail for WIndsor would not be in the cards for decades.
In the meantime, I believe the waterway would be one more way to connect the river to downtown, a potential showpiece for the city.
One of my main beliefs as to why our citizens do not demand better development is that there is no example in Windsor staring them in the face to show them how the quality of life is improved on a daily basis.
I believe if we could just get one proper mixed use residential development completed, the public would demand that as a minimum standard throughout the city.
Thats why I think this urban village has a significance far greater than just City Center West or even Downtown. I believe that justifies the 12 million expenditure if it could help make it a success
That dowtown Tampa Ikea store referred to still requires 29 acres. Thats a lot of expropriations, considering the Norwich block remains yet unresolved.
I don’t think they have a model for a store that has underground parking, I assume they wouldn’t want the additional build costs or security.
Underground parking costs even more than parking garage space, probably $25,000 per spot.
The one in Toronto at Highway 7 & 400 has a garage attached to it, and it’s near a subway line.
That is one of 4 Toronto area Ikea’s. If they were interested they could make nearly any site work. Any idea how big the current Home Depot & Union Gas site is?
The 7 and 400 isn’t near a subway line YET — but Sobara, before he left politics, funded the extension of the University line out to “Vaughan city centre” which is now known as the “Subway to Ikea”. It’s the one that will also pass through York U.
The Ikea at Sheppard and Leslie is on the Sheppard Line (the newest, Mel Lastman “subway to nowhere” line) and it is a massive box, with a massive parking garage next to it. Ikea’s make mighty footprints, and are not in anyway urban. We do not let that stop us from going, and we like to eat lunch in the Ikea cafeteria. Try the orange macaroni and cheese. It comes out of a big bag that they dump into the pot. (no sarcasm, we like it).
Mark, thats certainly a funny way of thinking—light rail for WIndsor would not be in the cards for decades. —-
So lets flood the ROW for a simple water feature for residents!?? Since we’re not ready fo use the ROW?!? And when we are ready, who will pull the drain plug and let transit rail vehicles roll by some fancy residential units that you want to put there?!?
Ii souds like you’re caught up in the disposable society syndrome as so many others. Everything now and in a hurry then throw it away. City building takes vision that goes beyond even a decade or two or three…
David, perhaps if you look at the CIP for marentette and the sketches you may see 271 watercraft marina identified there. That may be the project referenced. That looks like it would be doable.
It wouldn’t be only for those particular residents as a public access could be maintained for residents of the entire area.
My decades assessment for light rail is a reality, I have grown up with City Center West land designated for an arena for 20 years and I’m simply not ready for parts of it to be held while designated light rail for another 20. Not when we need downtown revitalization now.
The quote that would best describe the hold on city center west lands:
“The maxim ‘nothing avails but perfection’ can be spelled ‘paralysis’ (Winston Churchill).
But I realize mine is but one opinion and would be happy to support any comprehensive plan that is better and doesn’t mean we have to wait another decade