Downtown Windsor – Part IV

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• Like a lot of people who voted for Fast Eddie in the last 2003 election, I blamed Windsor's problems entirely on the Empire-building mentality of City Hall department heads and felt nobody could do a worse job than Mike "I love kiddie bars" Hurst. Eddie was bright, young and ran his own business before entering politics unlike that old City Hall hack Hurst, who couldn't balance a budget if his life depended on it Little did I imagine that Fast Eddie would turn into another lapdog for the City Hall Empire builders and kiddie bar owners.

• Andrew:

  Good job with the photo tour- the old cliche about a picture is worth a thousand words- well these speak volumes!

  As you know, several years ago I moved my business downtown from Walkerville- at that time there weren't any historic buildings for ale in my price range that didn't require thousands of dollars in upgrades- so I bought a building on Chatham Street west between Bruce and Janette- a fine property- beautiful heritage structure lovingly restored (an important criterion)- parking, easy access- perfect for my publishing empire (as it were!) In any other market people would kill for such a fine establishment located in a city's core. We took a risk and invested in our city, we put our money where our mouth was, so to speak- despite objections from many quarters that this was doomed to be a disaster.

  At that time, we citizens had elected a young ambitious mayor- he was going to bring new vision and attitude to the city- here was a guy who was going to "get 'er done!"he strutted around with a copy of Richard Florida's book "The Creative Class" under his arm- he spoke eloquently of a new vision to develop an Urban, filled with creative types, who would spur a new era in a cities' prosperity- artists, web developers, designers, architects, musicians et al. It was the dawning of the New Frontier. We bought into this dream, but only later did we realize that this was going to turn into a nightmare.

  My company certainly fit the bill as representatives of the New Order- we had established ourselves as a traditional and new media company and loved the idea that soon there would be housing and commercial properties rising from the ashes of the failed arena projects some twenty years in the making. Cafes filled with debate, galleries bursting with works, Europe on the Detroit River! Anything and everything possible, a cultural utopia in Canada South.

  The Urban Village was a complete farce of course- this was the beginning of the new mayor' and council's inability to focus not only on this project and a host of other issues- and I don't miss the irony here- by bringing CREATIVE solutions to city problems!

  I proposed that the five block area that had survived the wrecking ball for the new arena, once known as Old Town, bounded by Pitt, Caron, Bruce and University be designated a tax free zone to encourage creative businesses to move in. Let's develop the incentives toward a real creative zone, I said.

  The answer was: "We can't do that" Of course once you utter those words than let it be said, let it be done- and yet I asked them to consider what was going on in Sandwich, and I also in Guelph and Kingston, where city councils had designated incentives to attract the creative class- and also what about Richard Florida's book, which I had read when it first came out, which had many examples of what cities could do to attract the creative class. Where was the leadership on this pillar of our star mayor's campaign?

  And of course, as we have learned time and again city councils can do whatever they feel like- just look at what they have done to the bridge company with their absurd zoning bylaws in Sandwich which benefit no one and demonstrate completely that it is not about business, it's prsonal- (and the bridge being one of the largest tax payers in the city)-or the incentives offered to the university at the 11th hour to move their new engineering building to the Urban Village- but I digress.

  Interestingly the only councillor who sat in on our discussions with city admin was Alan Halberstadt- and it wasn't even his ward! Ron (there's a big announcement coming!) Jones and Caroline Postma were no shows for our meetings with admin at city hall- that in and of itself speaks volumes.

  Three years after purchasing the building we had reached a sad conclusion- there would never be an urban village- and the concept of the creative class was a joke. I had long ago lost faith in the mayor and this council's ability to deal with downtown issues. I watched the downtown BIA spend money recklessly on ridiculous projects (how about getting rid of the gum of the sidewalks and shoveling the streets, as Andrews photos clearly demonstrate? And why is that everything in this town always has to be on a grand scale- can't we ever do simple things first?)

  Long story short- we ended up selling out after three years for a loss- we invested considerable upgrades into the property and the result was that our taxes had risen to $7200 a year- that is $600/month folks- just for taxes- for what? I am still at a loss as to why businesses pay so much commercial tax in this town. Is it because retailers have voted with their feet and moved to Tecumseh and the rest of us are left to carry the load?

  The dream of an "Urban Village"- seldom heard these days by anyone- was over. We moved back to Walkerville- three years earlier there were few vacancies in Walkerville but today- take your pick- more support for the idea that small businesses are getting hammered in this town.

  We now pay $500/month all in for our new digs in the Old Walkerville Post Office with a fantastic view of the Detroit skyline. That is $100 less than my taxes were on Chatham- you do the math- and as a business person I am not sure why anyone in their right mind would invest downtown. Ask Mike Plunkett.

  It has now been more than twenty years since the city began talk of the downtown arena- lots of people got fat on land and expropriation deals at that time- the five blocks that remain had the potential to become something special- but that would have required vision and action- two things sadly lacking by city hall.

  My conclusion is: don't look for any solutions any time soon to the downtown mess. City admin has their heads up the arse fighting the bridge company and wasting our money on consultants and lawyers in the process- our new arena which ended up on our east border benefits Tecumseh more than Windsor and is also something we can ill afford at this time- expect more of the same over time. Question: who benefits from an arena on the east side? Why don't we know more about the people behind the land deal and swap with the city?

  Where we would be without the bloggers- certainly the so-called mainstream media has been conspicuously on this and other important topics!

  Andrew- keep up the good work here- we need more people to spread the message that the emperor has no clothes!

  The debate rages while Nero fiddles....

• Worth the read in relation to downtown Windsor:

  http://creativeclass.typepad.com/thecreativityexchange/2008/03/rustbelt-rebuil.html

• Chirs - You're bang on in your observation. There will never be an Urban Village, and I am firmly convinced this council would cut off their nose to spite their face.

  The worst part is while Nero fiddles, we all burn.

• Well, I guess you guys might as well give up. Downtown Windsor's screwed, doomed and going to hell in a handbasket. Why do you live here anyways? It's time to close up shop and move outta town. There's nothing you can do except watch as it decays. Face it, you guys don't matter because you have no influence whatsoever with the people that are in control of this town.

• I got these comments this afternoon in an email from a regular reader. With his OK I am passing them along, he makes some very valid points:

  The post that Chris Edwards wrote today sort of hit home. If you cannot make downtown work ...............make downtown come to you. In other words make Walkerville "the downtown". If rents are lower, take advantage of that.
  With all the posters and lurkers surely a few more like-minded types or businesses could come together and start a grass roots cluster in and around Wyandotte Street. Point blank. Never mind downtown. Don't piss up a rope especially if Eddie
  Francis is holding the top end.

  If Jones and Postma are the city councillors of record in that area, a blind german shepherd and a dead cat have more sense than
  those two. Look at the example of Royal Oak, Michigan. In 1984 that was a dead core..........completely dead. TV Town USA. Nothing. Where it came to life was Birmingham up the road. Rents skyrocketed and the "creative" types had nowhere to go...so they went to Royal Oak and then to Ferndale.

• Right! That's exactly how I feel. Walkerville is my "downtown" for the very reasons your reader pointed out, Andrew. The rents, the shops, the amenities, all those things one expects of a real downtown is all there. Plus we have "old downtown" if one wants to bar hop, see the WSO, gamble, or take advantage of what it does best. But as for being able to stroll around, find things I need, in a safe and pleasant environment, Wyandotte St., Ottawa, and Tecumseh is where it's at.

• Great comments from Chris Edwards too, by the way. It was interesting and telling to read about your business' moves. Welcome back to Walkerville anyway. :)

• I am happy to join this party- right now I am sitting in Grenada, Nicaragua- it is always instructive to go to the Third World to appreciate how good we have it in Canada.

  Having said that, let's examine the concept of what a downtown really is, as John argues above. Isn't it the main place where people come together for commerce and entertainment? Is that too simple an definition?

  If so then perhaps our perception of downtown is no longer valid- personally I thought the marketing of downtown as the "heart of the city" made sense- at least in terms of perception. This whole "mosaic" thing is borderline retarded (OK- it is retarded). Who in God's name approves these marketing campaigns- totally pathetic IMHO and destined to go the way of marketing done by the city in Detroit.

  So maybe as John said Walkerville can be downtown- I know it is for me as I live in Walkerville (if only we had a small grocer!)- or even- if numbers rule- Devonshire Mall has become the new downtown.

  Sidebar: add to the list of asinine moves made by council- the approval of Big Box development by Coco at the Windsor Racetrack- one more nail in downtown's coffin.

• Hey Chris, yeah we could use a full grocery on Ottawa or Wyandotte street but personally speaking the Market Square covers a lot of bases for us (and for less than it costs at a grocery), along with some delis, bakeries, butcher shops around the area that are under our noses but easy to forget about, along with the ethic mini groceries - also easily overlooked. As for being in Nicaragua at the moment, thanks for the sobering reminder that we don't have it so bad as some others around the world.