Today we wrap up the downtown series with a tour of “The Avenue South District” or whatever moronic fake brand has been assigned to the area south of Wyandotte.
Junky, messy tags.
The results of harmless partying?
Long time downtown retailer Doctor Disc. The only business now left in this vintage brick building.
Painting bricks are second in my list of architectural crimes. At least it’s not stuccoed.
Vacant
Vacant
The former Jokers Building. We covered it in depth back in September. Around the time I covered it they went to town stripping out the copper and metal from the interior.
A peak inside reveals that it is gutted, and it also looks like the enemy of buildings everywhere – water – has worked its way inside.
Another vacancy…
…and another.
The vacant bingo parlours also have snow covered sidewalks. Someone owns these buildings, why are the sidewalks not cleaned?
Shameful. Allowing the sidewalks to remain in this condition shows a lack of respect for the downtown and the residents who have to walk these streets. Where is the City? These should be cleared and billed back. As you can see above the building is “SOLD” so there is a new owner, no excuses for this.
This turd was built in the early 90’s. After only a few years of occupancy, the CIBC closed the branch and the building sits vacant. I would bet that at this point in time the building has been vacant longer than it was ever occupied. It’s a disgrace that one of the key intersections in this city in the heart of downtown, has a building this ugly on it. In my opinion I would love to see the building levelled and the entire Wyandotte St. frontage redeveloped.
More tagging. No excuse for this either. In a prominent location on Ouellette, this should be covered over immediately.
That’s all. Leave your shooters and empty smokes laying around and head back to Michigan. Thanks for littering and treating our core as your playground! See you again tonight I’m sure…
And the cycle repeats…
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Drove by the Mothers/Jokers building today... In the process of being demolished...
Wish I had my camera on me...
I noticed the demo going on this morning and booked home for the camera and got some shots late this morning, and I believe Andrew has been by as well.
I don't know who was out with the camera in downtown today, but the trio of killdozers knocked down part of 819 Ouellette today and the rest of Club 801 will probably be a pile of rubble by the weekend.
I doubt it David, you think those guys are going to work on a long weekend? :)
I was there at 4:00 and they were already wrapping it up.
Look for the photos Monday.
I guess you're right. I didn't see them out today doing anything. They must be union.
Very interesting posts Downtown Windsor – Part 1-5, It would definitely be interesting to hear updates on any downtown Windsor progress
This was hilarious. I worked downtown for 4 years (2007-2011) while attending the U, and this 5 part series sums up everything about the death of downtown Windsor. It was especially hard standing outside listening to vistors from out of town laughing about having two shwarma places beside each other, about all the kiddie bars and rub-and-tugs, and all the vacant buildings.
The only "improvement" I saw was placing foliage on the curbs to give a more vibrant look, but on saturday nights these flower boxes were converted into astrays and outdoor urinals, and then of course the plants died and were not removed, adumbrating the heart of the city.
One positive comment is that the city workers do an outstanding job on cleaning up the vomit, blood, and piss that covers the sidewalks every sunday morning. I don't go downtown anymore, because you would have to pay me to be a part of that zoo again.
If the dwbia focused on weeding out the unnecessary bars geared towards undesirables that vandalize the properties and harass the tourists, and implement a business/restaurant/shopping approach, we could once again see the great downtown windsor that it used to be. Stop throwing useless money wasters like redbull and balloonapalooza, and start thinking about longterm investments. We need people, not canals.
In a free society who decides what busines is, not undesirale?
If you want a great downtown like it used to be when was that?
I have lived in Windsor for over fifty years,in that time period Windsor never had a great downtown,their where many reasons such as no main anchor store, no national retailers except for Reitmans Woolworths, Kressege had retail stores. Simpsons (later Sears) Eatons only had catolouge outlets. Many local merchants tried but slowly moved or closed
you might think in the past downtown had great years but I must have missed them, or it was before my time.
Richard, I didn't say that the businesses were undesirable, the people that go downtown and vandalize properties and fight with each other on the street are creating the horrible experiences in the heart of our city. Ask anyone over the age of 40 and they will tell you how they miss the old downtown. I hear stories about Kresseges, Adelmans, Bartletts, Smiths, Birks, the Nut House, even the underground restrooms, and many more businesses that have vanished. Now all we have is bars, bars, parking lots, stripclubs, bars, kiddie bars, a couple restaurants, and more bars. It's disgusting just walking down main part of ouellette and having to avoid dry urine and vomit.
I understand that shopping has declined thanks to malls and the casino, but that doesn't mean the solution is to implement more bars. You can't even go to McDonalds on a saturday night without worrying about being stabbed by some drunken fool.Downtown use to be great COMPARED to the circus we have now, and no one is doing anything about it. For 4 years I witnessed weekend after weekend of the same bullcrap. It was embarrassing to speak with people from out-of-town trying to explain why we need to have 5 bars on one block, and 2 shwarma places beside each other.
You probably haven't been downtown in awhile so you can't realize that the mediocre downtown you experienced is now entirely out of reach with our current situation. Unless you are an underage drinker, a drug addict, or have a criminal record, then there is no need for you to spend money on weekend nights in our greatest retail location in the city.
On top of that, now they are moving the university kids (or what's left of them) downtown, so they can have their cars broken into and tires slashed. They're going to shut down some of the main roads during the summer so people can tour the vacant stores and closed bars during the day. Fireworks are on its last dying breath, and we can all look forward to ballonapalozza as the circus animals will destroy them at the end of the night.
I can't believe you can say Windsor never had a great downtown, because anything would be better than what we have now, even a mulit-million dollar pool that will bankrupt the city with maintenance costs.
watch this video from youtube showing a morph of Ouellette Avenue from 1957 to 2007. Notice the big white elephant in the background that destroyed our greatest treasure. Also notice in the first picture there are businesses, cars parked along the street, people shopping. The last picture shows 5 bars in one intersection. The Boom Boom Room, Symbol, The Room, Honest Lawyer, and The Whiskey. Is it all necessary? Oh, and don't forget limited parking spots and NOBODY shopping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Arr4GHsF4