Just to add to the depressing state of things, I came across these two photos from National Geographic in 1963.
Photos by National Geographic Photographer Winfield Parks
Detroit Skyscrapers Soar Above the Streets of Windsor, Ontario
Although Detroit and Windsor fly different flags, they consider themselves sister cities. A bridge and two tunnels link them across the Detroit River. Residents and visitors make more than 17 million crossings a year, Canada’s largest border city,Windsor with 114,367 people is a major rail and industrial center.
Photos by National Geographic Photographer Winfield Parks
Visitors to the Civic Center in Detroit gaze at Windsor’s skyline.
Look at all those people downtown! What a difference shopping and offices make.
Great photo’s Andrew!! Really interesting when we take a walk back in time eh??
Notice the GM building isn’t in the backround yet…that went up in the early 70’s correct?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Center
1977 apparently. I thought it was a wee bit older.
Ross, you would not have been able to see the Renaissance building in that pic even if it was there. Awesome pic Andrew. boy we live in shitty times.
I remember as a kid watching the RenCen being built from our waterfront. It left a huge impression on me and is probably part of the reason I went on to study architecture. Growing up and learning more about John Portman (big architect in Atlanta) and his buildings helped me learn a lot more about the social implications of buildings. They weren’t that good. This building was supposed to usher in a “Renaissance” in downtown Detroit, but all it did was further solidify the “rich white guy’s secure tower” amongst the unwashed masses. I still love visiting it, though.
Excellent how Jack Shanfield’s sign hasn’t changed. The rest of downtown sure has, though.
Shanfield’s looked like hell then as it does now. But at least they are still downtown!
Wow! Talk about a blast from the past…Jack Fraser! I remember one being in the mall as well.
We would have a heck of a lot more people downtown if our illustrious planning department hadn’t allowed our industrial parks to become office parks/industrial. Take a look at Rhodes Dr. and tell me why there couldn’t be incentives for those offices to be downtown (no, not the architecture but the businesses themselves)?
Windsor whines we don’t have industrial space yet we allowed our downtown to lose its office workers. Take a look at the Green Shield building on the edge of Windsor/Tecumseh. They were in a crappy building on Giles and McDougal and could have built downtown (which there was an idea for) but due to parking issues and from what I have been told from a very reliable source, issues with the city they decided to move on the edge of the city. Most workers there live in Tecumseh/Lakeshore and most go for lunch in….you guessed it, Tecumseh.
I would like to be the first to congratulate our “leaders” for hollowing our downtown with short-sighted thinking. But at least we have bars! And empty storefronts.
In the second picture above, is tht the B&A hotel just left of the woman with the red scarf? It appears to close to the river to be the CIBC building. Just wondering!
Urbanrat, it is the old BA.
Great pics! Thanks for posting these. I get very nostalgic looking at the world I lived in as a kid. ….Oh yes, my wife’s company is moving out of downtown to Rhodes Dr! Mainly because the dowtown rent is expensive, the landlord doesn’t keep up with the maintenance and there’s vagrants and crackheads combing the area. Good times.
Interesting how the signs are all oriented perpendicular to the street – when on foot you could spot a store’s sign near or far and blocks away. Now, however, the signage and lettering cant be big enough or tall enough plaster to the face of the building, better viewed from your s.u.v. as you speed past.( ie. previoius post – b.o.m building) How often have you walked past a store front and had to step sideways into the street just to learn the name of the store?
Also, is that the correct placement of the ‘kings highway 18’ sign ?
I notice Jack Fraser, they had the exclusive right to sell all the boy Scouts clothing, as for that Kings 18, I remember when Riverside Dr west of Ouellette to Sandwich shared that designation, perhaps it extended up Ouellette to the tunnel or highway 3B as it was known.
Ken,
You are right. Wny don’t our police remove these beggars and obvious drugged up people? It is done in other cities so why not Windsor? Besides I thought itr was against the law to be drunk or on drugs in public? I guess our police have speeders to catch instead?
As for the rent. I agree. Most of these absentee landlords think that the rent is the same as it should be in other cities. But all is no their fault (except the horrible maintenance). Windsor’s tax rates are so high that they HAVE to charge such a high rent in order to recoup the costs. Lower these rates and the landlords can lower the rent and get more business downtown. Eventually everything will level out and the rates can be slowly raised as can the rent. But in Windsor…not a chance!
In the background it’s Windsor in the picture with the kids? I miss the norwich block!! great photo Andrew!
I posted a Detroit film today from the same era that will be of great interest to Windsor folk:
http://spacing.ca/wire/2008/06/10/detroit-1965/
Downtown as we all know started to decline in the mid 60’s with the advent of the shopping mall. Downtowns will only be able to reinvent themselves if they find a nice market to tap into. Brevard North Caroliina was a sleepy, almost dilapitated town in the 80’s. When Walmart came to the outskirts of town, the downtown merchants who wanted to be near them, relocated.
With the additon of antique shops and small boutique businesses, it has revamped itself into a trendy little town.
As a downtown resident, I want a bakery and newstand downtown. We can remember the old days with fondness but that era is gone. Business finds its own level. There is no “they” to reel them in.
Shawn Micallef,
Thanks for that! Interesting about the “D” being awarded the bid on the 1969 Olympics. Obviously that didn’t work out.
Sean, great link, and a great period peice.
Ken, Detroit was acutally the US bid city for nearly every games from the end of WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bids_for_Olympic_Games
great pics as always andrew! thanks! all those shop signs just make downtown look alive!!!
and a great shot from detroit as well. i wish i understood/appreciated the arch. of that block before it was gone, but alast..i was too young. still thought the buildings were sweet but didn’t really know it’s signifigance.
is the facade of the bank still in storage collecting dust, or have we smashed it up to use as filler in the median on the expressway? you know…the expressway they just tore up a couple years ago…just to tear it up again???
Aaron, it is still mothballed in storage. I doubt we will ever see it again.
Yes, still in storage. There have been a couple of proposals for reuse. None of them any good. Most involved tacking the facade on a strip mall.
I might be wrong, but I think downtown Windsor is poised to make a comeback in the near future. The young and risk-oblivious entrepreneurs are out there and they are already snapping up prime downtown real estate. Channel 9 reported that the old Medical building on the corner of Ouellette and Erie has been sold to a developer and is being converted to loft apartments. The old Canada Trust building on University has already been converted to loft apartments and a brand new apartment complex is going up on Ottawa. A few more projects like this could provide the impetus for a renewal in the core. I’ve heard of other economically-depressed cities making a comeback, why can’t Windsor?
Me
What do you propose to do about the crackheads and beggars? Move them where? Jail? Good plan that would cost upwards of $80,000 per year per inmate – only to have them repeat the offence.
How about dealing with the underlying problem? In one breath you complain about high taxes, but in the other you complain about crappy office buildings, Shanfields and beggars.
What to do with the beggars in downtown? Easy. Induct them into the army. Have a drill seargant yell at them for half the day. That’ll wisen them up, discipline them, and give them a purpose.
ME, Andrew – thanks guys, i figured as much. tacking it onto a strip mall???? what a waste. i’d rather never see it again then have it show up at windsor crossings.
David – i agree with you on the army part…..i don’t know if forcing them into the service is a good thing, but i’ll bet if the offer is there most will bite. alot of these people arn’t in that spot because they’re lazy, we all should know that. many are very skilled people who would love to have food, shelter and some sense of order back in their lives.
There was an interesting documentary on army recruiting in Michigan. They send out sets of army recruiting officers to malls, downtowns, etc., and whenever they see beggars, gangs, or someone loitering around those places they send the recruiting officers to talk to them for half an hour and try convince them to enlist. So, the beggars can either leave or be lectured for half an hour for recruitment every time the recruiters see them. So, the beggars get harassed instead of people walking by them. I’d rather see my tax dollars being spent on something like that than that $80,000 per year per inmate or whatever other social service program is out there. And, I’ll also know that we’ll actually have a standing army when we need it. I mean, an army of 26,000 full-time troops to cover a country larger in km2 than the US? Come on, it’s a program that needs to happen here. Just setting up a booth in Dieppe Park once a year is not enough. We can even station those recruiting officers in the downtown armouries so that building doesn’t just rot away vacant.
Micheal,
It doesn’t cost $80,000 to jail someone is a lower secrity jail. Besides, Windsor does not pay for as it is a federal and provincial jurisdiction. It is a lot easier to pay when every puts in a few tax dollars rather than just a few.
For the beggars many of them have mental issues and should in hospital instead of roaming around cities being harmful to others or to themselves.
as for the crack addicts…throw them in jail along with the multitude of crack whores who peddle themselves on Wyandotte and University. Because you can’t force a person to get treatment if they don’t want it.
I am not sure what crappy buildings and high taxes have to do with this issue? As I stated the crappy buildings could be because there are little incentives for landowners and the high business tax makes it unaffordable to do anything with these buildings or it could come down to people like Jenny Coco who really dont’ care and are just land speculating to grab even more property.
So tell me what is the “underlying” problem?
Wow, the Shanfields sign is the very same one. Why does the Shanfields-Meyers building look like such crap? Has it ever been nice? It’s really an issue now, because the shop is finally closing, and what will happen to it after?
Nothing, Uzzy. That place has been “going out of buisness” for 20 years. lol
Kind of like “Gray’s” on Ottawa Street.
I know, but didn’t the old man die and the daughter is just trying to liquidate? I was in there a couple of months ago and it was still packed full of stuff with half-hearted clearance tags on most of it. And I heard they still have several storage containers full of stuff.