Lear Demolition

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• I agree totally with you brendan The city should of tried to attract another large scale employer for the lear plant site and the arena should of went downtown.But no instead they tear it down in favour of a strip mall to attaract more retirees to the area its slap in young peoples face like me. Windsor will be only a retirement community with a bunch of low wage service jobs.

• I don't recognize this place. Where is (was) this?

• W-I-E, it's on Lauzon Road, just north of the Eastown Plaza at Tecumseh.

  Depending how long you've been gone, it was where the N&D and K-Mart (or Woolco) were on the east side.

• If Windsor and area are to become the new retirement capital of Canada, why not invest in turning brown fields into future sprawling cemetaries, it is a growth industry! Live here, die here! And when all the boomer retirees are dead and gone, we will have all these beautiful green and treed cemetaries for parks and a much smaller populaion.

• I know people don't like the idea of having this arena out where its at, and the Lear plant coming down, and so forth, but there is lots of good out of this... The city is moving forward with a large scale investment, to an area that is expanding by the day. The neighborhoods around the arena are growing with more and more items coming. This arena, if built downtown, would have only been 1 or 2 Ice pads, in an area that is in need of at least 4 or 5 more arena to help support the youth, and other stuff that goes along with these places. The new WFCU Arena and the rest of the complex is great where its at, and it also helps the Local community that would use it. If this arena was downtown, it would prolly get used only for the Spits and maybe a couple other events, but being how its shared with other group and so forth, this arena will be used more often. Who wants a building that only gets used maybe 40 times a year, and the city sinks more and more money into it, when it can be used almost every day of the year. From people I know that worked in the Lear plant, till its closing, they said its not a building that could be redone at a cost effective way for another industry, as the building was built for that specific style of automotive industry.

  As for what I have heard, is that the property will have a small shopping plaza, a parking garage to add more spaces to a well needed park spaces, and also Hotel for events there, with some conference room spaces.

  We as Windsorites need to open our minds tho, that not everything has to go back into downtown... Yes it would be nice for it downtown, but downtown is kind of a dying area, as its more business like, then family & fun. Yes there is lots of Fun things downtown, but its a bar district by night, and business district by day, which does not help the family and fun area for all the time.

• I guess in a way the arena controversy lives on. It is a shame that it was not located as part of the "Western Anchor" as initially planned by city authorities back in the early 70's when land was first appropriated for this purpose. I guess that the continuing urban sprawl and subsequent decay of the core city has forced re-examination of the initial plan and has led us to the current state of affairs. It is true that the area where WFCU Centre was built now needs several ice pads to satisfy the local needs. This was not always the case.... sprawl did it.
  It is most unfortunate how the city of Windsor has evolved in time and how the automobile has largely contributed to both the success and downfall of the city.
  The area now occupied by the WFCU Centre was at one time a productive agricultural area. The first development in the area was the K-Mart at Lauzon and Tecumseh. Not long before that, Tecumseh Road had increased from 2 lanes to four. Then in short order the Forest Glade development, N&D Supermarket, Woolco, GM Trim (Lear).... and the list goes on, sprang up. Meanwhile, the core of the city continued to feel the pressures of abandonment. The areas immediately surrounding the city became areas of opportunity and speculation and the core continued to decay. The vision for a vibrant and productive downtown was lost and may be lost forever.
  CBC recently aired a program in its Nature of Things series (you can still view it on-line) called "Living City: A Critical Guide" hosted urban affairs columnist Christopher Hume which elucidates the present state on our Canadian cities and presents some solutions worthy of consideration. We cannot continue to plunder our land and sustain an environment to foster the human spirit. Cities can integrate historical structures and modern development without looking to sprawl as a means to enhance wealth and accommodate growth. Amongst other things the plan requires development of mass transportation to maximize the effectiveness of preserving a vibrant core. The program listed above ties many ideas together.
  It is perhaps time for the city and county to engage a forward thinking urban planner and put some of the costly initiatives such as large committees tasked to attract tourism or industry on the back burner.
  Sorry for ranting... I just hate to see this city continue in the direction it is going. It is time for effective urban planning and the potential availability of infrastructure funds may present some opportunities.