Another one bites the dust…
Hey, I’m gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
I still cannot believe the way the whole thing went down. Even beyond that I cannot believe that what you see in the photos above doesn’t violate some kind of by law for an unsecured demolition site. The little orange plastic fence does little to secure the site, and the tons of debris loosely kept off the sidewalk, I’m certain is 100% safe.
If the city had any balls, or integrity they would be down at the site with a ticket book tomorrow.
Maybe everyone should complain about the dangerous unsecured site to 311?
Call them, or visit online or email them 311@city.windsor.on.ca complaints about the site. There must be a fine of some sort that needs to be levied on the site.
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As for the vigil, I didn’t get there until about 9:30, after the media had been and gone.
It seemed like there was a decent turn out, and it was great to see Councilors Halberstadt and Valnetinis at the vigil.
Kudos’s to Chris Holt @ Scaledown.ca for getting this organized on such quick notice.
In case you missed here, here was tonight’s broadcast:
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Edit – As an addition, perhaps if anyone feels so inclined, a quick letter or e-mail to The Honourable Aileen Carroll, the Minister of Culture for Ontario is in order.
Let the Minister know that Windsor ignored the rules set out in the Ontario Heritage Act.
Contact information is as follows:
Ministry of Culture
900 Bay Street
5th Floor, Mowat
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1L2
If you wish to write to the Minister of Culture, you can send your letter to the above address or send an e-mail to the Minister’s attention to info.mcl@ontario.ca
Since the City obviously doesn’t give a rat’s ass about protecting our Heritage Sites, bringing the demolition and the underhanded way it transpired to the attention of the Minister can’t hurt anything.
Don’t forget to contact your local MPP’s as well:
Dwight Duncan, M.P.P.-Windsor-Tecumseh
Queen’s Park
7 Queen’s Park Crescent
7th floor
Toronto, ON, M7A 1Y7
Phone: (416) 325-0400
Fax: (416) 325-0374
Constituency Office
4808 Tecumseh Rd. East
Windsor, ON, N8T 1B8
Phone: (519) 251-5199
Fax: (519) 251-5299
Email: dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org
or –
Sandra Pupatello, M.P.P.-Windsor-West
Ministry of Economic Development and Trade
8th floor Hearst Block
900 Bay Street
M7A 2E1
Phone 416-325-6900
Fax 416-325-6918
Constituency Office
1483 Ouellette Ave.
Windsor, ON, N8X 1K1
519-977-7191
Fax: 519-977-7029
Email: spupatello.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
You can’t tell the difference between the pictures above from those on the corner of Ouellette and Elliot!!!!!!! Must be part of the branding of Windsor that Eddy speaks of!
Hey Eddie, its hard to brand a carcass!
Urbanrat – There is one huge difference between the two.
One was professional, legal and secure, the other one is on Walker Road.
I am still dumbfounded as to how quickly this all happened. It seems so sneaky. The only good thing to come out of it was the media coverage and perhaps soem new awareness by a core group of people.
Great to see Chris tell it like it really is on the news no matter how City Hall intends to spin it.
Kudo’s to the two councillors for coming over from the another meeting earlier and staying until the end.
I drove by it last night looked very unsafe, very unprofessinal they way it came down its like nobody gave a shit and just ripped it apart, hope nobody gets hurt walking by
I just got back from an in-studio interview with Tony Ducette on CBC Radio One. This issue seems to have some legs to it, and since attention is so fleeting in this day and age – we must capitalize on it. I was told that this issue was going to be on Monday’s council agenda, yet after visiting the site I see no mention of it.
In anticipation of a last-minute inclusion to the council agenda (which happens so often these days since you cannot be listed as a delegate if you contact city hall after noon on the Friday prior to the meeting) please call you city councilor and demand repurcussions for this act of negligence. We must use this incident to ensure that city employees are scared to death to ever let something like this happen again, for fear of losing their job!
I know that Andrew, I was being a little wry with the images of the two places. Legal or not your pictures are telling a very sad story of this city for both locations, all which can be seen around the globe, with all the comments there to read by any future developer, resident to see and read.
Here’s a chance for city hall to show some integrity. This is not mere a ‘dropping the ball’ situation. This is negligence on the job. I hope they shit-can sombody for this. How else can it be handled? A slap on the wrist and allow it to happen again!?
At 9.30 I contacted the Ministry of Labour and filed a report about the building regarding what seems to be unsafe working conditions. They are going to try and send someone to the site today, A little after the fact but at least if there are some violations they might ge hit in the pocketbook.
first of all, how come there are so few women commenting on this great blog of yours Andrew??
Secondly, it was definitely an unsafe tear down. I was driving down Walker on Wed. just after 5 (which is when i discovered the bldg being torn down) and was shocked to see that they were letting traffic (including cyclists!) drive right by. There were no nets or barriers holding back bricks and the dust (which probably contained asbestos) was terrible.
According to Tony of Big Tony’s Pizza, they were supposed to tear it down from the back of the building but i guess they must have found it easier and faster to tear it down from the front.
Andrew, can you forward the youtube video to me of the news coverage from last night? i’d like to post it on my Fans of Windsor’s History facebook site. (elaine@walkerville.com)
or, if you’d like to post it on there yourself, that would be fabulous.
first of all, how come there are so few women commenting on this great blog of yours Andrew??
Secondly, it was definitely an unsafe tear down. I was driving down Walker on Wed. just after 5 (which is when i discovered the bldg being torn down) and was shocked to see that they were letting traffic (including cyclists!) drive right by. There were no nets or barriers holding back bricks and the dust (which probably contained asbestos) was terrible.
According to Tony of Big Tony’s Pizza, they were supposed to tear it down from the back of the building but i guess they must have found it easier and faster to tear it down from the front.
Andrew, can you forward the youtube video to me of the news coverage from last night? i’d like to post it on my Fans of Windsor’s History facebook site.
or, if you’d like to post it on there yourself, that would be fabulous.
I can’t quite tell, but is the fire hydrant covered by debris? If so is this not some sort of violation?
I have sent the story to firehouse.com hopefully they post it and we get some support from the firefighting community. I am trying to get the word out!
Blair – the only protection the fire hydrant had was a big, orange pylon perched precariously on top.
Chris, so what are you saying? An orange cone isn’t sufficent?
It made a fun hat during the vigil!
Elaine brought up an interesting point. Did they get approval from the Ministry of the Environment about the acceptable level of asbestos in a demolition or is that not required in Canada? In Detroit demolitions, I’m always seeing them hook up a fire hydrant and spraying water on the debris as the building is being torn down to reduce the amount of asbestos that flies into the air.
ANDREW, Im as upset set as you are , regarding my comments yesterday I just had a couple of questions thats all. by the way I think this is an excellent blog one of my favs since a friend told me about this , I love my city and mostly evething about it, keep up the good work
No problem SHAFTS – That’s what we’re all here for, to share and to learn.
ANDREW-A little minor detail its SHAFS not SHAFTS!!
Sorry!
Shafts is what we get from the city… 🙂
it’s gratifying that the media actually considered the demolition story worthy enough to cover. iBlogs like andrew’s are great for venting and for providing information to an enlightened few but it’s important that in order for the message to have the most impact on the community, the mainstream media needs to be made aware. That is why I called the star Wednesday shortly after i saw what was going on on Wednesday.
the fact that the lowe/martin house was in the Star on the same day the seagraves demolition occurred certainly helped motivate the media to come out and i made sure i pointed that out to Doug Williamson from the Star when he called me the next day which helped make him appreciate the significance of the timing and what had just happened – again!
So don’t forget to contact the media whenever you feel that our heritage is being threatened! The people of our city need to know what’s going on!
lol…:)
This has made me terribly sad, but nice work Windsor folk for organizing all this fast.
Looking at these pictures, the quick knockdown, the rubble left on the sidewalk, unsecured. It’s obvious it was a rush and dodgey job. Up here in Toronto we have our own problems with tearing down historic structures, but there would be, as one other blog put it, “hell to pay” if something like that went down up here.
If this demo can galvanize so many people so quickly, perhaps it’s loss might come to some good, to start a wider public movement to save the good that’s left in windsor, and serve notice to either the political or bureaucratic incompetence that allowed this happen.
To the two Chris’s in the above newsclip – way to represent Windsor’s good interests. Well done — the tone was just right.
i contacted 311 this morning and logged a complaint regarding the health and safety issue of the demolition site. I also stated that the owner did not follow proper procedure or protocol in the demolition of the site and I wanted to know what repercussions he would be facing. They indicated that a building inspector would be visiting the site and they would follow up with me.
I advise everyone to call 311 and have your concerns on record, contact your councillor, email the ministry. It’s the voices that count. They need to know that people are upset about this.
and i’m in agreement with chris in keeping the pressure on. no sense in being angry about something and then just forgetting about it.
i also called 311 with a complaint regarding the health and safety of the site and demolition
(no fencing, debris strewn everywhere, no grates over sewers to prevent runoff from entering sewer system, public was still able to access the area while demolition was happening, etc.)
They said they would look into it. I will be using my calls tracking number to check up on it soon enough and see what was done.
Although I didn’t like the fact they wouldn’t log the complaint unless I gave my name and phone number…
At the very least, this is a Health and Safety violation, exposing the public to an unsecured demolition site. (It is fortunate that someone was not injured in this quick, secretive demo.) If that were not the case, why is it that other demo sites are blocked off entirely? No one in the business is going to secure a site and spend time and money on same if it weren’t mandated to do so. Do the powers-that-be in other demo projects secure their sites out of the goodness of their hearts? It must be mandated to secure a demo site, so the City, in all of its too-little-too-late wisdom, needs to act on that. But it probably won’t happen because they don’t want to piss off the owner of a future big-box site who will pay big taxes. Just being realistic here.
A reader mentioned the asbestos aspect. When other buildings are torn down, a team is supposed to secure the site and assess and remove all asbestos–this sort of thing probably takes weeks. In this case, it apparently did not. There is a violation there, that no asbestos assessment was performed. The public was exposed to asbestos, highly likely, as most reno’s in old buildings prior to the 1970s probably entailed “new” duct work in which asbestos was a component. And then there is the old linoleum tiles used in the 50s, possibly a part of that building, whose components probably contained that toxin. And it was a windy day, so anyone living downwind, not to mention watching in the open at an unsecured site, probably got a dose of airborne asbestos, thanks to the surreptitious deed.
If I lived nearby, having been potentially exposed to this carcinogen, I’d be contacting the Minister of the Environment, and going down the line right to Parliament officials, to find out my recourse.
Asbestos was one of the concerns that I expressed to the Ministry of Labout when I called this morning. When I drove past around 1 p.m. the equipment was idle and there were a few people standing around talking. Hopefully the MOL is involved.
So, the equipment is idle, and, theres’s uncontrolled asbestos on this site in the open air even at this moment as pedestrians pas by… sad….
Now let’s keep in mind there is no proof there is asbestos in the building. Most century old buildings don’t have it in the initial structure, it would have been added in during subsequent renovation, etc…
While it might be in there, it also might not be…
Sounds like there is a good rain storm brewing too… I’m sure if there is anything bad in the debris, it’s got an afternoon date with the storm sewers…
The media has been great, agreed, and I am eternally grateful to them and to Chris Holt for getting them on board, but I am also a bit disappointed with many of the comments I’ve read on the Windsor Star web site indicating public support is not all we hoped it would be. Some calling us “crybabies” making a big deal over a “dilapidated building”. If you want to know why it’s so hard to ingrain an appreciation for our heritage in Windsor, there’s the reason …. a prevailing throwaway attitude among Windsorites toward our heritage buildings. One guy even even said if he had his way they’d bulldoze the Martin house. We are vocal, but I’m afraid we are a vocal minority. Still a long road ahead….
John, I’ve seen those same comments and wrote a reply which may or may not get posted by the star. I think the issue is that people don’t seem to realize that the building became “dilapidated” while under the ownership of Asscock Sood. I got the impression that people thought he had bought the property and this crumby old building had magically appeared on it, leaving him no choice but to rip it down to restore his property to its former glory. It wasn’t his fault that the building was deteriorating. I’m sure these people will sing a different tune when they have a vast array of empty lots to shop at, go to for a quick bite, or meet a friend for a drink. Oh wait, you can’t do that on an empty lot! Unfortunately, the type of people who are leaving those messages will not realize that until it’s too late and we only have Walmart as an option and no one can afford to drive out to the middle of nowhere to shop at the Walmart.
Greg Heil needs to use a bit of stronger stance other than “city hall dropped the ball” and “this is a shame”. Why isn’t he holding the planning department accountable and demanding answers NOW?!
No wonder our heritage is lost. Where is his outrage? Is it because funding for the Heritage come from city hall and he doesn’t want to rock the boat? STAND UP FOR WINDSOR!
Dave – I sit on that board, and trust me Greg Heil isn’t the problem. If it wasn’t for his leadership, the heritage committee wouldn;t have accomplished half of what it has. He has demanded answers, the day it occured, although I suspect that we won’t get too many answers. There is a culture of secrecy at City Hall, and I’m not expect the lowly heritage committee to get an answer from the politbureau.
Your acustations are just plain wrong and terribly insulting to someone who has volunteered (the WHC is not paid) his time for decade toward standing up for and protecting Windsor’s heritage. Poining fingers at the WHC and its chair is an insult to me as a board member and certainly will not accomplish anything but to weaken the state of heritage in this city, which I believe is the true intention of this administration. Wait until November when myself and Greg leave the WHC, and see how much is preserved, and how little will happen from that point forward.
Seems like maybe you’re spending too much time over at Chris Schnurr’s site…
As far as rocking the boat goes, Greg is a first class boat rocker. Don’t worry.
As an extra Dave – The role of the WHC is stricty as an advisory body to city council.
We are not automomous.
Our mandate is as follows:
The WHC advises City Council on the identification, recognition, protection, enhancement and proper management of heritage resources in the City of Windsor.
The group that isn’t tied to city hall is the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.
I expected stronger language than Mr. Heil’s especially because this isn’t the first time it happened. Reading the paper it seemed as if he was nonchalant about it.
I am not sure how me being upset about how Mr. Heil’s response to the situation has affected you? You certainly didn’t state what Mr. Heil stated and you were there for the vigil so I don’t understand how you equate my accusations to personally hurt you?
If he is as good as you say he is then that is good for Windsor. I just expected a stronger response. I am sure when you two leave Windsor will be for the worse as I know how much you do to try and keep what little Windsor has.
By the way I don’t let someone else’s ideas control my own. Chris can believe what he thinks as do I.
As a member of the committee, The Chair is the public spokesman for the committee.
By you saying:
Insinuates that the entire committee keeps quiet and is under the mayor’s control. As a member your accusation is also leveled upon me.
That is how your false accusation affects me.
City Hall staff can be replaced, the Seagrave Building and others like it cannot.