WINDSOR | Construction - News and Development

[Symz]

The new clinic in Riverside, @ Riverside & lauzon is now open.

source: http://windsorite.ca/2012/04/now-open-ne...fices-at-riverside-lauzon-medical-plaza/

[Symz]

Construction starts at Windsor Regional Hospital.

source:http://windsorite.ca/2012/04/constructio...ning-place-at-windsor-regional-hospital/

Some changes are coming to the Windsor Regional Hospital Tayfour Campus in the west end.

The project includes the replacement of the current out of date and undersized Family Learning Place Building with the construction of two new buildings. The hospital is planning to demolish two existing building, reconfigure a parking lot and construct an 8900 square foot residence and a 10,200 square foot pool/gymnasium at a cost of $5.3 million.

The Family Learning Place is an intensive treatment program intended for children ages 6 to 13 with significant emotional and behavioral needs that cannot be met through other forms of treatment.

[Symz]

Phase I of the Riverside Vista Project starts today.

source: http://windsorite.ca/2012/04/part-of-riverside-drive-east-closed-until-july-starting-tuesday/

After years of delay, threats of legal action and controversy, Phase One of the Riverside Drive Vista Improvement Project will begin tomorrow, Tuesday April 10th.

Riverside Drive East from the Little River Bridge to the easterly limit of the Solidarity Towers’ property will be under construction until July.

Traffic travelling Westbound on Riverside Drive will only be impacted by slower speeds while Eastbound traffic will be forced to detour South along Lauzon and East along Wyandotte.

Transit Windsor’s bus routes during construction will be affected as follows:

Crosstown 2 route travelling in the eastbound direction and the Lauzon 10 route travelling in the northbound direction will be detoured throughout the project.
Eastbound Crosstown 2 will travel regular route to Riverside Dr. E., to RIGHT on Dieppe, to LEFT on Cedarview, to RIGHT on Riverdale and continue regular route.
Westbound Crosstown 2 will stay on regular route throughout the project.
Northbound Lauzon 10 will travel regular route to Riverside Dr. E., to LEFT on Florence, to RIGHT on Wyandotte St. E., and continue to regular route.

[RoseCityFreePress]

Dollarama in East Windsor near Tecumseh Mall and a large chunk of the plaza that houses it burnt down last night, causing large area of that building to collapse in upon itself.

http://windsorite.ca/2012/04/photos-doll...ses-destroyed-no-cause-investigated-yet/

[Symz]

Originally Posted by RoseCityFreePress

Dollarama in East Windsor near Tecumseh Mall and a large chunk of the plaza that houses it burnt down last night, causing large area of that building to collapse in upon itself.

http://windsorite.ca/2012/04/photos-doll...ses-destroyed-no-cause-investigated-yet/

Yup, we were talking about this in the other thread.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=193569&page=10

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

An interesting blog article in the Windsor Star about the Tunnel expansion

source: http://www.windsorstar.com/Speak+against+tunnel+plaza+reno/6424264/story.html



I have to say that I think I somewhat agree with this article. This project is really going to carve up a critical part of downtown for what I feel at this time are mediochre results.

I think it's stupid. Traffic is going to increase in the future, and I don't want the city to have to foot the whole bill for expansion later. Get it done now and get it over with, and let the Feds and Province pay for it. Blocking Goyeau is no big deal anyway, there are other streets to handle the traffic, I'm not worried at all.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

I do agree Transit Windsor needs a lot of work. It was said in a recent article that Transit Windsor hasn't changed it's bus routes in almost 30 years. The city has grown since then and it's amazing the bus routes are the same. The main problem is it takes practically forever to get anywhere on the bus. Mind you I haven't taken the bus in almost 15 years, but for example if you want to go downtown from say Forest Glade on the 1C it takes about an hour. The Ottawa 4 was even worse!

The city needs to come up with a few express routes to get people from one side of the city to the other faster.

On the idea of a trolley, well I agree and disagree. A tracked trolley would cost alot of money to install and maintain, especially for a city like Windsor that is struggling financially. I believe an electric bus type of trolley system could work in the downtown area and possibly shuttle between the university district since the university will be locating 2 satellite campuses downtown in the Windsor Star building on Ferry and in the Armouries. I think it would help tie these campuses together and leave them feeling not soo marooned and out of place from the rest of the university campus.

I also agree the roads are shit and falling apart. I just wrote Eddie Francis a few hours ago complaining about graffiti tags in old Riverside (especially since someone just tagged one of the beautiful murals) I also slipped it in really quickly that Wyandotte between Drouillard and old Riverside is falling apart and everything combined is really bringing down the area in my opinion.

At first I was all for the aquatic centre thinking yay! No more empty parking lots downtown, finally something is going to be built! The more I think about it now the more I think how can we spend this type of money on this development when some of our major roads are shit?

I think it's short sighted to want all city money to go for fixing pot holes. There will always be potholes, and bad roads to fix, but we also need recreational infrastructure for our citizens. This city has been needing something for families to do for so long, that I feel the Aquatic Centre will be a great jewel for the city and especially the core. And by the way, the city has never spent more on roads, so we're moving in the right direction. I've never visited a city and thought, wow, the roads are great here, i'll have to visit again, I visit cities based on what the city has to offer in terms of recreation and culture. I've lived in this city for over 46 years, and I can say that our road infrastructure has never been better. Ten years ago we had a road sytem that was stuck in the 50s and 60s.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Jacob

"bombed out afghanni donkey trail" - prefect way to describe windsor roads and yes, on routes like the south windsor seven, there is very low ridership, part of the issue however is these buses only run ever half hour at best, seventy minutes on sundays. not much you can do here though because it would cost too much to increase rates at wich the buses travel.

Thinking about poor city planning, i notice there is a major lack of pedmalls in the downtown area. These no vehicle areas can be very good for local businesses and there are a few streets i would like to see this happen on.

As for the tri city thing, i am not happy about this. Lasalle and Tecumseh should be annexed by Windsor. This would solve many political issues as well as allow a unified transit system for the area.

During the transit town hall, i noticed a comment that caught my attention that pointed out how difficult it is to travel in Essex county without a car. There are a lot of towns in this county and there is no municipal transit system between these towns, likely because of the cost and their low practicality.

Any word in the last couple months on "the barn - new windsor city market"?

I totally agree that Tecumseh and Lasalle should be annexed by the city, it would be the best thing for the whole region, and make the city itself even stronger than now.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

Forgot to add about downtown. The city really does need a boost to commercial in the downtown core and residential. The question is do your try for the commercial or residential first? Will commerce locate there if there aren't enough people living in the core to support their businesses? Will people locate there if there aren't enough ammenities and businesses?

Either way we need both.

I'm really hoping all the city's efforts with the riverfront park will pay off with some sort of new condo development. I mean look at the waterfront park, it's amazing, it's huge, it has a great view, it really is a gem. I live in old riverside and I walk to Reaume Park all the time (peace fountain) and I see the park heavily used and you can see all the new condo development that has spawned there in the last 10 years. The only thing now is that all the land is used up! It proves a point though, that parks attract condos, so why hasn't it happened downtown yet??

I feel that once the economy gets a little stronger, we will start to see some condos being considered fof the downtown area, and east of the core, across from the new stone beach area. It's the next logical area for them to go considering the land across from Reaume Park is full now, like you said.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

I do think that could be a cool idea, electric buses, why not one as a shuttle between the University and downtown for the students that have to migrate between campuses?

I voted for Eddie, I put faith in him, but sometimes he seems like he's lots of talk and then we're left waiting for these jobs and companies to happen.

If we had voted anyone else into office, I truly think We'd be FUCKED. Just his work to turn around city finances is something no one has ever been able to do. I can wait for announcements, they will come when they come. Who else as mayor has ever fought so hard to bring new jobs and industry to the city?
We're so lucky to have him as mayor, because at least we have hope going forward that the city is being run properly, and that the city will have a bright future once it's transformed from lunch bucket, blue collar auto town to an innovative, diversified economy. This is a very long and hard process, but at least we're moving ahead on many fronts.

[Symz]

How do we know if it's being run properly though? Apparently we're not allowed to audit ourselves to see if that's the case. I've grown suspicious about the whole Auditor General fiasco, doesn't it sure seem like someone's trying to hide something? It's the firs thought that many people I've spoken to have.

I believe Eddie has good intentions, and I also believe he's a good salesmen so to speak. If you're in politics you have to be. Not all of his cards have fallen into place though. Remember the airport cargo hub? With that company Carlin saying they were going to manage it? That was over a year ago and we've heard or seen nothing on it since. Yes there is an MRO hangar at the airport, but that's something totally different. They mayor even called a press conference at the airport where Carlin joined in on the announcement.

I do believe we had poor options other than Eddie to vote for, I'm just saying I think some of the wind has blown out of his sail for me, the lustre has worn off a bit. We're spending a big chunk of money on the aquatic centre but major roads like Wyandotte are a mess. People still have flooding issues and yet we're paying an additional water replacement levy on our Enwin bills on top of what Enwin normally allocates towards water main replacement. WUC is even raising rates again by 3% in the near future. Even Alan Halberstadt, city councillor is doing a 4 part blog on Windsor star raising some questions about how lots of infrastructure is being neglected and falling apart.

The recent stories of all the closed door council meetings. It just raises some eyebrows from me. Doesn't it do the same for you?

[Jacob]

Well, i am curious about the whole auditor general event, though, I have never really been that interested in digging into the details. As for the Aquatic center, i believe that is Eddie's way of bringing people downtown, and i think it will work. The problem is, people in Windsor can't stand to pay for parking and so many people have a bus fobia. This poses a real issue about how to get people into the core for this attraction. Parking is going to be a real mess and unless they figure something out, this could become another Windsor Arena "OMG i'm not going, there's no parking" thing.

When it comes to road repairs, it is true, the roads in general are in much better condition than ever before. That said, there are still many areas that need improvement. I guess if the feds are willing to pay this money for the new plaza then go ahead, the money could be spent better but we could be screwed in the future should we see a sudden massive jump in border traffic, which has happened before.

My opinion of the mayor is quite simple. He is very confident that anything he thinks of will work and everyone will be for it. Unfortunately this isn't always the case. Though, he has had one of the toughest jobs a Windsor mayor has ever had. For nearly the last 90 some odd years, employers like auto companies and tool and dye have simply said, i like this spot, let's set up here. This is no longer the case and eddie must fight very hard to get these employers to set up, it doesn't always work out in our favor but at least he tries. Hopefully he will be successful with the BYD deal and we will begin to see even more of a diversification of industry in this city.

Many Cities that have lost their major industries simply imploded, shriveled up and died, unable to let go of their past. This is not the case for Windsor as we are beginning to see a diversification of industry and small signs of our local economy turning around are appearing all over the city, even if they are in the form of pesky little strip malls on every damn block.

[Symz]

I often wonder how long it'll take before the gaping hole on Oullette next to the post office, between that and the Crazy Horse (which is now also empty since the fire) will be filled in with some sort of new building.

Honestly there are some real ghetto parts of downtown still. Yet some parts are really shaping up, mainly the riverfront..

[Jacob]

Originally Posted by Symz

I often wonder how long it'll take before the gaping hole on Oullette next to the post office, between that and the Crazy Horse (which is now also empty since the fire) will be filled in with some sort of new building.

Honestly there are some real ghetto parts of downtown still. Yet some parts are really shaping up, mainly the riverfront..

And this is true of any city. I am really happy right now that a least some of these places are slowly disappearing. Remember, it wasn't long ago that almost the entire downtown was bars. Now we have some variety, especially restaurants.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by Jacob

And this is true of any city. I am really happy right now that a least some of these places are slowly disappearing. Remember, it wasn't long ago that almost the entire downtown was bars. Now we have some variety, especially restaurants.

I still can't believe we lost Chatham Street Grill..

At the same time, the last time I was downtown I noticed how busy Mazaar's was! Wow, it's very popular.

[Jacob]

Originally Posted by Symz

I still can't believe we lost Chatham Street Grill..

At the same time, the last time I was downtown I noticed how busy Mazaar's was! Wow, it's very popular.

I haven't been downtown in an extremely long time. Last time i was down there was skating at charles Clark. And that was February. I hope to get down there again soon, if not at least for the fireworks.

[Symz]

Random pic of landscaping work still in progress along the riverfront park where the new naturalized rock beach went in immediately east of the water retention basin.

source: http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Windsor+Pictures+April+2012/6440756/story.html



Has anyone noticed the huge amount of construction activity at the north service road near Fogolar Furlan? It is also part of the water retention basin project. There are tonnes of trucks and diggers with tonnes of huge water mains they are burying that will connect up with the same huge water mains they ran through walkerville which all lead to the new retention basin.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

How do we know if it's being run properly though? Apparently we're not allowed to audit ourselves to see if that's the case. I've grown suspicious about the whole Auditor General fiasco, doesn't it sure seem like someone's trying to hide something? It's the firs thought that many people I've spoken to have.

I believe Eddie has good intentions, and I also believe he's a good salesmen so to speak. If you're in politics you have to be. Not all of his cards have fallen into place though. Remember the airport cargo hub? With that company Carlin saying they were going to manage it? That was over a year ago and we've heard or seen nothing on it since. Yes there is an MRO hangar at the airport, but that's something totally different. They mayor even called a press conference at the airport where Carlin joined in on the announcement.

I do believe we had poor options other than Eddie to vote for, I'm just saying I think some of the wind has blown out of his sail for me, the lustre has worn off a bit. We're spending a big chunk of money on the aquatic centre but major roads like Wyandotte are a mess. People still have flooding issues and yet we're paying an additional water replacement levy on our Enwin bills on top of what Enwin normally allocates towards water main replacement. WUC is even raising rates again by 3% in the near future. Even Alan Halberstadt, city councillor is doing a 4 part blog on Windsor star raising some questions about how lots of infrastructure is being neglected and falling apart.

The recent stories of all the closed door council meetings. It just raises some eyebrows from me. Doesn't it do the same for you?

Honestly, no it doesn't. I feel a lot of what is being said in the papers and blogs are just to creat controversy when there probably isn't anything illegal going on. There were a lot of things going on that we don't know about, but that's part of running a city. Let's wait for the facts before we start accusing anyone of anything.
I feel the Aquatic Centre is one of the best things to happen to the downtown, well worth the money. You can't spend all city money on fixing roads only. Wyandotte is already being fixed up in certain sections, as well as Riverside Dr and many other streets, like Walker Rd.
Under Eddies leadership, this city has truly already been transformed in terms of infrastructure and finances. We are nothing like we were decades ago. He has done so many great things to move this city forward during one of the worst economic climates this city has ever seen. Just a look at a list of all his accomplishments would be eye opening for many people.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

I often wonder how long it'll take before the gaping hole on Oullette next to the post office, between that and the Crazy Horse (which is now also empty since the fire) will be filled in with some sort of new building.

Honestly there are some real ghetto parts of downtown still. Yet some parts are really shaping up, mainly the riverfront..

I don't have much hope that the hole left from that fire will become anything anytime soon. There are so many properties available downtown that it makes it unlikely that something will go in there for a while. I feel the city could at least grade the space and plant grass seed until something is developed.

[Symz]

Wyandotte is being streetscaped in the university district, that may include new road paving. Most of the document showing the proposal talks about the sidewalks.

Wyandotte E between Drouillard and Old Riverside has had some new medians installed, but only between Drouillard and Strabane (or just 1 block past Strabane) at this point. All other medians are still in their origional state and the road is a disgrace.

About 'the facts' and waiting for them, how do we get the facts on how the city is run if you can't audit it to get the facts? All the AG fiasco business has raised some flags for me at this point, that's all I'm trying to get at. I think it has done the same for most people, and it seems like the facts are being hidden from prying eyes.

I will agree though that it does seem that visibly there have been more changes to the city since Eddie has taken office than I can count leading up to his run as mayor. At the same time there has also be a lot of controversy over his iron fist type of leadership. It's definitely something that can and is often debated by many in the city at times.

The mayor and council need to step it up in regards to enticing jobs and employment to this city. You can replace all the medians you want in the city with fake putting grass that captures and holds on to everyone's cigarette butts that you want, but without employment for the people this city will continue to struggle and shrink.

The aquatic centre will fill an empty tract of land that's for sure, but it's difficult to tell if it will be a success. It was not also 'all gain' when it comes to the aquatic centre. There are neighbourhood facilities that will be shuttered and closed to accommodate the building of the aquatic centre. Some would argue that this in effect tears the heart out of a neighbourhood and essentially tries to 'big box' amenities into 1 location. It's difficult to argue against that because it is somewhat true.

I'm not trying to be a negative Nancy, but at the same time I'm not trying to drink the kool-aid without thinking about it a little first. I'm just trying to keep things in scope and be realistic. We're getting a new aquatic centre downtown but the city's losing people and there are no jobs for people here. We have roads falling apart and people's houses are still flooding when it rains, I bet when someone wakes up in the middle of the night with a basement full of shitty water they're not happy we're building an aquatic centre downtown. Or how about when someone cracks a rim, damages their tire and breaks a tie rod on their car driving down a major commuter road to work, are they going to be happy that the city built new medians with fake putting grass in them?

If we can put $72 million into an aquatic centre, would you think we could put more than $8 million into fixing sub-standard roads?