WINDSOR | Construction - News and Development

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

Do you have any idea of why the Festival Epicure is cancelled this year? That's a bit of a surprise to me!

Combine this with the fact that there is no Windsor air show this year and there's a big dent in summer activities for this area.

No, I didn't hear why it is cancelled, just that this year wasn't gonna happen. We defiantly need more festivals to keep things hopping downtown during the warm months, since we now don't have Epicure, Red Bull Air Races and the Air Show anymore. hopefully Epicure returns next year.

[Symz]

Some Breaking News

source: http://windsorite.ca/2012/05/breaking-ne...-all-electric-buses-for-transit-windsor/

Some economic and environment breaking news late this Friday evening. Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis has signed a letter of intent to purchase up to ten, BYD 40-foot electric buses for Transit Windsor. This will make Windsor the first City in North America to launch long-range, all-electric buses.

This agreement also opens talks to bring manufacturing of BYD buses to the Ontario region in the near future. As well, because of tunnel bus service to Detroit, the launch into this market serves on both Canadian and United States’ roads.

“One of our primary goals was to position Windsor among the first cities in North America to pioneer the efficient use of electric buses within its public transit authority and to establish Windsor as a hub for the development, manufacture and commercialization of energy products including electric buses.” said Stella Li, President of BYD Motors.

Senior Vice President of BYD Ltd stated, “BYD has been delighted to see Windsor’s leadership, especially that of Mayor Eddie Francis and his Transit and Enwin Utilities team members. They truly have an understanding of the responsibility of government to drive not only economic recovery of our cities and Nations, but to do so while not harming the environment.”

The BYD Iron-Phosphate batteries used in these electric buses are the only rechargeable battery systems that contain no heavy metals, toxic electrolytes or use caustic materials in their production, making the BYD batteries the most environmentally friendly batteries available in the market. Additionally, BYD and Enwin are working towards having a master plan to repurpose the Windsor bus batteries into fixed Energy Storage Stations when the buses retire (in 12 to 15 years).

Mayor Eddie Francis stated, “One of our primary goals was to position Windsor among the first cities in North America to pioneer the efficient use of electric buses within its public transit authority and to establish Windsor as a hub for the development, manufacture and commercialization of energy products including electric buses.”

I believe these are the buses they will be purchasing.


pic source: http://us.aving.net/news/view.php?articleId=243293

This is interesting news. This doesn't quite translate yet into a bus factory that the mayor is trying to lure here, but it looks more like it's heading that way than when the story first broke 2 months ago.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by RoseCityFreePress

it would be great if downtown could get two or three major retail stores to move in. Stores that would normally set up shop in malls. I think that could be a big turning point for retail development in the core.

That would be great, and would change the face of the core, but I don't see that happening anytime soon unfortunately. American Apparel was a failure when it set up shop on Pellissier St a few years ago because people didn't come down and support it. It had a loyal following, but not enough people were drawn there because of very little advertising and not many other stores around to be a big enough draw.
I'm sure if there were a few major stores downtown, it would be on the radar of more shoppers in the city. We need someone in the city working on bringing in retail to the core because I don't think it's gonna happen by itself.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by north 42

We need someone in the city working on bringing in retail to the core because I don't think it's gonna happen by itself.

Didn't the mayor concoct another Retail Development Committee? I believe it was in his state of the city address.

It would be nice if we could enjoy the same successes in our downtown that London is enjoying. They're seeing urban intensification and residential development in their core. Two weeks Urban Outfitters announced they're opening a retail location in their core so that's a big boost for them! Windsor has a long way to go and the mayor and council need to work harder at reviving downtown and luring jobs to the city.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

Some Breaking News

source: http://windsorite.ca/2012/05/breaking-ne...-all-electric-buses-for-transit-windsor/




I believe these are the buses they will be purchasing.


pic source: http://us.aving.net/news/view.php?articleId=243293

This is interesting news. This doesn't quite translate yet into a bus factory that the mayor is trying to lure here, but it looks more like it's heading that way than when the story first broke 2 months ago.

Hopefully this will lead to a factory here for production of these buses, they look great, and hopefully will sell well in North America.

[Symz]

Hello U of W shuttle?

[RoseCityFreePress]

Originally Posted by Symz

Hello U of W shuttle?

Let's hope

[Symz]

I'm surprised but not surprised. Everyone commenting on the Windsor Star has nothing positive to say about this story, nothing.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Symz

I'm surprised but not surprised. Everyone commenting on the Windsor Star has nothing positive to say about this story, nothing.

Most people commenting in the Windsor Star usually never have anything good to say about anything related to Eddie, so I'm not surprised. Their commenting section is always overtaken by trolls who have an agenda to bring down the mayor, so i could care less what they have to say, to be honest.

[Symz]

Well someone did make a good point in saying that it seems Windsor is buying into this company as opposed to them buying into Wiindsor. We are purchasing 10 of their buses and letting them test their LED lights in the city which 'opens the doors to negotiations'. I thought we were already negotiating?

The point is, we are putting our necks out on the line, let's hope it pays off.

[cbyrne2014]

Originally Posted by Symz

Well someone did make a good point in saying that it seems Windsor is buying into this company as opposed to them buying into Wiindsor. We are purchasing 10 of their buses and letting them test their LED lights in the city which 'opens the doors to negotiations'. I thought we were already negotiating?

The point is, we are putting our necks out on the line, let's hope it pays off.

I have faith in Eddie Francis. If BYD doesn't end up working out, it would be a huge embarrassment for him politically.

I hope BYD has a legitimate North American business plan. Windsor has seen it's fair share of green energy businesses that rely far too much on government incentives.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by cbyrne2014

I have faith in Eddie Francis. If BYD doesn't end up working out, it would be a huge embarrassment for him politically.

I hope BYD has a legitimate North American business plan. Windsor has seen it's fair share of green energy businesses that rely far too much on government incentives.

I have faith in Eddie as well, and he is making decisions in the best interest of the city and it's residents. Not every endeavor is going to work out for everyone, if you don't take risks, you don't get the big paybacks by being one of the first to get in early. I'm just happy that the mayor isn't just sitting back and waiting for industry to come calling like in the old days. He's aggressively going after investment, while at the same time selling the city to the world and changing the perception that has plagued us for decades. He knows what he's doing and I fully support him.

[Symz]

I have faith in Eddie too but he needs to start generating actual jobs since he is often talking about 'potential' opportunities. Myself I have a job and I haven't had to endure the agony of the high unemployment in this city but people are getting anxious and they want to see results from the mayor that talks a lot about 'potential' opportunities. The natives are restless and more and more every day I see people turning on the mayor and council for lack of job results and all the Tom Foolery going on in city council, AG, library board etc.

I talk to people who 2 years ago were 100% behind Eddie but now are beginning to have doubts and ask questions. I hope that BYD sets up shop here, but as of now with this announcement the only that is guaranteed is that the city is dishing out money to buy 10 electric buses.

[Symz]

A couple questions.

1. Does anyone know what is going on with the Paul Martin building renovation? They've had the side walk hoarding along Ouellette for over a year now and yet every time I'm downtown I NEVER see anyone working on the building.

2. Two years ago the local media announced that Investors Group was going to be moving into the downtown core occupying the long vacant first floor of the Chrysler building.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2010/04/20/wdr-investors-group-chrysler-100420.html

Well, the 2 year mark has come and gone and I see no indication of anything happening in the building at all and yet we've had to look at stickers plastered on the windows saying 'Future Home of Investors Group' for 2 years. After all this time it's beginning to seem laughable as though it's not going to happen. I can't believe what a boondoggle that whole building has been. Going from a 32 storey tower (proposed to be the tallest tower in Ontario west of Toronto) to a little embarrassing stump that has sat half empty for almost 10 years and we had to sacrifice a well established city block for this building in which 3/4 of the area of the block is occupied by a dressed up parking garage.

So many developments in this city seemed half assed at times.

[north 42]

I'm pretty sure that the hoarding is up now just to protect people from falling chunks. I'm not sure when work is supposed to begin again to finally fix the facade though.
As for the Investors Group, I'm pretty sure I read that they would begin construction sometime this year. I think it was in the Star a while ago.
I get frustrated too waiting for so many of these projects to get started. Hopefully this year will see most of them begin construction.

[RoseCityFreePress]

Originally Posted by north 42

I'm pretty sure that the hoarding is up now just to protect people from falling chunks. I'm not sure when work is supposed to begin again to finally fix the facade though.
As for the Investors Group, I'm pretty sure I read that they would begin construction sometime this year. I think it was in the Star a while ago.
I get frustrated too waiting for so many of these projects to get started. Hopefully this year will see most of them begin construction.

From what i understand the investors group is waiting for the lease on there current building to expire before moving downtown. if i remember right when the story broke in the star, IG still had about 2 years left on there lease, so it should be in this year that they start to get the move underway?

[Jacob]

The new electric buses will be really nice to see in Windsor and will really help the transit company's image. What i think Windsor really needs right now is more things like this to help our image. Currently Windsor is commonly believed to be the third most polluted city in the western hemisphere after Sao Paulo, Brazil and Mexico city, Mexico. This really isn't the case however, yet we still receive a large amount of negative publicity over this.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by Jacob

Currently Windsor is commonly believed to be the third most polluted city in the western hemisphere after Sao Paulo, Brazil and Mexico city, Mexico. This really isn't the case however, yet we still receive a large amount of negative publicity over this.

We are? This is news to me. I could think of other cities in the America's that would be more polluted than Windsor. Los Angeles off the top of my mind, or other cities in California like Scremento, even cities like Phoenix Arizona. How about a large city like Philidelphia or Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Cincinatti. How about cities in Ontario like Sarnia or Toronto? The Fraser valley in BC?

This is the first time I've heard someone lump Windsor in with cities like Mexico City. I think the buses might help the image of Transit Windsor but I'm unsure at this point how much they're really going to help transit Windsor overall in terms of ridership. I know that basically it seems like we're playing into this company buying some of their buses in the hopes they'll be nice enough to put a factory here and even then buying the buses doesn't guarantee us that, it just gets us 10 electric buses.

[Blitz]

There are a lot of low income families in Windsor though.

There are actually a higher percentage of low income families in London. What I'm saying though is that London has done a better job of planning such that low income areas are scattered all throughout the city. In Windsor, they are more heavily concentrated in huge projects.


Jacob, that statement about pollution is a bit outrageous to say the least. There are dozens of cities within a day's drive (especially in Appalachia) that are more polluted due to their type of industry, coal power plants, etc.

[RoseCityFreePress]

one of the big problems with trying to clear Glengerry is finding alternative housing. You cant really perform a mass eviction without creating a place for those people to move to. In order to clear out Glengerry for a Hospital or any other project the city or province will need to basically build a new low income housing project or subdivision elsewhere in the City.