Windsor talk

[north 42]

It’s a go! Ontario green lights Windsor’s new hospital in provincial budget.

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...vincial-budget

[Symz]

Originally Posted by north 42

It’s a go! Ontario green lights Windsor’s new hospital in provincial budget.

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...vincial-budget

Blah, I'm still not over the crappy location they selected, never will be.

I remember one of the things they cited with this location was proximity to the airport. Then a few weeks ago we find out NAV Canada is pulling their air traffic controllers out of several airports in Canada, Windsor included, so now we won't even have a manned air traffic control tower at the airport.

[ssiguy]

Great news for Windsor.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Great news for Windsor.

It sure is, and a long time coming!

[ericmacm]

This is fantastic for Windsor, I'm so glad to finally see it happening. I know some people are not a fan of the location, but it will be fine. Building on a large plot of land like this is a good way to provide room for major expansion in the future if needed, and this is really the only area in Windsor proper that can provide a site like that. There also won't be much new growth in Windsor proper in the future compared to the county, since there is almost no developable land left in city limits, whereas the growth along the 401 will likely speed up in the future.

Some of the old industrial lands are big enough to accomodate a hospital, but the cleanup costs and upgrades for utility servicing to comply with the law would be astronomical (most of urban Windsor still uses a combined sewer system!). Those sites are better left to private developers than the public purse.

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by Symz

Blah, I'm still not over the crappy location they selected, never will be.

Agreed, location is horrible.

[ScreamingViking]

A similar kind of location was chosen for the new hospital in St. Catharines -- west side of the city in a developing area. Definitely not "central" but has the advantage of being accessible to the 406 and arterial roads.

This site looks fairly accessible to both the E.C. Row and 401, Lauzon Parkway, Walker... Howard Ave. a bit farther. Perhaps that's the reasoning it was chosen.

Also, is growth planned to happen in south Windsor and the adjacent parts of Essex county? Or the town of Essex?

That all said, if a facility like this goes up in Hamilton, I would not want it to go here or here -- neither site is central, even to the upper part of the city (locally known as "the mountain") but both have highway access and are in parts of the urban area where lots of growth is planned.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

A similar kind of location was chosen for the new hospital in St. Catharines -- west side of the city in a developing area. Definitely not "central" but has the advantage of being accessible to the 406 and arterial roads.

This site looks fairly accessible to both the E.C. Row and 401, Lauzon Parkway, Walker... Howard Ave. a bit farther. Perhaps that's the reasoning it was chosen.

Also, is growth planned to happen in south Windsor and the adjacent parts of Essex county? Or the town of Essex?

That all said, if a facility like this goes up in Hamilton, I would not want it to go here or here -- neither site is central, even to the upper part of the city (locally known as "the mountain") but both have highway access and are in parts of the urban area where lots of growth is planned.

The area that the hospital is being built is in the last area of the city that has a lot of developable land. The entire area is already planned to be a mix of residential, commercial and employment lands.

Population growth is happening throughout Windsor and Essex County, so this location is perfect for a big, regional hospital. It’s unfortunate that it’s not being built in the central core areas of the city, but again, it is a regional hospital. The DT area will still be served with some form of hospital services and urgent care.

[ScreamingViking]

Thanks! That helps this make more sense to me.

In Hamilton the two major hospitals are in the core of the city, and as they have expanded they've become "campuses". The other two large ones are still central, but just above the Niagara Escarpment, and they specialize in mental health and cancer care, respectively, though the latter still has an emergency department. There's still a children's hospital at McMaster in the west end, but the plan is to build a new one in the north end next to the general hospital.

The city is also served by a couple of urgent care centres that can provide "minor" emergency treatment, but serious injuries and health issues still need to be transferred to the downtown locations. Does Windsor have anything like those?

[north 42]

Yes, there are at least a couple of urgent care centres in the city currently. I’m pretty sure that the Ouellette campus will have urgent care as well as some other services like dialysis, when the hospital closes and the new one opens up, not sure about the old Met Hospital though.

Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare campus will also remain in the west end providing post acute care services.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by north 42

Yes, there are at least a couple of urgent care centres in the city currently. I’m pretty sure that the Ouellette campus will have urgent care as well as some other services like dialysis, when the hospital closes and the new one opens up, not sure about the old Met Hospital though.

Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare campus will also remain in the west end providing post acute care services.

The original Grace Hospital was demolished, wasn't it? What replaced it? (nevermind... I found it and see it's greenspace now)

My great aunt was head OR nurse there decades ago.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

The original Grace Hospital was demolished, wasn't it? What replaced it?

My great aunt was head OR nurse there decades ago.

A “mixed use international village” combining residential and commercial buildings being developed by a Ohio developer. It sounds like a great development for that location.

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...-hospital-site

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by north 42

A mixed use international village combining residential and commercial buildings being developed by a Ohio developer. It sounds like a great development for that location.

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...-hospital-site

It's a large site and that sounds like a great use for it.

Hopefully there's no local opposition by people who forget there was a larger complex that once stood there, and now appreciate the open space.

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

This site looks fairly accessible to both the E.C. Row and 401, Lauzon Parkway, Walker... Howard Ave. a bit farther. Perhaps that's the reasoning it was chosen.

The new hospital came down to two possible sites...one off of Lauzon Parkway north of Tecumseh Rd and the other on County Rd 42. They chose the County Rd 42 site because it was $2 M cheaper. So they chose sprawl over building in an established more densely populated area for only $2 M (chump change compared to how much will be spent in total).

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Blitz

The new hospital came down to two possible sites...one off of Lauzon Parkway north of Tecumseh Rd and the other on County Rd 42. They chose the County Rd 42 site because it was $2 M cheaper. So they chose sprawl over building in an established more densely populated area for only $2 M (chump change compared to how much will be spent in total).

I've said this elsewhere, but municipal planning and municipal finance need to be considered together -- they are integral to one another. Yet they're separate siloes in government.

If that's the reasoning, it is short-sighted (and short-sited)

[AmateurPlanner]

Originally Posted by north 42

Yes, there are at least a couple of urgent care centres in the city currently. I’m pretty sure that the Ouellette campus will have urgent care as well as some other services like dialysis, when the hospital closes and the new one opens up, not sure about the old Met Hospital though.

Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare campus will also remain in the west end providing post acute care services.

I really hope that the city (or province) is held to having Ouellette campus be an urgent care with those services. I'm still disheartened that the County Rd 42 site was chosen from a sprawl perspective, but from my understanding part of that proposal was keeping a good amount of service at the Ouellette campus. I'm curious as well about what will happen to Met. If they do tear it down, hopefully it's part of the deal so it doesn't sit abandoned like Grace did.

[AmateurPlanner]

"After decades of stagnation, Windsor population on steady rise"

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...on-steady-rise

While the influx of people has caused real estate prices to rise considerably, it's really great to see the population numbers increasing in Windsor and Essex County!

[north 42]

Originally Posted by AmateurPlanner

"After decades of stagnation, Windsor population on steady rise"

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...on-steady-rise

While the influx of people has caused real estate prices to rise considerably, it's really great to see the population numbers increasing in Windsor and Essex County!

It really is great to see, and I’m happy that it’s both the city and all of Essex County that are growing, not just the outer suburbs of Windsor.

The metro (now including all of Essex County in 2021) is now growing by about 5K a year, so 2K for the city proper and 3K for the rest of the metro, pretty great numbers after decades of ups and downs.

Hopefully this pace is kept up and we will see more investment and improvements to our public realm.

[AmateurPlanner]

Originally Posted by north 42

It really is great to see, and I’m happy that it’s both the city and all of Essex County that are growing, not just the outer suburbs of Windsor.

The metro (now including all of Essex County in 2021) is now growing by about 5K a year, so 2K for the city proper and 3K for the rest of the metro, pretty great numbers after decades of ups and downs.

Hopefully this pace is kept up and we will see more investment and improvements to our public realm.

Agreed, the first step to the improvements are getting people to move and live here. If the pace continues at a nice steady clip, we should definitely see the ability for more improvements city (and county) wide

[AmateurPlanner]

Really great to see more businesses opening downtown (although the pandemic has definitely not helped any existing ones). It sounds like the new grocery store downtown is also in the process of hiring, so that will be really cool to see come together.

With all the new residential developments announced and in-progress downtown, new businesses opening to provide for the residents is the next logical step. This is definitely a great start, and I'm sure as the Security building and Canada building renovations continue and complete, more businesses would have the opportunity to open as well to provide for those residents too (maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I feel that there is slowly starting to be more belief in the downtown, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing folks opening businesses there. Could be my optimism though )


Link to article: https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...spite-pandemic