Windsor talk

[Symz]

Larry Horwitz has announced he's running for mayor. So far of all the candidates I'm liking Larry the most. The reason I like him? He's a big booster for the downtown and I believe Windsor needs to continue to work to strengthen its downtown. In my opinion the downtown district and the sandwich district need the most work in terms of their respective BIA's.

The only other candidate that you can kind of take semi seriously at this point is Robin Easterbrooke the head of the heritage committee.

[Blitz]

Everybody excited about the news yesterday that Ford is seriously considering Windsor for their new engine plant? It would mean up to 1000 jobs and up to 4000 spin off jobs. Would be huge for Windsor.

With the news of this along with Chrysler hiring, the Fed Ex cargo hub development, housing prices rapidly rising, vacancy rates falling, unemployment falling, and all of the infrastructure improvements around the city this is a time of great optimism. What a turnaround considering where we were in '08 and '09! I just wish Eddie wasn't leaving the mayor's chair.

[north 42]

^ I agree! I'm hoping that we can finally move forward and get this city's economy into high gear. It should be interesting to see where we are in another 5 years.
With Eddie not running again, I would think that Dilkens would be the next best thing!

[Jacob]

Hopefully this doesn't just spur more sprawl

[Symz]

400-1000 jobs and Ford has ~483 people on layoff. So if it's on the low side it atleast gets everyone that's on the layoff list back to work, but no new jobs, only if there are more than 400 jobs coming with the Ford investment.

We are competing against Mexico at the moment still.

[Blitz]

The trade agreement with Europe gives us an edge over Mexico but we obviously can't compete with those wages. It doesn't matter if they're 'new' jobs or not as long as they are well-paying (plus there will be many spin-off jobs). I think the only way to control sprawl is for the city to annex the suburbs but I don't see that happening anytime soon - which is sad because every other Ontario city has done it.

In more news, a new $6.5M pool for the WFCU Centre last night was approved yesterday, plus the $4M for separated bike lanes all along Cabana Rd have been approved.

[north 42]

Tecumseh and Lasalle should be annexed by Windsor, as both are essentially extensions of the city anyway. It's not really fair that we weren't allowed to annex them, when so many other cities in Ontario were allowed to! It really puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to new taxes being collected!

Love the separated bike lanes going in on Cabana, but wished the city would widen the street first as it's always so busy.

[Innsertnamehere]

You don't need to annex surrounding municipalities, the province can implement some regional policy likethey did for the GTHA, and are now doing in simcoe and Ottawa.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

You don't need to annex surrounding municipalities, the province can implement some regional policy likethey did for the GTHA, and are now doing in simcoe and Ottawa.

That would be great, but how hard would it be to get it implemented? The city and Essex County have had a very complicated relationship, and any talk of working as a region has been met with suspicion.

[DHLawrence]

How will the Cabana bike lanes be installed? Are they going to be enclosing the drainage ditches at the Huron Line end?

[Jacob]

Cabana doesn't need to be widened for more car lanes. Cabana is not a well-developed artery, with mostly houses surrounding it. The problem with Cabana is the neighbourhood around it is incredibly spread out and there are no other transportation options for many people, leading to a high number of drivers. What Cabana needs is better transit options to reduce the number of people who choose to drive (especially St. Clair College and Massey students.)

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

You don't need to annex surrounding municipalities, the province can implement some regional policy likethey did for the GTHA, and are now doing in simcoe and Ottawa.

I don't think this is possible because Essex is a county and thus has a certain amount of separate powers. The regions (around the GTHA) are different than counties.

I'm assuming they'll be filling in those ditches along Cabana.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by north 42

That would be great, but how hard would it be to get it implemented? The city and Essex County have had a very complicated relationship, and any talk of working as a region has been met with suspicion.

the province could theoretically force it onto them, they did it with the greenbelt. A lot of municipalities around the GTA were not happy at all with the greenbelt.

as for what the province can and cannot do, the province can do whatever the hell it wants to do, municipalities are technically crown corps owned by the province with democratically elected board members, they are not fully a third level of government and ultimately have to do what the province says. (depending on how far the province is willing to go)

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Jacob

Cabana doesn't need to be widened for more car lanes. Cabana is not a well-developed artery, with mostly houses surrounding it. The problem with Cabana is the neighbourhood around it is incredibly spread out and there are no other transportation options for many people, leading to a high number of drivers. What Cabana needs is better transit options to reduce the number of people who choose to drive (especially St. Clair College and Massey students.)

Cabana is the only east- west major artery In the southern part of the city, and is a major route coming out of Lasalle. With more new developement in the south of the city, it will definitely need to be expanded to 4 lanes, plus a turn lane. This should have been done decades ago!

[FenderStrat]

I've noticed a very large stucture going up where the massive Champion Janitorial/Party Warehouse fire was on Walker Road years ago. So far it's just a bunch of structural steel. Anybody know what this is?

Is this just Champion rebuilding after insurance issues were finally settled from the fire? Or is this some kind of new development? I haven't seen any news about this anywhere.

[Jacob]

Originally Posted by north 42

Cabana is the only east- west major artery In the southern part of the city, and is a major route coming out of Lasalle. With more new developement in the south of the city, it will definitely need to be expanded to 4 lanes, plus a turn lane. This should have been done decades ago!

There's no reason why an extremely suburban road needs to be as wide as Yonge street. Cabana has very few signalized intersections and as such is already a nightmare for pedestrians. The last thing the neighbourhood needs is more car traffic, which is exactly what you will have if this road is widened. It's this 1950s "if we expand roads traffic will get better" theory that has lead to Windsor's congested roads in the first place.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Jacob

There's no reason why an extremely suburban road needs to be as wide as Yonge street. Cabana has very few signalized intersections and as such is already a nightmare for pedestrians. The last thing the neighbourhood needs is more car traffic, which is exactly what you will have if this road is widened. It's this 1950s "if we expand roads traffic will get better" theory that has lead to Windsor's congested roads in the first place.

If this was true, then Toronto should only have two lane country roads and nothing larger! I agree to an extent that you can't keep widening roads forever, but you do need your major arterial roads to be sufficiently large enough to keep traffic flowing. I'm all for alternative modes of transportation, but you also need modern roads as well. Plus, Cabana is not an extremely suburban road, although it looks like one, it's the only major east-west artery across the entire southern part of the city, where most of the growth will continue to be.

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

the province could theoretically force it onto them, they did it with the greenbelt. A lot of municipalities around the GTA were not happy at all with the greenbelt.

as for what the province can and cannot do, the province can do whatever the hell it wants to do, municipalities are technically crown corps owned by the province with democratically elected board members, they are not fully a third level of government and ultimately have to do what the province says. (depending on how far the province is willing to go)

The province hasn't done it here presumably because they were worried about the political implications - this area had powerhouse Liberal cabinet ministers in power for a decade. One of the ridings here is odd because it covers half of the city and half the suburbs. Forcing annexation would have angered the suburbs putting that political seat at risk for the Liberals.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by FenderStrat

I've noticed a very large stucture going up where the massive Champion Janitorial/Party Warehouse fire was on Walker Road years ago. So far it's just a bunch of structural steel. Anybody know what this is?

Is this just Champion rebuilding after insurance issues were finally settled from the fire? Or is this some kind of new development? I haven't seen any news about this anywhere.

That structure is going to be a storage rental unit place.

[Symz]

Downtown Windsor is going to finally have a bakery again after god knows how many years. It's going to open between Booster Juice and G & G Jewelry.

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/do...new-businesses

I also noticed that something seems like it's going to open up in the old Lazarre's Furs store on the corner or Ouellette & Maiden Lane. The old Windsor Symphony building has also been sold next to that but I have not really seen anything going on there.

Something that confuses me is I haven't seen any work being done on the new medical building on Chatham street in months, I mean like probably 6 months.