See what is possible when a city has defined a vision, established a plan and co-operation between the different levels of government as well as the community itself?Quebec Premier Jean Charest said the parties involved have "an out of the ordinary will to do something that is going to be significant for Montreal and really leave a profound mark."
Do you feel that the secret behind Montreal's success as a municipality stems from the fact that they have this high level of government/citizen cooperation? Imagine what Windsor could accomplish if we possessed that out of the ordinary will to do something significant and leave a profound mark? We already have established the need, now we just need to rally community support behind a cohesive plan for a rejuvenated downtown. Then, will we be the next municipality getting media coverage of our huge windfall?
From CBC's website (thanks AC);
Representatives from the federal, provincial and municipal governments vowed on Monday to participate and contribute $40 million each toward the redevelopment of a downtown area of approximately one square kilometre that includes the city's Place des Arts complex."An area of Montreal is earmarked for a major facelift after all three levels of government pledged $120 million toward the revamp as an attractive arts and entertainment hub.
The revitalized entertainment district will be known as Le Quartier des Spectacles.
The goal is to improve the area that already plays host to a number of prominent events, including the popular Montreal International Jazz Festival and the annual Just for Laughs Comedy Festival."
Read the rest of the article here.
4 comments:
I have started the ground work for the downtown design charette I suggested yesterday. To do this right will require a bit of time. At this point I am looking at February. My goal will be to come up with a very inclusive plan that can be presented as a Citizens of Windsor Plan.
James
James -- you make me giddy! I've been thinking about a similar idea for the past couple of weeks. Thanks for digging into my thoughts and making this happen!
I suggest getting a copy of the 1994 report ...."a new vision for the heart of Windsor". Windsor City Centre Revitalization and Design Study. This process was already completed as a public process. I think it just needs to be updated. If any thing it may help as a guideline. If not for anything else it can be used to show how we did not meet that 1994 vision.
I recommend that anyone interested email jveresuk@downtownwindsor.ca
Judith Veresuk the Executive Director has an extensive planning background as her former employer was a large urban planner (Hamilton Anderson).
She has discussed a design charette and even asked Rick Haldenby from Cambridge's world renown school of architecture if he would assist and he said yes.
I'm sure Judith would be willing to host a info session for all interested parties.
We could do different designs for all the districts. Ideas like a pedestrian mall on Pelissier or a Campus area would be fun to see materialize
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