I hope you get to meet Marjorie and Bea.
From my short interaction with them, I found that they like to meet at The Coffee Exchange for a warm drink on a regular basis.
When I asked them how often they come downtown, Bea quickly chirped, “Every day!”
Bea was quick to point out that they were seniors. I think she felt the need to tell me this, because I was asking them about what they think of downtown. They were extremely well put-together, dressed by my estimation for something more formal. They were smiling most of the time they were there. I was waiting for a WO Blog interviewee to show up, and I was keeping tabs on the passers-by and customers coming in for a treat. Bea and Marjorie were spry, happy, and sated by the goods from this cafe. They did not look like the stereotypical downtown dweller everyone is familiar with hearing about, so I decided to intercept one of them while they were preparing to leave. They were more than willing to tell me what they thought of “their” downtown.
The women make it a habit to come from their apartments on Riverside Drive and experience the offerings of Ouellette Avenue (mostly) but they inferred a heavy usage of the downtown waterfront during the warmer months. They’re aware of the louder evening crowds and party atmosphere. They have reign over the mood of downtown while they’re within it, and they acknowledge that it just isn’t their scene when the sun goes down. But they make sure to mingle in the quieter hours of the day, because that’s when it’s their social time.
Being in the downtown during the day, seeing these two enjoying each other’s company in a cafe on the main strip is a perception-changing experience that nighthawks rarely get to see. When Bea and Marjorie are calling it a day, the evening patrons are just rolling out of bed or finishing reading the newspaper. Which got me to thinking about how people perceive and experience their downtown.
For Bea and Marjorie, it’s lively with business traffic and downtown employees moving from one place to the next. If you look at the photo that headlines this post, you see a jubilant Canada Hockey celebration, and a completely different downtown than the one lived by Bea and Marjorie. And I like that.
As I slowly begin to widen my peripheral/social vision of who makes downtown home, I realize that there are umpteen communities all calling it their own. What better for a diverse experience and expression of self than an inability to specifically label the core as one thing. The multiplicity of niche groups that settle and contribute to the downtown, the better.
It’s a pretty great spot that can host a pair of old friends out for a cup of Joe one minute and an undulating, traffic-halting, red and white ocean of joy the next.
How are you making downtown “your own”?
As an aside to this post, do you know someone who experiences downtown Windsor in their own way? If you know people who might fall under the radar of the stereotypical view of downtown, and you think they should be highlighted on the Downtown WO Blog, drop me an e-mail about them.
Photo at the top of this post by Kari Gignac…sometime contributor to Windsorite.ca.
Thanks Kari!
Tags: Bea, Coffee Exchange, downtown, dwbia, Kari Gignac, Marjorie, Ontario, residents, seniors, tourism, Windsor, Windsorite.ca, WO, Your Own Downtown
It’s funny that you mention how many communities inhabit the same space, as Sunday night was an interesting juxtaposition of the two communities you mentioned.
I came downtown for coffee at the Coffee Exchange to find car horns, drumming, cheering, shouting and choruses of “O Canada”. The intersection of Ouellette and University was plugged by about roughly 400 or 500 fans wearing red and white, holding flags and hockey sticks. Police had thoughtfully closed off a part of Ouellette, and then just stood back and laughed and chatted with the crowd. Everybody was having a great time in a crazy party atmosphere.
And watching from within, were the bemused regular Sunday evening denziens of Milk, Starbucks and The Coffee Exchange. It was mostly people talking over coffee or studying, despite the noise from the street. They were a glass wall apart, but literally a world away. Good post Tom