Chris Edwards, of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association thought it would be of interest to the Downtown WO readers to publish the last letter Jack Shanfield wrote to the DWBIA. It speaks to his concern for the vitality of the core of our city, and his observations of downtown policy for over 40 years.
Jack Shanfield passed away April 21st at 86 years of age.
March 23, 2010
In the Pursuit of a Vibrant Downtown Windsor
The only hope of renting stores on Ouellette Ave again is to have full parking on both sides of Ouellette Ave from Wyandotte Street or Elliot Street to Riverside Drive the way it used to be.
The municipal and business taxes are way too high for the landlord’s downtown to charge a reasonable rent. Downtown rent is not cheap. The landlord cannot rent space because of high taxes compared to other areas of the city that have free parking.
Metered parking rates are far too high for all metered parking spaces in the city.
#1 Take for example downtown Detroit .75 an hour metered parking all over. Windsor $1.25 an hour metered parking. Most areas in Detroit and suburbs have free parking.
#2 The 2 meters in front of my store serve 2 parking spaces they could easily hold 3 parking spaces. Why did the city allow 3 years of free parking for the 2 parking spots in front of my store Shanfields-Meyers 188 Ouellette Ave and 2 spots in front of the old Royal Bank? The city could have collected up to $7,500. for each meter (x 5) $37,500 for 5 meters. I called traffic-engineering month in month and month out to put the meters in but to no avail.
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#3 The city had to raise the parking rates all over the city to pay for the Chrysler Garage. Why should the public and tourist have to pay for the garage the city built in their wisdom?
#4 I was told by “planning” they couldn’t put in 7 parking spots in front of the federal building because of the trees. These were all torn out as soon as they started construction on my block. I called the Planning Department and they said they would study it. They denied my request. Where is this feasibility study? I finally went to Mayor Francis and asked him for the 7 parking spots before the block between Pitt St and Chatham Street were done. Why do we need an 18’ foot sidewalk in front of the federal building when parking is so vital for downtown? As you see nothing was done. This was a potential loss of parking revenue of $17,500 in revenue per year when parking is so vital to the businesses downtown. If a business does not have parking these days they cannot survive. I have been in Downtown Windsor 69 years since 1941 and I have never seen business so bad. You have to almost give the merchandise away.
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One of the reasons a lot of the stores moved out was because of construction. This destroyed the businesses summer traffic for each summer & fall for 4 years. The construction that was not needed.
It took many years to put an advanced turning signal at Ouellette and Riverside Drive which is working well. I have been asking for over 15 years for a sign to indicate where Windsor’s main shopping street Ouellette Ave is to not avail. Even Ottawa street had a sign on Riverside Drive to indicate where Ottawa St is. Windsor Raceway has signs on the drive, Casino Caesars – many signs, the Black Historical Society in Amherstburg, and no sign indicating our main shopping street Ouellette Ave. The only access to Ouellette Ave from Riverside Drive to Ouellette Ave is Ouellette. Riverside Drive leads you out of downtown through Ferry St to Victoria Ave a one-way street which takes you out of downtown. If you take Goyeau it leads you out of downtown.
We have lost all our Tourist traffic. They don’t know where our downtown is. Even people from Windsor and the county who are not familiar can’t find Ouellette Ave.
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The Tunnel will be closing Goyeau for Tunnel Traffic only. This is ok for westbound traffic going to Ouellette Ave North. The problem is Wyandotte St onto Ouellette Ave going north onto Ouellette Ave
eastbound Wyandotte going east.
The City intends to close Pelissier Street in 2010 which will take traffic away from downtown and Ouellette and eliminate more parking spaces. Even if they don’t close Goyeau Street for the tunnel, as soon as the traffic goes past Ouellette Ave they miss Ouellette Ave for good or end up at the Casino.
There is an advance turn signal eastbound Wyandotte Street onto Pelissier St. It is imperative that traffic has access to Ouellette to make a left turn at Ouellette Ave and Wyandotte St going north from Wyandotte St to the river. You cannot make a left turn at Wyandotte Street going eastgoing north onto Ouellette Ave. Our tourist and out of town traffic will be lost because they don’t know how to get back to Ouellette Ave. Traffic Department claims the bus stop cannot be moved, well it can be moved if it will help downtown.
I have been after the downtown business association for 5 years to look into this matter. When the DBIA agreed to take the parking off
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Ouellette the agreement should have allowed making a left turn going north to Ouellette eastbound from Wyandotte St. I fully blame the DBIA for many of the stores leaving downtown Windsor. Even when they agreed to raise the parking rates, we business owners who didn’t want the rates raised had no support from the DBIA.
The city raised the street rates to $1.25 an hour to pay for the garage at Chrysler. That was their reason for raising the street rates.
Traffic engineering said the City expects the public to pay for their mistakes.
The parking should be free to save the merchants that have parking meters and let there be 3 hours free parking with the tires being chalked. The city will raise more revenue from fines. It’s time the city helped the small merchants survive in these hard times.
We used to have 50 employees in our store, now we have only 8 employees. We have never fired or layed off an employee. I’ve been downtown 69 years and I am waiting for things to improve but only with the help of the city and the DBIA.
Thank you,
Jack Shanfield
Seen in photo at the heading, downtown business owner Mark Boscariol and Jack Shanfield at a pancake breakfast.
