Author rips Windsor’s esthetics
City criticized for urban design choices
IT’S LIKE SOMEBODY CAME IN AND BEAT THE CITY WITH AN UGLY STICK.
WINDSOR, ONT. • This city’s image has taken a beating lately.
Earlier this month, an American author attending a Detroit conference on urbanism called Windsor a wasteland.
“Forget about the fact the streets are all four lanes, they’re too wide and the cars are going too fast, that’s one thing,” James Howard Kunstler, author of Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency, told CBC News. “But the buildings themselves are so amazingly ugly, it’s like somebody came in and beat the city with an ugly stick.”
Cities should be more walkable and with green spaces, he said.
“We’re living in environments that are punishing us, the immersive ugliness of North American cities can be described as entropy made visible. It’s a condition that drives you towards death and stasis,” he said. “That’s what people feel when they go down these miserable boulevards filled with miserable buildings; we need to do better.”
His comments followed a recent pair of unflattering stories about Windsor that ran on Vice Canada and Huffington Post.
As well, the city received a poor rating in MoneySense magazine’s ranking of Best Places to Live in Canada, coming in 156 out of 219 cities — a drop of 10 places since last year’s 146 placing.
In the latest survey, Ottawa claimed the top spot, while three other Ontario cities, Burlington, Oakville and Waterloo all featured in the top 10.
While those articles touched on everything from the city’s unemployment to transportation to cancer rates and quality of life, Kunstler’s “ugly” insult struck a nerve at city hall.
“We are aware of it, and we certainly take it seriously,” said Neil Robertson, manager of urban design. The city, he stressed, is in the process of setting urban design guidelines for certain areas.
“It’s not just buildings,” added Robertson. “We’re investing in design and esthetics in infrastructure: it’s your streetscapes, your public spaces. When the city undertakes an infrastructure project, like road development, we take a multidisciplinary approach to ensure that it contributes to the beauty and esthetics of the neighbourhood.”
Meanwhile, the Windsor Region Society of Architects is calling for the creation of an expert panel on urban design to help combat the negative perceptions.
“Windsor is not as bad as what’s being portrayed right now by certain folks,” said John Hrovat, society chairman. “I think it has the foundations of a terrific place.”
Hrovat is recommending Windsor follow the lead of such Ontario cities as Toronto and London, which have established panels to critique and make recommendations on proposed commercial, residential and municipal projects.