Pride in our city must begin at home
Iam a Windsorite, although I haven’t lived in the City of Roses for four years now, aside from this past summer.
During this time, I had the opportunity to rediscover what a fabulous place Windsor-Essex is. I attended numerous festivals, ate at some pretty cool restaurants, and took a drive out to Point Pelee a few times.
I also found a nice bookshop on Tecumseh Road.
Now I am in Victoria, B.C., for law school and meeting people from all over Canada and the world. Every time I meet someone and tell them where I am from, I get disgruntled looks and raised eyebrows, “You’re from that place?”
Yes, me, with my Master of Arts degree, work experience from Germany and competency in four languages, I am from that city. Yes, cultured individuals do live in and come from Windsor-Essex, not just assembly line workers. I work hard to fight off the negative image Windsor seems to have everywhere and it seems to do little except tire me.
Every time I open The Windsor Star, I see readers complaining. Every time there is a new idea to improve Windsor, there is complaining. People in Windsor-Essex have become their own worst enemies and they are scaring people and ideas off.
When I graduate in 2015, I would love to return home. However, Windsor needs to transform itself before I and many others I know make that commitment, and that has to start with attitude.
The city is awesome and it actually has a lot and more to offer than Victoria does, as one example. But people in Victoria love their city and they take pride in it.
That shows in the preserved architecture downtown. It shows up on the buses when people greet and thank the drivers. It shows up in conversation when local people rave about how great this city is to visit and welcome newcomers with open arms, as opposed to Windsor’s “why are you here?” attitude.
Why can’t Windsor be the same or better?