It’s time to inject some fun into city’s waterfront

My long-held belief that Windsor boasts one of the world’s great waterfronts, a view shared by many area residents, has been sorely tested by a late-summer trip to fun-loving Halifax. Don’t get me wrong. For those of us who remember when our riverfront was a dismal collection of rusty rail yards and dilapidated warehouses, the riverfront park from Ambassador Bridge to the distillery district is a dream come true.

With the Detroit skyline as a backdrop, our riverfront wins hands-down on the blow-me-away meter. We are clean, green and oh-so-pristine.

But could it be more? Indeed it could. A few evenings spent strolling the Halifax Harbourfront, a 3.8-kilometre stretch of nautical boardwalk lined with colourful bars, shops and restaurants left me convinced Windsor could do far more to make our waterfront a people magnet.

We are pretty. They are fun. That pretty much sums up the difference between the Windsor and Halifax approaches to utilizing an enviable civic asset: a spectacular waterfront.

I hadn’t been to Halifax for more than three decades so it was perhaps a given that I would be impressed at how the historic Nova Scotia capital has morphed from a tired and somewhat grubby Atlantic seaport into one of Canada’s most attractive cities.

To be fair, Windsor has made similar progress over that period. Look back 30 years and our current waterfront was just wishful thinking, the Herb Gray Parkway was beyond imagining and the level rail crossings on Howard Avenue and Walker Road looked like permanent bottlenecks.

But when it comes to boasting a waterfront people want to spend time and money on, there is no comparison. On any given summer day, the Halifax boardwalk draws way more people than our riverfront, nice as it is, attracts in a week. The boardwalk is, for starters, a nautical spectacle. You can sit in an outdoor restaurant, craft ale in one hand and lobster roll in the other, and watch a never-ending parade of vessels, from naval frigates to ocean liners, from cross-harbour ferries to sailing ships, negotiating one of the planet’s finest natural harbours.

Our waterfront has nice trails for cyclists and walkers. It’s a particularly delightful place for fast-moving cyclists who enjoy scaring the daylights out of unsuspecting pedestrians. But apart from the view and those trails and the annual fireworks night, there’s now much to draw visitors, let alone jaded locals.

We have the ever struggling and easily overlooked Bistro tucked into the Dieppe Gardens embankment. The Halifax boardwalk, which admittedly is a dramatically different beast, boasts a dizzying array of pubs, seafood restaurants, shops, museums and ice cream stands flanking its multiple wharfs.

Our riverfront is a place to sit and contemplate Detroit and our endless expanses of grass. The Halifax waterfront is a place to immerse oneself in good times.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, who has been to Halifax multiple times, concedes our riverfront is too passive and could be much more entertaining.

“It’s an absolutely beautiful space, but I would love to see more activity on our waterfront,” said Dilkens. He believes a key step forward was taken in July when council approved $5.8 million in Festival Plaza improvements (with work beginning this fall) that will make that hot, ugly expanse of pavement far more inviting for people attending events involving the permanent stage.

Fun. That’s why he wants our historic Streetcar No. 351, now well on the way to restoration, to be more than a static display when it’s installed on the riverfront as one of half a dozen “beacons.” He wants it, with a nice patio, landscaping and protection from the elements, to be a place where people can have a glass of wine or craft beer while taking in the river setting. It should be a waterfront destination, in his view, not just an artifact from Windsor’s past. Dilkens, if re-elected in October, will also be pushing for additional funding, on top of the $100,000 already committed by council, to build that planned beach volleyball facility on the riverfront east of downtown.

We have, without question, a beautiful riverfront that must always remain primarily green space. But there’s room, surely, to add a fun factor without compromising this priceless asset.