Nicole Baillargeon is an urbanist and designer with an M.Arch from the University of Toronto Daniel’s School of Architecture. She has a new design/development office in Windsor. She grew up in Windsor and then spent years travelling before calling Toronto home for 7.5 years. Having recently moved back to Windsor, into a downtown urban neighbourhood, she is becoming re-aquainted with this city and its many, many difficulties.
I am writing to express my concerns regarding the plan for the Mega-Hospital for the Windsor-Essex Region, as well as the integrity of the planning and site selection process.
The city of Windsor is wonderfully diverse and well-situated. It is clear to me, living now in the downtown core, surrounded by rich history, perfectly human-scaled old commercial streets, vibrant immigrant communities, and flanked by the linear parkland along the Detroit River, that this city has so much potential to become a truly enviable, livable, walkable, green model city. Yet Windsor’s city centre is full of vacancy and blight. Our city leadership does little to promote or improve the situation in the city’s core. They are focused on “growing” the city through sprawl development despite negligible population growth and abundant room for infill development. In particular, the city has expressed its desire to build a large area of new subdivisions on Sandwich South lands - the lands near the Windsor Airport off County Road 42 - the same area, incidentally, that the city and Windsor Regional Hospital have chosen to locate the proposed Mega-Hospital.
While the city centre is largely neglected, our population largely stagnant, existing infrastructure in need of basic maintenance, and brownfield sites sit waiting for new life, our leadership has been pushing for development out into unserviced Greenfield. This is both irresponsible and destructive. It is also completely at odds with the Province of Ontario’s mandate for building healthy and sustainable cities. As the province already clearly acknowledges the necessity of creating more accessible, sustainable cities, and encourages, I do not think I need to point out the extreme misdirection in building an important civic institution and on farmland (while removing not one, but two such anchors from the established, albeit struggling, core of the city). I will, however stress the point that while this hospital would be slightly closer for some county residents, who would be driving some distance to the hospital regardless of its location, it will become significantly less accessible to the majority of Windsor-Essex residents, particularly those who do not drive, who rely on public transit, and those who are already disadvantaged. In general, it encourages more driving, and a more sedentary lifestyle - which is completely antithetical to a healthy city and a healthy citizenry.
One final thought about Detroit - a city which is now experiencing an incredible comeback. Its turn-around, due in large part to vast investment after bankruptcy, has been successful, and seems will continue to be successful because of implementation of good urban planning that aims at urban intensification, viable public transit, and active transportation. But at the core, through the years of struggle, while not even a major grocery store chain remained in the city, one thing that kept the city anchored were the hospitals. The Midtown district around the Henry Ford Hospital was one of the first neighbourhoods to turn the corner (years before bankruptcy and the influx of investors). The hospital kept people in the city, and in 2010 began to incentivize its employees to live in the neighbourhood where they work. This was integral to neighbourhood's revival. This, no doubt, demonstrated to investors and employers, that they could take the chance on a long-beleaguered city. I can’t imagine Detroit would be having the boom it is now, without the commitment of local community institutions like the Henry Ford Health System.
I am very concerned that this plan not only flies in the face of Provincial guidelines, but the very principles of responsible urban design. This shortsighted plan drives Windsor in a completely backward direction. I am concerned that it undermines efforts to revitalize the city’s core and is detrimental to the city at large. This will only propel employers and young people out of Windsor, encourage environmentally destructive habits and unhealthy lifestyles, and put those already struggling at greater disadvantage, further exacerbating the myriad of problems we face. I fear that the only people who will benefit from this plan are those who stand to make a profit.
We all want improved health care, but it must be inclusive of community, civic, and environmental health.
I am writing to express my concerns regarding the plan for the Mega-Hospital for the Windsor-Essex Region, as well as the integrity of the planning and site selection process.
The city of Windsor is wonderfully diverse and well-situated. It is clear to me, living now in the downtown core, surrounded by rich history, perfectly human-scaled old commercial streets, vibrant immigrant communities, and flanked by the linear parkland along the Detroit River, that this city has so much potential to become a truly enviable, livable, walkable, green model city. Yet Windsor’s city centre is full of vacancy and blight. Our city leadership does little to promote or improve the situation in the city’s core. They are focused on “growing” the city through sprawl development despite negligible population growth and abundant room for infill development. In particular, the city has expressed its desire to build a large area of new subdivisions on Sandwich South lands - the lands near the Windsor Airport off County Road 42 - the same area, incidentally, that the city and Windsor Regional Hospital have chosen to locate the proposed Mega-Hospital.
While the city centre is largely neglected, our population largely stagnant, existing infrastructure in need of basic maintenance, and brownfield sites sit waiting for new life, our leadership has been pushing for development out into unserviced Greenfield. This is both irresponsible and destructive. It is also completely at odds with the Province of Ontario’s mandate for building healthy and sustainable cities. As the province already clearly acknowledges the necessity of creating more accessible, sustainable cities, and encourages, I do not think I need to point out the extreme misdirection in building an important civic institution and on farmland (while removing not one, but two such anchors from the established, albeit struggling, core of the city). I will, however stress the point that while this hospital would be slightly closer for some county residents, who would be driving some distance to the hospital regardless of its location, it will become significantly less accessible to the majority of Windsor-Essex residents, particularly those who do not drive, who rely on public transit, and those who are already disadvantaged. In general, it encourages more driving, and a more sedentary lifestyle - which is completely antithetical to a healthy city and a healthy citizenry.
One final thought about Detroit - a city which is now experiencing an incredible comeback. Its turn-around, due in large part to vast investment after bankruptcy, has been successful, and seems will continue to be successful because of implementation of good urban planning that aims at urban intensification, viable public transit, and active transportation. But at the core, through the years of struggle, while not even a major grocery store chain remained in the city, one thing that kept the city anchored were the hospitals. The Midtown district around the Henry Ford Hospital was one of the first neighbourhoods to turn the corner (years before bankruptcy and the influx of investors). The hospital kept people in the city, and in 2010 began to incentivize its employees to live in the neighbourhood where they work. This was integral to neighbourhood's revival. This, no doubt, demonstrated to investors and employers, that they could take the chance on a long-beleaguered city. I can’t imagine Detroit would be having the boom it is now, without the commitment of local community institutions like the Henry Ford Health System.
I am very concerned that this plan not only flies in the face of Provincial guidelines, but the very principles of responsible urban design. This shortsighted plan drives Windsor in a completely backward direction. I am concerned that it undermines efforts to revitalize the city’s core and is detrimental to the city at large. This will only propel employers and young people out of Windsor, encourage environmentally destructive habits and unhealthy lifestyles, and put those already struggling at greater disadvantage, further exacerbating the myriad of problems we face. I fear that the only people who will benefit from this plan are those who stand to make a profit.
We all want improved health care, but it must be inclusive of community, civic, and environmental health.
