Detroit was for the longest time known across North America as a city in considerable decline. Residents and businesses fled the downtown core, crime soared, and the city developed a reputation as one of the last major American cities a family would want to move to or that a business would want to invest in.
But lately Detroit has developed a different reputation—one as a comeback town. City leadership took its problems seriously and worked hard to turn things around. The core has improved, people are moving back in and, while far from perfect, it’s generally viewed as a model for urban renewal.
Now, the Canadian city just across the river from Detroit is embarking on its own renewal project. Windsor has never suffered from the same problems to the same degree as Detroit. And Windsor’s problems didn’t reach a fever pitch at the same time Detroit’s did. But it’s now suffering enough that city leadership felt the need to launch their own turn-around project, labelled “Strengthen the Core – Downtown Windsor Revitalization Plan.”
This is a local story for the residents of Windsor, who of course care about the vitality of their own community, but it’s also a national story. That’s because many Canadian cities are likewise in various states of decline, and they’d be well-advised to acknowledge the difficult truths about their city and develop an action plan to tackle them before things worsen, just like Windsor is doing.
News reports from the past couple of years tell the story of a downtown Windsor that has become less safe, with crime statistics on the rise. A CTV News story from a year ago tells of resident complaints concerning “property damage, attempted break-ins, open drug use, [and] public defecation.”
It’s in response to these concerns and more that Windsor City Hall opted to undertake widespread public consultations to hear directly from residents and business owners and then crafted their revitalization plan.
According to a city hall press release, they heard many of the same anecdotes as the press did: “These community consultations frequently noted concerns related to property damage, petty crime, social disorder, limited foot traffic, inconsistent attractions and events, vacancies in buildings and residences, negative media attention, and a perceived lack of safety in the core.”
The plan that’s been released in Windsor focuses on seven action items together designed to bring back public safety and a sense of vitality to the core so that businesses, residents, and customers all return.
When it comes to law enforcement, here’s what the release says: “Windsor Police Service will use all approaches to promote lawful behaviour, and disrupt and intervene in open drug use, property damage, petty crime and disorderly conduct in the downtown core.”
It’s early days, so one can only see how things unfold and wish the city well in turning their state of affairs around. But it’s a project that’s worth keeping an eye on. There are already several refreshing things to Windsor’s approach that’ll be worth copying in other communities.
The first one is that they’re not attempting to hide or deny the problem. Toronto and Vancouver both have their high-profile challenges with lawlessness and disorder related to the drug crisis, but there are so many local politicians, activists, and members of the media who would prefer to ignore or downplay what’s happening. This doesn’t help solve the problem. In fact, it just makes it worse.
Then there is the fact that Windsor’s public consultations appear to be genuine. They were interested in listening to what the people said. In Toronto, meanwhile, the political and activist system don’t care for feedback and when they do get it they try to shame people for voicing their concerns. If you’re a parent concerned about public disorder near your kids’ school, they’ll try to tell you why you’re wrong or, worse, just call you names.
It’s also important that Windsor sees a significant role for police in solving its disorder problems. Obviously the police need to play a role. But, again, good luck getting people in other cities to recognize that basic fact.
If Windsor’s plan is a success, it should be held up as a model for other cities. Things are not OK right now across Canada. We need to recognize that fact, speak honestly about it, and then bring about action plans to turn things around.
