Stakeholders encourage residents to provide feedback for Windsor’s downtown

News -

CEO of Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare Bill Marra is one of many encouraged by the City of Windsor’s new online survey to improve downtown.

“They're reaching out and engaging. You can never go wrong when you're engaging,” he said.

At Wednesday's launch, Mayor Drew Dilkens acknowledged there are growing challenges leading to a negative perception of the city’s core.

“What we need to do is debunk any perceptions out there that are not based on fact and the reality is there is work to be done.” Marra said, who acknowledges there are challenges in the connectivity of services and improvements need to be made.

He feels one thing that could help the system is the introduction of the urgent care concept attending to medical or physiological issues.

“London has been doing it remarkably well for the last eight years and it's something we're advocating for and we are talking to our partners around what that could look like in the community.”

Some feel more shelter for those experiencing homelessness should be considered.

“There's a lot of issues with mental health and everything and there's less places for individuals to go to,” said resident Yvonne Mass.

Many stakeholders encourage residents to residents to get involved and participate in the survey including the Windsor branch of the CMHA.

“I think everyone has great thoughts and ideas and you know, if we can bring all of those things together in one place and work with the city and all of the community partners to bring about some fruitful solutions,” said Kerri Hill, manager of community engagement. “We all need to work together to make it a seamless system for residents.”

On the other side of the coin, how to create a vibrant, safer and inclusive downtown core?

“The Riverfront I think is underutilized. I think why not a huge aquarium or something like that that will bring people from Detroit.” Said Gail Pirie. She likes the student vibe downtown but would like to see more accessible parking, shops and restaurants catering to the older crowd. “I think there's so much they could do.”