Windsor looks to Southwest Detroit as model for saving a neighborhood

Windsor is looking at the Hubbard-Richard neighborhood, just east of the bridge, for models to help with its own area by the bridge.

Excerpt:

But the most powerful tool that Hubbard-Richard now wields is the momentum of a rebuilt community. Houses, apartments, townhouses, a commercial district on Vernor Avenue -- this is investment that is much more expensive and difficult for the bridge to buy up.

People are part of that momentum, said Wendler, "and we've got a vested interest. If the bridge company comes in and starts that crap, we'll push back. We'll organize buyers."

Bagley had some practical advantages. A lot of the land was vacant. The city owned more than the bridge and was happy to sell to Bagley. Ste. Anne Church, the second oldest parish in the U.S. and an anchor in the community, with 800 families, was a formidable obstacle.

Still, this was a poor, crime-ridden wasteland in a city with a lot of problems. What its reinvention really took was commitment.

If this community can wrest its neighbourhood from the bridge, surely Windsor can. The question is the same: Is this neighbourhood worth saving? The means are the same: commitment.

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