If you would like to get more background about downtown campuses and how they can impact urban growth then you should attend this event. You can also get a gander at the new downtown "re-brand" called "The Downtown Mosaic". Go to the event and offer your thoughts and findings in the "Comments" field of this blog post.
Tuesday, November 6
6:00 PM until 7:30 PM
Windsor Armouries
37 University Avenue East
(Next to the future Burger King)
In the Heart of the Downtown Mosaic
In the Heart of the Downtown Mosaic
10 comments:
An opportunity. Can An Urban Renewal University Campus Revitalize? Yes. Visit Ohio State's Gateway Downtown Development. A history of success. View it's progress. Project begun in 1995.
http://www.southcampusgateway.com/doc/media/history
http://www.southcampusgateway.com/press/index.php?doc=1
http://campuspartners.osu.edu/planintro.htm
The Ohio State University and the City of Columbus, in cooperation with the neighborhoods of the University District, created Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment in 1995 to spearhead a major initiative to improve the quality of life in those urban neighborhoods. Campus Partners, a non-profit organization with its primary funding from Ohio State, led a community-based planning process in 1995 and 1996 to development a comprehensive improvement plan.
One of the major recommendations in that plan was a proposal to redevelop a blighted area along High Street at 11th Avenue, adjacent to the southern end of the university campus. Again with broad neighborhood and city involvement, Campus Partners in 1997 and 1998 engaged in a more focused process to develop a master plan for High Street in the University District and to define more clearly the size, scope and market potential of the proposed redevelopment project.
State support; and adjacent to existing university infrastructure.
Clearly the opposite to what the University of Windsor has.
http://www.osu.edu/information.php#Facts-&-Figures
Yes, and with 60,000 Full and Part Time students, along with 38,000 employees (http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php#emplyees
they have the financial capacity and ability to undertake this project.
Windsor? 3,000 employees and 16,000 students.
Compare apples to apples here.
Connected to high-tech industry
The university also has an intellectual property policy that encourages spin-off companies when university researchers develop commercial applications for their inventions. Through co-op and these spin-off companies, the university has close ties with the high-tech industry.
UW has a strong connection with Research In Motion (RIM), creator of the BlackBerry. CEO Mike Lazaridis was a student at UW before he started RIM, and is currently the chancellor of the university. RIM hires hundreds of students from Waterloo and many of its employees are UW alumni.
The professor also comes from U of Waterloo, whose biggest supporter, both financially and otherwise is RIM.
Unless the province, the city and local industry front up the cash to fund a university development downtown, the U of W is restricted to what it can do.
And a question - what is the economic impact of 1,000 university students? What has the impact been by St. Clair College's student population in the core?
How much would a research facility cost the university to include retail/housing etc.? Who is going to pick up the added costs?
If not engineering, what does the University do with the buildings abandoned on campus to pursue a downtown location? Tear them down? Maintain them?
Consistently, proponents of this project fail to recognise the finanical impact on the University and its students.
Here's a thought...Why don't we expand the downtown core westward along University and Wyandotte Avenues so that it can meet up with the university? Is that a big thought?
This city will never get it because they don't have the intestinal fortitude to do what is needed...get RFP's and build the damn urban village. No, since they can't make money off of it or their friends can't they won't do it.
Since people want new homes and many people are looking to live in an urban environment one would think this is a no-brainer...not Windsor! Study it to death and then put it on the shelf.
PS this is a city that cries it's downtown is hurting yet wants to remove more workers (311) into the boondocks. If it wasn't so sad it would be laughable. I just wish I could move.
Maybe if the City & BIA payed for:
Student parking.
Housing.
Parking.
Free bus service sheduled every 15 minutes.
Contributed signifigantly.
Maybe the University should build a new business school. One that teaches how to negotiate by actually making a counter offer. If the university requires a financial incentive to move downtown, they should actually tell someone how much. At that point the ball will then be in the City's and Downtown's court. If we raise it fine, if not, the university is not to blame.
Good point, very good insight.
Off topic, but awhile back talk about the folk resposible for the blossoming of the 800 Block came up. An Anon mentioned that Jan and Phil Mcleod were really the start of it all. I ran in to him last week and mentioned it. You could see the remark mean't something to him. You could see Monmouth was a chapter fondly remember, a contribution to the neighbourhood a source of pride, years with a beloved companion embraced and cherished. If only more of us had so much to offer.
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