Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutt
I grew up in his little city - it was once in the top 5 average income cities in all of Canada, there were 25 to 30 factories there at one time, a good job for anybody that wanted one. Like most Rust Belt cities much of its decline came with the death of the North American steel industry. The city got its name from the Welland Canal, one of the world's most famous canals, the canal joins Lake Ontario to Lake Erie - the canal ran right through the heart of the city, the downtown, it was the city's indentity. When I was little the world passed through the city, freight ships from across the ocean passed by under the lift bridge. Bad decision after bad decision - first they decided that it would be better if the canal completely bypassed the city, rendering the canal and the bridges useless. Kinda like deciding the Eiffel Tower would be better out on the outskirts of Paris. Then the city decided to locate its first and only indoor shopping mall out near the highway leading out of town - turning the once bustling Main Street into a fucking deserted eyesore. Every building on Main Street should have been bought up and turned into something useful and nice - what's there now is depressing as hell. It needs beautification/gentrification badly, the bridges are historic and should be painted and lit.
The city has things going for it, the canal is now a world class recreational water sports venue. It's very close to Buffalo New York which is on the rebound, Niagara Falls, and the beaches of Lake Erie. If they prettied up the town they could make it a nice commuter/retirement city.
My dad loved that city, regretted leaving it. He was the best trial attorney ever in that neck of the woods.
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You pretty much nailed it, although I obviously disagree about the painting/lighting the old lift bridge. City council tried to justify it by saying it'll be a tourist attraction - but I say who the hell's gonna drive here (at night) to see an old, non-functioning bridge just because it has pretty lights. They did a great job lighting the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, but the cost was shared by both sides and it still gets non-stop traffic and generates toll revenues.
As for our "world class flatwater facility" - true, they did a nice job with it. But it doesn't get used much...and the jury's still out whether it generates any significant revenue to the local economy. 90% of the time it sits unused.
You mentioned about Main St. It's actually making a bit of a rebound lately. Having the bridge closed almost the entire summer definitely had an impact on surrounding small businesses (a few were forced to close) - but you can definitely see a bit of improvement and investment happening despite it all. They built a new City Hall across from the old court house...which helped trigger somewhat of a slow revitalization.
But a LOT of people are up-in-arms over the bridge paint/lighting. Everyone's talking about it...mostly angry over the money being pissed away at a time when the rest of the infrastructure (roads, sewers, watermains) are falling apart. Much of the city's watermains and sewers are over 70-80 years old and the city loses up to 35-40% of their water through leakage...driving up our water bills.
Anyways...