Residents want trashy areas of downtown cleaned up

Residents are quick to trumpet the call to clean up Windsor's downtown core. From the dirty mattresses in alleys to garbage strewn on sidewalks, the mess is seemingly endless, say some.

The city has cracked down on urban blight in recent years, launching a mitigation strategy in 2011 that has so far resulted in 43 residential demolitions. Council recently expanded that program to include commercial properties.

But leveling buildings is just part of the problem, say downtown residents and business owners.Elisabeth Munsterhjelm, owner of Casa Chavela on Pelissier Street for 32 years,has seen the ups and down of the downtown area. She says the first few blocks off of Riverside Drive look good, but council needs to take action on the area just outside of that.

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"I've watched the council meetings and I rarely hear them talk about how can we clean up the core," she said. "And the core should go all the way up to Tecumseh from Riverside not just the first two blocks from the river."

Coun.RinoBortolinhas long been advocating for improvements to the downtown neighbourhood, not just the commercial core. The Ward 3 representative says blight and safety hazards are huge hurdles to attracting people to invest in the area by buying homes or starting businesses.

"It's the little strategic investments that we need to be more weary of and more demanding of," saidBortolin.

Bortolinis one of the councillors pushing for a vacant building registry, which he says could be a useful tool if city approves it. The registry would force property owners to pay an annual fee, which would help cover the cost of inspections and allow bylaw officers tokeep tabs on the owners and any issues with the property.

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City staff are working on a report that will outline the potential impact of a vacant building registry, which some councillorssay will go a long way to force owners to maintain their properties.

"Its not just about when somebody comes to visit the downtown and it being an eyesore for visitors, the people who live downtown deal with the illegal dumping constantly," he said. "People less and less want to live in these neighbourhoods."