Here are images from the Wyandotte field trip. I find the images fascinating, because it is like viewing a different world through imagination. It is like around every corner is something unique and special. Windsor is a city full of new places to explore through imagination.

Discussion...

I thought I'd post this question for people to comment on since we didn't get to it during the presentation today:

How do you envision cities of the future? Do you see them as thriving metropolises or run-down wastelands reclaimed by nature? Will cities ever be able to strike a balance between man-made vs. nature?

Discuss!

**Edit**
Also, here are some interesting links I came across while researching the presentation:

Urban Farming in Detroit

Is America's Suburban Dream Collapsing Into a Nightmare?

Zabbaleen

Windsor/Detroit's Urban Sprawl and Public Places

I came across this video lecture from TED on urban sprawl the other day and thought it’d be worth sharing in regards to today’s planned topic of discussion. James Howard Kunstler is an outspoken opponent to urban sprawl who blames (North) American city planning since the Second World War as concentrating solely on the direct function of the building (For example: a bank only needs 4 walls, a roof and a vault to operate, with all else being optional expenses) and ignoring what it ought to contribute to public space on the outside. Without a sense of place, people have fled the city for a confusing mix of rural and urban living (suburbia) which captures the benefits of neither.

Moving slightly from the video itself, I think the only establishments nowadays that have tried (albeit poorly) to instil a sense of public space are coffee shops. People don’t necessarily go to the place for the beverage, but for the atmosphere in the lounge or on the patio. However these businesses with their pseudo-public spaces can only go so far. As for the downtowns of Windsor and Detroit, they are intimidating and unwelcoming and ought to improve if they ever hope for revitalization. While there are places such as Windsor’s waterfront and Detroit’s Campus Martius Park that offer some hope, I don’t think they welcome or engage citizens to the degree they ought to. The GreenLink border proposal tries to address this lack of public space in the west end, but I fear it could develop into an all ‘Green’ and no ‘Link’ reality.

I also noticed Kunstler and Solnit have differentiating views on the role of nature within cities. Solnit believes urban gardening and ‘wilderness patches’ are practical and useful to envision a new role for post-industrial metropolises while Kunstler elaborates how greenery should be used in a more cosmetic notion to achieve a sense of place which will revitalize a shrinking city over time. I found it very interesting to contrast.

Loiterer's Resistance Movement

Here is an inspired entry from one of my favorite psychogeographic blogs, the Loiterer's Resistance Movement (see link on the 'links we like' section on the right). They offer up suggestions for things you can do so that you're not bored in your city.

My personal favorite game (listed below) is one called "Heart of the city", and all you do is keep asking people you see on the street if they can direct you to the 'heart of the city'. I think this would be a fun game to play in Windsor.

Here are some more:


Make groups of no more than 5 or 6 people.

There are 20 instructions in your envelope – take them out one at a time over the next 2 hours – some of the instructions will take 10 minutes to complete, others can go on for the rest of the walk.

You don’t have to complete one instruction before you pick another – it’s good to combine them.
The instructions are open to interpretation – be creative, have fun and play

UMBRA(GE)
Follow your shadow – if you don’t have a shadow try to find some

MEMORIALS
Cities mark their history in stone – once the names have been carved they are rarely heard again. Find a memorial and read aloud the silent words and names.

ROADWORKS
Find a hole in the ground – instead of thinking of it as an inconvenience, look at it as an impromptu open-air exhibition or archaeological dig.

SIMULACRA
Unintended images are everywhere. Look out for simulacra, they are eruptions of secret history. They mean things...

CIRCUIT
Walk between two arbitrary points or around a block for the next 10 minutes – note what you discover on each circuit. Walk until the streets themselves are taking you for a walk.

NO U-TURN
Find a way to get to where you want to go by walking in the opposite direction.

DANGER
Push to the edge of your comfort zone. Notice, if you reach it, the point at which you no longer feel safe. Then take one more step...

DAY OF THE DEAD
The streets are filled with zombies. Move through the crowds without giving yourself away. Observe the dead and their places covertly. Make sure you always have an escape route. Survive by moving.

NATURE WALK
Look for the non-human. Maps drawn by snails. Birds nesting in alcoves. Spiders decorating windows. Trees on rooftops...

ON REFLECTION
Use the big plate glass windows of your city as cinema screens. Watch them like a movie-goer. Or be a director and call the shots.

EDGES
Identify and explore edges, where one place becomes another. Travel along a boundary – if you think it’s safe enough, leap across it. Are the edges clear cut? Or are there transitional zones? Enjoy the blurred liminal territories.

THE HEART OF THE CITY
Ask as many people as possible for directions to the heart of the city. Keep asking...

PUBLIC/PRIVATE
Find somewhere to be private in a public space.

WINDOW ART
For this week only there is a citywide exhibition of art displays in the windows of the city’s homes. How many can you find?

READ THE CITY
The pavements and streets are a book. Look for the writing on the city – on posters, on rubbish, on graffiti, on manhole covers, on bins, on drains, on street furniture. Use this to guide your drift and rename the streets.

STOP!
Stand still, stay exactly where you are for the next 10 minutes and watch the human traffic ebb and flow around your island of calm.

QUIET!
For the next 10 minutes do not speak or use any sign language. Observe how the dynamics of the group affect the drift when you don’t communicate verbally.

DID YOU JUST HEAR THAT?
Follow your ears – let the sounds around you guide your drift. Hunt for places of quiet or noise – listen out for accidental music and the mutterings of the ghosts under the pavements...

SAFARI
You are now on the hunt – track down as many lions, horses, elephants and ducks as you can find.

EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK TELLS THE RIGHT TIME TWICE A DAY
Look out for clocks on buildings and in windows. How does the city run like clockwork? How does time affect the use and meaning of a place? From Loiterer's Resistance Movement: Manchester UK.

Wyandotte St. East Photos

When first hearing of adventuring down Wyandotte in the East end I was a little skeptic on whether I would be able to take some good photographs. But still I decided to venture out with the group and told myself I would take photos of anything and everything. I wanted to keep an open mind about my hometown. However, I have to say I really enjoyed the photographs I took of this dirty and odd grungy street. There is much beauty in the little parts of the city no tourist really notices. Talking with a few other of the girls in my group, I came to realise that as a hometowner I really didnt appreciate the city until I found a few hidden gems one could only find as a Windsorite.

Unisex Uncanny

Two architectural intrigues of Wyandotte Street East. The first: double doors to a 'unisex' salon from the 1970s. The salon still seems to be active, but it seems that they had difficulty with the gender ambiguity of the 'unisex' concept that came about in the sixties or seventies. 1372 Wyandotte leads to the women's side of the salon, and 1374 Wyandotte to the men's. While the two sides share the same front desk, these are distinctly different spaces divided by a mirrored wall that separates the menfolk from the women, with a salon on the left and a barber's chair on the right. The unisex concept isn't so convincing, but the twin doors and doubled spaces certainly make this place a candidate for one of Windsor's most uncanny businesses. The second architectural intrigue, not even a block east of the unisex salon is a spiral fire escape which bears a passing resemblance to a more upright version of Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International (c. 1920) . Interestingly, the central support doubles as a flag pole.

Psychogeography Photos

just wanted to share some photos.. i really enjoyed the experience, personally ive driven down this street 1000 times to get home and ive been to windsor palace a few times but never have i walked down the street and really experienced this part of town.

2 Crosstown

After the worst cold snap in Windsor in recent memory, we set off on our Algorithmic walk with sunny skies and balmy weather. For the first part we cheated and took the bus to our walking destination, though taking public transit in Windsor has always had an element of the unexpected so it certainly fits within the frame of psychogeography. The bus service has improved since I last took the 2 Crosstown (three years ago). Its still pokey, but it seems that Transit Windsor has improved its fleet of buses, as this one seemed really clean and new. A nice feature of these new buses is that you can't see out the windows (they're plastered with exterior advertisements) so you get a kind of big city feeling when they get crowded up near the University and Ouellette, and you can pretend you're in a more functional city where everyone normally takes public transit without any sense of inferiority.

Psychogeography connection to the field trip

I thought that the field trip exercise was a good way to explore the area in a different way. I have added images from the field trip because I think there is a combination of different ways to view the area.

Border Myths

I ran across this article by accident on the RCMP website and thought I'd share:
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/bi-if/index-eng.htm

It gives a little overview of the relationship between the Canadian-U.S. border and then goes into how it changed after 9-11. It then goes on to describe some of the 'myths' that have been hampering relations between the U.S. & Canada since 9-11 (ie. terrorists coming from Canada, etc.).

Michigan Central Station and the Fall of Detroit

My thoughts on Detroit and Michigan Central Station

Last class we discussed Detroit and the decline over the past decades. It seems most people associate the decline of Detroit with racial tensions experienced mostly in the 60's and though that was a major factor, if you take that out of the equation it was still evident that Detroit was set up for its demise.

Detroit is the “Motor City” and in the late 40's and 50's there was an economic boom which allowed families to buy the cars which Detroit was producing. As credit became more available, more and more Americans started owning their own vehicles. This automotive boom, along with a massive transformation of the landscape into a grid of single home dwellings which were accompanied by huge highway projects allowed Americans all over the country and epically Detroiters to sprawl out and live the “American Dream”

We have talked in class about the Michigan Central Station which met its maker in 1988 when the last Amtrak train left the station. It seems this building never had a chance. As I mentioned Detroit is Motor City, and as the automotive era exploded into what we see today. There seems there as little place for this old train station in the automotive capital.

So when you step back and look at it all; and I think Lee you mentioned this. The Michigan Central Station is sort of a visual representation of Detroit's rise and fall. The overwhelming grandeur of the building shows how Detroit was once a wealthy metropolis, but it seems to me, given all the factors: the automotive and housing boom and massive government initiatives to build highways . Michigan Central Station was bound to fall, and Detroit failed by the very means which made it, the automobile.

Sombra ferry

Here is an image of the Sombra to Marine City ferry crossing that I talked about during the first day of class. Boarders can come in all sorts of different forms.

International Metropolis

I just wanted to post a link to a very interesting blog:
http://www.internationalmetropolis.com/

The author, Andrew Foot, posts pictures (a lot of interesting archival stuff) about old Windsor vs. present Windsor (ie. how buildings looked in the past, what they look like now, etc.). I think it would be a really helpful resource for the book project because its an incredibly well-researched blog about Windsor & Detroit's past & present.

Indian Road imbroglio

Indian Road is currently one of the most contested sites in the local region and an imbroglio over the expansion of the Ambassador Bridge has served to remind us of national differences in relation to public works projects. Here is a view on the Windsor side to the Ambassador Bridge's new truck plaza that has had its LED signs up and ready to go for over a year. However, this new border infrastructure seems to confirm the difficulty of establishing bi-national projects that meet the interests of everyone concerned . Most of the houses along Indian Road are currently boarded up, thus increasing the perception of Windsor as a post-industrial urban wasteland. To add to the confusion, Indian Road is a native burial ground; hopefully any redevelopment of the area will take into consideration the memory of this site's various pasts. This site poses several questions about the physical conduits between nations as urban sites: whether we ought to see border crossings as gateways or as transit zones. Ultimately Windsor can do both, but its recent history tends toward the latter, a kind of 'drive thru' or convenience store approach to planning that serves the immediate needs of transnational capital (which always resides elsewhere). Perhaps we need to enlist some local trolls.

Border Culture Revival

After a three year hiatus, Border Culture 2009 returns. I've linked to the blog from 2006 when Border Culture last ran with Marcel O'Gorman. Marcel has moved on to greener pastures, though he is very much missed in the twin cities.

A lot has happened in the intervening time including a tour of the Mexico-U.S. borderlands, the continued desertification of the Windsor-Detroit region and the establishment of some very exciting local initiatives on both sides of the border that attempt to analyse and reactivate our cities in a critical way that is independent of the typical models of gentrification (which for better or worse) never took root here . Justin Langlois of Broken City Lab (www.brokencitylab.org) will be joining us for the semester to demonstrate survival strategies in the capital of the rust belt. Stay tuned...