Posted on Aug 12, 2019
Brian Yeomans, Downtown BIA spoke about development and progress in the downtown core. Our Club welcomed new member Mohamed El Sadeek
 
Our Club welcomed new member Mohamed El Sadeek, sponsored by Mike Drake. He's already volunteered at a pop stand at Art in the Park and helped with the Young Rotary Leader's initiative to paint the Business Accelerator, and we're so happy he's part of our Club! Classification: Insurance sales.

Brian Yeomans, Chair of the Downtown Business Improvement Association began by showing pictures from the past; Windsor's downtown in the 1900's. A hub of activity, Windsor had everything you could want or need, including shops for clothing and jewelry, restaurants and cafes, movie theatres. He addressed some challenges the downtown has been faced with, such as passports becoming mandatory for border crossing and recently, lack of affordable housing, homelessness, mental health issues and drug abuse. Recent initiatives that have helped revitalize the downtown include "adding feet to the street" by students of the University and the College, events such as the Windsor International Film Festival, Ouelette Car Cruise, Open Streets Windsor and Jurassic Park - celebrating the Raptors. New businesses have also added to the revitalization and videos of some were shown, including a new restaurant "Bread Meats Bread", The Manchester Pub and the new "Meow Meow" cat shop. Yeomans ended by showing current photos of the downtown, showing that there is a lot going on today - it has shops, restaurants, theatres. There is lots to do in our downtown today!

Click here for more pictures from this meeting (courtesy of Gordon Drake)