Windsor, Ontario

These days Windsor (the one in Canada) is without a doubt 'the Tijuana of the North,' a city just across the border where Metro Detroit parties, gambles, and stocks up on duty free liquor and Cuban cigars, then gets the hell out.

On Friday and Saturday nights, the line of cars full of teenage Michiganians heading South (that's right, South) into the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge is immense as they set out to take advantage of the generous Ontario drinking age (19). At this time of day their grandparents are likely to be passing in cars the other way, heading back from the casino, although this is tide is somewhat stemmed now that there are casinos in Detroit. Then at closing time the process mirrors itself in the other direction, only worse because everyone goes back at once. The Michigan highway patrol has installed breathalizer stations just beyond customs.

The low drinking age is not the only cause of the curious phenomenon that the major urban hang out location for the Detriot area is in another nation. It is also helped by the pedestrian friendliness of downtown Windsor as opposed to Detroit, and the lack of safe streets on which to party in the motor city. In short:

"Welcome to Windsor, the cultural center of Detroit!"

Windsor, Ontario is home to the most dense collection of bars, dance clubs, lounges, and strip joints, in Canada. There are over 60 establishments in a 2.4 kilometer radius, including Casino Windsor.

Windsor also contains the busiest international border crossings in North America, the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. Over and through both of these crossings more than 25% of all commercial trade between Canada and the United States flows, and more than 40,000 vehicles a day cross.

Windsor is otherwise quite possibly the most boring city in the world. Its current population is 218,000 and despite this ever growing number, the downtown and commercial districts experience little or no positive growth. Also, suffering in Windsor is culture, of which you are lucky to lick any from the seats of the Capitol Theatre. A multi-million dollar arena has been in proposition for over 20 years, though an arena, the cost, and the origin of the money has never been agreed upon. The lack of cultural and commercial expansion in the city is currently unexplainable.