Homelessness, drugs, and safety topped the list of concerns at Rino Bortolin's annual ward meeting.
Bortolin along with city staff met with dozens of Ward 3 residents at Windsor Public Library's Central Branch.
It was a fairly calm meeting with a number of questions being asked.
Gurbax Bhullar owns property in the downtown core.
He says tenants and customers don't like entering his plaza, and has even lost tenants due to safety concerns.
"Lot of drug use, needles, people hanging around the properties asking the money from the customers, all kinds of issues."
"Nobody wants to stay downtown," he says. "I lost already two tenants, my friend lost another tenant because people are not safe, they don't feel comfortable doing business downtown."
Ward 3 map (Photo by AM800's Rob Hindi)
Meanwhile, Marlene Westfall has lived in the downtown core for the past two years.
She says on top of the traffic and speeding issues her area has, she's having issues in her Windsor housing building and wants it addressed.
"I have an issue right now with a person who has threatened my life, threatened to shoot me with a gun. He's threatened to kill my friend and he's threatened other women in the building and I'd like to know why housing is not dealing with this appropriately. I got a human rights complaint against housing."
She says this summer there has been an increase in homelessness in the core and hopes its resolved soon.
The next ward meeting is set for next Tuesday and is for ward 2.
John Elliott and city staff will meet residents at Mackenzie Hall from 6:30pm until 8:30pm.