Elliot Lake dying?

[tino7710]

It seems like Elliot Lake has had the worst of luck lately. It had Uranium Mine closures once, a roof collapse at their mall, and now the residents are finding
deadly substances from their walls!? I swear, one day that town is going to be abandoned. Just another ruin in Ontario.

[sonysnob]

One of the things that hurts Elliot Lake is its position off Highway 17. If they had built the town further south (it was a planned community, much like Kapuskasing), it would probably be far more prosperous. Blind River, on the other hand, would probably be smaller.

[vid]

It's not dying, it's buildings have simply reached the end of their useful lives and need major repairs, but the local economy can't afford it.

The town already died, that's why it is advertised as a retirement village. There are lots of ghost towns across the north but Elliot Lake probably won't be one of them any time soon.

Not really sure what the purpose of this thread is though.

[sonysnob]

Originally Posted by vid

Not really sure what the purpose of this thread is though.

Not sure, but I think it's to figure out if Elliot Lake is dying...

[vid]

Well it kind of is dying. It's full of old people.

"Elliot Lake: Where Ontarians Go to Die."

[sonysnob]

I drove from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury last September. There were several ads along Hwy 17 directing travelers to satisfy their shopping needs at Algo Mall. It was almost in poor taste that the signs hadn't been taken down at that point.

[vid]

It's the media companies that own the signs that do that. They will leave a sign up if no one rents the space for weeks, so we sometimes have advertisements up for things that happened 2 or 3 months ago in Thunder Bay. It's weird.

[sonysnob]

^ Yeah, i know.

[tino7710]

Everybody in Elliot Lake look like lifeless zombies dragging themselves along the streets.

[vid]

If they were lifeless zombies, they would just be kind of lying there, decomposing.

[Phil McAvity]

As someone who lived in Elliot Lake a few years ago I can assure you the town is dying. At one point in the 1980's the population was around 25,000 people. Now it's about half that. The mall collapse is proof positive the town is dying but then the town was badly designed from the beginning. It's almost like some idiot Marxist designed the town with little other than the proletariat in mind. There was one little cul-de-sac with average suburban homes (for the mine's corporate bigwigs) but the entire rest of the town is all small, lower middle-class houses and the stupidest thing was, even though the town has numerous lakes, (Elliot of course being the largest) not one house was built on any of them thus keeping property values and the attractiveness of the town, to a minimum. You'd think with a slogan like "the jewel in the wilderness" that you'd find at least one decent lakefront campground but there isn't one to be found anywhere. Many of the town's buildings were built in the '50's when the mines opened and few have been improved upon since then. About the only thing good things I can say are, it has a small ski hill and a golf course which for such a small town is impressive.

[tino7710]

I remember the last time I went to the mall there, a year before the collapse. There was only about 7 stores open. All the other stores were closed due to water damage and stuff.
I also remember sitting in the food court, staring at water buckets spread across the floor.
There was only about 15-20 people at the mall that time, too.

[eternallyme]

I agree that if Elliot Lake was located farther south, along Highway 17, it would at least be holding its own right now as more people would at least travel through it rather than have to deviate. Its location is horrible.

[tino7710]

The last time I actually saw the mall was last summer. As cool as it was seeing the debris and stuff, it was a little sad. The last time I went to Elliot Lake, was last month. I was visiting my grandparents. The town has a little hope now, as it has a new mall being built. The former site of the Algo Mall is just sand. Nothing left.

[vid]

Elliot Lake, honestly, was never meant to be inhabited after the mines closed. Few of the communities in Northern Ontario were built to last, they were just worker accommodations in an era when we didn't have portables and air taxis.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

It's almost like some idiot Marxist designed the town with little other than the proletariat in mind. There was one little cul-de-sac with average suburban homes (for the mine's corporate bigwigs) but the entire rest of the town is all small, lower middle-class houses and the stupidest thing was, even though the town has numerous lakes, (Elliot of course being the largest) not one house was built on any of them thus keeping property values and the attractiveness of the town, to a minimum. You'd think with a slogan like "the jewel in the wilderness" that you'd find at least one decent lakefront campground but there isn't one to be found anywhere. Many of the town's buildings were built in the '50's when the mines opened and few have been improved upon since then. About the only thing good things I can say are, it has a small ski hill and a golf course which for such a small town is impressive.

Very well done description. It could also be used for some other Northern Ontario towns as well. So true about the type of housing. Many other towns in Northern Ontario have many lakes and rivers within the municipality but few to none of the houses are along the water.

[vid]

Sudbury and Kenora have the best waterfront property. Thunder Bay has the worst out of the larger cities: 3/52kms of our waterfront is either publicly accessible, or residential.