Eddie's, and Council's, Last Stand

Don’t you just love the Windsor Star! Finally an editorial on the border. After all of this time.

In reading the tea leaves, I would expect that they have had a tough time figuring out what to say. I am sure they have figured out by now who the real winner is and hate it since they are opposed to anything the Bridge Co. does!

At least we know now what City Hall’s strategy is for the future. Let me explain.

I have been quite surprised by the lack of “official” comments from the Mayor’s Office about the decision of the Bi-national. The Gord Henderson column in the Star gave praise rightly to the Community rather than Council for what has been achieved to date.

The Editorial is an interesting one. No praise to the Mayor and Council since none is deserved by them. It is a totally different approach which builds on the only thing that can be done: be an irritant.

Why was it necessary to spend so much time on Sandwich’s past? We all know it. No one wants to destroy its past or its future. Ahhh the future…If I did not know any better I would have thought that our new urban village is going there! Or maybe now it is.

Remarkably, just the other day Councillor Jones wanted to “designate all of Sandwich Town as having historical significance” to prevent the building of a new bridge there. So the Star directly supports what Jones wants to do, without saying that, by setting out its history. That history is not for us by the way but presumably for the politicians and bureaucrats out of town who get the Star through their clipping services or online. Of course, who had the foresight to set up the Sandwich Development Commission a year ago as a bridge blocker---our fearless Mayor!

Finally the Star concludes by supporting the “isolated, industrial area” in the West End for the crossing. Notice also that there is not a negative word about the roadway to the border crossing selected. Again that is close to what the Bridge Co. wanted to do with the City’s WALTS suggestion. Clearly that is our new road to the crossing since even Brian Masse indirectly supports it. He's onside too now!

But then there is a big, big problem for the Star which they neglected to mention in their Editorial. If you were not careful though you would miss it.

There, buried on Page 13 if you can believe it, not Page, 2 or 3 or even 5 where border stories are usually positioned, is the story on the Detroit Council Resolution opposing a bridge through Delray! It is the Sandwich equivalent on the other side of the river from Prospect where the Star wants the crossing! It would be destroyed if the bridge goes through there! Check out my BLOG on November 2------“Environmental Justice And The Border.” How does one reconcile saving Sandwich and destroying Delray! The Star does not tell us because there is NO intention of putting a bridge there now.

In reality, the Mayor, Council and the Star know that the Bridge Co. has won. After all, the Ambassador Gateway is the preferred US plaza. That does not fit into the Mayor’s business model which I believe was to control both the Detroit Tunnel and the bridge, either a new one or the Ambassador Bridge. [That was the purpose of the infamous Agenda Item #5]. He wanted to out-Hurst Hurst.

The Bridge Co. in effect destroyed his main Plan with the 200 booth proposal and the deal with Kwame. So Eddie is now in his fall-back position---provide all kinds of roadblocks and irritants to the Bridge Co. by such things as the Sandwich Development Corporation (which he told the Ward 2 Councillors about minutes before he introduced it at the Sandwich Town Hall meeting I was told), favouring the Prospect corridor, designating Sandwich as “historical” and who knows what else until the Bridge co. blinks and begs the City to partner with them.

I hate to break the news to Eddie but if he had followed this alliance concept about 6 months ago when the Bridge Co. ran the series of ads asking the City to partner with them, then they might have done so. Now they can tell the City where to go since they no longer need Windsor’s approvals as they spend their money in SW Detroit building up its economic future as our auto jobs and perhaps even now the Chrysler HQ move out of Windsor.