How The Mighty Have Fallen
Poor Mike Hurst. It just hit me when I was driving around the other day and saw the mobile sign for his South Windsor meeting. All of a sudden I felt very sorry for him. Remember how it used to be for him and how it is now. The stark contrast between the before and after must be difficult for him to take.
He must have had a pretty big budget at one time. Full-page ads in the Star were the norm. I forgot how many of them they ran but the Star's Advertising Department must have been happy. Now the best they can do to announce Mike Rohrer's position is a small ad. Where are the full-page ads for their Green Solution meetings? Sure they had some mailings but not the big, glossy brochures as before.
Their website was a very attractive one and quite well done I thought. Have you looked at it recently? It's pretty out of date! The public meetings referred to are in 2004 with nothing after that it seems. On their NEWS page, February, 2006 is the only recent item and their sample ads are old ones with their archives of newsletters ending in August, 2004. Why it's as if they have not been doing anything worthwhile for years. Maybe they have not but perhaps it is because poor Mike does not have enough money to have DRTP's website updated.
Mike is a pretty outgoing guy generally from what I have seen of him. Yet perhaps he is concerned about speaking with community members except in a controlled environment like a presentation. It seems that the last person to talk to DRTP was "Chris W." way back on October 14, 2005 on their Feedback page. Personally, I believe that they may be embarrassed to have too much feedback with residents. That may be why they used a telemarketing type recorded announcement via the phone to get people out to their South Windsor meeting rather than using humans. Can you blame DRTP? Which person would want to be shouted at all day long by STOPDRTP supporters!
The billboards make what is happening to Mike so pathetic. Oh those billboards promoting the Jobs Tunnel. They were everywhere you looked at one time. They were ubiquitous. No matter where you turned, there was one of them staring back at you. If I recall correctly, they had a huge one just where vehicles approached the Ambassador Bridge---seemingly thumbing their nose at their major competitor.
Look at the top of the page again. A mobile sign. Is that the best they can do now? One mobile I saw was on Huron Church and another on Dougall near the old Funeral home site that DRTP bought. How appropriate though wouldn't you say--a DRTP cemetary plot with a DRTP Mobile headstone.
The ultimate indignity, the ultimate shame, is DRTP supporting Eddie's "Rails for Trails" as they try to build pressure for someone, anyone, to deal with their corridor. Can you imagine how hard Mike has to swallow his combative pride as he spits out what the Mayor wants to do. How ironic that the Councillor who was under him at Council, with whom he had a very difficult relationship and who really beat him for the Mayor's job (although Mike did not run) may determine Mike's future and that of his DRTP project!
Instead of promoting the virtues of Windsor as he once did as Mayor, Mike now has to make a presentation to sell the unsaleable, salvage the unsalvageable, and market the unmarketable.
As for his efforts to get people out for the 7 PM meeting, his former buddies at the Labour Council are having a big public meeting with the Mayor and Council on the same day starting at 6:30 PM. Don't Mayors and former Mayors, and their staff, ever check a calendar before setting up a meeting to see if there are any conflicts?
He must have had a pretty big budget at one time. Full-page ads in the Star were the norm. I forgot how many of them they ran but the Star's Advertising Department must have been happy. Now the best they can do to announce Mike Rohrer's position is a small ad. Where are the full-page ads for their Green Solution meetings? Sure they had some mailings but not the big, glossy brochures as before.
Their website was a very attractive one and quite well done I thought. Have you looked at it recently? It's pretty out of date! The public meetings referred to are in 2004 with nothing after that it seems. On their NEWS page, February, 2006 is the only recent item and their sample ads are old ones with their archives of newsletters ending in August, 2004. Why it's as if they have not been doing anything worthwhile for years. Maybe they have not but perhaps it is because poor Mike does not have enough money to have DRTP's website updated.
Mike is a pretty outgoing guy generally from what I have seen of him. Yet perhaps he is concerned about speaking with community members except in a controlled environment like a presentation. It seems that the last person to talk to DRTP was "Chris W." way back on October 14, 2005 on their Feedback page. Personally, I believe that they may be embarrassed to have too much feedback with residents. That may be why they used a telemarketing type recorded announcement via the phone to get people out to their South Windsor meeting rather than using humans. Can you blame DRTP? Which person would want to be shouted at all day long by STOPDRTP supporters!
The billboards make what is happening to Mike so pathetic. Oh those billboards promoting the Jobs Tunnel. They were everywhere you looked at one time. They were ubiquitous. No matter where you turned, there was one of them staring back at you. If I recall correctly, they had a huge one just where vehicles approached the Ambassador Bridge---seemingly thumbing their nose at their major competitor.
Look at the top of the page again. A mobile sign. Is that the best they can do now? One mobile I saw was on Huron Church and another on Dougall near the old Funeral home site that DRTP bought. How appropriate though wouldn't you say--a DRTP cemetary plot with a DRTP Mobile headstone.
The ultimate indignity, the ultimate shame, is DRTP supporting Eddie's "Rails for Trails" as they try to build pressure for someone, anyone, to deal with their corridor. Can you imagine how hard Mike has to swallow his combative pride as he spits out what the Mayor wants to do. How ironic that the Councillor who was under him at Council, with whom he had a very difficult relationship and who really beat him for the Mayor's job (although Mike did not run) may determine Mike's future and that of his DRTP project!
Instead of promoting the virtues of Windsor as he once did as Mayor, Mike now has to make a presentation to sell the unsaleable, salvage the unsalvageable, and market the unmarketable.
As for his efforts to get people out for the 7 PM meeting, his former buddies at the Labour Council are having a big public meeting with the Mayor and Council on the same day starting at 6:30 PM. Don't Mayors and former Mayors, and their staff, ever check a calendar before setting up a meeting to see if there are any conflicts?
It's nice for him that people attended his South Windsor DRTP presentation last night. He probably needed a morale boost by this time.
posted by JoeBlog at 6:35 a.m.
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