Tiny Stories

It's cold out there and you probably need some extra reading this morning as you finish that extra large coffee you brought to work to help warm you up.

Here are some more short and quick notes for you to ponder:

DOES SELLING YOUR SOUL FOR THE DOWNTOWN HELP

Wasn't it Mark Boscariol who said he would switch from helping his friend to support Mayor Eddie Francis

• "Boscariol, who backed Bill Marra's failed 2003 mayoral campaign, swore he would switch sides and support Francis in 2006 if he could bring a campus downtown."

His unflattering comments in Henderson's column suggest that he should have encouraged Bill to run for Mayor since Bill was the big backer of the Urban Village downtown, a big backer of an exciting downtown and an opponent of Eddie's Interim Contol By-law.

Here is what Boscariol complained about:

• "Boscariol lambasted city hall for foot-dragging on several fronts, including transfer of the Cleary to St. Clair College, the promised urban village, business incentives and streetscaping... city can get the lead out when it feels a sense of urgency. The arena is living proof we don't have to accept city time...He said too many of the city's ideas sit on the shelf."

Here is what Francis can show as his accomplishments:

• "He cited work on the downtown transit terminal and Dieppe Gardens Peace Beacon and said the Cleary keys are to be formally handed over to St. Clair on March 9...As for the urban village, Francis said a report to council in February will enable the city to issue a request for proposals"

Geeeeeeeeez Eddie you forgot the Keg! Note none of Francis' results have been completed and the two that he said were started are hugely over-budget. Quite a record achievement eh.

MARRA SLAMMED ALREADY

Wow, I thought it was a no-brainer. Tunnelling = "Mother(Father)hood as an issue. Who would dare say NO to it. It was Eddie's fundamental non-strategy wasn't it that got him re-elected and Henderson's command to the forces.

Well in Monday's Star, there are Eddie's buddies Councillors Halberstadt and Valentinis expressing opposition to the nothing Motion Bill put forward to support a tunnel. Even with all of the anti-diesel stories that the Star published on Monday too to help out! This is twice in a few days that Battagello has been by-passed on Eddie moves. What has he done wrong?

That was quick to destroy Bill's mayoral hopes by two of the possible contenders. Make him look foolish right away.

It also tells me that "tunnelling" as a strategy is dead, near-term anyway. That PLUS the comments by Halberstadt and Brister that they want to work with the Senior Levels PLUS the Interim Control By-law for Sandwich are the clearest signals that Eddie is backing off embarrassing the Senior Levels on a tunnel for now and wants to form an alliance against the Bridge Co.

Given their animosity to Francis, will the Senior Levels be fooled or will they try and use him for their purposes?

And what will the Bridge Co. do----what they have been doing: fixing the border themselves at their expense while the politicians fiddle!

FISCHING FOR A NEW PRESIDENT FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

A little birdie told me that the City may have found a new CEO finally. The search group headed by Remo Mancini formerly an executive with the Ambassador Bridge Co. (see I did not get the memo about his re-invention either) may have selected a person to take over the job finally.

If it is the same gentleman, he has had experience in London and the Halton region. Interestingly, he may have had a leg up on others since he was "Retained to carry out a review of the programs and services of the Windsor Essex County Development Commission."

We'll see how good my inside moles are.

Speaking of the Development Commission, there are also rumours that, as expected, Tecumseh is looking at pulling their funding from the Commission as well. You guessed it .. the arena issue. They were the ones most hesitant to take the regional approach. They wanted to test Eddie very early in the process and the arena gave them the perfect opportunity.

CLEARY TAKEOVER...IS THE CAPITOL NEXT

Nice to know that Gord Henderson was told when the deal between the City and St. Clair is to be done. Too bad the Mayor could not let the peon taxpayers in on the secret. I wonder if the rest of the Councillors were in on the secret

I wonder how everything was resolved...probably giving St. Clair the Capitol Theatre for free will help!

SAVING SOULS IS OUT, SAVING BUILDINGS IS IN

On Monday, it will be interesting how Council turns down putting in a few dollars into Brentwood but will spend who knows how much on the Capitol including writing off a huge debt owed to the City.

With all of the budget over-runs this City is experiencing, are we ever in trouble at tax time!

NOT EVERYONE ENJOYED THE WARD 2 STRATEGY SESSION

Wow, take a look at Chris Schnurr's Blogsite. http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/ I cannot believe that someone would be so dumb as to threaten Chris at a public meeting. I hope that there were witnesses! I am shocked that City Hall did not take steps to ensure the safety of citizens at meetings like this.

I also received an email from someone who was not too pleased at what went on. I have chnaged it slightly to protect his/her identity. Here is the note:

• "I never thought in a million years I would have reason to contact you Mr.Arditti through this web site. I have read your blog for about 10 months now, perhaps more and you always call the kettle black and shoot from the hip. I have people at work now reviewing your comments and discuss your blog 'at the watercooler' so to speak.
  
  I and my friends have just returned home after walking out of the Ward 2 meeting at the College Community Centre. What a bunch of bureaucratic propaganda!
  
  People were assigned tables and that is fine by me. You register at the door and are assigned a seat. We arrived at 1:25. They said we would have to be split up. Under other circumstances this would have been no problem but since we were the only home owners from [a street], we wanted our neigbourhood represented in a united front. Persons from another neghbourhood may or may not have had the same issues as ours.
  
  We were asked to fill out name tags and wear them. This I found offensive. Sure it helps to know the first name of persons sitting at your table but I did not go to talk to them. I wanted to address my neighbourhood concerns. Their name did not concern me, their issues did however. For the record that would have been graffiti and rental houses being used for drug running, all of which are a stones throw from my door step. I named myself "X" and my friend "Y" to retaliate. (They have our names and address on the registration sheet and which table we were to be seated at.) We were given new blank tags. (We should have just been told we had detention.) That didn't bother me. It is awful hard to offend me. Been in the west end, this same ward for 50+ years. Street smart? Yes. Educated? Yes. Can recognize a public bl** job when it slaps me in the face? Yes? No I did not complete a new tag. My friend did.
  
  I understand the importance of structure and discussion forums BUT papers handed to us to review before our group discussion did not list areas we were concerned with. It appeared to be premeditated issues of which someone at the City deemed relevant. I say appeared because I was so irritated I left. The table facilitator had a chart with agree or disagree boxes to be checked during the discusson. Talk about leading the masses to slaughter. Are these people so naive that they are willing to sit around for 3 hours and listen to what the city wants to address? Again, I did not stay so in all fairness they may have covered our concerns and whether they would have been acknowledged, I will never know.
  
  The organization was a bit under planned but I understand that upheaval at the beginning due to the unanticipated attendance.
  
  I should have stayed throughout but I was afraid if I sat through 3 hours and not found anything relevant to us I would just boil harder and longer. Perhaps you know of persons who had attended the other Ward meetings? Hopefully, then you could get other feedback. Perhaps from someone who sat through it all. By the attendance numbers, that shouldn't be too hard a feat.
  
  Thank you Mr. Arditti for allowing me to vent. I hope I have not taken up too much of your time but this letter has been very therapeutic. I would be interested to know if you received other comments.

LUCKY POLLYANNA

Gord's friend "Pollyanna is happily awaiting the replacement of a couple of Windsor's most embarrassing eyesores in 2007. She plans to be sipping a chardonnay on the patio of the new Peace Beacon in Dieppe Gardens when they knock down that travesty called the Cleary Guesthouse."

Polly must be a tourist since Windsor taxpayers may be sipping Kool-Aid by the time this project is done. Its cost as outlined in the City Agenda Item is now over $3.2M. It was supposed to cost...well I am not sure after reading the Administration Report.

However, going back in time I found this story:

• Dieppe pavilion to cost $400,000;


• October 7, 2004
  
  Demolishing the aging concession stand in Dieppe Gardens and replacing it with a pavilion built into the banking along Riverside Drive is expected to cost $400,000.
  
  Dubbed beacons in the city's four-year-old Central Riverfront Implementation Plan, the five park pavilions planned for the riverfront will house washrooms, concession stands, information services and shelters.
  
  Most will feature a sloping landscaped roof, designed to blend into the banking.
  
  The Dieppe pavilion will be known as the Peace Beacon."

Eight times higher than what was talked about only a few years ago. You can write a comment as well as I to finish up this story.

Nawwwwwwww I won't talk about the arena and what it will ultimately cost! Too easy a target.