BLOG SPECIAL: Windsor’s Future Is Being Postponed!

I may be lonely but this BLOGsite has power, real power! Don't ever forget it.

Why just one word of criticism and the Mayor's Office jumps!

Now I do not want to smirk too much (oh yes I do) but did you see the announcement about the big event that was to be hosted by the Mayor tonight at the Capitol Theatre. You know, the event "Looking Forward: Windsor’s Future in a Changing World" with Diane Francis and Glen Murray.

In case you missed it, here it is:

"Looking Forward Seminar Postponed

• Due to uncertainties surrounding the operation of the Capitol Theatre, ticket sales have been affected. Looking Forward: Windsor’s Future in a Changing World, which was scheduled to take place at the Capitol Theatre on Thursday March 8 with speakers Diane Francis and Glen Murray, has been postponed. The event will take place at a future date convenient to the presenters later this spring.
  
  Ticket holders should contact 311 for information on how to obtain tickets for the rescheduled event or refunds."

Now do you want to know something funny. I contacted the Capitol at 5:52 PM last night to see when the session was going to be re-scheduled. The Box Office was unaware that it had even been cancelled! I wonder if the guest speakers have been advised yet!

Now the Press Release went up at some time on Wednesday, March 07, 2007. I am just curious to know the exact time the decision was made to postpone. I'd like to know if it was after my first BLOG yesterday "MADE IT BY A DAY" or after my second BLOG "The BLOGmeister Gets Letters" with the two letters in the afternoon.

Well to be honest, this notice may have helped out a wee bit too:

• Capitol Rally Tomorrow Night
  Wednesday, 07 March 2007
  
  Save the Capitol Theatre! Show you care about the imminent loss of one of Windsor’sgreatest cultural icons by attending a peaceful demonstration and rally tomorrow,Thursday March 8th, 6:00 PM. sharp, in front of the Theatre.
  
  If you care, be there!!!
  
  If possible, come in costume and bring a sign: Save the Capitol!

Here is the interesting part--if the Capitol goes bankrupt, are the ticket-holders all unsecured creditors so they cannot get back their $10!

Of course the Press Release and this fiasco has to be blamed on the Mayor's Office who has to take responsibility for this event. Remember the big Mayors meeting last May that was postponed and the Tecumseh meeting:

• "According to the Star the session "has been postponed, largely because the date conflicted with the beginning of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend, city officials said on Wednesday...
  
  Of course, if there had been proper planning at City Hall, this would never have happened. It is another failing of this Administration. I guess no one there had a calendar that showed holidays in the US. It sounds so reminiscent of the fiasco involving the Windsor City Council meeting in Tecumseh. Everything last minute and then scramble."

And why didn't someone tell the Capitol that the session was postponed? Do the two invitees know yet or are they still coming to Windsor expecting to speak.

Now let's see. I am sure that there will be cancellation penalties. Probably loss of money for transportation for the speakers if they were coming by plane, their fees. All the money wasted for advertising and the money that will have to be spent again when it is rescheduled. There will be a cost for hall rental and the refreshments that cannot be served (I wonder if that will be dinner for the next Council in camera meeting.) The handling fees to refund money and then to sell tickets again etc etc etc.

Wouldn't it be a real hoot if all of that money wasted totalled around $60,000--the amount the Capitol needed.

Let's get real. The session was not postponed due to uncertainty but because the Mayor would have looked like a fool hosting the session in the first place. He would have looked like a fool in front of 2 people he was trying to impress for his future.

The Mayor is insulting the intelligence of Windsorites by his excuse. Can't he ever admit that he screwed up? Actually, he cannot as we saw with his exchanges with Alan McKinnon and Dan Stamper. He is after all, the Teflon Mayor. What a shame he cannot blame Council. Poor Norma Coleman will have to take responsibility.

I really wonder how many tickets were sold. I also wonder how many people in the crowd would have booed the Mayor when he started talking about the Arts and Windsor. I wonder how many members of the Arts Community were actually going to come out and picket.

The Mayor won't be saved if the session is rescheduled unless the Capitol is saved. In fact, it will be worse for him since people will have had time to organize properly. All that has happened is that he has bought peace from complete embarrassment for a few weeks.

BREAKING NEWS

If this information is true, and I have no reason to disbelieve it, Capitol Theatre supporters may storm City Hall!

Apparently, as of Wednesday, my inside moles tell me that there were "80 tickets sold and about 80 given away to dignitaries....whoever they are." The speakers I am told were not inexpensive either, costing many thousands.

The City claimed "ticket sales have been affected." Heck, they were nonexistent if this is true! The whole event was a bomb, a stinkeroo, a total collapse.

Doing the math, even if the Capitol was sold out, the income would only have been $6960 (seating capacity in the main theatre is 696). Deduct from that the cost of the reception and hall rental and the losses would have run into the multi-thousands. With the income of $800, well, it would have been a complete farce. I do not know to whom the freebies were granted. I'll let the Star do that work.

This appears to have been a City function. At a time when Council will not give any money to the Capitol forcing it into bankruptcy, this shameless waste of taxpayer money is a disgrace!

And the Mayor has the nerve to say about the Capitol:

• “Council is not in the business of writing blank cheques.”

These are the people who claim that the arena will make a profit....HELP!!!!!!!!!