Thoughts and Opinions On Today's Important Issues

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

It Does NOT Add Up


OMG, fer sure man, that latest City Greenlink ad is really cool and totally awesome. Like gross, someone had to stay up late at night doing all that math. Barf me out, I would've been freakin'. I would not have stayed up crunching numbers when I could've partied instead. What a bummer.

Another full-page ad in the Windsor Star thanks to the deep pockets of the taxpayers of Windsor. Don't you worry, I know it wasn't budgetted for, but money is no object, especially taxpayer money, when the careers of certain Members of Council are at stake.

I'm not quite sure how seven years fit into all this. I knew there were previous discussions but I must admit that I would have thought this border issue started in November/December of 2002 when the Joint Management Committee report came out publicly.

Eddie has this Mike fixation it seems. Eddie just had to drag ex-Mayor Mike Hurst into this mess as well didn't he so he can share in the blame. However, whether it is five years or seven years, it really doesn't matter. Who was the Mayor for most of that time and who was elected to solve the problem? Our fearful leader, Eddie!

Did you notice that the tone of the ad was one of desperation? As I tried to point out, the number of people approving Greenlink is not very impressive. For all the money being spent, it looks like a lot of people aren't convinced that Greenlink is realistic or doable. They understand the game that is being played and are tired of being used as pawns.

It's been opened up to the entire County of Essex now and not just to Windsorites. After all, Warden Santos has to do something to help out his new, bestest buddy. Why that's regional cooperation at its finest, except for Big Box stores. Maybe now LaSalle's Mayor Baxter will support Greenlink. (As a Letter to the Editor said "Maybe some day you [Baxter] might need the help of Windsor's residents for one of your projects.")

Speaking of things being added up, it looks like some numbers were missed. I'm not quite sure how they would fit in with the message being conveyed in the ad. Let me tell you what some of them are to be helpful:
  1. $300 million of Border Infrastructure Fund money not used to build a road to the border

  2. billions of dollars sitting around waiting for this Mayor and Council to put forward a cooperative proposal and not a proposal designed to counter

  3. 10,000 direct and indirect, high-paying jobs not created

  4. $3.5 million paid to lawyers and consultants

  5. one year wasted on THINKING BIG

  6. almost two years wasted on FULL TUNNELLING

  7. how many more months to be wasted on GREENLINK

  8. four full-page ads in the Windsor Star so far, five Ward meetings, mailing to thousands of households

  9. many radio ads

  10. 98% of the Windsor population not sending in notices of approval of what is being proposed

I just figured out what this all added up to:

TOTAL INCOMPETENCE AND

TOTAL FAILURE

PS. Now I don't want to be an old stick in the mud. However, I think someone should tell the really cool and very hip advertising agency of the City that their numbers are all wrong. I think they forgot about leap year and the extra day that is added. You know, an extra day of stalling, 24 extra hours of snubbing the Senior Levels of Government and threatening them with lawsuits, 1,440 minutes of asking why no one listens to Windsor.

Do you feel me?