More Short News Items

Just a bunch of things for you to think about.

TRANSIT "INSURANCE"

My initial thought when I saw the story in the Star "Transit "payoff' angers stores" was all of the grade B-movies I have seen where the mobsters' goons tell business owners that if they don't want serious damage done to their premises they had better pay "insurance" to the mob.

In Windsor's case, the story is a slight variation:

• "Revisions to the Dougall 6 are deferred until the Downtown Windsor BIA can obtain funding to cover the additional costs associated with changing the route," the bus company said."

Apparently when the new bus terminal opened, the routing of the buses was changed and the buses were removed from Ouellette Avenue. If the businesses such as the one that is losing a hundred customers a day want them back, the businesses have to pay.

And you want to open up a small business in Windsor! I wonder what the Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor Business School would have to say about this.

Now in most of the movies I saw, the businesses had a champion who stood up for them and fought the mob. In Windsor, we have Councillor Postma. She is the Chair of Windsor Transit. All she could say was that she was not pleased, dumbfounded and uncomfortable. I wonder if she had her thesaurus with her as she was being interviewed by the Star.

In any event, the champion of the Downtown Business Association will take decisive action to "go back to transit administrators to see if some compromise can be reached."

Can you imagine Clint Eastwood doing that! Wouldn't he be saying Git-R-Done.

WINDSOR'S NEW CITY HALL

The Star story "Old Barn steeped in history, humour" is a very ironic one. It states

• "But the clock is ticking down for the Old Barn as quickly as the girders for the new WFCU Arena are being erected.

Windsor Arena is headed toward its final curtain call, but what a wild ride it's been, one most certainly worth remembering."

"Final curtain call???" "Worth remembering???" What does that mean? I don't remember anybody saying that it was going to be torn down just because the new East End Arena is going to be built.

Oh sure, I know I'm reading too much into it... it really means the end of the Barn For Spitfires hockey I will be told.

Just remember that you read here first that the Barn site will be the location of Windsor's new City Hall.

TUNNEL BUS PROBLEMS

Here we go again. More problems for those people who take the Tunnel bus to go to sports events in Detroit. It has been an ongoing problem for several years that has not yet been solved.
I will offer my advice once again to be Windsor Transit Commission and its Chair, Councillor Postma. Of course she won't take my advice because she may consider that she has a conflict. On the one hand she has a Windsor Transit Commission issue but on the other hand she is anti-anything to do with the Ambassador Bridge.

As I have suggested before, the easy answer to end the Tunnel bus problems is for the Tunnel bus to use the Ambassador Bridge!

MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE

And here I thought that Eddie running to the washroom was all due to the influx of allegedly illegal Mexican refugees. I was wrong!

What a graphic comment Eddie made:

• "It turns my stomach inside out, because I know that world-renowned experts are saying that it is doable, and it can be done within the budget (the government) has established," Francis said.

Our Mayor is not the only one who is sick with tummy troubles. I'm outraged and sick to my stomach that we have spent and are spending so much money on experts and we are asked to accept what is said on faith. All we have now is a new starting point for another $500K.

Pass me the Pepto-Bismol please!

BRIDGE COMPANY OPEN HOUSE

I attended the first session at Mackenzie Hall in Sandwich. I stayed for about an hour and as I mentioned previously, David Estrin, the City's lawyer was there for the entire time. At least while I was there, I did not see any City Councillors or the Mayor in attendance. If they were so interested in knowing about the project, I would be interested in knowing if any of them went to any of the open houses. If not, why not?

I did not see some of the Bridge Company opponents there either. Perhaps they came at some other time.

The numbers were clearly not as big as those that came out for the City to see Sam's response or who cane before to see DRIC's. Why would so many people come out to the DRIC session and the City session and not to the one of the Bridge Company?

In my opinion, the answer is inevitability.

I do not think that many people took the Bridge Company seriously when they said that they were going to build their Enhancement Project. I don't think that the Governments took them seriously until the Globe and Mail story. I have already told you what I thought was going on and how the Governments were trying to force the Bridge Company to sell out.

We know where the road to the bridge is going to be built. It is the City's WALTS road which the Bridge Company engineered to show that it would work and were attacked for doing so. Schwartz picked up on the same corridor as did DRIC and few people complained about it. That was the big surprise to me. The big numbers at the DRIC open house were people who went out to see if their homes were going to be expropriated and if not, they didn't want to know anymore about it.

We know that it is unlikely that the Governments on both sides of the river can afford to build a new crossing virtually in the same location as the Ambassador Bridge and Ambassador Gateway project. With the huge costs necessary to look at existing infrastructure to ensure their safety, how can any Legislator justify spending billions on a new crossing?

People are smart enough to understand that to build a new bridge in a brine well and salt mine area is crazy. They are smart enough to understand that the Bridge Company will build its Enhancement Project. They are tired of all of this pettiness and want the project started already. We need the 10,000 plus jobs that would be created by both of these projects and we need them now.

What will happen next... who knows. Will Michigan end funding for DRIC? Will Eddie continue to play his tunnel games? What will happen after the Provincial election? Will the Feds spend any of their surplus budget money in this area or will they spend it in other regions where they can pick up votes given that there will be a federal election shortly.

To me the tragedy of all of this is that when Eddie Francis first became Mayor he had everybody eating out of his hand on the border issue. He blew it and I don't know why. I really cannot figure out his agenda.

All I know is that the Bridge Company just kept on moving forward despite the tactics employed against them. It is inevitable now that they will get what they want. And all that we have done is waste five years and countless millions of dollars. For what?

A FLOOD OF PROBLEMS

Poor Kevin Flood. I don't know if you saw the picture of the home that he wanted torn down. It was basically half the house completely open to the elements. A chimney collapsed and he made the decision to tear down half of the house because it was a safety hazard.

I think he was chastised at Council for not putting up with a border right away around the house to protect against injuries to the public instead of making a decision to tear down the dangerous part.

Not only was he denied an exemption under the Sandwich anti-demolition bylaw, but because he went public, Bylaw Enforcement will probably have to go to his building and charge him for the violation of the bylaw for tearing down half of the house.

That's adding insult to injury but then again in Sandwich, consistency in being ridiculous is more important to this Council than redevelopment of the community.