Reading Other Media

Here are some quick thoughts on some interesting ideas I saw in the media:

EDDIE WANTS TO MEET ME

Did you read this about what the Mayor is going to do to sell Sam's concept:

"The public meeting will be followed by an advertising campaign, a series of community open houses and flyers distributed to every household. Francis said he wants residents to join the lobby, and he hopes to personally meet with some of the doubters and DRIC supporters, including the leaders of LaSalle and Tecumseh, to try to convince them that Windsor's plan is superior and can be done."

A lot of money is going to be spent. I guess he wants to meet the "doubters" as much as his colleague, Junior, wanted to meet with WeACT and answer their four easy questions. Those answers are still outstanding after a considerable period of time.

I guess that Kennie's action was a test case for how the Mayor will NOT meet anyone who may disagree with him unless it is under his terms and conditions.

I wonder if you will forget about the cost of the arena and WUC as this PR campaign goes on. How will Eddie tie in the Mexican immigration as justification for everything is what I am waiting for tonight.

WHY GRIDLOCK SAM IS DOOMED TO FAIL, AGAIN

Some interesting stories coming out of MDOT in Port Huron these days that are applicable in Windsor as quoted in the Port Huron Times Herald. You will see now more proof about why my theory about the DRIC exercise being nothing more than an attempt to force the Ambassador Bridge Company to sell out makes an awful lot of sense.

Here are some quotes of interest:

1. Re Mitigation : "Mitigation is a very specific thing," said Paul McAllister, the project coordinator. "Mitigation is legally required. Anything above what is required by law is enhancement."
   
   Replacing wetlands or protecting a neighborhood from noise and light pollution is mitigation, for example, because they are legally required. Building walls in a visually appealing way or providing bicycle paths would be examples of enhancement."
   
   [And how much of what Sam is going to wow us with is "enhancement" that Windsorites will have to pay for. Oh, you mean the Mayor has neglected to tell us that! I wonder why.]


2. "Transportation officials say the collapse of efforts to share border-inspection facilities in Buffalo, N.Y., also doomed any hope of inspecting vehicles in Canada before they cross the Blue Water Bridge...
   
   Audience members questioned why vehicles are allowed to cross the bridge, which rises more than 150 feet above the St. Clair River, before they are inspected for explosives, biochemicals, dirty bombs or other hazards..."
   
   [So much for redundancy and security being a concern and justifying a new bridge]


3. "Projections showing a 50% increase in bridge traffic within 20 years are based on an analysis of trends dating to 1979."
   
   [I cannot believe it. The same type of optimistic traffic projections that were used here to justify the building of a new bridge are being used again in Port Huron. Didn't the traffic experts check out the actual as compared with the projected traffic volumes of the past in the area! Mega projects running wild.]


4. "Plaza expansion, including increasing the number of inspection booths from 13 to at least 20, is necessary even if traffic levels stay flat. McAllister noted traffic backups on Highway 402 in Sarnia frequently extend two to three miles. "
   
   [Gee, isn't that what the Ambassador Bridge Company has been doing and is doing at our border crossing?]


5. "Property owners displaced by the plaza project will receive 125% of fair-market value. ...There are so many homes on the market, it's no problem,"
   
   [Terrific comfort for the people on Talbot Road. The number of unsold homes does not say very much about the Windsor economy however.]


6. "Although the plaza would triple in size, air quality is expected to improve. Traffic should move through the plaza more quickly, meaning fewer backups on the bridge."
   
   [The Ambassador Bridge Company experts said the same thing with respect to their Enhancement Project.]


7. "The new plaza won't divide Port Huron any more than it already is, Webb said, noting the plaza's east-to-west dimensions do not change. The number of north-south corridors also will remain the same. "
   
   [The Bridge Company will not increase the size of their plaza either so that Sandwich is not impacted.]

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND

There was an interesting article in the National Post the other day "Minister too slow to spend." In the article, it said that the Government

• "is sitting on a $33-billion fund to be spent under its Buildings Canada Infrastructure Plan over the next seven years, and it hopes to leverage a further $50-billion from provincial and private-sector partners."

Now that's a lot of money to be used to win a majority government, errrrrrr to help make up the infrastructure deficit in this country.

How much of it do you think will be used in the Windsor area for the new crossing? Do the Conservatives really believe that they have a chance of winning a new seat down here? Do the Conservatives want to help out our Mayor, the fellow who has threatened to sue them on how many occasions, and who is ganging up on them with the Province? Do the Conservatives want to ensure that Jeff Watson is returned to Ottawa?

Do you know what the ultimate irony might be? The Conservative Government spends a ton of money down here to create high-paying, infrastructure jobs to help Jeff Watson get re-elected but spend it instead on the road to the Ambassador Bridge as an "intermediate solution" as they table the DRIC process.

MAYOR RETURNS MONEY TO TAXPAYERS

You might want to check out this story "Mayor Returns $48 Million to Taxpayers, Then Retires" http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22111

The story states:

• "This practically unheard-of largesse is courtesy of Crestwood Mayor Chester Stranczek and his trustees, who have engineered such an efficient village government for the nearly 12,000 residents that they literally can pass out money to ease the property tax burden...
  
  When he first became mayor 39 years ago, Stranczek promised property owners that some day the village would pay their taxes.
  
  "They told me I was crazy," Stranczek said, but undeterred he began running the village like a business--a very lean business.
  
  Stranczek, who retires this fall, explains it is done through a combination of privatization of village services, a friendly business climate, and fiscal restraint, all while providing a high degree of personal service.
  
  Long before privatization became a familiar word, Crestwood was actively seeking more efficient and less costly contract providers for just about every municipal service."

I wonder if the City's International Relations Committee might want to twin with the Village of Crestwood. I know that the trip would not be as exotic as going overseas, nevertheless the Committee might actually bring back some useful information that could be used to help out taxpayers by decreasing taxes. Or in Windsor's case, to spend on new extravaganzas.

Wouldn't it be ironic, if this Crestwood concept was carried out during the term of our Mayor, Mayor Lewenza? After all, he will have experience in laying off union members, as Chair of the Windsor Utilities Commission, if water and sewer services are made part of a P3 solution.

COUNCILLOR BRISTER'S FAVOURITE BLOGGER MAKES THE BIG TIME

You see, if he only had more sense, the Councillor formerly known as Councillor Budget could have been interviewed as part of the Canadian Business Magazine article on "Watermaingate." (Yes, the coined word finally made the big time news media).

Windsor and the Windsor Utilities Commission fiasco was one of the examples quoted in the Magazine's article "Things Fall Apart." That article talked about how infrastructure could be paid for in the future using private funds.

Oh I am not the Blogger that I referred to. That honour goes to the Mayor of Monmouth, Peter Angermann, who was extensively quoted in the story. Peter could have praised the Councillor in the story and helped boost his career. It would have made also another fine addition to the Councillor's increasingly bulging media scrapbook.

I am certain that Peter would have wanted to say something nice about the Councillor but he had to go off and do some charity work instead.

WHAT IS OUR ECONOMIC FUTURE NOW

I certainly would not want to depend upon the Gazelle Feeders for our future. Thank goodness for Tony Toldo and his friends who have finally figured out that Windsor needs them and cannot rely upon its Municipal Government for economic development.

Windsor's success was built on the automobile industry. Hopefully, the new Engineering Complex will be the beginning of Windsor becoming the "Automobile Intellectual Capital of Canada." That is provided that certain people don't mess it up for their own agenda.

Tourism was supposed to be our new salvation with thousands of people being hired in that industry. You remember all the stories about the Casino and how it was going to boost our downtown. Well you saw what happened to our downtown. But don't worry, the Casino expansion will make everything all right. The only problems in that optimistic view of the world are the opening of new Casinos in Detroit and stories like this that I saw on MSN/Sympatico:

• "Paul Hicks, who operates the Chalet in the Woods in Haliburton, Ont., said the number of Canadians visiting his bed and breakfast began dropping last year, but fell significantly this year.
  
  "Very few Americans are now staying at our place and we see very few American license plates around town," he said. "Tourism is down anyway, but particularly from the United States."
  
  Hicks said Americans have told him a trip to Canada isn't a bargain anymore, and the difference in gas prices acts as a double-whammy.
  
  "That's a big whack to them when they drive up here in their SUVs and their Hummers," Hicks said.
  
  The number of U.S. visitors to Ontario is at a 30-year low and is expected to plummet further once passports are required at land border crossings.
  
  Tourism experts predict once passports are required at land border crossings, U.S. trips north will nosedive by 14.1 million a year, leading to a revenue loss of $3.2 billion."

And our Mayor is still trying to flog the new and improved, many times rewritten Schwartz report to prove that he was right after all for ego gratification rather than working with the Ambassador Bridge Company and the Senior Levels of Government to work on a solution that will bring thousands of high-paying jobs to Windsor and fill up our hotel rooms until such time as our new economy is ready to roll.

It really is so sad.