Letters From The BLOG Readers
Here are some more comments from Readers just like you.
And if you want some fun as well, check out the emails on http://www.themunicipalgremlin.com/ Try and find out if there are [Expletive Deleted] ones:
1) The cat is finally out of the bag. We now know where the downriver span is supposed to go. Bucks will come pouring down in the mega billions, and not just for Windsor-Essex.
Here goes: 2.6 billion for the DRIC-Greenlink-pie-in-the-sky road to the EC Row Expressway, at least a billion more for the Canadian half of the "new" Brighton Beach bridge and plaza and another 300-400 million so that trucks can get to it. Wow! And that's just on the Canadian side.
No doubt the Yanks will turn cartwheels of joy as DRIC gently explains that their taxpayers should cough up another billion or more for their half of the sparkling new bridge and plaza and millions more for connecting roads to their interstate highways. Never mind that the Americans are already spending at least that much to connect I-75 and I-96 to the Ambassador Bridge.
There will be so much construction in the border cities that Windsor's new arena will seem like a weekend fence building project. Since neither Detroit nor Windsor has any money to pay for any of this, maybe the two mayors can organize tag days and rummage sales to get the ball rolling. Taxpayers on both sides of the border, open your wallets!
2) I wonder if the city would give me the same deal on the Airport as they did
for the Spits?
3) Who would pay for policing and fire of the Detroit side of the Windsor controlled tunnel?
How much of the plaza on the other side would Windsor have to pay taxes for?
Taxes on the tunnel to the City of Detroit?
Maybe Kwame is a little smarter than Eddie.
He can turn around and charge Windsor millions for protection services.
Just a thought.
4) I have been through those trips to London with my brother for several operations over nine years and they aren't anywhere near fun! So I kind of know what you went through on the weekend. Hoping that everything is okay!!
5) Your latest blog on the traffic presents both a compelling legal and technical arguement for not constructing a new bridge through DRIC!
6) So were Buzz and Lewenza born in a manger on a winter night? They are happy to accept the largesse of the Premier to throw tax dollars at the auto plants and then keep the man hour cost in the $80 per hour range when it is sharply lower in the USA. I have no doubt what this leadership is going to do to our remaining unionized auto industry in Ontario. Let's hope Toyota, Honda and Suzuki continue to operate competitively.
Then we bring in these guys to solve municipal disagreements with the province
7) Ed, I hope that every thing is going well with your wife. Many of us have had to go out of Windsor to get medical treatment that is currently not available here. This practise although necessary is difficult on the patient and the family members. Hopefully more and more of these special procedures will be done locally in the not to distant future.
Excellant comments and observations in todays Blog. May I suggest that the money that could be saved as you suggest. be used to set up a Fund for the University of Windsor expressly for research to eliminate and/ or collect then destroy the exhaust emissions from the trucks.
As you know neither the Dric plan nor the Windsor Geen Link plan really address this key issue!
8) Good Morning Ed,
I was sorry to hear about your wife's health issues and the added attendant emotional, physical and financial toll on families when out of town health care is required. I hope she is progressing well and on track for a full and speedy recovery.
As an aside, this is another vivid reminder of the need to ensure that every tax dollar is used wisely to maximum benefit since needs invariably exceed available resources.
Take care and best wishes for good health and happiness.
9) [Re BLOG Long and winding road]Unfortunate typo: Long and “winding” road should have been “whining” road
10) [RE W.E. Did] Great column Ed!
I thought the EXACT same thing when I read that load of hogwash in The Star.
I agree that saying positive things about Windsor is important but why gloss over all of the negatives? Do we not strive for 100% or is 60%, 80% or 99% "good enough"? I am from the persuasion that you never stop reaching upwards regardless if the goals set. In Windsor we don't reach, we expect others to come down and hand it to us. That is the mentality that has been cultivated here for 20 years.
You know the saying. "It is easier to demolish to divide than it is to build and come together". No wonder thy city wants to sue everyone and do it their way....
11) [Re Long And Winding Road] EXCEPTIONAL BLOG
12) [Re: More On The 400 Building Audit] As ALWAYS, it is not so much the misbehavior as the cover up that has become the story! Will they never learn!
13) You were right on the money with the Library As The City column. How dare Eddie complain about the process at the library board when he himself conducts the too numerous in-camera meetings when he ran on a platform of city transparency. What about the severance of the numerous CEO's of the WEDC? What about Manager's at city hall being let go.
All this tells me is that what is good for everyone else isn't good for Eddie.
Can Eddie refute any of the facts laid out in your column? I don't think so.
14) If there ever was a critical role for Windsor to play it was to demand that DIBC build a new bridge ten years ago. And then, from an insider position, to work to develop the best roadway and inspection facilities possible.
15) I would like to say that I am a frequent reader of your blogs as well as many others on the WE Speak Blogroll. I would personally like to say thank you for being so supportive of the library board and telling it like it is.
16) How dare they compare us to Tijuana, here in Windsor and the rest of Ontario, our women can legally go topless in public, they can't do that in San Diego or Tijuana. Hey maybe I'm on to something here, better contact Eddie and the tourist board!
17) If I am to " Tell your MPP the solution is Greenlink" why am I asked to mail this card to the City of Windsor?
18) Keep up the good work- your blog is a vital voice in the new communications era.
19) Looks like Transport wants someone to pay for road and bridge. Only a fool would consider that to be a benefit to our region
20) Has anyone fiqured out the yearly payments on a $75M loan?
Even using a 30 year amortization payments are well over $5M per year. I thought I read the yearly income from the tunnel operation somewhere but if it does not cover the payments then what?
21) Unfortunately, the Commission is a rudderless ship in stormy seas in dire need of a seasoned helmsman!
22) [Re Making DRIC bureaucrats accountable] Au contraire, blogmeister. You can be assured that Matty Moroun knows how much his new bridge will cost and he can state with some confidence how many vehicles will use it. He can also tell, maybe better than anyone at DRIC, what theirs will cost and what they will have to charge in tolls to recover its cost. . .as if that matters to government.
And if you want some fun as well, check out the emails on http://www.themunicipalgremlin.com/ Try and find out if there are [Expletive Deleted] ones:
1) The cat is finally out of the bag. We now know where the downriver span is supposed to go. Bucks will come pouring down in the mega billions, and not just for Windsor-Essex.
Here goes: 2.6 billion for the DRIC-Greenlink-pie-in-the-sky road to the EC Row Expressway, at least a billion more for the Canadian half of the "new" Brighton Beach bridge and plaza and another 300-400 million so that trucks can get to it. Wow! And that's just on the Canadian side.
No doubt the Yanks will turn cartwheels of joy as DRIC gently explains that their taxpayers should cough up another billion or more for their half of the sparkling new bridge and plaza and millions more for connecting roads to their interstate highways. Never mind that the Americans are already spending at least that much to connect I-75 and I-96 to the Ambassador Bridge.
There will be so much construction in the border cities that Windsor's new arena will seem like a weekend fence building project. Since neither Detroit nor Windsor has any money to pay for any of this, maybe the two mayors can organize tag days and rummage sales to get the ball rolling. Taxpayers on both sides of the border, open your wallets!
2) I wonder if the city would give me the same deal on the Airport as they did
for the Spits?
3) Who would pay for policing and fire of the Detroit side of the Windsor controlled tunnel?
How much of the plaza on the other side would Windsor have to pay taxes for?
Taxes on the tunnel to the City of Detroit?
Maybe Kwame is a little smarter than Eddie.
He can turn around and charge Windsor millions for protection services.
Just a thought.
4) I have been through those trips to London with my brother for several operations over nine years and they aren't anywhere near fun! So I kind of know what you went through on the weekend. Hoping that everything is okay!!
5) Your latest blog on the traffic presents both a compelling legal and technical arguement for not constructing a new bridge through DRIC!
6) So were Buzz and Lewenza born in a manger on a winter night? They are happy to accept the largesse of the Premier to throw tax dollars at the auto plants and then keep the man hour cost in the $80 per hour range when it is sharply lower in the USA. I have no doubt what this leadership is going to do to our remaining unionized auto industry in Ontario. Let's hope Toyota, Honda and Suzuki continue to operate competitively.
Then we bring in these guys to solve municipal disagreements with the province
7) Ed, I hope that every thing is going well with your wife. Many of us have had to go out of Windsor to get medical treatment that is currently not available here. This practise although necessary is difficult on the patient and the family members. Hopefully more and more of these special procedures will be done locally in the not to distant future.
Excellant comments and observations in todays Blog. May I suggest that the money that could be saved as you suggest. be used to set up a Fund for the University of Windsor expressly for research to eliminate and/ or collect then destroy the exhaust emissions from the trucks.
As you know neither the Dric plan nor the Windsor Geen Link plan really address this key issue!
8) Good Morning Ed,
I was sorry to hear about your wife's health issues and the added attendant emotional, physical and financial toll on families when out of town health care is required. I hope she is progressing well and on track for a full and speedy recovery.
As an aside, this is another vivid reminder of the need to ensure that every tax dollar is used wisely to maximum benefit since needs invariably exceed available resources.
Take care and best wishes for good health and happiness.
9) [Re BLOG Long and winding road]Unfortunate typo: Long and “winding” road should have been “whining” road
10) [RE W.E. Did] Great column Ed!
I thought the EXACT same thing when I read that load of hogwash in The Star.
I agree that saying positive things about Windsor is important but why gloss over all of the negatives? Do we not strive for 100% or is 60%, 80% or 99% "good enough"? I am from the persuasion that you never stop reaching upwards regardless if the goals set. In Windsor we don't reach, we expect others to come down and hand it to us. That is the mentality that has been cultivated here for 20 years.
You know the saying. "It is easier to demolish to divide than it is to build and come together". No wonder thy city wants to sue everyone and do it their way....
11) [Re Long And Winding Road] EXCEPTIONAL BLOG
12) [Re: More On The 400 Building Audit] As ALWAYS, it is not so much the misbehavior as the cover up that has become the story! Will they never learn!
13) You were right on the money with the Library As The City column. How dare Eddie complain about the process at the library board when he himself conducts the too numerous in-camera meetings when he ran on a platform of city transparency. What about the severance of the numerous CEO's of the WEDC? What about Manager's at city hall being let go.
All this tells me is that what is good for everyone else isn't good for Eddie.
Can Eddie refute any of the facts laid out in your column? I don't think so.
14) If there ever was a critical role for Windsor to play it was to demand that DIBC build a new bridge ten years ago. And then, from an insider position, to work to develop the best roadway and inspection facilities possible.
15) I would like to say that I am a frequent reader of your blogs as well as many others on the WE Speak Blogroll. I would personally like to say thank you for being so supportive of the library board and telling it like it is.
16) How dare they compare us to Tijuana, here in Windsor and the rest of Ontario, our women can legally go topless in public, they can't do that in San Diego or Tijuana. Hey maybe I'm on to something here, better contact Eddie and the tourist board!
17) If I am to " Tell your MPP the solution is Greenlink" why am I asked to mail this card to the City of Windsor?
18) Keep up the good work- your blog is a vital voice in the new communications era.
19) Looks like Transport wants someone to pay for road and bridge. Only a fool would consider that to be a benefit to our region
20) Has anyone fiqured out the yearly payments on a $75M loan?
Even using a 30 year amortization payments are well over $5M per year. I thought I read the yearly income from the tunnel operation somewhere but if it does not cover the payments then what?
21) Unfortunately, the Commission is a rudderless ship in stormy seas in dire need of a seasoned helmsman!
22) [Re Making DRIC bureaucrats accountable] Au contraire, blogmeister. You can be assured that Matty Moroun knows how much his new bridge will cost and he can state with some confidence how many vehicles will use it. He can also tell, maybe better than anyone at DRIC, what theirs will cost and what they will have to charge in tolls to recover its cost. . .as if that matters to government.
23) A bureaucratic mind is a beautiful thing, I have watched them all my professional career(s), in the army, in federal offices in Ottawa, in our city hall and indeed they are beautiful. NOT! These minds are anal retemptive, focused, precise, filled with their own glory, their own perceived righteousness that they know The Way and we don't - the great unwashed! They make the rules, they apply their rules, they ignore their rules and they practice Kow-Towism to their political masters while secretly smiling to themselves that their political masters are only here for a moment of their glorious time on Earth. Their attention to detail is famous throughout history, their willingness to obfuscate with obtuse archaic language that only those that are willing to submit to high salaries for no perceived work will know. The universe is large but yet they can even pigeon hole that neatly into a row of boxes because they know.
I believe that they are cloned from one universal source hidden away in the mists of time, they run the gauntlet from front line clerks to the apex of governance.
And all my life , I have been their foil, working in these bureaucracies is fun, watching them make rules and procedures, only to be hoisted on their petard when the rules/procedures don't make any sense at all, only unto themselves. I have enjoyed my work and its bureaucracies, they make me laugh and think every day. When they strived for precision and neatness, I strive for chaos and messiness.
I think everyone one should read a new book out titled: Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger, it truly refutes the bureaucratic mind.
Keep writing Ed, I have learned more of our situation here in Windsor from you and the other bloggers than I ever will from the Windsor Star, television media and of course our pet City Hall.
24)I would bet that the owner of the ambassador bridge has a cost package to the last dollar for his new bridge., because he is one smart dude.
25) I don't believe that there's a cat in hell chance of a third bridge. It's just socialist lunacy and Harper should declare it a non starter. Canadian politicians in particular make me sick
26) if I were to build a house for $200,000 and rent it to you for $1,000 a year, to include maintenance, taxes, and utilities, which of us would get the good deal? Multiply that by 150 and what do you get?
27) Is the city going to plant those flowers so low that drunken American kids can pee in them? Is that what the city means by self watering? I'm confused!
28) Interesting but sad, that we Windsor have to read out of town newspapers to get news of Windsor.
posted by JoeBlog at 9:25 a.m.
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