More BlogMeister Letters

Here are more reader comments. Is yours included:

1) [RE: U of W prof wins grant to study Huron Church traffic flows] Using computer simulation??? Really! Why wouldn’t he look out the window?

2) Don't ya wish we had this king of reporting from the Windsour Star!
Please visit link: http://www.thespec.com/article/376153

3) City Council May 26: After this meeting I was ashamed to call myself a Citizen of Windsor. The mayor's antics, while unbelievable, were no different from what he's done in the past. The DRIC team, qualified professionals, came to council to explain their position. Likely they knew what was coming.

For his part, the boy wonder didn't disappoint. He hectored them, interrupted them, played the Perry Mason role and not very well. All he accomplished was to draw sympathy from viewers for the DRIC team.

One would think that a mayor knows that civil servants are expected to carry out the policies of their political masters--in this case the provincial government. DRIC people are only doing their jobs. If I represented the province, I'd say to the mayor and council enough of this nonsense. We'll pack up our plans, spend the dollars somewhere else and you can deal with the next government, be it Conservative or Liberal. Enough insults, badgering and bullying. It's over, Windsor. Enjoy your new arena.

4) ED, I ALWAYS HAVE ENJOYED THE BLOGS...IT MAKES ME ANGRY TO THINK OF ALL THE STUPIDITY AND WASTED MONEY ON THE CANADIAN SIDED PROJECTS... WHERE IN HELL ARE THE POLITICIANS THAT COULD HAVE AN EFFECT AND POWER TO RIGHT THINGS... YOU KNOW AND I KNOW, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER AMBASSADOR BRIDGE, AND IF THE PROPER TECHNOLOGY WERE TO APPLIED TO ELIMINATE THE WAITING , [ON EACH SIDE OF THE BORDERS] WE WOULD NOT HAVE THE HASSLE OF TO-DAY, AND THE HURON CHURCH ROUTE WOULD STILL BE OK , MUCH FASTER MEANS IN THIS CASE , SAFER,

5) Question, if the city sues DRIC, can I sue the city for my headache medication??? Every meeting makes my head throb even more!

6) Good morning Ed!

My Plan is better than your plan! My plan is better than your plan! And your
mother wears army boots! Or! Mine's bigger than yours!

Talk about a Urinary Olympics!

As Spanky once said; "The mayor is wrong, the mayor is wrong!" and so is
DRIC! Duncan also said; "OR nothing at all!" I think it was your blog that
said something to the effect that it would be Eddie's grandchildren that
will be witness to the grand opening of the new crossing of the Ambassador
Bridge Company's enhanced span.

Slowly and surely the bridge company lays the facts out of the stupidity of
DRIC on both sides of the border, with sound facts, basic economic and
financial intelligence and their own money! With news today of property
values dropping like lead in Michigan and less tax revenue coming in, the
communities and the state of MIchigan are going to have even less money than
what is already being invested on their side of river.

I am really hoping that the Michigan legislature is listening to Dan Stamper
et al and Mickey Kantor! The Americans have always been worried about the
slack marijuana laws in Canada and now they have proof that two levels of
government in Ontario are really smoking something!

7) I was at the Mayor's Luncheon held by the Chamber of Commerce and couldn't believe that Mayor Francis trotted out his Greenlink plan presentation on 3 big screens no less! I noticed that a number of people groaned once he started.

There was also supposed to be a Q&A after, but as the Mayor went over his alotted time at 1:45 I had to get back to work.

8) shameless show of commercialism. Red Bull appears to have sold out on the US side but only 20000 of the 50000 tickets in Windsor sold. EVERY councillor has a can of Red Bull on the desk (guess you can advertise GreenLink and Red Bull but if an individual wears a name tag - it is not allowed).

9)

10) There are consultants who can convince their clients that interminable studies at awesome levels of detail and complexity are required to fully answer whatever may seem to be their questions. As long as they have patience and money there will be more questions to be researched, more reports to be written and more presentations to be made. Only when patience and money run out will it be found that the last billable hour finally resolved the issue.

11) After having been a Windsor resident for over 40 years, it became necessary to move my family to the GTA for greater business opportunities. Since moving down here, I continue to be a big supporter of Windsor in spite of the "arm pit" view by most. The recent Toronto Star article comparing Sudbury to Windsor shows how bad things actually are. When any city compares itself to Sudbury and loses miserably, you know things can't get much lower. I decided to make a list of Eddie's accomplishments (facetious) and would hope that you supplement with any others that I have missed. In reality, I can't think of a single thing that Eddie has done that has positively affected Windsor so I will give you the negative achievements:

• 1) Border File (Sandwich Town, Greenlink, Bridge relationship)


• 2) Windsor Arena
  - Land Deal (Lear property & Art Gallery) Why would anyone in their right mind put the arena where it is?
  - Spitfire Deal. What are the true cost implications
  - Cost overruns including the McHugh Bridge and internal costs
  - Eddie's commitment to stick with the original $15M allocated to a third party build vs.. $70+M now


• 3) Engineering Building for the U of W


• 4) Tunnel Deal - Please let it die


• 5) Capital Theatre


• 6) Junction Lawsuit


• 7) Income Security Building Audit - What secrets will be exposed, if anything?
  
• 8) Fleet Services Audit
  
• 9) WUC & Enwin - Huge water rate increase hides the Sewer Surcharge increase which has allowed Eddie to keep taxes lower.


• 10) Development Commission Fiasco
  
• 11) Detroit Grand Prix, Superbowl Party, Wrestlemania - All big wastes
  
• 12) Huge salary increases for Administration when the City is tanking


• 13) Library Fiasco


• 14) Airport - What's the real financial story?


• 15) Secrecy on everything - When will the auditor general be hired?


• 16) Policies from City of Windsor Speech - $100M fund with no discussion with county and organizing flights to the west
  Any more?

12) Interesting but sad, that we Windsor have to read out of town newspapers to get news of Windsor.

13) Just spent the last 30 minutes digesting your Blog. What I read is fantastic.

14) $600,000 to re-furbish the airport terminal so we can have 2 flights per week take off for
Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Gee, that will make about 6 part time jobs for Windsor (4 baggage handlers and 2 ticket agents) The restaurant is to be redone... why... how many people do they expect to attract to eat there? Think about this yourself... how many times have you eaten in an airport other than grabbing a chocolate bar and pop while waiting for your flight... not often I can bet.

Mention was made that Eddie is talking to other airlines such as Westjet and another charter service, both have been here in Windsor and pulled out.... why... most likely because lack of passenger traffic. Does the Mayor all of a sudden think a mass of passengers will cross from Michigan to use the airport to go to Cuba? The border traffic has dropped dramatically and when the US imposes the fact that Bush and Company will make passports mandatory to get back into the States the numbers will drop even more. I hope they assess the reasons why the others left and rectify the problems if indeed there were others than the dropping passenger numbers. (didn't I read a short while ago that a representative of Westjet said Windsor was not on the "drawing boards" for at least several years because they are quite satisfied with their current operations out of London.)

The everyday events that take place in Windsor are becoming more bizarre all the time... I just don't get it.

15) Note that the City is going to beautify the approaches by adding flowers : at least they do not have to provide vases, there are enough pot-holes to accommodate them ! Keep up the good work!