Windsor's Traffic Woes Are National Now

Mike Hurst taught Eddie Francis well. More than he knew. Read on.

Darn Politicians. We BLOGGERS/NAYSAYERS cannot compete with local politicians that are giving this City a black eye day after day after day. It’s not fair. We are trying to do our job to badmouth the City, according to our critics, but these politicians do it so much better than we ever possibly could and they do it on a national scale as well.

Here’s a story from Canadian Press. No BLOGGER could ever get this kind of great press for the City:

• Windsor Traffic Woes
  
  WINDSOR, Ont. - The mayor of Windsor, Ont., is pledging even stricter truck traffic controls in his city unless there's action from the federal and provincial governments.
  
  Eddie Francis is furious, blasting both levels of government for not doing enough to deal with border traffic in the city.
  
  Francis also claims that the province is spending border infrastructure money on improving surrounding county roads while Windsor itself is crippled with traffic.
  
  He cast a deciding vote on a pilot project to ban truck turns at a busy thoroughfare, and is urging city councillors to watch out for other potentially dangerous intersections.”

Which phrase did you like better---“Traffic woes” or “Windsor itself is crippled with traffic?” This along with the photograph in the Financial Post showing road patching crews near the University is certainly wonderful for our image.

I believe that Eddie needs to chill a bit given that he is so "furious". He’s much too excited in the story and too angry. The guy who should be angry is Councillor Dilkens who saw the Mayor take the file, and the political glory, away from his hard work for a cheap headline.

But that has been done before hasn't it.

It tells me that Eddie's behind closed doors negotiations with the Province and/or the Federal Government with respect to the road to the border and the Tunnel deal are not going well at all. It may well be that no deal is possible and that no money will be coming to the City.

Greenlink no longer works so an alternative DRIC road blocking tool was needed. Thus, Eddie needed an excuse to lash out at the Senior Levels and chose the Dougall Avenue matter as the way to do so. Unfortunately, that could cost him dearly in the end and Windsor too.

Perhaps Councillor Valentinis could do him a favour and tell him to keep his mouth shut for once. One hardly can make friends with those with the cash by badmouthing them or threatening them with lawsuits. How many times does the Councillor have to have it shoved into his face why Windsor is being overlooked for money?

I can just picture Eddie's favourite people, investors. Yes, I want to put a plant in Windsor, invest money here and buy a new canal home with traffic this bad. Oh yes, let's chase traffic to the Blue Water Bridge as controls get even tighter for trucks around the City. The Economic Development Offices of neighbouring communities need only cut out the quotes of our Mayor in order to get business to move to their jurisdictions and not ours. He is just making it too easy for them.

However, the Senior Levels have been there before with the City of Windsor. It is old news for them although, for most of us, I’m sure that we have forgotten the game.

Here is why Eddie is play acting at being so furious. It might be a good tactic if it were not so obvious. It is about the only thing that IS transparent with this Mayor.

Perhaps he thinks he can terrorize Sandra again as he did with the arena since they supposedly talked about the canal deal. After all, he wound up getting several millions of Provincial dollars for the arena didn't he. Eddie would not have the nerve to try and intimidate Dwight or former Senator Fortier. I hope that Eddie did not forget there is no Provincial election that Sandra has to be concerned about at this time. I am sure that Eddie also heard about her remarks at the Orman roast.

Eddie thinks he has learned well from former Mayor Mike Hurst about how to try and get money out of the Senior Levels. Here is what Mike did a few years ago. It is not all that much different than what Eddie tried with Greenlink and now with his massive study on every road in the City that he announced at Council the other night. They are DRIC road blocking tools designed to stall and hamper what the Senior Levels want to do.

I can just hear Eddie---"You cannot start your project until after we have completed our multi-year study. You are putting the City at risk with traffic. You must wait for us."

In passing, now the Senior Levels have a small taste of how the Bridge Co. felt with the Interim Control By-law and the soon to be announced Heritage Study results.

You know the game now...give me the cash I want as the "host community" and all of my opposition melts away. The only real difference is that demand for the sums of money are so much greater now than they were with Hurst.

• Truck ban is off -- for now;
  Windsor Star 07-12-2002
  
  Mayor Mike Hurst's threatened truck blockade at Windsor's city limits is off, at least for now, after the federal and provincial governments pledged $880,000 Thursday to improve traffic flow on Huron Church Road.
  
  The fast-track money fell short, however, of the $1.2 million the City of Windsor asked for, but Hurst was nevertheless pleased.
  
  "It's very good news; job well done," said Hurst of federal Transport Minister David Collenette and Ontario Minister of Transportation Norm Sterling, who jointly announced the grant. "We asked them to respond in a very immediate way and they did."
  
  The city originally asked for $1.2 million in a written submission April 4 and again in a letter from the mayor on July 2 -- a day before a frustrated Hurst publicly threatened to enact emergency legislation and force U.S.-bound trucks to line up at a holding station on Highway 401.”
  
  Council postpones vote on truck ban; Windsor Star 06-03-2003
  
  Rejecting a call to provide immediate relief to residents of the west end, city council decided Monday to defer a bylaw amendment which would have banned trucks from certain streets until a further report can be prepared by the city engineer.
  
  "This is an urgent cry for help from our police services, who need help in implementing a truck containment strategy," said Mayor Mike Hurst. "They're at a stress point in their ability to manage international trucks on our city streets and they need our help.
  
  "And this is the best expert advice we can get on the subject in terms of being pro-active in controlling the infiltration of international trucks on our streets," said Hurst of a report from the city's traffic engineering department.”

I’m afraid that our Mayor is playing a very dangerous game with his road blocking theatrics. There comes a time when his childish temper tantrums and foot-stamping become tedious. At some point, obviously after the federal election and sooner rather than later, we in Windsor may well get up one morning and read the headline in the Star that the Senior Levels have pulled out of this area.

And then what with 15,000 jobs disappearing and no proper border solution. Do the Councillors have a contingency plan if that happens? I wonder what career path they will choose at that time because politically in Windsor they will be run out of town. As for Eddie, he can always get an acting job at the Capitol...if it ever opens.