The BLOGs Wrote Themselves

Some days it is just so easy that it is not fair. This is one of them. Today, the BLOG basically wrote itself. I did not have to do very much thinking at all and out it came.

EDDIE'S GREENLINK TUNNEL PRESENTATION COLLAPSES

As I told you before, you must read all the BLOGs in town to keep up with what is going on.

Take a look at Chris Schnurr's BLOG where he destroys the tunnel examples that were used as the justification for Greenlink.

http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/jail-transportation-the-true-costs-and-greenlink/

It is a shame that the Star as the leading source of news in Windsor can spend money on a redesigned website but not do the research needed to provide their readers with full and complete information so they can make an informed opinion.

Oh well, I guess that's what we naysaying BLOGGERS must do.

BIG THREE AUTO EXECS SLAM ONTARIO FOR PRIVATE PLANES

Can you understand why it was necessary for Spanky, Ontario’s Minister of Finance, to take a shot at the automobile company executives for flying down to DC? Presumably, he did so to show that he was tough and that he was going to make those auto companies squirm before he opened up the Province’s wallet and gave them billions.

I wonder if he knew about the Aviation and Forest Fire Management Branch of the Ministry of Natural Resources. It used to be called the Ontario Provincial Air Service. While most of their work obviously is for “forest fire management,” another one of their functions is:

• provides or arranges non-scheduled air transportation for the Ontario Government…
  
  flight services are provided as required for members of government and staff.”

Did you know that there is another group:

• “Executive Flight Operations, which began in 1951, provides business aircraft to authorized government officials for flights throughout North America. Two nine-passenger King Air 350's are dedicated to this service, with one based at Toronto and the other at Sault Ste. Marie. This latter aircraft is also a backup to the forest fire management program.”

I wonder what that actually means. Could it include chartering private jets for important Ministers to fly around Ontario or using these executive Ministry planes?

I do not know very much about airplanes so I did a search on the King Air planes. Here is a little something that I found:


Perhaps Ministers who live in glass houses…

PLAYING POKER

Wow, our Mayor really knows how to call the Province’s bluff:

• “Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis appeared to call the province's bluff during a break in a meeting Tuesday of the Windsor Police Services Board, which he chairs.
  
  "If the jail goes to Chatham, we will not cover the cost of prisoner transport -- simple," he told reporters.”

Since the transportation costs are going to be uploaded anyway, I doubt if the Province will be shaking in their boots from the Mayor’s comments. As a contact in the Ministry told me, they are used to transporting inmates all over the place anyway.

Do not expect the jail to go to Chatham however. Expect it to go to the former Project Ice Track land in Tecumseh if Eddie chases it out of town. After all, Spanky’s riding includes part of that town.

What has not yet been revealed, and why I am not sure, is what I suggested in my BLOG previously: another Government Department was going to build a facility beside the jail to take up the balance of the lands.

Is this true or not? The Mayor must know and so must our two Cabinet Ministers. If I am correct, this ridiculous negative reaction on the part of our Mayor will not only drive out the jail from Windsor with all the jobs to be created but another Government Department as well.

As I suggested before, and I was just in London again the other day, in that city the jail and the Ministry of Transportation are right beside each other and right beside a shopping mall.

There is something more going on here than we are being told. I’m tired of the secrecy.

In passing, as I also suggested, Councillor Marra will take the full brunt of this if in fact the jail moves out of town. The Star said:

• “Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis has said Windsor police favour a site in the Brighton Beach area and Coun. Bill Marra has called on the province to respect municipal planning principles.”

Watch as time goes on as Eddie’s name becomes invisible and Bill’s gains prominence.

MORE ON DISRESPECTING THE PROCESS

A reader reminded me of the following. It is important because where the road is built determines where the next crossing is going to go. If one wants to pressure the Ambassador Bridge Owner to sell, then build a road where the vast majority of the traffic will be forced to go away from his bridge.

Sandra and Dwight are in serious trouble again and so is the DRIC project:

• "City slams DRIC plan; Council looks for options;
  Windsor Star 05-02-2008
  
  The highly anticipated unveiling Thursday left the city's two provincial cabinet ministers Sandra Pupatello and Dwight Duncan beaming with pride and calling for construction to begin.
  
  "The lion's share of people have said to me, 'Get on with this. You have to get this done,'" said Pupatello, citing the importance to the local and provincial economies.
  
  "This final recommendation is decades, centuries ahead of what people were seeing when this process first started. It's been dramatically altered from when we had to fight to get this (proposal) off E.C. Row Expressway and get it off city streets.
  
  "In terms of jobs and level of construction, this is the largest investment in history we've ever seen. This is history in the making."
  
  The DRIC plan promises to create 12,000 person years of direct employment over the length of the four-year project, scheduled to start in late 2009.
  
  "This will be the best piece of roadbed ever in Ontario," Duncan said.
  
  "Folks, it's time to proceed and get to the next step. It's time to move on and fix the border situation."

LANDLORDS AND BODY RUB PARLOUR OWNERS

I thought that this ad that the City of Windsor ran in the Windsor Star was hilarious. If I was a landlord, I’m not sure that I would want to be made to appear that I was of the same value or ilk as a body rub parlor operator with all the negative connotations about that.

However, when I asked around a little bit, it appears that some within City Hall don’t think very much of landlords and of landlords who lease to students especially. There is going to be a huge fight at the Licensing Commission meeting on Tuesday involving landlords and tenants who are absolutely opposed to licensed rental units by the City.

I must admit that I do not know enough yet about the problem but I understand that landlords are concerned that they are going to have to pay significant sums of money to be in the rental business. Naturally, they are going to try and pass off most of these costs to their tenants. Accordingly, landlords are concerned about people moving out of their buildings when the vacancy rate is so high already. Tenants are concerned that they may have to live in lower quality units because they will not be able to afford the extra amounts that they’re going to be charged every month.

On the face of it, it seems like overkill to me considering that the the landlords already have a number of government requirements to meet if they want to rent out a unit. Moreover, tenants have a number of remedies that they have available to them to ensure that their units are habitable.

I would think that the recent fire with the home owned by Councillor Postma’s husbands’s Company and the criminal case against a landlord would be a signal to landlords that they had better make sure that their properties meet the building code. If there is an incident, it will be fully investigated and charges could be laid if there were deficiencies.

If as some have suggested, the real targets are landlords in West Windsor who rent out to students, I am surprised. First, I thought that students were going to revitalize our downtown. If we remove them from the West End, who will be the catalyst for that area to bloom. Moreover, if there is a concern about empty homes in Sandwich, considering that a good part of the population of that area is student, they might all move out leaving dozens and dozens of empty homes there.

Here’s the killer part of a Report that was prepared about this subject:

• “The City of Windsor’s compliance committee is made up of internal members from Licensing and Enforcement, Building, Fire and Police. The draft report was discussed and as a prudent measure a blitz of houses was done around the University to see property conditions.
  
  The blitz was conducted over a two day period on November 5 and 6, 2008. Five officers went out on the calls; two building inspectors, two bylaw enforcement officers and one provincial offence officer. The following are the results of inspections done on Askin and Randolph.
  o 62 inspections completed
  o 5 violations noted under maintenance of land By-law
  o 2 parking tickets issued
  o 1 front yard parking issue corrected.
  
  Further, the Compliance Committee was of the opinion that a great deal of resources would be required in order to manage such a regime. It is unknown what resources would be truly necessary to ensure equitable enforcement.”

Doesn’t the City have better things to do with its resources?

I got it. Maybe this is nothing more than a way to move students out of homes or small rental units into mega-Student Apartments. Since I am unaware of too many of these types of buildings in Windsor, obviously, some developers would have to build these types of complexes. I thought that these types of buildings were part of the plans of the University when they were considering moving their Engineering Complex downtown.

That is one way to make our development situation look better by getting the number of building permits issued increased and showing how many units are being built in this City even in an economic slowdown.

In any event the fun has just started in this matter. Wait until it hits Council when the Mayor will have to be concerned that the message that could be delivered to developers is to stay out of Windsor because we are capable of licensing them to death.

Bye-bye to his Canal vision!

FINALLY IT HAS BEEN POSTED

Darn, the DRIC guys have left town. If only the City had posted its material on Greenlink in advance or when they were here, we could have learned what the DRIC people had to say about the Mayor's presentation to the "summoned" Windsor citizens. Who knows, they may have capitualted to his brilliance.

Did I hear some clucking sounds from readers. Is that what you think about City Hall? Oh you are so rude!

I know that I would have been worn out listening to Eddie's almost 2 hour harrangue. It was 108 slides! I probably might have agreed to anything he said just to be allowed to get out of the room. Why it would almost be like being enclosed in one of Sam's 1000m. Schwunnels if there was an accident up ahead!

Now I suspect I know what part of the $3ooK fees were spent on during the last quarter.

Actually, it doesn't matter. Few care any more what Eddie thinks on the Border file, especially the decision-makers!

And in case you missed the C-Word slide, where Eddie went from "the new Schwartz plan.. is not negotiable. "This is it. This is the city of Windsor's position" to please compromise, here it is: