Whining and naysaying at the Star, The Mayor’s Invitation, the Development Commission Plan

Whining and naysaying at the Star

Do my eyes doth deceive me?

Oh my – what would Gord Henderson say if a blogger wrote the following:

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis and council seem to care more about what strangers and tourists think about this city than you or your family do. They have earmarked significant resources to beautifying streets leading into town while leaving core neighbourhoods — those places where people live rather than drive through — blighted with weeds and garbage.

Ouch – not even some of us alleged ”myopic” “whining” “naysayers” would even say that.   But the Windsor Star Editorial Board did – are the winds of change a blowin’ or is it more of the same, only in disguise? 

Will Councillor Brister lash out at the Windsor Star and say, “There are people in this community who are always going to attempt to knock down anything positive the City of Windsor does. But you just have to go back and connect the dots. In most cases it can be tied to a personal agenda?” 

Or will he cancel his subscription to the paper with a terse email that reads, “Remove my name from your mailing list and find a charity to which you might devote your time.”

Naw – he saves those choice words for the people that actually employ him – the residents of Windsor.

All kidding aside I actually whole-heartedly agree with the first paragraph of today’s editorial.  Afterall on June 29, 2008, I wrote a blog along a similar vein and created a videoof the state of some of the neighbourhoods in our fair city concluding it with “Dougall Avenue is important, but so are our neighbourhoods.”

And today’s editorial highlights exactly, in part, what I have been attempting to get through to our Mayor and council – in particular with the blog “From False Hope to Empowerment.”  It is about concrete action over “optics” and “spin” and finally, “leadership.”

It is ironic really.  Perhaps the Ambassador Bridge Company should buy up every vacant home in the city – then Councillors Postma and Jones are almost guaranteed to jump into action to ensure property standards are met.

Over the last two years we’ve heard build an arena in haste!  Build a peace beacon!  Plants trees and flowers!   And while arguably important for some, they should not supersede the basic needs of those who pay some of the highest taxes in Province – the residents.

The tens of millions of dollars collectively used on these projects, not forgetting to mention the $900,000 extra a year in maintaining those same flowers and tress,  are tens of millions of dollars that are not used on core municipal functions – cleaning our streets; rehabilitating our roads and sewers; enforcing municipal bylaws; investing in our existing parks and bicycle paths; ensuring our libraries are better able to combat illiteracy to name but a few.   It’s about priorities – and as the saying goes, the chickens are coming home to roost.

But within every problem lies an opportunity.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not letting the City of Windsor off that easily – the annual naturalization project beginning in May of every year, otherwise known as weeds and tall grass overtaking our city parks – is a shining example of priorities literally gone wild.

However, the problem of unkempt properties would be a perfect issue for neighbourhood councils to deal with.  Bound by city bylaws, neighbourhood councils could be granted authority to give notice to home or landowners to clean up their properties.  Failing that, neighbourhood councils could also have the property cleaned up and have the authority to bill the owner.  This could free up resources at the municipal level to focus on enforcing other bylaws or give back some money to residents through tax savings.

Nothing builds community pride better than empowering residents to take control (within reason).

In reading the Star’s editorial, however, I do wonder where they have been.  It was this particular sentence that caused me to laugh out loud:

The issue comes down to priorities. Francis and council have earmarked about $1 million for improvements to “gateway roads” like Dougall and Howard avenues so that people breezing into town get a good first impression. While this is a worthy initiative, it should not be an either/or scenario. If anything, more resources should be devoted to making neighbourhoods more livable and inviting for taxpaying residents.

Priorities?  As stated above, money used for one project is money not available for another.  A certain city treasurer warned council of this in October 2006 when council was deciding whether or not to construct the new community centre, three ice-pad, main-bowl spectator arena at taxpayer expense:

“The $74.9 million of available funds will be adequate to accommodate any scenario, although the more funds that are used for the Arena, the fewer funds remain for other community initiatives.”

Now the cynical side of me is wondering if the Star Editorial Board wrote such a critical opening paragraph because there is some plan in the works that they have been made aware of by the Mayor.    It’s an age old tactic – criticize and then heap praises (another form of political “optics”).  I’m sure the Editorial Board reads the comments in the Windsor Star forum as well as on the blogs critical of the Star coverage.

Mayor Francis gave us this hint in a recent Gord Henderson column praising the $1-million investment in “greening” our city:

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said these moves, along with an ongoing airport terminal overhaul, are the first steps in a process designed to alter the way outsiders view the city and address the city’s sometimes debilitating inferiority complex.

Or could it be a slow lead up to justify a potential substantial property tax increase in 2009 as property assessments are re-evaluated down (at least in Windsor) when MPAC adjusts assessments from 2005 to 2008 levels?  Lower assessments equals lower tax revenues for the city.  Couple that with a shrinking tax base and we could be in for quite the shock.  Because, yes dear reader, you demanded it in the Community Strategic planning sessions and the hundreds of complaints flooding 311.

After-all, the editorial stated, “…more resources should be devoted to making neighbourhoods more livable and inviting for taxpaying residents.”

Resources from where exactly?  Depending upon which side of the fence you sit, council either “squandered” or “invested” $65-million (and rising) big ones despite warnings from our Chief Financial Officer.  $65-million big ones that won’t be paid off until after 2010.  If it’s not an either/or scenario, could the Editorial Board be attempting to loosen our grip on our wallets in upcoming budget deliberations?

My overall gut reaction to the Star Editorial was along the lines of a sudden behavioural change in an otherwise unruly child  – what are they up to or what do they want?

Sometimes I wish my gut would take a walk.

Speaking of false hope and empowerment…

Whatever happened to that “discussion” Mayor Francis promised back in November 2007  (Full transcript here) when he said he would be:

“…issuing letters of invitation to individuals from across our community calling on people and individuals from different organizations from the Chamber of Commerce, to the labour and union movement, looking for people of different positions in this community to come together to have a discussion in terms of how the City of Windsor can work together in one direction.”

I know Canada Post can be slow at times, but have those invitations even made it out the doors of the Mayor’s office?

Development Commission to unveil plan

I’m told that the Development Commission, sans a CEO, is set to unveil their newest economic development strategy – but not quite yet for reasons unstated.

Honestly, that’s all I was told.  But if it has to do with economic gardening or gazelles, former CEO Matthew Fischer might have a small problem with that.  After all, one of the reasons we were told his contract was terminated was because:

“Our board took all the advice and experience that he had, and tried to use that to its maximum potential,” said Dr. Albert Schumacher. “We’re ready for other ideas and ready to move in different directions.”

Because the commission has been working on “several” initiatives since May including, “identifying research and development opportunities locally.”

However, if it involves barn-yard animals or references to agriculture I’m running for the hills…