I always forget to blog about this beforehand. August's Windsor bloggers meet is tonight at the Gourmet Emporium, 1799 Wyandotte St. E (at Chilver), anytime around 9pm should do.
If you've never been to the Gourmet Emporium, it's worth attending this evening. This is a beautiful establishment in the heart of Walkerville.
The Erie St. Races are looking for volunteers for this weekend. Students requiring volunteer hours are welcome.
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact James at
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or phone 519-817-3423.
This is the 50th anniversary of the Tour di Via Italia. If you're available, please consider supporting a fantastic Windsor event.
Even though this is a preliminary study, before we start ripping up rail lines, this study should be considered together with a regional transportation plan.
The VIA line from Belle River into Windsor would be perfectly suited for a light rail system. If you throw in the Essex Terminal Railway lines out to Amherstburg, this area has the infrastructure already in place. To rip it up now, before all options are considered, would be a real waste.
The new Windsor Crossing planned for completion in 2013 couldn’t happen at a better time for the city, considering the current woes of Windsor’s auto manufacturing sector.
But while the big cable-stayed bridge and associated highway approaches could shift into gear possibly next year, one of the big unanswered questions is how it will be tendered and financed. The province has assembled a team of engineers called Windsor BIG (Border Initiatives Implementation Group) to deal with the execution of issues such as drawings, financing and tendering.
“We’ve heard that there may be some kind of P3 public/private partnership for the tender of the plaza and the bridge,” says Jim Lyons, executive director of the Heavy Construction Association (HCA) of Windsor.
That’s not surprising, but Lyons isn’t sure that approach (also known as Alternative Financing and Procurement) is such a good idea for the balance of the work, which primarily consists of the Windsor-Essex Parkway.
HCA members favour a traditional tendering approach, he says. Their concern is that an AFP package won’t “lure” as many local and provincial contractors to bid on the project.
With all the recent stories and hyberbole about the Library board and it's actions or inactions, I thought it would be worthwhile to post the actual press release they put out yesterday. I contacted Councillor Halberstadt and he provided me with a copy.
PS. bloggers should check out Scribd.com, the service I used to publish these documents. It's free and dead-bang easy to use.
I was talking with the owner Sam when he said - "Hey - it's the Fonz!". I thought he was joking or simply referring to a customer with that nickname. When I turned around it was actually Henry Winkler. He replied - "Yes I am". A very nice, quiet and personable guy.
I met him in Guelph almost thirty years ago when he was filming An American Christmas Carol. He was cool then and still is today.
Why didn't the Mayor have the same reaction about the revolving door at the Windsor Development Commission?Four different commissioners in five years. "Asked for his opinion, Mayor Eddie Francis said the WEDC is an independent body, and it's board of directors is responsible for it's oversight."
The Mayor speaks about his concern over Bell's education entitlement negotiated in his contract. None of the current library board was involved in negotiating that contract. Why doesn't he speak to the Councillors on the board when that contract was negotiated - Councillor Postma - anything to say?
We cut the cheque for a lot of agencies and boards in this city, what has the Mayor been doing to provide answers? The Library board is chump change compared to some of the money involved at other places. How long is the Mayor and administration going to continue stalling Councillor Halberstadt's request for budget information from the Windsor Police Services, already over a year old. The Mayor has orchestrated organizational changes at the Windsor Airport, Development Commission, Tunnel Commision and Convention and Visitors Bureau, converting all of these to arms-length corporations shielded from taxpayer scrutiny. Remeber Councillor Dilken's motion to automatically have the minutes from these corporations sent to Councillors? Shot down by the sheep we call a City Council.
We are currently spending over a million dollars on secret negotiations for a tunnel that's a declining asset and the Mayor is concerned about the Library board?Somehow, I don't think it's the tax dollars involved in this Library board decison that has the Mayor being "livid".
Spare the faux outrage for someone who might actually believe it.
It's easy to take potshots from the sidelines, be it through a column, a blog or an unsigned e-mail. Believe me, any goof can do it. But to stand alone against the most sacred of sacred cows, over a point of principle, now that takes spinal fortitude.
It is rather funny though, that Brister get's "spinal fortitude" while Halberstadt gets "blind mice" or playing a "dangerous game".
Today's Windsor Star Editorial is very wrong. Unless Windsor and other municipalities contiune to stand up to the Province, this "soft" downloading will continue. How many people think it's ok to get an MRI for a community only after that community has raised enough money to purchase one. The Province will pay for operating costs, but not purchase. What's wrong with the picture when Hospice and Cancer care infrastructure is provided by generous community fundraising instead of Provincial funds. Why are we paying a Provincial Health Care Tax Premium every year? Until City Councillors take a consistent stand against this kind of soft downloading, the Province will continue to take advantage of it. Dalton McGuinty continues to hire thousands of six-figure bureaucrats each year while the average taxpayer suffers.
In the July 25 program of On The Media, they discussed reader feedback/soundoffs/comments and whether they contribute anything to the news organization's web site.
It was a great discussion because we often talk about our standards here on soundoffs. We have decided to implement some stricter controls, which I'll go into in a minute.
Anyway, the point was this radio show yanked the ability for listeners to comment on stories because they had become a bit too rude and inconsiderate.
It was a relief to know that most newspapers, magazines and other media sites get mostly negative reader feedback. We here at The Windsor Star thought we were the only ones cursed with such negative readers. But alas it's a worldwide problem.
Anyway the radio show took down the comment privilege because the writings had become too insensitive and nasty. To say some readers are uncivilized is an understatement.
Here at The Windsor Star we've had several instances come up that's prompted us to think about what we want to do with soundoffs.
As someone with healthy liberatrian leanings, I'm all in favour of free speech, but that free speech doesn't give you the right to go on someone else's site and spew garbage. If you want to do that, start your own blog so we can all promptly ignore you.
PS. posting will remain rather sparse here for a little while longer. It's not like I don't have anything to say, but there's a By-Election going on and it's keeping me rather busy. Lots of (good) changes coming on the home and work fronts soon. If everything goes as planned I should be back on the shadow after September 8th.
The Erie St. Races are looking for volunteers for this weekend. Students requiring volunteer hours are welcome.