We Had Goblins Last Night

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Happy Halloween Everyone!

When Will Club Loft Condos be Fully Closed In?

From Wyandotte

From Monmouth

Any takers? These condos sure are taking their time. It was almost four years ago that they had their wine and cheese open house and probably six since they started the retrofit. The word on the street is that two guys (builder Bob and builder Mike) will be able to say to their grandchildren that they built the whole thing (without an ounce of exageration).

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Alas...We've learned to take each little step as a large event. For the past two months they have been installing new windows. Not the full glass green tint windows which were on the original rendering but windows none the less. By the pace of this particular project one might speculate that the building will be fully glassed in by Christmas. Anybody want to start a pool? And who wants to speculate on when the building will be finally completed? This Spring, next year, the year after that? Looking for takers.

FACTS FROM THE WEBSITE

The condo's at this hopefully soon to be POSH Monmouth Road address range in price from $161,000.00 and up. Rumour has it the price ceiling is $309,000.00. There are 69 suites in total. They range in size from 1464 sqare feet to 2579 square feet with the average being approximately 2100 square feet. They are two story units which boast ceiling heights of 17'.


This is going to be a huge attraction to Old Walkerville. Hopefully commercial property owners along Wyandotte Street are taking note and are thinking about freshening up their properties to rise to the needs of our new neighbours. The Ambassodor Cleaning building on Monmouth and Wyandotte would be wise to think about retrofitting to swank commercial shops as well. After all, these affluent residents are going to want to cut their hair, buy clothing and sip on lattes. Facinating evolution isn't it?

http://www.clublofts.com/

Distillery District Cancelled

As far as Alan Halberstadt is concerned Old Walkerville stays. This reported in Saturday's Windsor Star:

"As far as I'm concerned, anybody who's e-mailing me about it, I'm telling 'em it's dead and buried," said Halberstadt on Friday.
The new label for the area created an uproar this week after a progress report on Windsor's 2007-2010 Community Strategic Plan talked of rebranding some city places. But Halberstadt said the "Distillery District" phrase ended up in the report because of "a lack of communication," and Walkerville people have already decided it's a no go.

Let's watch for the official announcement.

Residents Choose Old Walkerville

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There seems to be a little confusion about the re-naming of Old Walkerville. Many people have spoken with councillors Halberstadt and Valentinis and were told that there was some confusion on the issue which will soon be corrected. Here are some of those reports:

Comments which were e-mailed to M.O.M. :

"Contacted both AH and FV and wires got crossed somewhere. They have had lots of calls and emails. Both say the name stays Walkerville. Seems a misunderstanding, at the meeting FV brought up the point it should remain Walkerville when some planning document came up calling it The Distillery District. Which it isn't. He told them what it is ,Walkerville Thats how I understand it anyway. Give them a call to confirm it and for your own peace of mind. They are both on top of the situation and working for us all. Guess we can douse the torches and put away the tar and feathers. Things just got a little confused in the quotes maybe."

"Talked to Fulvio & received an e-mail from Alan . They are both telling me it was a delayed proposal & its a dead issue . That said , we need to be vigilant because I smell politics being played on this issue . I was personally at the meeting where the name change was almost unanimously voted down . Because it was a delayed proposal the language was still as it was prior to the voting process at the BIA . At least that is the understanding I was given by our elected officials"



"I heard that Joan Charette, Walkerville BIA liaison, saw the letter and said that the city is going to have a press release stating that this issue is now dead, due to complaints. I will believe it when I see it... Don't worry about the neighbours - they are very motivated and ready to march with torches down to city hall! LOL"



Here are some letters to the Editor pulled from the Windsor Star:

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/letters/story.html?id=06cf0574-9dfa-4dd6-a00e-11f3b134f503



http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/letters/story.html?id=79831b39-69c5-47ee-bbcd-2aca9dbdbd91



http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/letters/story.html?id=46cb7b7a-908e-4d68-af19-c779c33ecd53

Sounds positive so far although these communications don't explain this remark from last Monday's council meeting:

"Mayor Eddie Francis said there will be a public consultation process on the plan, and the progress report was approved by council without challenge."

Let's see if we get confirmation from the City and/or the BIA. Fingers crossed.

MAYOR SEEMS ADAMANT ABOUT CHANGING OLD WALKERVILLE INTO DISTILLERY DISTRICT

Here we go again. Just three months after Old Walkerville residents voiced that they do not want their area name changed to "The Distillery District", our "for the people mayor" seems to be taking another shot at it. Read this article from today's Windsor Star:

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=67c43d0f-efaa-443b-afe5-38316a906dba

Why would anyone want to take a well established community like "Old Walkerville" and reverse 150 years of name recognition? The disturbing aspect of this circus show is that when this came up the last time our civic leaders pulled the "Distillery District" Moniker from the city's web site and changed it back to Walkerville BIA. We were told then by both our BIA team and the city that the name would not change. Our councillors received tons of e-mails and letters telling them to back off. Why would they want to go through that again? Ward 3 Councillor Fulvio Valentinis reiterated that point during last nights council meeting:

"But Ward 3 Coun. Fulvio Valentinis said he's already received phone calls from people who aren't keen on the idea. "This has created a lot of concern with a lot of people," said Valentinis, adding that he believes there's "significant opposition" to the renaming."

The response from the Mayor seemed defiant:

"Mayor Eddie Francis said there will be a public consultation process on the plan, and the progress report was approved by council without challenge."

A public consultation process? To change the name of Old Walkerville? Which public is he talking about? All wards or just Old Walkerville? The last time a public consultation process was held, several residents of Old Walkerville were chased away from the process because they had brought suggestion sheets with them. These didn't fit well with the program's steering committee.

Please re-read these previous posts including all public comments:

http://themayorofmonmouth.blogspot.com/2007/08/bia-cooking-up-new-name-for-old.html

http://themayorofmonmouth.blogspot.com/2007/08/bia-ok-with-walkerville.html

Well folks...

IT'S TIME AGAIN TO VOICE YOUR CONCERN

CALL OR E-MAIL YOUR WARD 3 COUNCILLORS HERE:

Fulvio Valentinis: Phone: (519) 977-5067
Email: fvalentinis@city.windsor.on.ca

Alan Halberstadt: Phone: (519) 973-8323
Email: ahalberstadt@city.windsor.on.ca

You can also contact the Walkerville BIA here:

walkervillebia@cogeco.ca
Attention: Ms. Joan Charrette.
Telephone: (519) 519-919-8733

One Commenter suggests contacting 311 as follows:

311@city.windsor.on.ca

Voice your opinion now because the Mayor has stated

that he wants to wrap this change up by the end of this year!

WUC Impropriety Flushed Out Canada Wide

At this very moment in some far corner of Canada (like Mud Lake, Labrador or Inuvik in the Yukon) someone is sitting on his or her Al Bundy Special Ferguson reading about Windsor's now famous "FLUSH" protest. Windsorites were, and still are, mad as heck about being ambushed with an 86% and counting water and sewage rate hike. Our Civic leaders and utility commissioners thought it worldly-wise to lie and number fudge hoping that their factory mentality electorate couldn't catch the play. Their ploy and perception couldn't have been more badly conceived. On Tuesday, August 7, 2007 between the hours of 12 and 1 PM citizens of Windsor organized to fire a "three flusher" right across their bow. The WUC might have been successful in diverting the flow of it's citizen's bile and effluent on that day but the real gush is just hitting the fans now.

Canadian Business Magazine Reports

on Windsor's FLUSH Campaign

If our flush was thwarted at the Lou Romanow waste treatment facility it didn't go unnoticed elsewhere. Jeff Sanford of Canadian Business Magazine happened to be working on an article about infrastructure in Canada and the "FLUSH" protest in Windsor caught his attention. The Cameo spot in his piece goes to Windsor and is entitled "Things Fall Apart". For fancy coloured pictures you can pick up a copy of Canadian Business Magazine at any Shoppers Drug Mart or you can read the electronic version here:

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/strategy/article.jsp?content=20071001_198718_198718

So...As of last week, word of Windsor's now famous civil disobedience is parked on the desks of business people, utility bosses, civil servants and politicians right across Canada. What is wrong with Windsor's civic leadership, the WUC and Fortress Enwin is out there for scrutiny. One thing certain to be learned by any politician or civic leader who reads the article: How not to handle your infrastructure costs. You can bet that this blogger will be sending copies of Canadian Business Magazine to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and to the Auditor General of Ontario.

More Flushed Out

Our story was only the beginning and end of Jeff Sanford's article. The real meat was about how governments are embracing P3s (Public Private Partnerships) which will serve to limit the accountability of elected officials, as they can no longer be held responsible for the day to day operations of utilities like WUC and Enwin. Politicians have already been flaunting P3s as the panacea so rate payers have to sharpen up with savvy and pronto.

The bottom line is that the financing of municipal infrastructure has little to do with availability of funds or the cost of borrowing as governments can easily borrow funds at better rates than the private sector. The only reason that a government would get excited about a P3 partner is because they have insufficient municipal revenues. Such is the case with the City of Windsor and the WUC. One very important question remains: Why?

More about the perils P3s later.

Toronto Water Bills Rise by 9% for "Aggressive Rebuild of Aging Infrastructure"

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Read all about it in the Toronto Star!

9% Increase for Toronto Rate Payers.

Windsor got saddled with an 86% water bill hike.

Think again if you don't feel that there's a need

for an independant forensic audit.

You can help get to the botttom of this.

Contact WeACT to see how.

Funds may be paid into the Legal Fund by visiting any branch of the Royal Bank and making a deposit to Account #08152-1008275.

Windsor Star Gremlins Banish Firey Tunnel Crash

It's not Yellow Journalism. It's not Muckraking. It's not Jingoism. There probably isn't a name for the type of journalism which the Windsor Star is scribing these days. It has more to do with what they choose NOT to tell their readers. You know..."Keep them eating cake". What are we talking about here? Well...If you didn't watch any TV news this weekend or read the Detroit Free Press, see it on the internet or listen to the radio then you missed the news anyway. That's OK with the Windsor Star though because the news they don't want you to know about doesn't fit with their political sponsorship or with their newly found revenue stream. Enough already! Whats going on here? Well...If you read the news you know right? NOT!!!

The news which this blog and others are referring to is the deadly California tunnel crash which took place in the wee hours of Saturday Morning. 27 vehicles slammed into each other inside a 600 meter highway tunnel killing three people (one of them an infant) and burning and injuring scores of others. Fire raged inside of that tunnel for several hours and lingered for 24 more. Huge flames and acrid smoke were seen coming from both ends of the tunnel. The fire burned at 1400 degrees causing sections of cement to explode off of the structure and it melted steel support structures on the upper deck. Tragedy aside, most of that highway sector is closed down until authorities can remove the charred piles of melted car and truck frames and make their assessment as to wether or not the tunnel is safe for further use without collapsing. Watch here:

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&showPlaylist=true&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:b55fa02b-b490-46f9-8f8c-1f113df7c991

Most of us did know about this tagic event because we saw it on television or read about it on the internet or heard about it on the radio or even read about it in OTHER NEWSPAPERS. The Windsor Star didn't find it newsworthy. Scratch that. The Windsor Star didn't want it to be newsworthy. Even though it bears remarkable resemblance to the tragic crash we had here several years back. If you remember, that news was carried big time by all newspapers and media across North America. People everywhere mourned for our local lives lost. The 401 widening which is taking place right now is a direct result of that crash. Our governments figured out that it was time to step up to the plate and fix the 401.

The Windsor Star made no mention of Friday Evening's crash in Saturday's paper and we were watching to see how they would handle it in todays edition. If you were paying attention this morning you know that they put a mere picture and caption of it on the back page of the classified section. Monday's classified section! Who reads that?

Why did the Star choose not to publish this? Because it would burst their pie in the sky balloon which is the current "Greenlink" proposal. A good proposal but a lot of tunneling which just might not be the best thing since sliced bread. Chriss Schnurr, in his blog, argues that we should sit back and check through the details before we sign on to such a committment. He suggests that we make sure that all bases are covered such as air quality in the tunnel, maintenance costs to run the tunnel, safety and so on.

http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/

He is not opposed to the Greenlink proposal but he is asking for caution in the haste which the city and the Star are pushing for. The California tunnel fire of this weekend would naturally bring up some of those same issues which would, on this eve of the first Greenlink open house, be cause for too many resident questions and concerns. Read today's entry from The Windsor City Blog:

http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/2007/10/three-faces-of-star.html

The Windsor Star is obviously meddling in this. They deliberately chose not to report on the California tragedy because that would interfere with Greenlink which is the proposal promoted by our current City Council with the help of Gridlock Sam (at a cost to us of almost $2 million to date) and backed by the Windsor Star. Think of the advertising revenue they are also getting from this. The city is paying over $15,000.00 a pop for each full page add they run in the Star. We readers are paying for the sizzle which they are selling to us! Let's face it. The California tunnel tragedy will just get in the way of all of this. It's not good news so we, the citizens, don't need to know about it. Armed with that information we'll just get in the way.

Hopefully, if readers decide to attend one of these open houses they will keep an open and objective mind and ask all of the right questions. The Windsor Star is bound to be there to put as much sugar coating on this as possible so why not ask THEM some simple questions: Why is the Windsor Star keeping the news from it's readers? Does the Windsor Star think it's necessary to control our news diet? Why should we believe the Star any more? Let's see if the Windsor Star can reign in it's gremlins.

OPEN HOUSES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Ward 1: Today at Massey Secondary School
Ward 4: Tuesday at Gino A. Marcus Community Complex- Drouillard
Ward 3: Wednesday at Willistead Manor
Ward 2: Thursday at Mackenzie Hall
Ward 5: Friday at Forest Glade Community Center

TUNNELS

Deadly Ballet

Jet Fans at Entry and Exit



French Pile Up

Flooding

ADDED: October 12, 2007. Deadly Tunnel Crash and Fire on I-5

Men Needed

ANNUAL MONMOUTH ROAD

FOOTBALL CHALLENGE COMING UP!

800 BLOCK

VS.

900 BLOCK

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10

The 2006 Monmouth Cup holders are

about to be challenged by the 800 block.

On Saturday, November 10 at 1:00 PM

team players will be filing into the

Walkerville High School game field

to participate in a very important football game.

Can the 800 block muster the will

to regain the Monmouth Cup

or will the 900 block shackle them

in homage for a second year?

Show up to this very important event to find out.

Fans and cheerleaders are welcome.

Windsorites want a full WUC/Enwin audit.

See Windsor Star link:

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=0b5202fb-b930-4330-b196-bedbde364bdb

Please donate to the WeACT legal fund. Ask your Provincial Candidate where he/she stands on the issue. Funds may be paid into the legal fund at any Royal Bank branch.

Make a deposit to Account No. 08152-1008275.

SEE YOU OUT THERE!

New Running Club a Social Hit

Some of the 20 runners which showed up for the innaugural run. Everyone fared well, made some new friends and had some great fun at the Kildare House. If you would like to run with this pack please go to the contact information below. Next week's run will start at???? Call to find out.


This will be a weekly event and we will be meeting at a variety of bars and restaurants in the city. Routes of 4 -6 miles will be mapped out and provided at each venue.

FIRST RUN:

Thursday October 4th

Starts at the Kildare House

1880 Wyandotte Street East.

(519) 252-4003

START TIME:

5:45 PM

RUNNERS OF ALL PACES ARE ABSOLUTELY INVITED!

For more information contact Karen at: (519) 818-7694 or by e-mail at: ker2002200@yahoo.ca

Next weeks location is available.

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU OUT THERE!