Just humouring us. Francis and Paul not really different

Big surprise in todays Windsor Star.

How does anyone expect the citizens of this city to care about our community when the institutions of higher education (scratch that - education, period) have all but given up?

Since it's painfully obvious to us that the Board of Governors never intended the new campus to be downtown, and now it seems that Francis is moving on (no offense to St. Clair College, who actually follows through with their plans) to another post-secondary institution - the real question just begs to be asked...

What has happened to the idea of the Urban Village planned since 2002? Just like the multi-modal hub idea espoused in the original Schwartz plan, the Urban Village seems to have died a quiet death somewhere in the halls of power. Why are we insisting upon following the public/private educational model when we have already invested a large sum of money in an excellent mixed-use revitalization framework already?

Maybe Francis was just humouring us as well.

Engineering building doubtful for city core
Mayor 'doesn't expect it,' enters talks with college for expanded campus

Fed up with its inability to get straight answers from the University of Windsor on proposals for a downtown campus, the city has moved on to talks with St. Clair College that could bring hundreds of additional students downtown while creating a new family oriented attraction.
Possible museum

St. Clair College president John Strasser and Mayor Eddie Francis have been kicking around ideas for a second downtown facility, potentially with museum and hall of fame components, that would enable the college to build on its success in transforming the money-losing Cleary into the St. Clair Centre for the Arts with close to 500 students and instructors.

Francis had been hoping for a blockbuster campus cluster involving the university as well as the college, which could have brought at least 2,000 additional students into the core.
But his hopes have been dashed by what he reads as a thumbs down from a cash-strapped university.

Francis, who sounded exasperated, said it's clear from conversations with university officials that their new pride and joy, the $110-million Centre for Engineering Innovation, won't be located downtown.

University president Ross Paul said Tuesday at a board of governors meeting that a decision on a site for the sprawling structure will be made in the next six weeks. "Your patience won't be tested for too much longer," he commented.

For Francis, it's beyond testing. "My sense is that the engineering campus is not going downtown. I don't expect it, based on the conversations I've had." That stings, given that Francis played a key role in persuading the university to chase a more ambitious project than initially planned and was a member of the team that successfully pitched the proposal to the province.

What really rankles is that the university dangled attractive consolation prizes for the downtown, including a law school and school of social work, under the city's nose and then yanked them away.

"We were given false hope that this was do-able, and then, after checking the numbers, we were told it was not do-able because their financial numbers didn't add up," said Francis. Excited by the possibilities, he had city planners do preliminary work which confirmed a dream campus would fit on city-owned land south of the art gallery. He also contacted area museum and heritage backers who showed interest in relocating. And then came the letdown.

A couple of weeks ago a university delegation offered Francis a mea culpa, explaining that they had goofed in mentioning other downtown campus candidates, because the money simply isn't available. "They told me I had every right to be angry and frustrated," said Francis. "They said they were sorry, that they should have done the number crunching first."

The mayor insisted he's not bitter, just disappointed an opportunity has been missed to boost the university's image and create a better student experience by integrating it into a redeveloped downtown. "You only build something like this once every 75 or 80 years. This is a huge missed opportunity."

Board of governors chairman Marty Komsa wasn't available for comment but Dave Cooke, who'll take over in December, said the board is trying to make the right decision for the university and the community with limited financial resources.

"We're trying to do the best we can but we're not the University of Toronto," said Cooke, explaining that just the interest on U of T's fundraising drives exceeds what the U of W can raise over two years.

"We want to do as much as we can with the city. But let's not do the Windsor thing and focus only on the negative," said Cooke. He said the engineering and medical schools, regardless of location, are massive achievements that would have been inconceivable a few years ago.

But the city, which might have contributed $10 million or more in cash and land toward a downtown engineering campus, will be far less likely to crank open its wallet for a site with fewer spinoffs.

And so the focus switches to the college, with its track record of working with the city.

"There's nothing concrete at this time. We're just at the exploratory stages of stuff that might work," said Strasser. He said theatre arts, interior design, health sciences and business information technology would be among candidates for a move downtown in the event of a deal.

"I have a lot of faith in the mayor and I'm sure he'll come up with another idea to have a coffee at Tim's and move the idea forward," said Strasser

The city described their initial plans for the lands as "Building on its history, international riverfront and varied cultural attractions, City Centre West is a pedestrian-oriented urban village where people meet, live, work, shop and play."

Does this mean these values are no longer a priority to this administration?