You win some and you lose some. What I lost last night at the City Council meeting was any hope that our elected officials actually listen to the delegates.If they did actually listen, they would have heard empirical evidence that the benefits to the city that Jenny Coco's development were offering may not live up to the promises. Councilor after councilor turned on their microphones and pledged their undying devotion to this "Good Corporate Citizen" whose project they must support. Coco development did provide a ton of green space (their Ambassador golf course!) to the area. Funny, they didn't mention the biggest chunk of rotting real estate in the downtown (156 Ouellette, right next to Shanfield's) is owned by this corporation, and is easily one of the most derelict buildings in the core. Their M.O.? Hollow out the core, making the fringes (and their vast holdings of land) seem attractive.
Our councilors raved about these 1,500 jobs the development would provide. Funny, Josh and I found mountains of evidence pointing to the fact that big box retail normally costs a community jobs – not provides them. Who do they think would work there anyways? Windsor residents? No - the bulk of the jobs would go to LaSalle residents. But that's what Windsor does – provides bedroom communities employment, and then they take their paycheques home to their suburban tax havens. They can't hope for anything larger than minimum wage anyways.
Thank goodness for Fulvio Valentinis, who gave everyone watching in TV-Land a planning lesson in urban sprawl. Apparently, all those experts and academics around the globe are wrong – this type of development DOESN'T increase urban sprawl. I'm going to call James Howard Kunstler right now and let him know all his work to date is incorrect and he should go back to writing fiction.
Councilor Lewenza – municipalities CAN combat sprawl. Tell that to Guelph and Vancouver, who have successfully held back attempts at monotonizing their local economy. Tell that to Business Week magazine who warned their readers that mega-retailers may not be all they're cracked up to be. And tell that to PriceWaterhouseCoopers who called big box retail "risky propositions. These are not hippy-dippy capitalist-hating commies we're citing here. These are business people who have seen through the false promise of big box development.
One by one, they praised Coco and ignored the warnings. Even going so far as praising a "highly regarded" local environmentalist who endorsed this project (thanks Postma, for proving that you didn't hear a word the other highly regarded environmentalists were saying) It was an evening that leaves you with the idea that this municipal boat doesn't have anyone at the rudder.
Once again, the lone voice of reason at the meeting last night was Councilor Halberstadt, who warned the rest of council that if we continue down this road we would have more empty big-boxes littering the landscape, more traffic congestion and more closing local businesses in favour of minimum wage employment. He agreed that we must study this topic further, but unfortunately, the rest of council seemed quite content with the status quo. Thank you, Alan, for at least making the attempt.
I am not looking at this exercise as a failure. Sure, we didn't get what we wanted, but did we ever elevate the dialogue. My coworkers were discussing the perils of big box this morning when I arrived at work. They never discuss anything besides cars and sports – so this is a huge development. Guaranteed, items like this will be on the councils agenda again in the future, and when that time comes, they cannot feign ignorance. They are going to be hearing a lot about this decision in the future.
Interested in reading some of our supporting documents? In our presentation and council package, we asked council to defer the decision until a comprehensive Economic Impact Study could be conducted to determine the effect more big box retail mega-centres would have on this community. Here's pretty much everything supplied to our councillors last night, including two examples of what an impact study discovered for other communities.
18 comments:
My favourite moment: When Fulvio asked WalMart Corp. representatives if they were "going to put shade trees in the parking lot" of the expanded new WalMart Super Centre. Because that's gonna help, right Fulvio?
November 8th is world planners day. Our city planners must start speaking what they know to be the truth. They cannot continue to say what they think their superiors want to hear.
For me it is very simple, would any of the 10 councillors want to live next to this thing, if not, why are they building it. Would the developer want to live next to it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7M6oWlwwiJU
watch this clip
You know, a Hummer gets might hot when sitting outside of a SprawlMart all day! Where would they be without Valentinis looking out for their interests?
This is the angriest I've ever been at this council. Yeah, they scheme and suppress all the time, but this time they had the empirical evidence in front of them thanks to Josh and Chris and completely ignored it. They heard Halberstadt make all sorts of premonitions (and correctly so) about what's going to happen to this city, and they marginalized him.
Hey south windsorites! I hope you really like those cars of yours because that WalMart and Canadian Tire that's two blocks from your house is going to be moving out to the racetrack. Maybe the next option you should get in your new SUV should be a portapotty, cause that 3/4 hour trek with the kiddies is going to cause some damp panties!
Great Radiant City clip.
Kunstler is one of my all-time faves. I've got a few hours of unedited footage from when I chauffeured him around the city last year, that I am hoping, one day, to assemble into something watchable.
Mark Boscariol screened Radiant City last year locally. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend and have yet to see the film.
Maybe, sometime in the near future we could arrange another screening.
what do you think, folks?
Interested?
Fulvio is truly something.
Chris, JHK made a speach last year at the U didn't he? Might there be any transcripts from that? Just curious, I wasn't able to attend then.
Sporto - I've got the whole thing on tape, as well as footage from the tour of Windsor I gave him, a meeting we had with King Eddie, as well as the breakfast meeting with city administration the next day.
Like I mentioned, I haven't edited any of it down yet, partly due to my lack of time/knowledge/equipment. Also, my Luddite nature has been getting in the way. No transcript, though. Sorry
This council is Eddies's YES MAN team ,except for one that seem to be able to think for himself.
Your efforts of bringing this matter to the taxpayers .For those that do some result on Chinamart ,the effects and overall gain depends on what is valued here.TO MUCH of retail for so little growth is a plan for disaster and Eddie is just the cause.The effect will be long term ,but as in politics its dump and run .Good business sence is left at the door.Its another on the list of a calculated way to munipulate matters for deals made behind closed doors.And this is for the better??? I think not!!
Hopefully my letter makes the Windsor Star...
Council has once again disappointed the many local businesses paying taxes in this city by talking out of both sides of their mouths. They talk of the need to revitalize downtown, yet approve monstrous big box outlets on the outskirts of the city, drawing people away from the core.
If Coco Development Group was such a great corporate citizen, as most of council was going out of their way to praise them as being, why has there been no move to revitalize the core when they own one of the most prominent eye sores in our downtown at the corner of Ouellette and Pitt?
Councillor Valentinis states, “Big Boxes have a roll to play.” I couldn’t agree more, unfortunately, for opposite reasons. I would love councillors to explain to struggling local business owners in the city core their statements that these new big boxes will not impact their businesses. Have them explain to those tax paying citizens that helping out corporate conglomerates who take the money from this city and run is more important than nurturing the small businesses in which profits remain local.
How many millions will be needed from the city to redo the roadways and provide hydro and utilities to this area? During peak times, can they guarantee drivers will not use Matchette and remain queued on Ojibway Parkway? One only needs to look at Devonshire Mall to see the many different routes drivers take to avoid the traffic entering the parking lot. How will this affect the natural parkland surrounding the area?
I have talked to many business owners who want out, but cannot even find a buyer for their business. They have a choice to either close up and lose everything they have worked so hard and, in many cases, invested their life savings in or wait it out and hope for the best. They are left to haemorrhage money month after month in hopes that one day soon, business will pick up again. Shortsighted decisions like the one made last night kill that hope. Businesses in our city centre are closing at an alarming rate. How are vacant buildings going to attract tourists?
In a time where municipalities are seeing the destruction big box development brings and pushing them away from their cities, our council has done the opposite and embraced them.
Local small businesses are the backbone of any community. It's time our administration starts helping them and stop looking for quick fixes.
I hope the letter makes the Star too, AC. I hope MANY letters make the Star about this huge disapointment we call city council.
How do you, in good conscience, vote AGAINST every local businessperson in the city (which Arnie Blain was there representing) in favour of something that will likely damage them?
The sad thing is - we are subsidizing this!!!! We will not only be paying annually to have this type of development take place, but when that WalMart on Dougall closes, and that Canadian Tire closes (the vast majority of those stores have employees that actually live in Windsor) and they move out to the racetrack (to employ those LaSalle residents - but who's speaking to THOSE lost jobs?) and we also get to subsidize their empty big-boxes that they leave behind! They get reduced property tax rates on their vacant buildings.
Damn this council and damn the big box stores.
So, let me get this straight. They're not CREATING jobs, they're actually just MOVING the jobs?
They're not CREATING retail space, they're just MOVING it further and further out of the city.
I live in South Windsor, and I used to have an N&D three blocks from my house that, as a kid, I used to walk to. Then, they closed that and opened the Zehrs at Dougall and West Grand, forcing me to get in my car. THEN, they closed that and opened up that monstrosity Zehrs Super-duper-crap-your-pants-its-so-big store in Legacy park quadrupalling the length of my car ride. Now they want to do the same with my local Wal Mart and Canadian Tire.
Why does nobody tell us these things PRIOR to them making these decisions?!?!?
Well done on your presentation, Josh and Chris.
You should perma-link the slide show on your blog. It is valuable knowledge.
I heard a local radio talk show this morning and for 2 hours 90 percent of the callers were opposed to the development. Common sense and long term vision are clearly lacking on council, but I was suprised at how many nuances of the situtation were picked up on by the public.
Even when you so clearly showed council the threat to their almighty God "the bottom line", they turn a deaf ear.
And they all paid lip service to the "value of Ojibway". Or as Ken Jr. so eloquently put it " The jewel that is Ojibway Parkway...."
Uhhh, no Ken, that's the road....
I'd love to see any 4 pad big box centre that employs 1500 people. I guess they are talking about 1420 part time jobs.
I was at the PAC meeting where Percy tried to slip in the "remove EA requirement" for the expansion of the Sprucewood and Matchette intersection.
Part of his rationale at the time was that EA's are opportunities for "people" to hold up projects because they "don't like the colour of the line being painted down the middle of the road."
If the project were delayed, Percy pointed out, the developers would miss the 2008 Xmas shopping season.
That's long term thinking in Windsor. Next Christmas.
The fact is: The most vulnerable spot for this project is the EA for the intersection of Matchette and Sprucewood. I believe it is wholly within Lasalle's boudaries and also within 50 meters of a provincially significant ANSI. I believe the PPS has something to say about roadway development within 50 metres of ANSI's.
It is obvious to me that the "keystone kops" type bumbling they were doing around the wording of the EA requirement was no coincidence. They know it is a vulnerability and they are trying to tightly manage it. It seems as if there are those who are "in on it" (Eddie, Slopen, some administrators) and others who are not (Percy, Council, PAC).
While Percy was clearly onside with the developers, he was causing them all much anxiety with his confident display of ignorance regarding Environmental Assessment.
I do take exception to Chris's comment sniping at Lasalle residents and their "tax haven".
I know I've previously argued with you guys that LaSalle at one time was a small town and not just a suburb. I was born here in the 60's. My current home is 50 years old. My father built a business here and has served the local people for 48 years. My taxes are just as high as yours.
The myth of low taxes in Lasalle is outdated.
Extending the pissiness between Windsor and its neighbours plays directly into the politicians hands. What is so sorely needed is effective regional planning. The Border file is another good example ot this.
If we could end the useless, distracting political gamesmanship (ie. Border, Ice track, Arena etc)
perhaps we could actually work toward a more sustainable future for the entire region.
That is hard to imagine with your current council.
In closing here, I will say again: Great Job!
I know what it is like to have to speed read through something to get it on the record!
But your points were actually staggering.
Point well made, Al. I was in a bit of a "mood" when I penned that blog post this morning, so my emotions got to me a little. You're absolutely right about any petty drawbridges being pulled up behind "Windsor Residents" and "LaSalle Residents". It's just not worthwhile or productive, and I appologise. The connection was just made in my head that the ever-mobile big boxers were going to be putting Windsorites out of work when they vacate their current locations and hire LaSallites in their place out on the cities periphery, and I got a little more pissed.
And this council argued about jobs.
You should have seen my mood after I read the paper (which, thankfully, I did after writing the blog) and realized that after we warned council about rising property taxes because of developments like this, they already knew they were going to have to raise taxes. And then Halberstadt stated in his blog that they had just gone to a budget meeting hours earlier when they heard about how much it was costing us to service vacant commercial buildings and how that would impact budget deliberations!
These people just don't listen, do they? We've actually hit them on the head with the big-box-brick and they STILL won't connect the dots!
i would like to post a correction...
the Coco owned building is at the corner of Ouellette and Chatham, not Pitt as I stated....
on that note...
according to AM 800...
A Ward 3 city councillor is ticked off over the state of the former Royal Bank building downtown. Alan Halberstadt says the city has spent a lot of money on street scaping. He thinks the vacant spot at Ouellette Avenue and Chatham Street is an embarrassment. and wants the city to pressure the owner to clean it up or sell it.
It's a shame they don't actually mention the name of the owner.
Chris, I had a chance to view the screening of Radiant City and it was well worth it. Besides the beautiful weather, good food, well-stocked bar,and outdoor location at the Art Gallery of Windsor the movie was well worth the time and money. I hadn't originally planned to go, but was encouraged to. I was certainly glad I did. The person who convinced me to go had sad that if they were King for a day in Windsor they would make Radiant City required viewing for everyone involved in the Planning process, Councillors included. I think that person's got a good idea.
Maybe it would be possible to arrange another screening with a moderated discussion/question and answer session to follow.
PS. I found it somewhat ironic that night, as I was walking home, to note the significant number of movie attendees who were crossing the street to the parking lot to drive home. No judgment intended, it was just the first thing that struck me as I left the Art Gallery.
I would pay for every councillor and our mayor to watch Radiant City. But I am sure they would dismiss it because they know EVERYTHING!
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