On Monday, January 7th, there will be a couple of items going before city council that will continue Windsor’s drain of residents out to surrounding bedroom communities and further solidify the automobiles dominance in our transportation hierarchy.Smart Growth, here we come…
Item #5 is the Essex-Windsor Regional Transportation Master Plan. In classic Orwellian double-speak, it pays homage to progressive notions such as following “a more regional approach to transportation planning matters including road infrastructure, transit, cycling and other sustainable transportation forms.”, yet the document continues on with a “list of critical projects that need to be completed.”, such as;
- Extend Wyandotte Street East to continue this streets push east.
- Widen E.C. Row Expressway to at least 6 lanes from Banwell Road to Ojibway Parkway,
- Widen Provincial Road/Division Road to a 4 lane arterial road from Howard to the south city limits,
- Widen and extend Lauzon Parkway to connect with highway 401 and then south to highway 3 in Maidstone “for the overall economc development and growth of the city”
Item #4 is more of the same, as the results of the Manning Road and County Road 22 Class Environmental Assessment and the preliminary design are coming before council. I got a chuckle when I read that these “improvements” were being carried out under the slogan “Let’s Get Windsor Essex Moving Strategy”, as I figured it meant let’s get Windsor residents moving out to Essex county. I don’t think that’s what they meant, however.
This engine will just continue chugging along until there is a critical mass of residents crying out together for it to slow down. City council, it seems, is trying to be everything to everyone, yet it succeeds at nothing. It says it wants to strengthen out downtown and established communities, yet it paves and widens escape routes to the suburbs allowing more city residents to flee the same traffic those widened roads encourage. It wants to plant “a million trees” to help clean our toxic air, yet it encourages motorist-only methods of transportation to built-up areas where walking and cycling are not a mobility options.
"More of the same" is the kind of thinking that set us down the road that lead us to where we find ourselves today. Is this something you're happy with?
Neither am I.
6 comments:
Thanks for the information. Is the aforementioned agenda posted on the City of Windsor website? Or was the agenda printed in a recent edition of The Windsor Star?
The route to Windsor's new border crossing is materializing. Once again, Windsor city council is resorting to construction to stimulate the regional economy.
Hyperbole seems to be the only thing being employed in Windsor.
I agree wholeheartedly, Robert. Yes, the information is provided on the city's website, just follow the first link provided in the entry. Linked as well is the new transportation master plan provided as an appendix on that agenda item. Try to follow their thought process to see the lip-service being paid to sustainable transportation and land-use policies.
The city is solidifying their reliance on the status quo, even though the problems they want to solve were put in place by the same thinking they are currently employing.
Isn't that what Albert Einstein tells us is the definition of insanity, to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results?
They do not have any original ideas and are unaware as to how to fix our fair city. They are clinically insane and should be relieved of duty. The time has come for a mutiny, I believe.
In the Frank Capra classic, "It's a Wonderful Life", George Bailey was going to go out and build fantastic bridges, skyscrapers and highways. In the end he stayed in his dumpy little town and built something truly grand, a community.
Mayor Francis and our city government have little interest in building a community. It's not glamourous. It won't make you famous. But they want to build things, monuments that they can show the outside world how fantastic thier leadership is. But all we get to see is the bill and the ruinous, ribbons of asphalt and concrete.
We don't need to build roads, we need to build communities.
* Widen Provincial Road/Division Road to a 4 lane arterial road from Howard to the south city limits
That should have been done prior to deciding that the area around Walker Road was going to be big box heaven.
As someone who works out at the airport and lives downtown, there are huge backups every day on that road, and they are only caused by the bottleneck of poor urban planning.
Hopefull they will also realisze it's not 1950 and fill in some of the open sewers out there.
Great posts by everyone. I would love for the city to argue any of the points being made here. The problem is they can't. They are inept in their own lives and they are inept at trying to run the city and subsequently our lives.
I agree Chris, the time for a mutiny is here. I for one will NOT put on rose-city coloured glasses while MY city declines no matter what the King or Henderson states. I am sure everyone read Henderson's foolish article in the Star. I wouldn't even line my bird cage with his drive.
Has anyone noticed on the "Sound Off" (on The Star's webpage) that Henderson seems to be in the wrong and people are calling him out on his way of treating Eddie with kids gloves? What a joke he and Eddie are.
As for the trees being planted...another joke.
I had one tree cut down in 2006 because it was dying. I will inform you that the trees are Horse Chestnuts and bloom and smell beautiful in the Spring. I asked for another tree to be planted so that my property retained its park-like charm. Well, in 2007 the city decided to chop another one down on my property line because it had a crack in the trunk during the winter months. This tree is over 100 years old and could have been banded and lived another 40 years. I was told that the city does not do that because of liabity issues (go figure). So I inquired that the first tree wasn't even planted yet that I could have both planted at the same time thus I could care for both trees at the same time (not on the city's dime) and they could save money by planting both at once instead of doing the paperwork for two different installs.
Well, I am still waiting as NEITHER tree has been planted but my view of concrete the the balance of my yard has been thrown off for 2 years now. I asked why they hadn't been planted yet and were told "we are behind schedule". Why then are they removing trees if they can't replace them quick enough? Yet the city whines about pollution.
What a joke if it wasn't so sad...
Andrew you are encouraging more sprawl and endorsing the city's let's get bigger attitude.
This city is the poster child for poor urban planning. Including the big box extravaganza that Walker Road has become. New infrastructure for areas of the city that need to be redeveloped for infil should be the priority.
I am disappointed that someone like yourself, a person that documents this city's "progress" would cheerlead for more money to be spent on sprawl.
Post a Comment