Rejected...

Well, I knew it would happen one of these days. The following letter is the first one of mine that The Windsor Star decided not to print. The funny thing is that the Star employee responsible for the letters-to-the-editor didn't know what "RFP" stood for and wrote back to me asking.

Wow, my ego is really taking a beating these days...

Re: U of W arts campus called possible for Windsor core, Jan 30.

Windsor City Councillors, PLEASE do not use this latest anouncement by the University of Windsor as further reason to hold up the RFP process for the Urban Village plans on the City Centre West lands.

We need to move forward with issuing the requests for proposals to guage interest in redeveloping the Urban Village in our downtown. Revitalizing our downtown core is paramount to the health and economic well-being of our city. By bringing residents to our core, we will then start to lure the necessary businesses to support these new residents, creating a positive-feedback loop. All these issues must be dealt with in tandem. Partnering with the DWBIA in cleaning the area up and making it safer will yield much higher benefits than simply waiting for that "silver bullet" mega-project to come in and save us.

We look to our elected leaders to offer some help in achieving this outcome. What do ward councillors Jones and Postma have to say? They have been conspicuously silent since the Universities decision to locate the engineering school on campus. The community/downtown activists cannot do it alone. It is time to step up to the plate and work with us, as this idea of a "community partnership" has produced such great results in more cities than I can count, and the energy and desire is out here to move forward. You are squandering some precious community resources if you choose not to act any longer.

Chris Holt
scaledown.ca

It's a good thing I have an alternate venue with which to air my grievances. How about all those other rejected writers that don't, however?

What I Know and do not Know about the After Hours Debate

Some random thoughts about last nights latest installment in the Afterhours debate. What has become an ongoing saga with no end in site.

I know the mayor was probably right about the need for a council report to withstand an OMB challenge. As he put it, any articling law student should know that

I do not know why he or the city solicitor did not make this clear three weeks ago. I am only registering to speak to the merits or disadvantages of this issue and a bylaw, not to judge its ability to withstand court challenges. Had this been made clear to councillors three weeks ago, we would have saved a lot of everyones time

I do know that the main argument of Diane Sibley about not having bylaw enforcement officers on staff after 3am is an insult to logic and intelligence of everyone. If Windsor cannot enforce a bylaw that sees these establishments closed after 3am, how can it enforce bylaws such as noise when they are allowed to remain open.

I do not know why another report will be issued that does not allow input from the DWBIA who has access to numerous experts and information on the subject such as Peter Belmio, Responsible Hospitality Institute and others.

I do know that the Police chief opposes this bylaw for the stated reason of its similarity in effect to the prostitution debate.

I do not know why the Police chief cannot understand the simple reasoning behind moving this problem out of pelissier and downtown. That this area is unique in Windsor because 1 billion dollars (Yes a billion) has been invested into downtown with Casino, convention center, arena, transit, college campus, Streetscape and decoration, districting, DWBIA facade grant incentives etc... and that investment deserves to be protected.

I do know that when the Peter Belmio Report was debated and accepted that there was no objection from the police chief.

I do not know why some councillors take their positions. Although I fully understand the points of view of Councillors Dilkins, Gignac and Hatfield in wanting to wait for the report. I cannot understand many of the comments of councillors Marra and especially councillor Lewenza who was quoted as saying "sometimes the best thing we can do is to do nothing at all"

I do know how this will play out. The DWBIA will spend thousands on bringing experts to restate its case. If council decides to not solve this problem in a way that sees the dangerous situation that exists on Pelissier and Wyandotte then video will be released that shows the public the situation as it exists on Saturday at 3am.

I do not know why its taken five years for administration to recommend alternative solutions and whether they will meaningfully address the desires of the Responsible Hospitality Institute or the Belmio recommendations

I do know that after all the above takes place and years go by that this will then become an election issue.

I do not know why a councillor would want to run supporting after hours bars against the will of the vast majority of residents and the vast majority of businesses. I do not know why they are not worried about the voters

I do know that my picture above shows the pottersville dream that doing nothing will see and that no matter how many years it takes to implement the 2003 Belmio recommendations, it's a wonderful life downtown.