...Scale Down, Windsor

The Mayor of Monmouth: Historic Seagrave Building Murdered. City in on it.

2008-04-10T18:06:00.000-04:00

The Mayor of Monmouth: Historic Seagrave Building Murdered. City in on it.

Time to redirect to the NEW Scale Down!

2008-02-21T10:04:00.004-05:00

It appears that we are now having some great Scale Down discussions in two separate arenas. I would urge everyone to redirect over to ScaleDown's new website, located conveniently at

www.scaledown.ca

Our incredibly successful launch party last night, attended by over 100 of the cities movers-and-shakers, proved to us that we are onto something here. The dialogue the we enter into with our readership is trickling into some of the mainstream media's coverage, and our city councillors are paying attention.

So change the URL of Scale Down in your "favourites" to http://www.scaledown.ca/, as we will not be utilizing our blogger site much any longer, though it will live on in cyberspace as a way of preserving our archives and redirecting our readers over to our new active site.

Thank you all so much for all the support and thought you've given ScaleDown. We are enacting some positive change and we really want to keep this ball rolling.

Sincerely,

Josh,

Mark,

James,

Chris

Challenging Windsor's Future

2008-02-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, through its' Grand Challenges for Engineering project, has identified 14 areas that it views as essential to "secure against both human and natural threats [and] improve the quality of life in our nation and around the world" according to Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering.

A quick review of the intentionally non-partisan, unranked list, demonstates that the 18 members of the project committee are some of the most forward-thinking, cutting edge intellects of our time. Granted, the members of the committee did not have to actually solve the issues, but simply identify the areas that they felt were criticial to the preservation and advancement of our global society.

The areas, as listed on the project website, are:

Make solar energy economical
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration methods
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Restore and improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Reverse-engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Advance personalized learning
Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

While I don't agree with the list in it's entirety (Does society really need virtual reality so that we can continue to hide from our actual reality?), I was impressed with the trend toward sustainability, both social and environmental. The list got me thinking -- are there 14 Grand Challenges for Windsor? If I had to compile a list, without the assistance of some of the most forward thinking and brilliant intellects of the modern world, what would they be?

Here are the 14 Challenges for Windsor, according to me:

Re-build urban and regional mass transit
Develop and adhere to sustainable land-use plans
Incubate a knowledge-based economy
Create a 'green' manufacturing industry
Eat, build, buy and live locally
Become a living showcase for academic innovation
Reduce government bureaucracy while increasing accountability
Implement aggressive environmental sustainability policies and procedures
Re-invest in local arts and culture
Build walkable neighbourhoods
Interconnect neighbourhood districts with non-motorized transit options
Transform downtown into a destination for all ages
Charge 'true-cost' development fees to encourage intensification
Provide sustainable, cost-effective utilities from generation to delivery

Implementing these changes locally and regionally would provide the environmental, economic and civic health we need to succeed. There will be challenges and opposition to the changes we need, but only by making these changes can we guarantee our long-term success. NIMBYs and nay-sayers will try and dissuade us, but we can build a city and a region that meets our wants and needs this, and future, generations.

What do you think of the 14 Challenges for Windsor? What challenges does Windsor face in the next 25, 50 or 100 years?

Tonight, Watch Council make a Smart Choice

2008-02-19T07:48:00.004-05:00

In the past, countless times I have gone before council with important reports from experts in other jurisdictions about what Windsor should be doing. Tonight marks a turning point where I can refer to reports from experts in our jurisdiction when talking about the future of Windsor-Essex Region.

Tonight, Windsor's planning department makes a presentation to Council with the following Recommendation

I. That Windsor City Council and Administration continue to work cooperatively with our neighboring municipalities and our community partners to adopt and implement planning policies that:
a. responsibly address the regional challenges and opportunities identified in the IMPCC 2007 Annual Report.
b. support the principles that are contained with in the "
Healthy Places, Healthy People, Smart Choices for the Windsor-Essex Region of Ontario" document; and

II. That the IMPCC2007 Annual Report BE FORWARDED to the Windsor Planning Advisory Committee as a resource document for its deliberations on the City Official Plan review.

At Scaledown we believe this report is a significant sign of progress for several reasons

1. Regionalism: The fact that every planning official in Essex county is a party to this report shows that we can work together as a region
2. Urban and Town Centers focus: "Within each community in our region, clearly defined, compact, pedestrian and transit friendly city and town centres
need to be maintained, created and enhanced."
3. Walkability - transforming suburban sprawl into walkable neighborhoods

We believe that scaledown embodies the values of this report. Sure, some might say it is only a statement of principles and policy that has not been acted upon. However this is where it all begins, this report is a turning point for our city.

It is fitting that this happens the day before Chris Turner speaks in Windsor about the Geography of Hope

And the Winners are...

2008-02-18T16:41:00.004-05:00

The long anticipated draw for our two copies of Chris Turner's The Geography of Hope is finally over. Utilizing the cheap labour costs and impeccable integrity of my children, I put them to work (after they were done sewing up that last pair of Nikes' that is) drawing the two winners names.

And here we go...

So, you two winners, we will be seeing you at the big SCALEDOWN UNVEILED launch party this Wednesday evening where you can pick your copy up and get Chris Turner to sign it for you Congratulations again and a big Thank You goes out to Random House for providing the giveaway copies of the book!

Kick back and enjoy Family Day.

2008-02-18T07:31:00.001-05:00

In light of our new February holiday "Family Day", I am going to suggest that you go out to your friendly neighbourhood video store and rent a movie.

No, not just any movie. Specifically, a Sundance nominee from last year; The King Of California.

In it, you'll find Michael Douglas' character deal with the fact that his childhood home has disappeared under a wash of suburban sprawl while he chases a treasure that leads him through a private golf course to breaking into and excavating under a Costco store.

Sure, that's not the focus of the film, but it could have been. You'll also find a redemption-themed father/daughter tale that should delight other members of your audience, so don't feel too guilty about forcing them to sit through a "moral-of-this-story" tale.

So spend some quality time with the family today and tonight, sit down and watch a film about sprawl swallowing the California countryside :)

What am I doing here?

2008-02-15T23:33:00.002-05:00

The lead-up to the website launch on Wednesday has got me asking myself; what is my contribution to scaledown.ca? I really believe in what we are trying to do here, but sometimes I worry that the task is so big and I worry that I’m not the right person to be out writing about how we should live our lives.

I’m not going to get all philosophical like Chris did the other day but, I just want to take a little bit today to let you know where my part in scaledown.ca is heading.

I’ve been researching stories for future posts. My background is in civil engineering and I have knowledge of and access to information on structures and civil-works. So I’m putting stuff together for posts about infrastructure and what needs to be fixed and what the costs might be. Personally, I am very interested in peak oil and its ramifications, I think understanding this issue will be important to how we move forward. Therefore, a couple of posts will talk about Transition Towns and initiatives like the Portland Peak Oil Advisory Group. Then there’s my love of bicycles. There will be posts from me about my bikes and commuting and maybe even a little “bike porn”. “Bike porn” is what my wife calls any website that features pictures of bicycles that I tend to spend long periods of time just staring at, usually followed by longing glances at my bank account. LOL.

Besides my posts I have been working on a public event to help us all learn more about Urban Planning and what is involved in the planning process. This event will feature professional planners and educators with a panel discussion and a question and answer session. Keep Saturday, March 22 open on your calendars.

My hope is for scaledown.ca to be a source of ideas and solutions for our community. What I really want is to bring the message that there are better ways to live than sprawl/consumerism. I want to help our community prepare and make changes for a future that could be very rewarding for the people of Windsor/Essex.

Bridge access to downtown

2008-02-15T22:18:00.010-05:00

Just some clarifications.

This is not the first time the issue of downtown access from the Bridge has been dealt with. Several years ago the Bridge requested that the access route to downtown by way of Riverside Drive be closed down. That access to downtown be gained by Wyandotte.

The bridge had several valid safety concerns with keeping this route open, mostly to do with car traffic crossing truck traffic

Notwithstanding the valid bridge concerns, the DWBIA and the city asked the Bridge not close this access as Riverside was an obviously far more convenient, scenic and attractive route to downtown.

Examples
1. You cannot turn left from Wyandotte to Ouellette
2. If you turn before onto pelissier, most one way streets will lead you west and away from Downtown
3. If you turn after Ouellette One way streets on Park and Pitt will lead you east and away from downtown
4. As much as I like the asian flavor of wyandotte, it will never appeal to tourists as much as our world class waterfront which also has significantly less left turn traffic and traffic lights.

Now these traffic issues are not the fault of the Ambassador Bridge Company. Also, I understand and appreciate that the Ambassador Bridge may very well have perfectly good cause to temporarily close this access. As many have stated at many times, they are concerned with running an efficient operation at their location as they should be.

Many are fearful that in this antagonist climate that the Bridge company may be trying to test the waters to see if it can achieve its previously stated intentions which were to close this exit permanently. Without assigning fault, I personally think it sucks that this type of climate even exists in this day and age.

I think that a simple clarification of the Ambassador Bridge Company regarding the long term use of this downtown access would be appreciated and resolve this once and for all. I for one would be immediately satisfied by a clear statement of this nature by Mr. Stamper as it is the long term strategy for downtown access that is of greater concern. Riverside Drive is how we should want visitors to first experience Windsor rather than a congested and transitional Wyandotte Street. If someone thinks that difference is unimportant, I would suggest that reveals more about them and their motives.

The Casino's downtown road closures are not a comparable situation as the DWBIA was given notice months before the decision was made. In addition to that, Public meetings were held. The DWBIA had the full ability to express its concerns and weigh the pro's and cons. The elected DWBIA board unanimously supported that decision.

The same meetings have also taken place regarding a potential tunnel plaza. Again the situations are not comparable.

Hopefully in the long term, visitors to Windsor will remember their first impression being the Waterfront which we have so heavily invested in as a world Class Showpiece

The Arts: London funding vs. Windsor’s Creativity

2008-02-15T07:08:00.004-05:00

london arts budget

Contrasting the way that London contributes to the the arts will ultimately address funding deal with funding. We are currently seeing across the board cuts in the Libraries, Art Gallery, Arts Council. Meanwhile we watch Arts funding in London Ontario increase, not only by the city but also by the Private sector. Further on this post, I’ll show examples of where Windsor’s creativity trumps London

Municipal revenue is $951,000, Windsor’s contribution is 2/3 of that amount

If it gets final approval later this month, council's vote to contribute $160,000 to a recently established public art fund could usher in a new era and reinforce London's future as a creative city. The Mainstreet London Association paid $200,000 for the public art that is the multi colored tree art downtown
In Windsor we see arts funding significantly reduced, even the Capital Theater dispute has funding as its root cause.

I am not one to simply want my tax dollars thrown at the arts, but we have to acknowledge what other cities are doing to find best practices. Secondly, there are ample opportunities to contribute to the arts with little or no cost by the city. One source I found that has not seen a dollar spent on Windsor is www.businessforarts.org.

One thing I see advantageous for Windsor over London is the fact that we seem to do things for a fraction of the cost of London. A couple of examples include downtown security camera’s up costing $30,000 per year while London’s program cost $200,000 or London’s Ambassador program spent $51,000 for a promotional video, while the DWBIA was able to make a much better promotional video for far less cost.\

Right Now, Londons’ struggling TAP (The Arts Project) cost hundreds of thousands while local artist Christian Aldo his own version of an arts incubator by creating Galleries displaying the work of local artists on Pelissier simply by working with building owners and artists with no other assets than his colourful and dynamic character. This initiative deserves its own attention and kudo's to Mr. Aldo

Before she left, Judith Veresuk proposed the idea of cladding the stark white new planters downtown with mosaic tile art. Implementing this public arts partnership with business could be a testament to Mrs. Veresuk downtown efforts.
Think of Cartunes, businesses could sponsor the winners from an art competition to decorate the planters like they did with Cartunes, except this time they would get far more than a one year bang for their art donation. We would have a permanent display of their contribution.

Secondly, the DWBIA has already committed $100,000 additional to maiden lane streetscape to turn it into a “European” style road with the plumbing infrastructure for a fountain in the center. No funds have been allocated or raised for the actual fountain. The DWBIA needs to come up with terms of reference and criteria for this fountain design. After that a design competition should also be conducted for this fountain to become another proud piece of public art.

Separately, the best thing Windsor could do for the arts is to coordinate grant writing between the different groups. This position was filled by Ed Agnew before but there needs to be a “311” type program to access this moneys.

The meaning of it all....

2008-02-14T07:36:00.003-05:00

It has long eluded me as to the meaning of exactly what we do here at Scale Down. OK, in my heart I know what it is we do; I just have a hard time explaining it sometimes.

I was being interviewed by Windsor Star reporter Ted Whip yesterday, and he asked - simply enough - what Scale Down is all about. I've been asked this so many times before, and have given a different answer each and every time, that I paused for a second before answering him.

If we distilled the essence of Scale Down into a perfume (without adding the 13 virgins - that would just be overwhelming!) what would the scent be like?

I was actually contemplating this very notion as I was performing my household duties yesterday prior to being interviewed. That is the time (aside from showering) that I do my best thinking. The kids aren't bugging me (they're alergic to doing the dishes, didn't you know) and I'm free to let my mind wander.

I know that we are continually backing the local business wo/man and their desire to make an honest living while providing a valued service to the community in which they live. I know we are always talking about our built environment and how "New Urbanism" and traditional neighbourhood development has proven itself superior for getting to know our neighbours as well as slimming our waistlines while we walk the couple of blocks to the store to get milk. We value a quality public transportation system as an efficient way to gain mobility. We espouse the arts and our cultural heritage as a way to reinvigorate the "Main Streets" of Windsor and how lively and exciting a neighbourhood that values its artists can be. We also get into the huge waste of money that communities spend as they duplicate and triplicate their infrastructure trying to service far-flung suburbs and their 3/4 acre raised ranches.

Then it dawned on me. We're all about the pedestrian! The notion of the human being, on foot, signifies progress in all aspects of our daily lives. When we get out of our cars and walk along our streets, we bump into the people who cut our meat at the deli and dispense our prescriptions at the drug store. We interact with each other and become involved in each other's lives. We don't mow each other down in our SUV's as we race to pick the kids up from daycare, because we have cut down our spending as we cut down our car and insurance payments and are able to spend less time at work. We're not working overtime to fuel our hyper-consumer lifestyles, so we're able to spend time with our significant others as we visit the theatre or art gallery. The only peopl less than thrilled with us when we focus on the foot are the big-box stores and the weight loss emporiums.

We're more human when we use our feet.

Whether this has brought me closer to understanding the essence of Scale Down or not, I don't know. We're all these things, and then a little something else thrown in the mix to shake things up a bit. I was hoping to come out of this mental exercise with an apporpriate slogan we could use to describe our actions, but I don't know whether I'm at that point yet or not.

I had come up with "Pedestrian Powered Rejuvenation", and am going to let that sit with me a while to see if it stands the test of time.

Get (scale)Down!

2008-02-13T16:37:00.003-05:00

Did you honestly think we would host another boring lecture for our big website launch party? Think again...

StereoGoesStellar to play at SCALEDOWN UNVEILED!

from SGS's media release...

State of the Stellar Address

"StereoGoesStellar, Windsor's premier piano based indie poppers, have been in the studio since early January this year. The ScaleDown.ca Website Launch Party will be their last show in Windsor until the band releases their first and highly anticipated full length album in May 2008."

Stellar Biography

"Composed of four of Windsor's least attractive musicians, and one of it's hottest (Keith), StereoGoesStellar aims to provide it's small but loyal following with a good time, every time, but not for a long time. That is to say that prolonged exposure to the members of StereoGoesStellar has been found to result in a gashes, thrashes, and of course, rashes.

While a spoonful of recordings are available from the ferocious fivesome, the nostalgia that radiates from the very centroid of the group's improbable inertia of instrumentaion is something that is to be experienced live when it is traversed to the crowd in a slurry of blood, sweat, and a number of unknown and indistinguishable substances that for the most part merely offend all five senses, but to a lesser degree, entertain and enthrall.

And despite the power and driven tones of the bands inadvertently large and rounded sound, the soft and fuzzy lyrical eccentricities that tell of unrectifiable mistakes and the unfortunate reign of hindsight are seldom lost, but alternately amplified to polar bear sized proportions that will in turn musically assault you and feed you to its young."

There's nothing boring about what Scaledown.ca is trying to accomplish, so it is perfectly natural that their launch party is anything but boring as well...

2008-02-13T07:50:00.002-05:00

The Crisis of Happiness

As a lead-up to the February 20th launch party, and the presentation by guest speaker and author Chris Turner, I wanted to take a look at some of the progressive ideas being implemented in cities abroad that are making drastic changes to the way humanity is able live.

London, England

The view of London as a commuter nightmare is not one that most North Americans would readily apply, but, in spite of the classic double-decker buses and subway system, London has had to take drastic measures to improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion in their city core.

According to an Associated Press article posted on MSNBC, Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, increased commuter charges and are going after the big polluters, targeting 4x4 vehicles and luxury sedans. The average commuter pays $16 a day to drive in the city; the 33,000 vehicles targeted under the new legislation will pay $49 a day, if approved.. Even NYC is proposing a 'sin tax' for cars in Lower Manhattan.

Think a 'sin tax' on driving is a steep price to pay? Paris plans to ban suburban cars from the city centre by 2012 to reduce noise, pollution and congestion and recreate "the art of urban joy".

Paris, France

The Pompidou expressway, stretching from the Louvre to the Pont de Sully, is covered in sand. This is not a natural disaster, or a corporate publicitiy event, but an intentional act to reclaim city streets for the citizens of Paris, a city which Kunstler referred to as a "human-scale touch on the urban form", during the summer months. The Paris Plage, as the summer road-to-beach transformation is called, is part of an on-going movement in Paris to transition the city streets from the motorized masses and return them to Parisian people.

An article called The Happy City, written by Charles Montgomery, details French, among other, reclamation projects designed to increase human interaction. Montgomery states that these changes will "change not just streets but the very soul of urban spaces." -- and we tend to agree!

Bogota, Columbia

Under the direction Enrique Penalosa, Mayor of Bogota, and in an effort to combat a city "mired in poverty, chaos, violence and crippling traffic", this South American city ditched a freeway intended to ease the commute of the suburbanite masses (ED: Sound familiar?), and instead invested in the "frequencey of positive interaction". By building "parks, hundreds of kilometers of bikes paths and pedestrian 'freeways' [and] an efficient rapid bus system" the happiness of the city increased. How do you measure happiness? Road fatalities fell by 33% and the murder rate dropped by 40%. Now wouldn't that make you happy?

Bogota is on a roll and has voted to ban private cars from rush hour traffic by 2015. Imagine the changes in a city where rush hour traffic was concentrated on mass transit or pedestrian scale mobility. Montgomery quotes John Helliwell, a University of British Columbia professor emeritus and economist, when he states "[f]requency of positive interaction is the key."

Through these examples Montgomery emulates Chris Turner who, in his book The Geography of Hope, demonstrates that the changes we need to make in Windsor are already being made in other cities in the world with amazing success. Montgomery's article details some of the largest cities making even bigger changes successfully increasing happiness among their citizens. The message of ScaleDown.ca echoes the refrain of Montgomery -- we can make drastic changes to 'they way we have always done things' and not only survive but thrive as a community, an economy and a part of the human collective.

Windsor can, must, and will make the changes necessary to revitalize itself through the work and efforts of an engaged citizenry. We, as members of that citizenry, must decide whether we want to be as the French, making changes to increase an already high standard of living or wait until we are like Bogota, ready to pull out all the stops to make the changes necessary just to survive.

*****

International cities are making huge changes, implementing real ideas, to combat the erosion of urban happiness. What changes have you seen, or would like to see, in Windsor to increase, intensify or re-establish our urban happiness? Post your thoughts in our comments section

All quotes in the article, unless otherwise stated, come from Charles Montgomery's article "The Happy City"

Cities: A Smart Alternative to Cars

2008-02-12T21:12:00.001-05:00

I heard a rumour that Buzz Hargrove ghost-wrote this article for Business Week magazine. It's a stretch. Let me know what you think...

Cities:
A Smart Alternative to Cars
Creating compact communities—and eliminating the need to drive everywhere—may be the best way to slash greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles
"...The best car-related innovation we have is not to improve the car but to eliminate the need to drive it everywhere we go. In the U.S,, we need to stop sprawl and build well-designed compact communities. The land-use patterns in our communities dictate not only how much we drive, but how sustainable we can be on all sorts of fronts. And sprawled-out land uses generate enormous amounts of automotive greenhouse gases. A recent major study, Growing Cooler, published by Smart Growth America, a coalition of national, state, and local organizations that addresses urban planning, makes the point clearly: If 60% of new developments were even modestly more compact, we'd emit 85 million fewer metric tons of tailpipe [car emissions] CO2 each year by 2030—as much as would be saved by raising the national mileage standards to 32 mpg."

You can read the entire article here.

Chris Turner Book Giveaway

2008-02-12T07:41:00.000-05:00

You've just found Scaledown's first official schwag offer! It's an exciting time here and we would like to share some of this excitement with SD readers.

Over the course of this next week, we will be throwing all the names of everyone who comments on this blog entry into a hat, and the two names we draw out will receive a copy of Chris Turner's latest book, The Geography Of Hope. On Monday, Feb 18th, be sure to check back as we will be announcing the winners right here.

As you know, Chris will be the keynote speaker at the SCALEDOWN UNVEILED event on February 20th at the Caboto Club, and this is where you will be able to meet the author and get you copy signed. So get those names in so we can get this book into your hands.

We think you'll be better off after having read it :)

Under the microscope...

2008-02-11T23:35:00.000-05:00

Well, since Window's Movie Maker apparently hates me, I couldn't embellish this video clip of my interview with Cogeco's Joe McParland. You'll have to deal with the raw footage that my friendly neighbourhood media-pusher Chris Schnurr sent over to me tonight.

Thanks a ton, Chris. I'll get this stuff figured out eventually.

The gift that keeps on giving...

2008-02-11T06:38:00.000-05:00

Tonight, as you know, is our regularly scheduled city council meeting. (be sure to watch Joe McParland's Council Warm Up at 5:45, as Mark and I are being interviewed on it) There's some interesting items coming before council that I want to highlight here.

Drive-thrus

Do we have to repeatedly make our case every time there's a deferral? Again we revisit the new downtown Burger King and their desire to install a drive thru for their restaurant. Our illustrious Planning Advisory Committee (PAC), intensely aware of how a progressive city develops (sarcasm) recommended a zoning change to allow the drive-through back in January of '07. Through public backlash and insight, our council denied the applicants zoning change application, only to have it appealed to the OMB (don't you wish we actually had control of how we develop our community?). In August of the same year, PAC recommended the approval of the applicants new zoning application and this time council buckled and approved it. So now, this little plot of land will be accessed by three curb cuts/access points- - but at least they're giving us some bike racks and a promise to protect a couple of trees!

To show just how maleable our Official Plan actually is, I wanted to include this quote from the administration report...

"After due consideration of the City of Windsor's Official Plan design guidelines for mixed use development within the City Centre Planning District, The Site Plan Review Committee has proposed the following direction:. (i) to recess the building wall away from the Goyeau Street lot line so as to accomodate the proposed after-hour walk-up windows, and at the same time, ensure safe pedestrian movement on the sidewalk in front of the subject land, (ii) to eliminate the request for 4.95m land conveyance along University Avenue frontage since engineering and Cororate Projects, Public Works Department has given its waiver of the requirement, and (iv) to deny present or future vehicular access along University Avenue frontage, by imposing a requirement for conveyance of a 1-foot reserve along the entire length of the University Avenue frontage"

FYI - I didn't mis-number those notations, that was the way administration presented the report.

For those of you familiar with the term "Mixed Use", does Site Plan Review's recommendations have anything to do with the definition you hold in your mind?

This should help attract world-class talent to the newly revitalized Armouries concert hall next door, shouldn't it? Vicky Kyriaco-Wilson, representing the Armouries Concert Hall Committee, is scheduled to speak on the issue. In addition to Ms. Kyraico-Wilson on the delegate list are a couple of "mystery" speakers; Scott Arbuckle, representing Planning & Engineering Initiative Ltd (Kitchener, ON) is listed and judging by this company's website, it seems as though they may be speaking proactively regarding the impact of developments like this; and then there's the like of Stewart Elkins, representing iTrans Consulting (Richmond Hill, ON), who (once again just by going by their company's website) appears to be speaking in favour of the development. Folks, you need to jump on the phones again because the hired guns are on top of this one!

We've got to nip this trend in the bud...

...because the drive-through-happy PAC is recommending yet another drive-through, though this one's located in the sub-urbs so I don't believe it will meet much opposition. The funny thing about this recommendation is that the drive-through is for a financial institituon. Is there nothing that people won't get out of their cars to do? Not even the Tim Horton's across the street from this proposed location has a drive-through, and we all know how much Timmy-fans like staying in their cars while buying coffee.

Official Plan Review

PAC has received administrations Official Plan Review report #17 and is forwarding it along to council tonight, so the process is rumbling along as predicted. Reading through the document one thing struck me as being contradictory. In it, Chris Aspila, the Official Plan Review (OPR) Project Manager states that "Windsor's economy is restructuring away from heavy manufacturing..." and from everything that we are experiencing with our declining automotive industry as well as the supporting Tool and Die businesses closing up shop, we would be fools to disagree with him.

Supporting documents (foundation studies) provided by the Planning department include i) 25 year Population and Housing Projections, and ii) 20 year Employment Projections and Employment Land Needs Analyses, which were initiated due to provincial requirements during every Official Plan 5 year review. Now, I have yet to read through these documents, (they are sitting on my bedside table as we speak) however, there seems to be a focus on our supposed lack of shovel-ready industrial land.

"In order to enhance Windsor's competitiveness in attracting future investment, it will be important to ensure that a good supply of serviced vacant employment land is available through the current 20 year planning period. Given the relatively limited amount of uncommitted high-quality serviced employment lands available in Windsor at present, it will be particularly important for the City of Windsor to move forward with the development of Secondary Plans and servicing of employment lands in the Sandwich South Planning District."(which is essentially the Annexed Lands near the airport)

Considering the rate at which we have businesses occupying serviced industrial properties closing up within the city already, and our "supposed" focus of moving away from heavy industrial towards a more knowledge-based local economy, these plans don't make a heck of a lot of sense. They also want to provide land for "office park development" when our downtown office vacancy is sky-high. So, why would we "invest" in supplying this expensive infrastructure to what is predominantly agricultural land if "Windsor's economy is restructuring away from heavy manufacturing..."?

It's not too late for everyone to get their comments into the planning department for compilation of the Official Plan Review. So, if this focus doesn't sit well with you either, please let them know by dialling 311 or visiting the official OPR website.

Let's Co-operate

2008-02-08T13:53:00.000-05:00

If ever there was a time and a place to look at re-localizing economic activity, it would be - here and now. This past week two more Windsor manufacturers called it quits. We lost another 600 automotive sector jobs and even worse will be the loss of the gel-caps jobs that represented some of our precious economic diversity.

Both companies are owned by corporations outside of the Windsor/Essex region. Neither corporation has any reason to consider the impact moving these operations will have on our city/region or the people that will be hurt. It’s not that these plants didn’t make money, or the quality of their work was anything but top-notch. The problem was they weren’t making enough money. And that is unfair. But it will continue as long as we rely on big corporations to drive our economy. Somehow we need to take control of the way we work and earn, spend and invest. We need to keep our money and company profits in this region.

In the course of last weeks comments, urbane cyclist asked, “What do we do about it (our economy) as a municipality? Because that is the level that scaledown is working at, that is the level that we can impose solutions.”

The easiest local economic system I could see us starting around here would be a series of co-ops. This would allow farmers, artisans, trades people and others an opportunity to share the cost of running their business with their customers. This kind of set-up is ideal because the customers and the business operators will develop the kind of relationships that used to exist before the big-box when the Main Street merchants knew their customers and worked hard to make sure they were satisfied and the customers felt appreciated. Those relationships are missing in our world today. You go to a big-box and there is no personal service. The employees are anonymous and the people that come in are just customers/consumers. Scaling back our economic world is not much different from our built world. We really don't connect with people anymore in our day-to-day because everything is so out of proportion to the individual. We need to make that connection, to work together to raise ourselves up again.

A co-operative economy would just be the beginning. As the individual businesses grew they could set-up on their own and expand and reinvest in themselves and the community. A co-op would foster the start-ups and after a while we could have a thriving local economy that, if supplemented with some new large corporate investments would make Windsor/Essex a great place to live and work again.

Congratulations to St. Clair Students

2008-02-08T09:13:00.000-05:00

I’d just like to highlight a Windsor Star story and congratulate the St. Clair College, Interior Design Students on their fantastic work. These students beat out some very high-caliber schools to finish first and third out of a field of 45 schools (Canada, U.S. and England) each school was represented by three teams.

This just further demonstrates the talent of our young people and the quality of our post-secondary institutions.

1st Place
Second Year Students
Jeff Wortley, Megan Whittal and Tammy Bourke

3rd Place
Third Year Students
Cassandra Kotva and Magda Trzos

Only the first three places were reported but St. Clair's other entry was submitted by:
Third year students
Sheila Golez, Curtis Linder and Brooke Simon

For more information on the competition go to http://www.idec.org/

P.S. I had an image of the winning entry but blogger is not letting me upload.

The Arts Part 1: Introduction and Funding

2008-02-08T06:44:00.000-05:00

I would like to begin with a disclaimer: I know very little of the history of Windsor's Arts Scene, my comments simply as an outside observer and are meant to provoke discussion vs. being a judgement on our arts groups.

My first experience with an arts Incubator was in Kalamazoo, Michigan where I was sent by the International Downtown Association to look at the downtown as a model for Windsor. Its an idea that seems to not be able to gain any traction in Windsor.

In London Ontario they have the Arts Program or TAP, although it is in financial difficulties you have to admire the ambition of the project. Conversion of a 15,000 ft2 bldg with a 100 seat theater. The Arts Program provides

- Exhibition space
- Performance Areas
- Educational Arts Program
- Arts Business Skills
- Mentorship Opportunities
- Arts Related programs
- Artist Studio's

Funded with a 2 year trillium grant of $100,000 in the year 2000 and another $130,000 in the year 2002 Trillium still obtains $13,000-$15,000 in city grants each year which are used to pay its property taxes. (Funding to be discussed on Tuesday)

The only comparables I'm aware of in Windsor are Artcite and the Arts Council office located in Walkerville with about 2000 feet of exhibition space between them. This is not a "jab" at Windsor, it's a contrast in what is possible. Remember if it exists elsewhere, you can't argue that its not possible here.

We have the vacant buildings for something like this. We can talk about the Pelissier Street parking garage main floor, the recently opened gallery by Christian Aldo in a creative partnership with a building owner that sees vacant bldgs made attractive.

There is so much to talk about but unfortunately today I only have time for the intro. This is where the blogging community comes in...

Next in the series are the parts entitled "The Arts mean Business" and "Funding"

After hours bars study correction

2008-02-07T08:39:00.000-05:00

Just to correct the assertion that the closing of after hours bars was never studied. It was studied in council report 13049 and the DWBIA was denied the ability to put the issues, information and experts forward that would have prevented the current circus we see. As evidence THis letter was sent last year, I guess some councillors didnt' read this letter either.

Good Morning Councillors:
I have reviewed the Council Report 13049 regarding After Hours Clubs. As this is a “Note and File” recommendation, we were informed by the City Clerk’s Office that delegations will not be heard on the issue.

As such, the DWBIA requests that Council direct Administration to work closely with the DWBIA in researching this issue and that the DWBIA be included in the discussion from the beginning through to the end of the study.

As an FYI – the Licensing Commission met on October 9th, 2007. I was informed by a person in the Licensing Department that this meeting was open to the public, however when two of my Board Members tried to enter the meeting, they were told to leave. I was assured by Licensing that we would be involved in this process, yet this Council Report has come forward without consultation with the DWBIA.

Judith C. Veresuk
Executive Director
Downtown Windsor Business Improvement

Bringing Mom and Dad back into the city

2008-02-07T06:50:00.000-05:00

For the core of a city to be revitalized, the base assumption is that the residential component must be one of the first aspects of the areas land use that must be strengthened.

This is a great place to start, because without people you have no business nor culture. People are at the centre of everything the notion of "city" stands for. it is the obvious place to begin. However, is the city the place for children?

People move to the suburbs (or so they say) because they feel it is in the best interest of the children. More green space to play ball as opposed to asphalt, hopscotch without worrying about cars, and clean, fresh, country-esque air. Since the rise of Levittown, NY, the first modern "subdivision", this was a major draw for young families. With the ever-increasing flow of families from the core to the suburbs, the school system has reactively moved their operations to reflect this trend.

Schools make 'burbs' place to be
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, February 04, 2008

Communities need basic amenities to survive. A successful neighbourhood must have such things as grocery stores,churches, restaurants, hardware stores, medical facilities and schools to prosper.

More and more, our downtown neighbourhoods are being hollowed out of the basic necessities. And increasingly to live downtown, one must drive to the suburbs to get a plant, a stick of wood or a bolt. Living downtown is supposed to be a more pedestrian-oriented, environmental way of living. However, core dwellers appearto need cars to survive as vital businesses depart to the suburbs. The necessities of downtown are becoming caffeine and sushi rather than hammers and nails.

So too are demographics changing our urban landscape. The dominant post-war baby-boom generation has had its children so, in older neighbourhoods, schools are emptying. It is beginning at the elementary level now and will follow a relentless path through high school and university.

In fact, suburban schools are weathering the demographic onslaught best. That's because families, looking for inexpensive housing and a bit of green in which children can play, opted for the suburbs. That said, the decision to live in suburbs in not the most environmentally sensitive one. Suburbs create long commutes and promote sprawl -- the ultimate desecration of the land by paving it.

Ottawa's official plan is trying to contain growth within an urban boundary beyond which development cannot pass. The city is actively encouraging intensive development in the core areas to piggyback on existing services inexpensively and to cut environmentally unfriendly long commutes. But for intensification to succeed, to encourage families to live and work in the core, there must be the basic amenities of life -- including schools.

Our school boards are not in the urban-planning business. No, they need to educate young people well and efficiently. There is no money to maintain mostly empty schools downtown. Schools must remain open where they are needed and those institutions appear to be in the suburbs. It would be nice to keep a school or two open downtown for community purposes if that is possible. However, neither school boards nor cities are exactly flush with cash so this might be impossible.

The upside to this is that closing schools and decreasing enrolment is likely to make education less expensive. That will free funds for more pressing requirements in society. All this sad news about downtown schools comes as Statistics Canada released a report showing that car ridership continues to increase in Canada.

So at a time when the city would like people to move downtown, the future of our society, children, are being raised inthe suburbs. And with few schools to attend downtown, they are likely to stay there.

Is it fair to say that we will not be attracting families to our core in the foreseeable future? With childhood obesity rates attributed to a sedentary lifestyle that has been linked to suburban sprawl and over reliance on the automobile, could it not be considered "child abuse" for Windsor to not plan for attracting families to our core.

Just as the community has supported the University in their decision not to build their engineering campus downtown by stating that it is not within the mandate of that institution to revitalize a district, it is also not within the mandate of the other educational institutions either. Yet, with our school boards following the people out to the suburbs they have profoundly affected the health of of our communities as well as their students. While they may not have the responsibility of resurrecting a district, they have a responsibility to their students.

At what point do we determine that the school boards must play a proactive role in determining the physical layout of our community by cooperating in master plans as developed by our planning department? At what point do we transfer more of the control in determining the success of our communities from the school board trustees who merely follow the real estate developers over to our trained professionals who knows how to guide them?

Shout out

2008-02-06T16:19:00.001-05:00

For those who aren't following the presentations of the Canadian Blog Awards, two Windsor blogs placed first and second in the Best Local Blog category. WindsorEats and International Metropolis placed first and second respectively.

Way to go folks! Check out this link for the complete list.

I must have been dreaming...

2008-02-06T05:19:00.001-05:00

In this week's article I'll continue my discussion of leadership, contrasting past leaders with those elected officials at the helm of our city today.

On August 28th, 1963 Martin Luther King delivered, what has become, one of the most famous speeches in the history of the world. Remembered by the trademark statement 'I have a dream' King's address propelled the issue of racial segregation and discrimination from a 'black-issue' to a national travesty, garnering the support of political, religious and business leaders in a united effort to beat the plague of racism. King's dedication in identifying and transcending the racial divide, especially in the Southern states, was immortalized when he was assassinated on April 4th, 1968. An impassioned leader, King intimately understood the problem at hand, developed a vision and a plan and, in the end, was willing to sacrifice everything to achieve the greater good.

Fast-forward almost 45 years and present day Windsor. In the May 2006 State of the City address Mayor Eddie Francis delivered a cacophony of vision and promises for a better city. Mayor Francis reminisced on his committments of 2004 to build "a city renewed .... a clean city ... a city with a thriving, vibrant culture." He identified four key areas that, when addressed in parallel, would create a symbiotic success.

First, financial stability. Francis committed to manage our tax dollars more efficiently by focusing on core municipal services and "not wasting money on things that a municipal government should never have been paying for in the first place." He also committed to tackle the root causes of debt and high taxes.

Second, better service and more accountability through corporate accountability and "the idea that the municipality is there to serve the people and not the other way around."

Third, jobs and investment. Francis declared that Windsor would compete for jobs and investment "just like our entrepreneurs and businesses", while attracting and retaining smart people and growth industries through infrastructure, environmental and economic development.
Fourth, defend the interests of the people of Windsor, especially on the border issue.

On the face of it, Francis appears to understand that municipal accountability, a robust and sustainable economy, built on the foundation of environmental, social and cultural diversity, with a good dose of tax reductions, without the associated reductions in service or increase in debt, will build a strong and vibrant city. A review of the current status of our local economy, introverted municipal government and rising taxes, both property and essential services, shows that reality flies in the face of the commitment by Francis and city council.

In spite of 28 pages trumpeting the successes of his first term, astute citizens recognize that Windsor, under Francis' leadership, has done little to "build a greater city." Some of the 2006 "accomplishments" are down-right laughable, including the following proclamation:

"We are beautifying our neighbourhoods and streetscapes...We're bringing people
back downtown. The entire face of our downtown is transforming, and transforming
for the better...[W]e talked about building a balanced downtown where people could
live, work and play."

Talk is cheap. Windsor needs a leader, politician or otherwise, who is willing to throw caution to wind and do what is right for the people. Windsor has the resources that it needs to become everything that Mayor Francis proclaimed it was, could be and will be. It is time to unleash the collective creativity of grass roots citizens, city administration and our municipal government. It is time to make the changes that need to be made, before tragedy or circumstance force us to play catch up in a race for status quo.

Forget re-election. Forget pork-barrelled, backroom deals. Forget maintaining status quo. Windsor needs someone who is going to get the job done; to make the changes that will transform our city into an oasis of sustainability and prosperity. Windsor needs a maverick, a loose-cannon; someone to buck the system. I long for the day when the grand standing of city council is interrupted by a booming voice of reason, calling council to action that doesn't involve patting each other on the back. We need a political martyr, ready to force the changes that Windsor needs or die, socially and politically speaking, while trying.

Rejected...

2008-02-05T07:45:00.000-05:00

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

2008-02-05T06:05:00.000-05:00

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.

London's best practices belong to Windsor!

2008-02-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

Scaledown gives a grand applause for the ingenuity of the joint bid for the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championships. I think Windsorites need to take a closer look at London, the Ambassador London Program and the more recent Downtown Living section in the London Freepress and London’s success in bringing residents downtown.

Again, like our guest speaker Chris Turner, our main premise lies in that if it exists somewhere else in the world, then there can be no argument as to whether it is possible.

The Ambassador London program alone should make you understand our Mayor’s frustration at how Windsorites beat up our own city as opposed to becoming its ambassadors. Now don’t get me wrong, all is not sunshine, rainbows and puppy dogs in London. The Ambassador Program has just had a scandal where a 3 minute commercial cost $51,000, and the commercial is a real yawner compared to the Downtown Windsor commercial by HCA and Suede Productions which cost the DWBIA a teeny-tiny fraction of that amount. The point is that if it wasn’t for my post you would never have heard about their mistakes where Windsor’s problems are virtually shouted by megaphone.

(Downtown Windsor's video can be seen on their webpage by clicking on video at the bottom left. London's comparison video can be seen here) Maybe we can trade some of our best practices for some of theirs.

Another of Londons' major accomplishments is that they have added or will add more than 1,700 apartment units to downtown and here is a quote from Mainstreet London which is the equivalent of the Downtown Windsor BIA.

"Residential is key to all this," says Janette MacDonald, general manager of MainStreet London. People who live downtown shop, dine and entertain themselves there.

You know that I have to repeat the fact that Downtown London completed their community improvement plan and implemented the Development incentives recommended by that plan over a decade ago. And don’t be fooled, Downtown London probably has more safety problems and incidents than Downtown Windsor. London installed 16 security camera’s and started a progressive graffiti removal program that sees offenders diverted from the courts to scrub and clean. Windsorites can still top London once and a while though; London’s security camera program costs them $200,000 annually, picked up 100% by the city. The joint city-DWBIA program gives us approx. 10 camera’s and only costs the city $15,000 annually.

Hopefully our joint bid with London will allow Windsorites to focus on that city’s best practices so we can add them to our own.

Friday, lets compare the arts in London to Windsor

Scaledown means Windsor can only go UP!

2008-02-02T11:47:00.000-05:00

Sorry James, couldn't let that pic stand as our cover page

Scale Down Our Economy

2008-02-02T10:14:00.000-05:00

Here at scaledown.ca we are asking that our city promote development of walkable neighbourhoods and encourage everyone to participate in the cultural and social fabric of the community.

I want to believe everyone has our best interests at heart when they make plans and decisions that will affect us. After hearing the Windsor Essex Development Commission presentation Wednesday evening I got to wondering if some organizations are not as interested in being progressive and proactive. Perhaps they need the status quo just to be relevant. What if the future is radically different from the present? What if events take hold of the world that could undo everything that we take for granted? Below I have outlined three scenarios. Each could have devastating effects on the world economy and the Windsor-Essex regional economy; since it is biased toward export markets we would definitely be affected.

Presently there is real concern in the world financial markets. The financial wizards invented investment vehicles out of worthless mortgages, collected huge commissions and got rich. Now we find out that these financial vehicles are nearly worthless. Billions of dollars of investments have disappeared already and more invented wealth is soon to follow. Add to this turmoil a U.S. Federal Government $9 trillion in the hole and their dollar losing value and you have the makings of a severe financial crisis.

The evidence is mounting that world oil production is not going to meet global demand within a short period of time. Competition for oil and petroleum products will continue to put upward pressure on costs for transportation and industrial and agricultural chemicals. This competition may lead to resource wars but certainly will significantly impact global trade. Currently there is no alternative energy technology/infrastructure to replace gasoline and distillates on the required scale to maintain business-as-usual.

The U.S. government has been taking increasingly aggressive positions around the world, moving its armies and navies into provocative postures and more or less causing a great deal of international tension. At some point it may very well happen that the world will find itself at war. Not just a regional conflict like Iraq or Afghanistan but a real war between two major armies and their allies shooting it out over oil, religion or politics.
Economic recession/depression, peak oil or war, either of these will wreak havoc on an economy based on exports/global trade.

The Windsor Essex region is 70% - 85% reliant on exports of manufactured and agri-business products. What if instead our economy was more balanced between exports and domestic consumption? A more evenly balanced local economy would allow us to absorb the shocks of lower consumption of our products in export markets weakened by any of the scenarios I outlined above.

How can we develop a regional economy? In the event of one of the above problems we will eventually sort ourselves out. To do it proactively the only way to overcome the large corporations that have taken control of our economies is to lobby the Provincial and Federal governments to create trade rules that would enable this to happen. There is a precedent for this type of Federal law, CanCon. CanCon of course forced media outlets to provide Canadian programming and artists the opportunity to be heard and seen. What if retailers had to provide space for a percentage of regional agricultural products and consumer goods? Free trade agreements would prevent us from eliminating products from other jurisdictions but a CanCon law would not stop retailers from selling any product, it would merely offer us the choice to buy something from closer to home and put our money back into our own pockets.

Think of all the consumer goods that we use. In a previous era we had local economies and produced goods much closer to home. The companies were locally owned and the profits came back to benefit our communities. Somewhere along the way we were told globalization was better and more profitable. Somewhere along the way we lost the ability to provide for ourselves and less and less wealth was kept close to home. The effects are all around us. Sprawl, urban decay, apathy and disinterest in local life and culture.

I’d rather not wait for one of these scenarios to play out for things to change. I’d like to see local businesses and our Windsor Essex Development Commission, Windsor Chamber of Commerce and other interested groups and our politicians work together to develop a local economy that can sustain itself in a future fraught with challenges.

Even if none of these problems arise, would it be so bad to have a vibrant and diverse local economy?

Correction

2008-02-01T20:01:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I did not have the proper facts in the post "of Mice and Men" regarding the suppot that the development commission gives to small business

The small business center has fielded 3,497 general inquiries via telephone calls, walk ins and email through the two offices in Windsor and Kingsville. Between these 2 locations, they have also held 612 one-on-one client consultations and conducted 51 seminars, workshops, presentations and networking events with a total attendance of 1,876 people. The economic impact of this office were 53 businesses started and 46 jobs created.

However I still maintain that I stand by my assertion that a simple public statement supporting restarting the Community Improvement Plans and opposing what I call the `Costco Badlands` type of development would do exponentially more to help small business in Windsor than anything stated above.

Another London Article

2008-02-01T09:49:00.000-05:00

Since London got their new celebrity Planner, they seem to get a lot more attention paid to planning issues. Here's another article

Their new planner, Sean Galloway, debunked the top ten myths of urban design, and his responses are so good that we wanted to reprint them here just in case the London Free Press decided to take this article off its website. So here goes...

Here then, are Galloway's 10 myths, debunked;

10. It's all about front porches. Indeed, building more houses with front porches is important, but it's really about making friendly buildings and attractive street-scapes.

9. It wants to eliminate the back yard. Back yards are important for privacy, but urban design reminds us not to forget the front yard as a place of activity and usefulness.

8. It's all about density, density, density. It's about providing variety and diversity, allowing people to grow up in a single-family home, move to an apartment, then a townhouse, then back into a single- family home, then back into an apartment as their life progresses -- all in the same neighbourhood.

7. It expects everyone to walk everywhere. It's about providing friendly streets and sidewalks and public transit and other infrastructure to entice people to walk more. Nobody expects the car to be eliminated.

6. It is just about the rear laneway. London is fearful of the rear laneway (for reasons nobody is sure of, considering they are all over Old North and Old South, for example). Some can be unpleasant, but there are examples of attractive back alleys in new urbanist developments across North America. Not everyone wants a big house with a big back yard.

5. It will not fit into a "normal" person's lifestyle. What is normal? People may want to drive to the supermarket for the big shop, but do they want to get in the car and face traffic just to pick up a loaf of bread or litre of milk? People want options. They want variety in the kinds of buildings they interact with, variety that makes the experience of living in a community richer.

4. It is just It's not about replicating Victorian architecture; it's about eliminating repetitive architecture that saps identity from a neighbourhood. about creating pre-war housing architecture.

3. It is all about new urbanism or placemaking. New urbanism a catchphrase, but it's about old-fashioned, grid-style developments with a diversity of home types and architecture. Placemaking involves integrating all industrial, commercial, residential and retail areas.

2. It is just about what the buildings look like. No, it's about how we deliver our walking spaces, our driving spaces, our open spaces. It's more than just architecture and landscaping.

1. It is not economically viable. New urbanist communities are thriving across North America. New ones are being built every day. They're sought after by home buyers.

So Londons new urban planner did some debunking of his own - and we really like his conclusions!

Of Mice and Men

2008-02-01T00:39:00.000-05:00

If I ever was remembered for being a blogger, this would be the post I would want to be remembered for...

A couple of days ago, I attended a seminar delivered by Matt Fischer, CEO of the Windsor-Essex County Development Commission. I came away with the understanding that the Development Commission’s primary focus was that of identifying and supporting the 3% of businesses, described as Gazelles, that account for 54% of the job growth in our community.

Mr. Fischer also elaborated on one of the Development Commission’s secondary (and substantially less funded) goals of supporting businesses that he referred to as Mice. Mice were described as new independent local small businesses which presently and in the future will account for 44% of new job growth. The Development Commission acknowledged that while there focus is on the Gazelles, they will attempt to offer support to the “Mice”.

I wholeheartedly support the Development Commission’s business strategy of focusing scarce and limited resources on what it has identified as its primary objective - that of identifying and supporting Gazelles. However, there appears to be a discord between the Development Commission’s acknowledgment of the significance of Mice and the actions of our City leaders.

In 1995, I co-founded Bedroom Depot, a furniture retailer that had overcome the challenges that realize the failure of 70% of Mice within the first three years. The greatest obstacle that I encountered was the inability to locate in suburban neighbourhoods due to the fact that the Big Box Power Center Developments refused to accept my lease offers until I demonstrated the success of two retail stores with a financial history in excess of two consecutive years.

If we want to encourage Mice we need to provide them with locations that are in close proximity to their customer base. Herein lays the disconnect. Matt Fischers’ response was that “Main Street” provided this location, or what you would call an atmosphere of “Incubation” to Mice.

When I invested in Chanoso's restaurant, I realized the only way to ensure a long term investment was downtown. I always hold true to the fact that I am not a downtown promoter due to the location of my business; I located my business downtown as that is where I felt the future of Windsor lies.

My question to our city leaders is: “Since we know that the population of these “Main Streets” or BIA’s has declined by 10%, how do we expect to foster Mice when we do not create an environment in which they can successfully operate?”

How do we approve unattractive, unwalkable, anti-Mice developments while at the same time putting the Community Improvement Plans on hold? Implementing Community Improvement Plans is the best way in which to reverse the decline of the “Main Street” environments.

Mr. Fischer’s response was that these were valid concerns that should be addressed in the City’s Official Plan. I’ve called 311 to express these concerns. What I ask is whether Matt Fischer has provided his input into our official plan? If the Development Commission cannot find the funds to support Mice, can it at least take a stand and place a call to 311 to express its support of the City’s Official Plan policies that would provide an environment in which Mice could thrive.

I also call on the members of the Windsor & District Chamber of Commerce to call 311 to express their support of policies that would help the Mice in our community. It would be in all of our interests and most prudent, if the City’s Community Improvement Plans were taken off the shelf and put into action.

As a post script, I want to note that it was at the Development Commission’s Challenges of Change Summit that Richard Florida said that the attractiveness of a city was the number one determinant to attracting and retaining the creative class.
It is Chris Leinberger from the Brookings Institute who has substantiated proof of the real estate value and the economic development benefits of walkable neighbourhoods.

When will the Chamber of Commerce and Development Commission begin echoing scaledown.ca’s call for attractive, walkable mixed use developments that foster the local independent small businesses which they everyone acknowledges will be responsible for the creation of 44% of all new job growth in Windsor.

Municipal letdown or neighbourhood opportunity?

2008-01-31T17:00:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows that it takes more than just a bunch of houses to make a successful neighbourhood. Location, location, location is the mantra repeated often by our realty professionals - and that is often said with an eye towards close neighbourhood amenities that raise both your property values and your quality of life.

So what is a neighbourhood to do when its municipality decides to close those nearby amenities that make your neighbourhood a good one?

Three Windsor neighbourhoods are facing that very fact this Monday when city council makes the decision official to eliminate three recreation/community centre complexes.

With their commitment to the new WFCU centre in the east end, they have concluded that they cannot sustain these three smaller, more community-oriented facilities (let alone the old Barn when its replacement is built). This trend in current municipal decisions, just like in the various school boards, to amalgamate neighbourhood-scaled institutions into large, regionally-focused ones leaves a lot to be desired and really must be re-evaluated. Not only does it strip a livable neighbourhood of yet another reason to actually build a life there, but it encourages the "Mom's Taxi" syndrome with children and the elderly stranded at home unless they have an able-bodied motorist handy to give them a lift to find some activity. Just looking around at the obesity rates associated with sedentary lifestyles, this syndrome is alive-and-well in Windsor/Essex county.

However, let's look at this from a different angle. These older recreation complexes might have not been serving their communities well as they stood. I am not from any of these neighbourhoods so I can't speak to them specifically. But maybe they had outlived their usefullness. So now, the city will have their shiny-new multi-pad areana a short drive away (hopefully it will be well serviced by public transit) and have these older buildings in their inventory, looking for new uses. I realise that the city is looking at selling them, but come on - do you really think old arenas are a hot commodity in this real estate market?

Certainly some use could be found for them to help their respective neighbourhoods develop into a more pedestrian-scaled walkable community. What amenities are lacking in the neighbourhoods and how could these abandoned buildings fill those voids. More mixed-use retail within walking distance to peoples homes? Perhaps an artist live/work loft space with galleries on the main level to help transform the neighbourhood into a lively, creative one. How about an elder-care campus', interspersed with supporting retail that is woven into our regular day-to-day lives, which would accomodate a growing demographic of our comunity while keeping them close at hand instead of feeling alienated out in the suburbs.

We should be looking at these buildings with an eye to strengthening our neighbourhoods. Yes, I lament the fact that our neighbourhood children have less to do with these facilities vacated, but we may be able to make up for their loss with an adaptive reuse that augments our lives instead of just giving up on them and letting them rot. These are our communities and we must take responsibility for them.

This goes before council on Monday, and if you want to speak as a delegate you must call the council services department at (519) 255-6432 by 12:00 noon tomorrow.

In Your Face Art

2008-01-31T15:07:00.000-05:00

CBC Radio's Jian Ghomeshi, host of 'Q', interviewed an acapella group from NYC this week. Naturally 7 has become a sensation in Europe while remaining virtually uknown here in North America. What does that say about that status of the arts, and our acceptance of public displays of art, in North America? Check out the YouTube video of their performance on a subway car. [ED: There is some question about where this video was shot, though the most popular opinion online is that it was in France, not NYC as I had previously stated.] (I'd recommend really turning this one up!)

Ultimate Musicians Workshop

2008-01-31T00:12:00.000-05:00

The connection has been made between the strength of a cities music scene and its economic growth. Besides the fact that quality arts and cultural offerings just make my city more fun to be a part of, it will be the engine for the creative drive we need to see us to better times.

Which is why we will pass along all the information we can that strengthens our "scene":

Join 96.7 CHYR FM, the ROCK 95.1/100.7 FM, 94.3 CKSY and FACTOR for the “Ultimate Musicians workshop”. Featuring info sessions on FACTOR, which provides funding for Canadian musicians to produce music, tour, and more. The Songwriters Association of Canada will be there with an info session on songwriting. Bring in your Demo and the experts will critique it and give out tips. This seminar is a must for any songwriter. SOCAN will have a seminar on royalties, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation will speak on licensing your music to film, tv, and other media. There will also be a Songwriters Circle and an open mic to finish off the night.

The “Musicians Workshop” will take place February 23rd at The Walkerville Theatre in Windsor and runs from 9-9. You can find the itinerary below with a link to the pre-register form. All music genres are welcome…there’s no admission, and it’s all ages.

We’ll see you February 23rd at the Walkerville Theatre in Windsor for the “Musicians Workshop.”

Walkerville Theatre
1564 Wyandotte St E.
Windsor, ON

9:15am–11:00am – FACTOR info session – how to get funding for tours, production, and more
11:00am-12:00pm – OMDC – Ontario Media Development Corporation – getting your music licensed on film, tv, internet, and other media
12:00pm-1:00pm – LUNCH – sandwiches will be provided
1:00pm-2:30 – SOCAN – will talk on disbursing royalties and how to become a member of SOCAN
2:30pm-4:30pm – SAC (Songwriters Association of Canada) – Date with a Demo. Bring your demo on cd and have it critiqued by the members of SAC
4:30pm-6:00pm – Songwriters Circle – a round table with other songwriters on crafting the next big hit
7:00pm-9:00pm – Open Mic for artists – bring along your guitar, bass, and/or keyboard for an acoustic showcase of your music"

Are you ready to register yet? Click here.

Scale Down Predicted to win CBA "Best New Blog" 2007

2008-01-30T12:10:00.001-05:00

OK, I admit, when a friend of mine sent me the link to this article (thanks, Paul!), the first thing in my mind was that it was CBC's predictions about the Canadian Blog Awards. I started reading - and then I started dancing.....

I just stopped about 5 minutes ago.

"The deadline for voting on the second round of the 2007-8 Canadian Blog Awards sort of snuck up on me. This might be the drawback of only voting once rather than once a day — a difference that may focus the mind, but then keeps the awards out of sight and out of mind for most of the days of voting.

But whatever the case, if you haven’t yet voted for this year’s finalists, I encourage you to do so. You have until the end of tomorrow ~~(Thursday, January 30)~~ [ED - this should read today - WEDNESDAY, January 30] to get your votes in. This year’s first round voting has produced an ecclectic set of finalists and a diverse collection of blogs to peruse.

So, without further ado, here’s my quick take on the contestants."

It is a fairly long article, and it is obvious from author James Bow's in depth critiques, he has spent a fair amount of time visiting all of the blog finalist. Now, without further ado - I am going to jump straight to the money-shot...

"Best New Blog
Contenders: The Dinosty, WindsorEats FoodBlog, …Scale Down, Windsor, Uncorrected Proofs, Danielle Takacs: Galloping Around the Golden Horseshoe.

The pace of the expanding blogosphere may have slowed (they’re no longer talking about ten blogs being created every second, or some such), but there are so many new blogs hitting the skids these days, it’s always amazing to see those rare few rise to the surface. The Dinosty is a Canadian basketball fan with an attractive looking blog about his passion. Windsor Eats shows that there are good things to eat in Windsor, whereas Scale Down, Windsor tackles the political issues surrounding this border town (since when did Windsor develop such a happening blog community?). NDP Blogger Uncorrected Proofs has been making waves in the Canadian political blogosphere, and Liblogger Danielle Takacs takes up the Liberal cause from her vantage point in the GTA.

Who Should Win:
I’m voting for Scale Down, Windsor, because I like an underdog, and because I like what they’re doing. All of the blogs listed here are worthy of winning. I like Danielle’s analysis, but I’d strongly recommend darkening up that red column, and giving your site a black background, for ease on the eye."
So you can see why I'm pretty happy right now. I just peeled myself off the ceiling. And speaking of peeling somebody off the ceiling, can someone get ahold of Andrew over at International Metrolopolis for me? I think he's in the same state that I am right now.

"Best Local Blog
Contenders: International Metropolis, blogTO, Miss604, Spacing Toronto, WindsorEats FoodBlog

Local blogs really represent cities as bloggers; they can be as diverse and eclectic as individual bloggers, and that’s the case here. Compare Spacing Toronto with its urban planning tilt and activist ethic with the wider ranging blogTO and you’ll see what I mean. It’s good to see Vancouver represented with Miss 604, and WindsorEats strikes me as the little local blog that could. International Metropolis mines the relationship between Windsor and its cross-river cousin Detroit.

Who Should Win:
International Metropolis. I nominated Spacing Wire, and they have an excellent blog and an excellent magazine, but I was blown away by this Windsor-Detroit blog. It’s an unusual subject, well written, and excellently designed. It deserves your attention."

Whomever wins deserves all the praise they attract. There are some excellent blogs out there and I thank James Bow for highlight the CBA finalists for us. Here in Windsor, we have obviously shown the world that we have an active blogging community ('happening" as the author calls it) and we have made our mark profoundly. I am very proud to be a part of the local scene with all my Windsor brethen. Congratulations to all of your hard work.

Where have all the leaders gone?

2008-01-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

The 60s were magical. It was an era of raucous music and social rebellion that culminated in a revolution of peace and prosperity with politicians and rabble-rousers united in a fight against foreign wars, racism and disparaging wealth distribution. JFK, Martin Luther King and Che Guevara, among others, fought the status quo, challenged the oligarchy and, in the end, were martyred for the transgression of free throught and positve action. In spite of the sacrifice made by these leaders, and countless others on the local and national level, the past quarter century has nearly erased the effects of their profound leadership. Their message of hope for positive change raised a generation of free-thinkers who, on the death of their mentors, were summarily homogenized by the collective gluttony of consumerism, leaving the current generation asking "Where have all the leaders gone?"

As consumerism is down-graded from a national past time to simple survival by a stumbling economy, generations are looking for someone to lead them to the promised land; a proverbial Moses. Our distributed and digital jungle has, for the past decade, prevented us from seeing the changes that were transforming the world around us. Lost in an all-consuming world of web-links, iPods and digital television, finding leaders, and helping them find themselves, requires a unique blend of entrepreneurship and mountain-top guru with a dash of Indiana Jones.

Dr. Karen Stephenson, who was interviewed recently on Smart City Radio, is the founder of Netform.com. A corporate anthropologist, she specializes in helping companies discover and strengthen hidden leaders while advocating for the need to identify and capitalize on the knowledge of the human network. In October 2006 LEADERSHIP Philadelphia released a list of 101 leaders as analyzed and identified by Dr. Stephenson and her team. Over 4800 candidates were identified as possible leaders within the community and, through an online survey, were analyzed to determine their focus on the common good and their ability to be connectors.

Through this process of leadership identification and intensification, strengthening of civic connections, and developing symbiotic relationships, Philadelphia realized that it had the citizen strength to build a better city. (ED: Philly’s idea of ‘better’ and ScaleDown’s idea of better may differ, but the process for leadership identification is still the same.) Chris Satullo, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, refered to Philadelphia’s leadership, pre-Stephenson identification, as embattled or indicted in an Oct 15, 2006 article. Any casual observer of Windsor city council will agree with the embattled leadership title, which begs the question – Does Windsor have 101 hidden leaders and can we harness these community leaders to create a more livable, sustainable, attractive city? (Hint: Here is the list of connector qualifications)

While we don’t have the sophisticated software or technical expertise of Dr. Stephenson, we, at ScaleDown.ca, want to know who are the hidden leaders in our city. Post a comment and let us know who you are nominating and why. While you are at it, drop your nominee a note and let them know that we’re looking for them, we want them and we need them as we work together to build a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable Windsor.

Official Plan Review - Public Information Sessions

2008-01-29T17:03:00.000-05:00

As you know, during the process of Windsor's Official Plan Review, the city is holding five public information sessions. This is all for the "Moving Forward" portion of the exercise.

I sincerely appologise for the eleventh-hour notice for these. The College Avenue session is going on as I type this.

Official Plan Review - Moving Forward Phase Public Information Centres

College Avenue Community Centre - 3325 College - Tuesday January 29, 2008 4pm-8pm

Optomist Community Centre - 1075 Ypres - Wednesday January 30, 2008 4pm-8pm

Gino A. Marcus Community Complex - 1168 Drouillard - Thursday January 31, 2008 4pm-8pm

South Windsor Recreation Complex - 2555 Pulford - Tuesday Feburary 5, 2008 4pm-8pm

Forest Glade Community Centre - 3215 Forest Glade - Wednesday February 6, 2008 4pm-8pm

Here are the Moving Forward reports for you to prepare yourself with prior to attending the session closest to you

25-Year Population and Housing Projections (PDF, 504 KB)
20-Year Employment Projections and Employment Land Needs Analysis (PDF, 265 KB)

It is imperative that every citizen attends these information sessions. They are the time for you to have input into building the city you want to live in. Put on your thinking caps, get out your wish list, and be sure to tell those running the seesions everything you want. Remember, they work for you.

The Urban Village Saga Continues...

2008-01-29T10:16:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't read Chris Schnurr's blog (I know there's one or two of you out there) I wanted to point you in that direction today.

Chris is keeping tabs on Windsor's city council and their plans for the City Centre West lands. Luckily, there is one city councillor who is also keeping the pressure on the Mayor and our previous committments to develop an Urban Village on those valuable parcels of downtown real estate. Check out Chris' continuing committment to the medium of video podcasting to see how Councillor Halberstadt is continuing to keep the issue of our Urban Village plans in the public realm and reminding people that we have already dedicated significant resources to this redevelopment model.

We need to join together as a community and make our voices heard as to our feelings regarding furthering the development of the Urban Village and how important it is to revitalizing our downtown core. Be sure to make plans to attend Bleak or Blessed, a forum featuring keynote speaker Matt Fischer, CEO of the Windsor Essex County Economic Development Commission, to give your comments and suggestions as to what you think Windsor should do to survive and flourish in the economic crisis we are currently experiencing - and be sure to include your thoughts on the Urban Village. The organizers plan to record ideas generated from the forum and compile them in a report, which will be presented to all three levels of government -- the city, the province and the feds. The forum, which is free of charge, will take place Wednesday at All Saints', 330 City Hall Square, from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, call 519-253-8001.

(this plug has nothing to do with the fact that Chris Schnurr helped me to access the audio of my interview with AM 800 yesterday or plugged Scaledown on his blog today :)

Get the Lead out

2008-01-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

Way back on December 15, the Mayor of Monmouth told everyone to get their lead levels checked for FREE if your house was built before 1948. Hopefully, you listened.

It seems that Enwin is only going to do exactly what is provincially mandated for them to do, and therefore is not going to notify any neighbours of the participating households who tested high for lead content in their municipal water. According to todays Windsor Star...

"Sylvia de Vries, the spokeswoman for Enwin Utilities and the Windsor Utilities Commission, said only the homeowners who volunteered for the provincially mandated testing will receive the results."

I just got my water checked out yesterday (it took about a week after calling for an appointment) so I don't have any results to pass along to my fellow Walkerville residents, but I highly recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity. Obviously, if the province didn't overwhelmingly believe there was a problem, do you honestly think they would be doing this for free?

"Lead exposure has been linked to delays in physical and mental development. Excessive exposure can seriously injure the brain, nervous system, red blood cell development and kidneys. It can potentially cause mental retardation, seizures, comas and even death, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health."
Ms. de Vries is offering different dates that the Mayor of Monmouth stated in his blog, so to be safe, please take the earlier ones to be sure you are able to get your water tested.

"She said 110 Windsor homes will be tested in this current round, which runs from Jan. 7 to Feb. 9. Another 110 will be tested in July or August. The cycle will then be repeated at six-month intervals for two years."

So heed the advice of your M.O.M.: To make an appointment, please call the W.U.C. telephone Center. The trick is to call now because free testing is only going to take place between December 15, 2007 and April 15, 2008. To ensure participation you have to call this number now. (519) 255-2727. Please select option 3

Raise the Hammer

2008-01-28T15:30:00.000-05:00

In my post on Saturday I misrepresented Ryan McGreal and raisethehammer.org. It is not Ryan McGreal's personal blog. They are a group, very similar to ours, from Hamilton. They have been working on the same type of issues since 2004.

Ryan says, that he will write a blog about scaledown.ca in the near future. I would encourage everyone to visit raisethehammer.org and see how another group in another city is getting on.

Editorial Staff
Editor: Ryan McGreal
Associate Editor: Adrian Duyzer
Graphic Design: Trevor Shaw
Contributing Editors
Accidental Activist: Ben Bull
Photo Essay: Mark Fenton
Downtown Bureau: Jason Leach
Ideas: Ted Mitchell
Suburban Bureau: Trevor Shaw
Entertainment: Kevin Somers

Molasses in January

2008-01-28T07:30:00.000-05:00

"you know I work so hard

to keep it alive
now all I hear from you

is nothin' but jive

lately it's been so hard now

to make ends meet

and honey, your head's

a one way street"

-Aerosmith

Recently, Scale Down writers and readers engaged in some lively online discussions about downtown traffic patterns and our obsession with one-way streets. I just wanted to give everyone some welcome news that Andrew from International Metropolis forwarded to me. It seems as though those one-way streets were just an experiment and will be going away shortly.

WINDSOR DAILY STAR - WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1955

ONE WAY STREETS
SIX MONTH TEST PERIOD GIVEN OKAY
Council Approves Truck Route Plan, New Parking Site

A limited one-way street plan to relieve downtown congestion was approved by council last night. It will go into effect for a six months’ trial period.

Under the scheme, Victoria becomes a southbound artery and Pelissier northbound, between Chatham and Erie streets. Trucks over three tons gross weight are prohibited.

Ald. Albert H. Weeks said he opposed the limited plan which would create Victoria southbound when Dougall, the next street west is also southbound.

Ald. Maurice Belanger, chairman of the traffic committee said, “We have advertised this proposed change several times. There has been no opposition at all. Ald. Weeks, you are the only one to oppose the move so far.”

Controller Lawrence A. Deziel said, “I think it is goofy to have Victoria southbound one-way alongside Dougall which is already southbound one-way. Dougall should be changed to a two-way artery.”

Ald. Belanger said, “Let this go through tonight and let’s consider Dougall later on.”

The one-way pattern, proposed by the committee, was approved as was Traffic Co-ordinator Eric Wiley’s truck route proposal.

The truck route plan calls for construction work at the southwest corner of Wellington and Wyandotte and the northeast corner of Wellington and Tecumseh, for easier turning.

Use of Tecumseh, Wellington and either College or Wyandotte would keep heavy transports out of the downtown area.

Both projects will now go to the desk of City Solicitor James Watson, for inclusion in the next bylaw to amend the traffic law.

Third reading was given to a bylaw expropriating a Victoria Avenue site for an off street parking lot.

The lot, first in a series of properties to be expropriated for off-street parking stretches along the west side of Victoria from Park to the Guaranty Trust Building. It now contains three houses and an automobile storage yard.

Council adopted a recommendation from the board of control that City Treasurer E.J. Langlois be authorized to negotiate a short-term loan to cover the cost of the
property.

Under provisions of the Ontario Municipal Act, the city may either negotiate with the owners of the property, or take the setting price to arbitration.

Er, well, maybe not that shortly. Luckily, Windsor's recently adopted Downtown Windsor Master Transportation Plan is readdressing the one-way fiasco (albeit 53 years later than expected) and will, hopefully, see the light in ending this "experiment"

Hundreds of cities and towns across the North America are converting their 1950s-era one-ways back into two-ways to reduce speeding, help local business and keep pedestrians -- especially children -- safer. They are doing so because a growing body of research shows that one-way street grids create a number of signficant problems for pedestrians and the city as a whole:

One-way street grids force motorists to drive more to get to their destination.
Rather than simply making one turn and driving half a block, on a one-way street grid drivers often must circle an entire block to get to where they want to go. Not only does this additional driving waste time and gasoline and produce more traffic congestion and carbon emissions, "the increase in the number of turning movements and total miles of travel" makes the street more dangerous for pedestrians too. "There are simply more (typically 30-40 percent) vehicle/pedestrian conflicts within a one-way street network than in a comparable two-way system," according to a 1999 study presented to the Federal Transportation Research Board and a 2004 article in the Journal of the Institute of Engineers.

One-way streets tend to encourage faster speeds.
The federal report, "A Review of Pedestrian Safety Research in the United States and Abroad," states, "vehicle speeds may increase after conversion from two-way to one-way." But residents of this New York street don't need a study to tell them that. The vehicles careening down one-way Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West at 40+ mph are the most "logical presentation" anyone needs.

One-way streets are more dangerous for pedestrians, especially for children.
A 2003 study published in the American Journal of Public Health notes, "Higher vehicle speeds are strongly associated with a greater likelihood of crashes involving pedestrians as well as more serious pedestrian injuries." And who gets hurt most on these higher-speed streets? "Children ages 5 to 9 have the highest population-based injury rate in pedestrian-motor vehicle accidents."According to this 2000 study in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, "Children's injury rate was 2.5 times higher on one-way streets than on two-way streets"

So it seems that when council finally changes our tourist-confounding one-way streets back to the two-ways they were intended to be, we may just have a safer, more environmentally friendly downtown.

I think this experiment is finished.

The 905 view on Strip Clubs and Sprawl

2008-01-27T08:46:00.000-05:00

"The more we build traditional, mixed-use neighbourhoods which bring a variety of family activities closer together, the harder it is for undesirable activities to spring up among us, and the safer our streets become for everyone."

That's how Toronto Sun columnist Marianne Meed Ward ended her article in Saturday's issue titled Stripping away urban planning concepts which argued that "(i)mplementing mixed-use zoning is the antidote (to single-use zoned "pods" for working, living and playing). Mixed-use planning is essentially traditional town planning, where homes, shops, employment, and recreational and cultural centres are integrated, sometimes beside each other, sometimes stacked, but always in close proximity."

So read through her article (thanks for the link, Paul!), and to make it a little more Windsor-relevant, substitute "Massage Parlours" for strip clubs and you can see how this applies to our downtown's revitalization. You'll see that the solutions are out there, we just need the political will to implement them...

ED: click here to read a Florida economist's view on sprawl and its lasting legacy.

The Professional Planners of Windsor and Essex County Want to Scale Down

2008-01-25T20:46:00.000-05:00

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
- Abraham Lincoln

Yesterday, Mark let the cat out of the bag. The Professional Planners in Windsor and Essex County want the region to ...Scale Down.

The first Annual Report of the Inter-municipal Planning Consultation Committee says it all. I was stunned after reading this document. They want smaller, walkable, compact, energy-efficient communities. They acknowledge that fossil fuels will continue to become more expensive and less readily available and that these factors will impact not only our ability to get around but also our local economic activities.

Their position with respect to fossil fuel price and availability was reinforced on January 18, 2008 when an economic outlook paper was published by CIBC economists Jeff Rubin and Peter Buchanan. The CIBC report was featured in The Windsor Star (including reader comments) so our local officials must be aware that in the near-term we will likely begin to see tangible affects including ever higher fuel prices and lower sales of large, less fuel-efficient vehicles.

Energy efficiency, fossil fuel scarcity and climate change were also featured in the consultant’s report to the City of Hamilton. Richard Gilbert, research director at the Centre for Sustainable Transportation, was hired by Hamilton City Council in June of 2005 to assess that city’s plans for public transit, city fleet, goods movement and their plans to develop lands around the Hamilton International Airport as an economic hub.

In his report “Hamilton: The Electric City” Gilbert stresses that energy use, conservation and production should be the primary factors driving all new development in the region. In a post on Hamilton civic affairs blog raisethehammer.org Ryan McGreal reported on a presentation by Gilbert at Environment Hamilton’s Annual General Meeting (Mar. 30/06). In his speech Gilbert told his audience that in 25 years shortfalls in supply would drive fuel costs to six times the current rate. Ryan went on to present Gilbert’s principles of land use for an energy constrained world:

Make energy use and production the principle determinant of land-use decisions.

Give ‘greenfield’ development low priority.

No abandonment of existing low-density areas. (Target them for intensification)

Plan for a mixing of uses.

Aggressively pursue ‘brownfield’ development.

Foster vibrant centres.
Arrange that development supports low-energy transport.

Further reading of Ryan’s blog and this other, demonstrates that Windsor is not unique when it comes to ignoring good advice.

There are other cities out there that are considering a fossil fuel deprived future. In May 2006 the City of Portland Peak Oil Task Force was formed. By council resolution, 12 citizens of various backgrounds began examining potential social and economic consequences of “Peak Oil” on Portland. On January 18, 2007 they released a report for public comment. Their findings “illustrate the central role that oil and natural gas play in our daily lives” and they exposed “profound economic and social vulnerabilities that could result as fuel supplies cease to be abundant and inexpensive”. Their recommendations were:

Reduce fossil fuel consumption by 50% over the next 25 years.

Educate citizens about peak oil and foster community and community-based solutions.

Engage business, government and community leaders to initiate planning and policy change.

Support land use patterns that reduce transportation needs, promote walkability, and provide easy access to services and transportation options.

Design infrastructure to promote transportation options, facilitate efficient movement of freight and prevent stranded investments.

Encourage energy-efficient and renewable transportation choices.

Expand building energy-efficiency programs and incentives.

Preserve farmland and expand local food production and processing.

Identify and promote sustainable business opportunities.

Redesign the safety net and protect vulnerable and marginalized populations.

Prepare emergency plans for sudden and severe shortages.

The final report was presented to Portland City Council on March 7, 2007. At that meeting the council adopted a resolution based on the number one recommendation. Portland’s goal is to reduce fossil fuel use by half. City bureaus were directed to incorporate this goal into internal operations as well as making it part of planning guidelines, building energy use and transportation. In a press release from the Portland Office of Sustainable Development director Susan Anderson said of the report and the city resolution “The Peak Oil Task Force report underscores the need to accelerate our efforts. All of the recommended actions also help the City meet other established community goals such as clean air and water, livability, carbon dioxide reductions and economic growth.”

So here we are, Professional Planners around North America are working to prepare cities for a future with less available fossil fuels. They are advocating walkable communities. They want priorities to shift toward compact and complete communities to allow people access to services and businesses without having to rely on cars. Cities are being exhorted to stop sprawling out and to intensify already developed areas.

The Professional Planners of the Windsor/Essex Region see the need to prepare for the same challenges. I hope that the IMPCC will continue to work together and make good plans for our future. I believe in this group and their abilities. It seems the big challenge is to make our elected officials understand that this is the future we need to prepare for. For our region to be successful we need to…well, scale down.

If there was one city that I would like Windsor to emulate it is Portland, Oregon. We could do worse.

Scale Down, UNVEILED

2008-01-25T12:57:00.000-05:00

These are exciting and incredibly busy times for us here at the Scale Down World Headquarters. We have been hinting at big things on the horizon, and we are finally at the stage when we can begin letting some of our plans out of the bag.

Scale Down, UNVEILED will be our grand coming out party. The launch of a new interactive website that will include the popular blog, as well as video podcasts and internet radio. Our look is being updated and navigation of the site is being improved immensely. We are building our team more and more every day and these talented writers and producers are only going to ensure that Scale Down remains fresh, vibrant and relevant. Scale Down has been getting so much support in the community, coupled with our finalist standing in the race for Canada's Best New Blog of 2007, that these dreams seem to have taken a life of their own and are now nearing the end of their gestation period. We want you to come and be a part of our evening.

Which is why we couldn't have just any old launch party. We've decided to keep our message of hope and possibilities by bring in someone who knows these terms intimately and has discovered that they are not only possible but EXIST!

Ask yourself? Do we want clean air and water, Limitless pollution-free energy, good nutritious food, Liveable communities worth investing in, a deliberate and fulfilling life?

Is this a world worth building, a future worth dreaming of, a place of hope?

We have a chance to be a part of possibly the greatest project in the history of civilization, to be at the forefront of the generation that confronted the worst conflagration the world has ever seen - and sorted it out.

THE WORLD WE NEED EXISTS AND IT ONLY TOOK
CHRIS TURNER A YEAR TO FIND IT.
THE GEOGRAPHY
OF HOPE
A Tour of the World We Need

THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOPE is a scrapbook of a year spent living optimistically. In this globetrotting adventure, Chris Turner meets sustainability’s remarkable pioneers and showcases dozens of exciting innovations and extraordinary projects that provide inspiration and working models for a sustainable society.

With a mix of front-line reporting, analysis and passionate argument, Chris Turner pieces together the glimmers of optimism and the solutions already at work around the world, from Canada’s largest wind farm to Asia’s greenest building and Europe’s most eco-friendly communities. But THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOPE goes far beyond mere technology. Turner seeks out the next generation of political, economic, social and spiritual institutions that could provide the global foundations for a sustainable future – from the green hills of northern Thailand to the parliament houses of Scandinavia, from the villages of southern India, where microcredit finance has remade the social fabric, to America’s most forward-thinking think tanks. In this compelling first-person exploration, punctuated by the wonder and angst of a writer discovering the world’s beacons of possibility, Chris Turner presents a dazzling map of the disparate landmarks in a geography of hope.

And this is just what our community needs to hear and believe is possible. The people of Windsor are hearing nothing but bad news these days, and more of the same on the horizon. By bringing Chris Turner to Windsor to join the optimistic outlook that Scale Down writers and contributors have for our community, we are sure we are going to make a difference in this city. And we want you to join us...

SCALE DOWN UNVEILED
FEBRUARY 20TH • 7 PM
2175 PARENT AVENUE WINDSOR
Giovanni Caboto Club

So mark that date on your calendar, and the whole Scale Down team looks forward to meeting you and working with you at fixing what ails Windsor.

Dr. Phil: House of regional Planning

2008-01-25T06:09:00.000-05:00

One of Dr. Phil’s main lessons on relationships is that every action you take has only two possible consequences. You are either contributing to your relationship or contaminating it. There is no third option.

Windsorites need to look at every Decision or action our city Leaders make and view it in these terms. Either this decision is contributing to the official plan of the city of Windsor, or it is contaminating the official plan.

The document I read by planning departments of the city and the county is proof positive that the problem does not lie with our respective planning departments. Smart Choices for the Windsor-Essex Region is a perfect document that everyone should read. If anyone ever questioned the integrity or qualifications of the planners in our region, this document should vindicate them once and for all. I can unequivocally state that my confidence in our city, our planning department and the goals of scaledown.ca have been reaffirmed yet again.

There is a lot of talk about vision, this document states our vision and it is one that we can be darn proud of. I know I am not alone when I tell you that there are many people that feel there is a disconnect between our vision and our actions. A disconnect between what we want to do and doing what we said we were going to do.

My goals with scaledown is to subject the actions our city takes to Dr. Phil’s simple philosophy. I would like to see more people and groups subject every decision made by Council, every action taken by every other city department and committee to that simple question:

Are the actions you take or the decision you are making contributing to our official plan or contaminating it.

Redeveloping Windsor: Think Globally; Act Locally

2008-01-24T08:08:00.000-05:00

Guest Blogger: Steve Biro

I read with great interest the other day an article in the NY Times about how the increasing need for oil is creating a huge demand for bio fuels and its effect on food and cooking oil prices worldwide.

This article discusses how poorer nations of the world are spending the bulk of their income on food and cooking oil and are rationing even smaller potions for families that are already hungry. Articles similar to this one discuss rioting and protests about unaffordable food prices resulting from our insatiable need for cheap fuel in Mexico and other parts of the world.

Lately, it seems that administrators and city councillors have been making decisions that require Windsorites to drive more and therefore use more fuel; such as approving the big box development on Matchette road at the fringes of the city. The large stores that open up there will closely duplicate stores that are already scattered throughout more built up, walkable neighbourhoods like the Dougall Wal-Mart. There will be tens of thousands of vehicle trips to such a development on a daily basis just as there are to the Costco big box area. Now Home Depot will be moving out there as well, so that's a few extra kilometres of driving for customers in the city.

All this extra driving in our city adds up millions of gallons of gasoline every year. It not only contributes heavily to local pollution, but helps to make food more scarce and difficult to afford all over the world because all oil needs add up to greater bio fuels demand. Even areas of the city that score well on walkability (like the older parts of South Windsor) do little to actually promote walking or bicycling more. For example, many businesses along Dougall Ave. do not shovel their sidewalks after snowfall and this forces people to walk on the street. The picture above is of the sidewalk in front of Harveys on Dougall after the last big snowfall. Not only was it not shoveled, but the snow removal trucks for the parking lot felt it was necessary to pile nearly 5 feet of snow onto part of the walk. I called 311 to file a complaint with the city about this matter and the snow remained for another 5 days until it naturally melted due to the warm following weekend.

This little sidebar was included to show the complete lack of concern for those that do not drive in our city. The population of our city has only increased by roughly 10% in the last 25 years or so but the amount of driving has doubled in that same span. This is obviously not a chance happening but rather a direct result of city planning. Our city oficialsf throw around terms like "smart growth" but for some reason don't seem see the big picture. You would think that there would be some connection between the need for human scale development and the phrase "smart growth"; but the evidence says otherwise. As a saving grace though, there are some projects in the city that are being discussed or are already in the works that will help improve conditions for everyone and be considered to be "smart". The talks of transforming the Armouries Building, the addition of a St. Clair College satellite campus complementing an Urban Village downtown and there have been small improvements to bicycle networks in our city. In order for there to be big improvements though, the city needs to vigorously pursue these projects; and also develop a network of walking and bicycle paths throughout the city into places like South Windsor and the Central area near the Chrysler plant. Improvements made to the public transit system; for example earlier starts, more routes and more frequent runs. Regional transit would also reduce our ecological footprint.

Whenever there is talk of improving rail the city should embrace these concepts as a way to reduce truck traffic and overall fuel consumption. When we met with Eddie Francis early in his first term he showed us a study that was done in the early nineties that showed the answer to Windsor's border issues was a double stacked rail tunnel to the states and he seemed excited about such a project happening. Hopefully he and the rest of council will invest in such projects that will not only make our city a much cleaner and better place to live but will help to feed hungry populations elsewhere in the world.

Steve Biro has been active on the Windsor scene for numerous years, including time spent with the Windsor Bicycling Committee and the Rotary Club. Despite his auto-sector employment, he still lobbys heavily in favour of alternative transportation and walkable communities. Way to go, Steve!

Big Box articles

2008-01-23T08:15:00.001-05:00

Had to do a quick post about two Windsor Star articles

"Rising fuel costs means communities have to be designed in ways that encourage people to get out of their automobiles, Hillman said. ...
Mayor Gary McNamara agreed there have to be options to “big box” commercial developments largely accessible only to consumers with vehicles.
“There’s no question we need to change how we define and build our communities,” the mayor said."

To me it seems like Windsor and Tecumseh politicians are racing to build as many big box unwalkable developments as they can before their respective planning departments issue the reports we know will conclude the building of these are poor planning.

Lets hope that the Windsor Planning Department report does not get delayed or hidden in an attempt to slide a few more Big Box Developments under the wire.

There definitely needs to be some follow up posts on this topic

WE MADE THE CUT! Now, for round two of the Canadian Blog Awards "Best New Blog of 2007"

2008-01-23T07:48:00.000-05:00

Well, folks, I want to thank each and every one of you for logging on and voting for ...Scale Down, Windsor as your choice for best new blog of 2007 in Canada.

It is truly humbling!

Now it's time to start all over again, but in all honesty I didn't think we'd make it this far. ...Scale Down was only up and running for the last half of 2007 and we were up against 39 other more established blogs across Canada. Even if this is as far as we make it, your votes have shown that we are doing a pretty decent job at our first-ever blog. Trust me, ...Scale Down is only going to be getting better over the course of the next month!

So now we must ask you to vote for us again, only this time as a finalist! We would love to be able to advertise that ...Scale Down is a national award winning blog, and with your continued support we will be able to do just that.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR US AS FINALISTS!

Over the course of the next week, you will be able to register your vote in Round 2. Be sure to click the link above to take you directly to the polling screen. Round 2 voting closes on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 11:59 PM PST, so be sure to get your vote in and encourage all your friends and family to do the same.

I also wanted to offer our congratulations to all the other local Windsor Bloggers who made the cut. Be sure to register your vote and support them as well - that is unless they are running in the "New Blog" category against ...Scale Down (Sorry, Windsor Eats FoodBlog :)

International Metropolis and the Windsor Eats FoodBlog both made the cut (as well as the Shawn's wonderful Spacing blog out of Toronto) for "Best Local Blog", and Michael's English Usage wound up in the top five finalists for the "Best Educational Blog". Congrats to all of our local bloggers for all the hard work they do, whether they are recognised by the CBA's or not!

Windsor, Ontario - Bike Capital of Canada?

2008-01-23T07:09:00.000-05:00

I am sure that by now, ...Scale Down readers are familiar with our regular Guest Blogger, James Coulter. James has been blogging on his own and for SD for a while now. His articles are insightful and always show me a slightly different way of looking at issues around us. Maybe that is why I enjoy reading him so much.

Maybe that is also why Josh, Mark and myself are now welcoming James as the latest ...Scale Down contributor! So, this will be the last time that you will see James' words posted by me as a guest blogger. From the mouth of Mr. Coulter...

I am really humbled (seriously, after meeting Chris and Mark and learning what it is they want for Windsor) to have been invited to join ...Scale Down, Windsor as a regular contributor.

So who is James Coulter? I guess that I’m one of you. I’m someone that wants to see Windsor move in a better direction. Where do I get my ideas? Well I have the opportunity through my work at St. Clair College to review a large amount of texts and articles on architecture and civil engineering works. I also read blogs and newsgroups that deal in Peak Oil and Globalization because I think these are big picture issues that will drive change in this city. Big and small, bad and good, there are plenty of ideas and issues out there and SDW gives us a forum to discuss and explore all ideas that could benefit our community. I look forward to bringing you my thoughts and working with SDW to affect change for the benefit of us all.

Could Windsor go from auto capital to bike capital of Canada?

Why not? It won’t happen overnight but it is possible. Reading this article I got to thinking there is a strong cycling community in Windsor and if we could make the bicycle industry a driver forthe local economy people would getbehind locally made products and events and well…

Windsor Ontario, Bike Capital of Canada.

Production of bicycles runs the gamut from the lone craftsman to the factory churning out hundreds of units each day. Any number of machine shops that are slow on business could start to turn out custom and production bicycles or components. Could you image the bumper stickers “Buy the BIKES your neighbour helped to WELD”. Then there are anynumber of opportunities for small businesses to start up producing clothing and otherspecialty products.

Windsor and Essex County tourism could get a boost if the region was more bike-friendly. Our flat terrain and extensive network of county roads provide plenty of opportunities for cyclo-tourists of all abilities to get around from historic sites like Fort Malden or the John R. Park Homestead to the many local wineries. Small hotels and bed and breakfasts could make themselves bike friendly by providing special “bike rooms” with facilities to wash off road grime or perform repairs. Highway 18 makes an excellent bike tour route as there are towns evenly spaced along the entire distance from downtown Windsor all the way around to Wheatley.

In addition to cyclo-tourists, the region has always had an active bicycle racing community. These racers go to races and host races. Windsor is home to the oldest annual bicycle race in Canada (theLabour Day races on Erie Street) and the area has hosted many other road and off-road events. Our location near the U.S.border has always allowed race hosts to attract quality fields of racers. If we learn from the auto makers and NASCAR, if you sell racing you can sell the products.

Windsor/Essex has a reasonable climate for cycling too. Although the last few days have been a little cold, you can comfortably ride a bike most of the year here. As well the size of the city is pretty reasonable for getting around unlike a lot of big cities. One can ride across Windsor in about an hour. There are so many people that spend that amount of time in their cars trying to get around our town, silly really.

So to summarize: let’s make Windsor not just bike friendly but a bike city. Let’s have industries based on an affordable, eco-friendly mode of transportation. Let’s create economic opportunities for new businesses large and small. Let’s encourage cyclo-tourism and the promotion of bike festivals and races to promote our new local industries and businesses and let’s enjoy a healthier and cleaner way of getting around town.

ED: Welcome to the Team, James!

Accepting the Challenge to make Downtown Safer

2008-01-22T07:47:00.000-05:00

Last Monday night, Mayor Eddie Francis and I both clearly stated that the banning of after-hours bars alone would not ensure a safer downtown environment. However, I found it curious that the Mayor issued the challenge to help the City in its efforts to continue implementing practices and policies that would make the downtown core safer.

As a member of CCSERT; a member of the City Center West Community Improvement Plan committee (my request to be on the Sustainable Downtown Community Improvement plan committee was denied); the Past Chair of the DWBIA; the current Chair of the DWBIA panhandling committee and the Chair and Founding Board Member of the Windsor International Film Festival (events are a Bellmio recommendation), I am all too familiar with the issues of safety as they pertain to our downtown.

Let’s examine the solutions recommended in the Bellmio Report and the DWBIA’s track record versus that of the City’s:

1. Short Term Objective
City Council identified the formulation of a Downtown Development Task Force that had its own budget; clear and concise mission; committee with explicitly defined operation rules; and a coherent plan for implementing changes that improve the downtown landscape.

Results: No such task force was formed but the City did assemble another committee - that of the City Centre West Community Improvement Plan RFP Committee which is currently on hold pending the University’s decision on where to locate its new Engineering Building. The City’s “Sustainable Downtown Plan” has also been put on hold until at least 2010.

I have invested hundreds of hours as a result of our participation and membership on these committees. We have long lobbied the Windsor Economic Development Commission to become more involved in our downtown but it is not one of the Development Commission’s stated strategies nor is it one of their priorities. The Chamber of Commerce? You tell me?

I supported the DWBIA initiating its own Economic Development Plan which included:

i Offering new and existing businesses a façade grant of up to $15,000 as a development incentive;
ii Funding a merchandising study;
iii Implementing the merchandising study’s first recommendation to identify downtown “districts”.

Next, I hope to support exploring the implementation of Leasehold Improvement Grants, however going it alone will only amount to limited accomplishment.

2. Bellmio - Recommendations & StatusThe City of Windsor’s municipal government should demonstrate credibility of new downtown initiatives by looking for “low hanging fruit”:

a. Revise zoning categories for late night, high volume bars so that conversion of other businesses to bars would require rezoning and hearings that would allow for community input.
Result: This has been accomplished by the City of Windsor.

b. Improving the integration of work conducted by City Departments with new and existing businesses.
Result: Simplicity. The City has fared well on this and other initiatives.

c. Moving and/or removing outdated streetscape items including planters, benches and wall that result in sidewalk bottlenecks and loitering.
Result: Sensational streetscaping from Ouellette to Riverside to Park completed in 2007. 2008 streetscaping on hold. The replacement of burnt-out street-lights on Pelissier put on hold for years.

d. Parking enforcement.
Result: Lack of Parking enforcement has never been a cause for concern.

e. Take steps to close licensed premises once they no longer have the ability to sell alcohol. Some businesses stay open after-hours and adhere to liquor laws. The cause for concern with this trend is that it increases the timeframe in which patrons spill out onto downtown streets and reduces the amount of time the City has in order to clean up the city centre in preparation for daytime business.
Result: Hopefully, Councillors who adopted the Bellmio Report will recall that this has taken over five years to accomplish.

f. The development of a more aggressive Street Cleaning Program. With the assistance of businesses and the re-allocation of current City staff time, efforts should be made to improve the cleanliness of the downtown that would be noticeable to visitors. Ideally, these changes should reflect efforts that are sustainable over time and that cannot be undone at some point in the future.
Result: The DWBIA embarked upon a Street Cleaning Program with a budget of $72,000 (excluding supervisor/manager).

g. Planning and hosting more events downtown.
Result: Numerous new festivals supported by the DWBIA and the City of Windsor. Examples of positive partnerships include the Windsor International Film Festival launched in 2004; the Elvis Festival in 2005; the Chalk & Chocolate Festival in 2006; and the 10-day Fringe Festival to be launched in 2008.

3. Other DWBIA attempts to deal with issues noted in the Bellmio Report

a. Massage Parlours
The Bellmio Report noted a proliferation of massage parlours. For years, the DWBIA has requested City Hall to place the issue of massage parlour zoning on the Council Agenda. Windsor Police Services have closed down many of the massage parlours but until such time as the issues of zoning are addressed, the threat of new businesses of this nature opening will continue to be of concern.

b. Panhandling
The Bellmio Report noted a panhandling problem. The DWBIA formed a Task Force that studied the Safe Streets Act. The Task Force made recommendations to the City identifying the shortcomings of the City’s regulation of where and when panhandlers were permitted to operate. These recommendations were derived from other Canadian cities who had successfully dealt with these issues. The DWBIA received a letter from the City’s CAO rejecting these recommendations and has tried for some time, unsuccessfully, to have this issue discussed at City Council.

c. Public Urination
I submitted a retractable public urinal that has been used successfully in Victoria, British Columbia www.urilift.com . I requested that the retractable public urinal be added to the City’s streetscape elements and will seek a partnership with the City to have a couple of units installed during next phase of downtown streetscape construction.

I have long accepted the challenge to increase safety downtown by implementing all of the Bellmio recommendations. The improvement of our downtown is of primary concern.

Build it, and they will come...

2008-01-21T16:15:00.000-05:00

An interesting line item on tonights council agenda is Item 17 from the desk of the General Manager of Corporate Services.

It seems that the province is doling out some highly anticipated cash to the municipalities through its $300 million Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative (MIII) program.. The catch to claiming this one-time funding is that each municipality is only allowed to fund one construction-ready (completed all required studies and approval processes), municipally owned infrastructure project that would contribute to a "strong and resilient economy and higher quality of life."

Some examples of what other municipalities are going to use the money for are:

This is a pretty exciting opportunity for this community to knock a few high-profile projects off our "Honey-Do" list. Just think of all our options. Well, administration did think of our options and do you know what they came up with to spend all this cash on?

Yeah - roads!

From the Top-Ten list they compiled for council to choose from tonight, roads and bridges leading out to the suburbs occupied the top 7 spots! The final three were storm and sanitary sewers and downtown streetscaping.

Can you tell the priorities of this administration?

Well, like they said in "Field Of Dreams", build it and they will come. They're building a bigger, better suburban road network and guess what's going to come? Yup, you guessed it - a "strong and resilient economy and higher quality of life" for those out in the surrounding bedroom communities and the county.

P.S. Councillors? Just in case you were wondering what SD would do tonight if the choice was ours - choose the City Centre Streetscape Improvements (#10) or the Prince Road storm sewer relief (#8).

Also on tonights agenda...

...is the issue of the Nighttime Truck Ban on Wyandotte. Even though every BIA impacted by the trucks on Wyandotte (including the Walkerville Distillery District?!?) supported the night time ban and even went so far as supporting a day time ban as well, administration is recommending "that noaction be taken with respect to restricting night time trucks on Wyandotte Street"!

Sort of makes you wonder who, exactly, this administration is working for, doesn't it?

All in all, from disposing of neighbourhood rec centres to further road extensions, tonights council meeting is filled with items hostle to rejuvenating the core in favour of strengthening the suburbs. A sad night, indeed.

Windsor's OPR - A real opportunity

2008-01-21T07:09:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, we published our first introduction to the city of Windsors five year review of our Official Plan (OPR). This is such an opportunity for the residents of this city to help establish our collective vision of our community that it needs to be looked at in depth and given much more attention than our "traditional" media outlets are willing to devote to it. Today, we will look at the work that has been completed to date and the recommendations this work has put forward.

To begin with, let's look at exactly what the Official Plan is and what makes it such a powerful document. By the cities own words, the "Official Plan tells how land will be used in the City. An Official Plan is extremely important because it:

- Outlines the future vision of the city
- Establishes policies that help to achieve orderly growth and development
- Shows where sewers, water mains, parks, roads, sidewalks and other services will go in the City
- Gives a framework for other policies and regulations, such as zoning by-laws
- Helps people know what they can do with their property"

This pretty much describes everything that makes a city, doesn't it? The defining phrase of this entire excercise is the future vision of the city. Who is responsible for defining this vision? In a true representative democracy, it is you and I, Windsor's citizens, who should have the final say in the kind of city we want to live in and the route we need to take to get there.

So, this is why ...Scale Down making such a big fuss over the OPR.

The OPR has been broken down into three phases. "Looking Back" was presented to council in February of 2007 and was comprised of research and analysis that identified, described and discussed the existing conditions, trends and known challenges that face Windsor. This work culminated in the Looking Back Synthesis Report, which summarized the following summary reports: Legislation, Social Conditions, Economic Conditions, Natural Environment, Infrastructure, Transportation and Built Form.

Like so many planning documents before it, this document contains a tremendous amount of progressive policy recommendations and insight. Everything from intensifying our built form to mitigating our impacts on fish habitat. This document addresses 124 shortcomings identified throughout the "Looking Back" process, including;

- Additional information requirements for development applications,
- New definition of community improvement,
- Defining more clearly what is meant by "healthy communities",
- Setting targets for Official Plan as per PPS (Provincial Policy Statement) for affordable housing,
- Proactive support for social and income integration,
- Strengthening the Environmental Evaluation Report process,
- "No negative impact" and setbacks for development,
- Agricultural permissions in natural heritage areas,
- Green space in areas of intensification,
- City must be the focus of growth

I think one of the more exciting things I read in the synthesis report (in response to the provinces Bill 51, the Planning and Conservation Land Statue Law Amendment Act) is the ability to investigate the establishment of a Local Appeal Body, which would deal with minor variances and consent appeals in place of the Ontario Municipal Board. I find this exciting because it puts more power in the hands of the people who live in the community in question, as opposed to the OMB which is so far removed from local issues that they cannot help but impose status quo solutions to problems they cannot possibly understand to the degree that the local residents do. In addition, Bill 51 requires the need for the Official Plan to justify settlement area expansion by establishing policies addressing land supply, natural environment, community service facilities, parks, infrastructure, fiscal impact, etc., as criteria for evaluating settlement area expansions. Once again, the need to establish the communities vision for their community will determine exactly how these policies translate into real-world development.

As far as planning documents go, there's very little fault to be found in this one. It offers up enough progressive policies to keep the community activists happy and enough language that perpetuates the status quo to keep the suburbanites from worrying about the future of their neighbourhoods. Mind you, I am still in the process of disseminating everything that I have read, the most bothersome aspect of the OPR process so far is the lack of identifiable vision for our community. Granted, the "Looking Back" segment of the process has been identifying weaknesses, I feel that it should all build towards a mutually agreed upon goal for the type of city that we all want to inhabit.

Perhaps when we begin to examine the next phase, "Moving Forward" (in our next installment of the OPR overview) we will begin to see a roadmap to a progressive vision for Windsor developing.

Stop the presses! News you won't hear anywhere else in Windsor.

2008-01-20T13:35:00.000-05:00

Wow. Talk about one news headline that I never expected, realistically, to see in my lifetime, let alone from an auto executive at the 2008 Detroit International Auto Show.

From Fortune magazine...

Nissan exec: Car culture is fading Worldwide, people are losing interest in automobiles, one executive says.
By Alex Taylor, Fortune senior editor
2008 Detroit auto show
January 14 2008:

DETROIT (Fortune) -- If you are looking for some insight into what the automobile of the future will look like you could do worse than talk with Tom Lane. An American, he runs all of Nissan's Product Strategy anad Product Planning from his office in Tokyo.

Unlike most executives, he welcomes the imposition of new U.S. fuel regulations that mandate 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

"It is not an issue" for Nissan (NSANY) he says.

He expects the new regs to drive more small cars, improved technoloy, and a broader variety of shapes and sizes, as designers try to get more variety out of similarly-sized vehicles.

But he points to some discouraging global trends that don't bode well for the industry.

He notes that consumers in Japan are losing their mojo when it comes to cars. The population is aging, and younger drivers would rather spend their money on new cellphones and Internet access.

"Japan is increasingly not interested in new cars," he says.

The population in Europe is aging too, and Lane sees similar ennui spreading there. As car ownership becomes more expensive and cities increasingly impose congestion pricing on car usage in center cities, he sees car owners switching to mass transit for their daily commute, and then renting cars for longer trips.

"The U.S. is headed that way," he says. "The challenge for us, going forward, is a more interesting offer. Doing a better Sentra or an Altima isn't going to do it."

The image in the fortune teller's crystal ball is getting clearer with each passing day. Windsor cannot continue to put all of its eggs in the basket of the automotive industry.

City street as social space. Hans Monderman 1945 - 2008

2008-01-19T11:13:00.000-05:00

Hans Monderman was a Dutch road traffic engineer and innovator. He was recognized for radically challenging the criteria by which engineering solutions for street design are evaluated. His work compelled transportation planners and highway engineers to look afresh at the way people and technology relate to each other. Functional models of his designs are changing the way people view the street in northern Holland, and tried also in Spain, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and Britain.

Hans Monderman died of prostate cancer on January 7, 2008, at the age of 62

For your weekend reading pleasure, I thought I would pass along this reprint from an old New York Times article documenting Sarah Lyalls time spent with this iconic traffic engineer

Road design? He calls it a revolution

by Sarah Lyall
The New York Times
Saturday, January 22, 2005

DRACHTEN, Netherlands "I want to take you on a walk," said Hans Monderman, abruptly stopping his car and striding - hatless, and nearly hairless - into the freezing rain.

Like a naturalist conducting a tour of the jungle, he led the way to a busy intersection in the center of town, where several odd things immediately became clear. Not only was it virtually naked, stripped of all lights, signs and road markings, but there was no division between road and sidewalk. It was, basically, a bare brick square.

But in spite of the apparently anarchical layout, the traffic, a steady stream of trucks, cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, moved along fluidly and easily, as if directed by an invisible conductor. When Monderman, a traffic engineer and the intersection's proud designer, deliberately failed to check for oncoming traffic before crossing the street, the drivers slowed for him. No one honked or shouted rude words out the window.

"Who has the right of way?" he asked rhetorically. "I don't care. People here have to find their own way, negotiate for themselves, use their own brains."

Used by some 20,000 drivers a day, the intersection is part of a road-design revolution pioneered by the 59-year-old Monderman. His work in Friesland, the district in northern Holland that takes in Drachten, is increasingly seen as the way of the future in Europe.

Variations on the shared-space theme are being tried in Spain, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and Britain. The European Union has appointed a committee of experts, including Monderman, for a Europe-wide study.

His philosophy is simple, if counterintuitive. To make communities safer and more appealing, Monderman argues, you should first remove the traditional paraphernalia of their roads.

That means the traffic lights and speed signs; the signs exhorting drivers to stop, slow down and merge; the center lines separating lanes from each other; even the speed bumps, speed-limit signs, bicycle lanes and pedestrian crossings. In his view, it is only when the road is made more dangerous, when drivers stop looking at signs and start looking at other people, that driving becomes safer.

"All those signs are saying to cars, 'This is your space, and we have organized your behavior so that as long as you behave this way, nothing can happen to you,"' said Monderman. "That is the wrong story."

The Drachten intersection is an example of the concept of "shared space," a street where cars and pedestrians are equal, and the design tells the driver what to do."

It's a moving away from regulated, legislated traffic toward space which, by the way it's designed and configured, makes it clear what sort of behavior is anticipated," said Ben Hamilton-Baillie, a British specialist in urban design and movement, and a proponent of many of the same concepts.

Highways - where the car is naturally king - are part of the "traffic world" and another matter altogether. In Monderman's view, shared-space plans thrive only in conjunction with well-organized, well-regulated highway systems.

Monderman is a man on a mission. On a daylong automotive tour of Friesland, he pointed out places he had improved, including a town where he ripped out the sidewalks, signs and crossings and put in brick paving on the central shopping street. An elderly woman crossed slowly in front of him."

This is social space, so when Grandma is coming, you stop, because that's what normal, courteous human beings do," he said.

Planners and curious journalists are increasingly making pilgrimages to meet Monderman, considered one of the field's great innovators, although until a few years ago he was virtually unknown outside of Holland. Hamilton-Baillie, whose writings have helped bring Monderman's work to wider attention, remembers with fondness his own first visit.

Monderman drove him to a small country road with cows in every direction. Their presence was unnecessarily reinforced by a large, standard-issue European traffic sign with a picture of a cow on it.

"He said, 'What do you expect to find here? Wallabees?"' Hamilton-Baillie recalled. "'They're treating you like you're a complete idiot, and if people treat you like a complete idiot, you'll act like one.'

"Here was someone who had rethought a lot of issues from complete scratch," Hamilton-Baillie said.

"Essentially, what it means is a transfer of power and responsibility from the state to the individual and the community."

Dressed in a beige jacket and patterned shirt, with scruffy facial hair and a stocky build, Monderman has the appearance of a soccer hooligan but the temperament of an engineer, which indeed he trained to be.

His father was the headmaster of the primary school in their small village; Hans liked to fiddle with machines. "I was always the guy who repaired the TV sets in our village," he said.

He was working as a civil engineer building highways in the 1970s when the Dutch government, alarmed at a sharp increase in traffic accidents, set up a network of traffic-safety offices. Monderman was appointed Friesland's traffic safety officer.

In residential communities, Monderman began narrowing the roads and putting in design features like trees and flowers, red brick paving stones and even fountains to discourage people from speeding, following the principle now known as pyschological traffic calming, where behavior follows design.

He made his first nervous foray into shared space in a small village whose residents were upset at its being used as a daily thoroughfare for 6,000 speeding cars. When he took away the signs, lights and sidewalks, people drove more carefully. Within two weeks, speeds on the road had dropped by more than half.

In fact, he said, there has never been a fatal accident on any of his roads. Several early studies bear out his contention that shared spaces are safer. In England, the district of Wiltshire found that removing the center line from a stretch of road reduced drivers' speed without any increase in accidents.

While something of a libertarian, Monderman concedes that road design can do only so much. It doesn't change the behavior, for instance, of the 15 percent of drivers who will behave badly no matter what the rules are.

Nor are shared-space designs appropriate everywhere, like in major urban centers, but only in neighborhoods that meet particular criteria. Recently, a group of well-to-do parents asked him to widen the two-lane road leading to their children's school, saying it was too small to accommodate what he derisively calls "their huge cars."

He refused, saying that the fault lay not with the road, but with the cars. "They can't wait for each other to pass?" he asked. "I wouldn't interfere with the right of people to buy the car they want, but nor should the government have to solve the problems they make with their choices."

Monderman's obsessions can cause friction at home. His wife hates talking about road design. But work is his passion and his focus for as many as 70 hours a week, despite quixotic promises to curtail his projects and stay home on Fridays.

The current plan, instigated by Mrs. Monderman, is for him to retire in a few years. But it is unclear what a man who begins climbing the walls after three days at the beach ("If you want to go to a place without any cultural aspect, go to the Grand Canaries," he grumbled) will do with all that free time.

"The most important thing is being master of my own time, and then doing things that we both enjoy," he said. "What are they? I don't know."

The CocoBox Battle, Round 2

2008-01-18T11:41:00.000-05:00

Two appeals to the Ontario Municipal Board were launched against the proposed west-end Big Box development. Lynne Meloche of LaSalle is taking on these retail giants, as well as the Town of LaSalle. Both parties object to the location of the proposed mega-discount shopping utopia at the border of their town as well as within the area of the fragile Ojibway Complex. I hope that ...Scale Down can offer both parties any help we can so they maximize their chances of success in their cases.

From today's Windsor Star...

LaSalle fights big box plan

Town asks OMB to block west-end retail plaza

The Town of LaSalle and several residents hope to stop a major big box development recently approved by the city for land next to Windsor Raceway.

They're appealing the city approval to the Ontario Municipal Board.

Coco Development Group plans to create a 420,000-square-foot commercial plaza at the intersection of Sprucewood Avenue and Matchette Road, right beside the LaSalle border. It would be anchored by four unnamed major big box retail outlets.

City council gave approval to the project at the end of October despite objections from LaSalle's council, people concerned about the impact on neighbouring natural areas, and residents who live near the location.

Councillors supported the project because of the number of jobs it would create, during construction and once the stores are open.

The site hugs the city's border with LaSalle and is across the street from the provincially protected Ojibway tallgrass prairie.

In LaSalle's appeal, it suggests the big box development will have a detrimental effect on neighbouring lands and roads.

Matchette and Sprucewood are two-lane access roads -- the only connection to the site -- and cannot handle the huge volume of traffic the big box centre is expected to generate, said LaSalle town planner Larry Silani.

"We are concerned because this is not an appropriate location," he said. "The kinds of traffic volume this generates, it should be on a highway interchange or roads designed to carry large volumes of traffic.

TRAFFIC VOLUME

"Matchette and Sprucewood are not meant to carry that much traffic."
The town is also concerned its nearby town centre on Malden Road, developed over several years, will quickly be destroyed by a big box outlet just a few blocks away.

The City of Windsor's legal department has received notification of the OMB appeal, but has not had time to study the information, said Wira Vendrasco, lawyer for the city.

An OMB hearing -- should it reach that point -- is not expected to be scheduled for at least a few months.
A pre-hearing conference is the next expected step.

LaSalle has had no further discussion with the city or developer since council approved the project in the fall, Silani said.

"We are not opposed to commercial development, we just believe it's the wrong location," he said. "The Town of LaSalle is always open to dialogue, but there is a fundamental difference of opinion. It's not just fill in a ditch and everybody here will be happy.

"It's the wrong location. Hopefully OMB will listen and we'll go from there."

Whereas SD agrees with the plaintiffs that the location is a terrible one for this development, we went further in our argument to Windsor's city council that more big-box development is not only unnecessary for Windsor, but will also be detrimental to our economic health.

We asked council to defer the rezoning of the proposed development until a comprehensive Economic Impact Study could be conducted. Councillor Halberstadt asked administration for the study and acting city planner Thom Hunt told him that there was an economic study on Windsor's retail market already underway.

We are looking forward to the release of this report and hearing whether the city's own staff believe that Windsor is over-retailed.

Look Boss, the Plan! the Plan!

2008-01-18T06:09:00.000-05:00

The best thing I learned when in the automotove industry when my company became the first in Windsor to be certified for ISO/QS 9000 was "Say what you do, do what you say". (Zalev got credit in the paper for being the first in Windsor but my former company Rustshield was certified 2 weeks earlier according to the auditor)

The story that deserves front page coverage and should be every news lead story is the city of Windsor’s official review of the five year plan (Offical Plan Review - OPR). It was always my hopes that scaledown could contribute to the debate about the official plan.

Maybe it’s the idealist in me that says that if the real power in municipal politics is the actual five year plan. Hopefully its not simply naivete to think that politicians should remain beholden to this official plan above and beyond any special interest. The fulfilment of the 5 year plan should be the main indicator of how our politicians and administration have performed for our city. Every council vote be viewed as to whether it serves to progress or impede the official plan.

It was my hope that in the next municipal election the candidates platforms address how they can better implement the official plan ahead of their competitor. According to the city’s planning site “The PPS (Provincial Policy Statement) requires that municipalities set targets for intensification and redevelopment within built-up areas.” Our Downtown has seen a 10% decrease in population with no new residential developments planned in the near future. Currently the developer of a 40 unit residential bldg is fighting an uphill battle against many councillors to try to eliminate the after hour club obstacle to developing sellable residential units. Where is the official plan’s goals on their minds during this debate.

Many other areas in the core face the same fate. When was the last time you heard a municipal candidate state how he plan to accomplish that requirement. When the current council chose to freeze community improvement plans, where was their explanation as to how they could contradict this stated goal.

Its time that every resident of Windsor own and hold up a copy of the city’s official 5 year plan at every council meeting. That municipal councillors duty is to implement policies that follow the plan they adopt.

If those goals require development incentives, reallocation of resources, creating two tier development rates for intensification than that is what they should be doing.

It is Scaledown’s vision to connect every resident of Windsor to their own walkable neighbourhood filled with independent local businesses and artists that together create a vibrant economy. We think that this should be the vision of the official plan of the city of Windsor. Call 311 and tell them if you agree with us.

Please enter the debate by discussing what you would contribute to Windsor’s official plan at scaledown.ca so readers can call 311 or visit the cities official OPR website.

The time is now to "Sex Up" the Planning profession

2008-01-17T06:26:00.000-05:00

"There are two sayings that are familiar in every news room across the country: 1) sex sells; 2) if it bleeds it leads."

- Armstrong Williams

The people in the news industry are in the business to sell lots and lots of newspapers. If they don't know what sells, nobody does.

There seems to be a disconnect in the general public's understanding of just how important the profession of Planning is to building a healthy municipality. The message has yet to get through to Joe Public; and we haven't done a very good job of selling it to them. When you finally realize exactly what it is we're selling, and what it is that's on the line, you have to wonder why we still have a job in this industry!

We need to sell the importance of Urban Planning.

A municipal entities decision "to plan" is a community commitment to consciously head in a certain direction. The path should lead to an increase in the public good, and that is what the taxpayers assume is being done. But what is the public good? The following types of benefits demonstrate what is meant by the public good, and how planning helps to increase it. (click here for the expanded rationale)

- Planning helps define the future character of communities by creating and maintaining a sense of place,
- Planning protects natural and agricultural resources,
- Planning provides predictability regarding future development,
- Planning saves money,
- Planning promotes economic development,
- Planning can promote sustainable development,
- Planning helps protect private property rights.

Planning is a science, and politics should not get in the way of that science being practised. Good urban planning can have a positive impact on Windsor's economic, ecological and social/cultural environments, just as much as bad or incomplete planning advocates the opposite. With such power in the hands of a select municipal department, one would feel that they would command the power and respect that accompanies their heavy responsibilities.

Yet, it is apparent that our planning professionals and the work they perform are underappreciated in our City Hall; and are therefore relegated to the role of mere administrators performing the will of our elected officials. These are not the jobs they were hired to do. They were hired for their ability to, through the examples of other municipalities and the "best practices" established by them, promote a vision of a better working Windsor and lay out the road map how to get there.

So what attributes would the city be looking for when it hires its new City Planner, as it is planning to do soon? Let me be the person who hires for this important position. I would employ the candidate who advocates for necessary planning reform in a manner that our non-planning elected officials (his/her bosses) understand and appreciate; all while leading their team to employ the knowledge they have accrued in actually making a city work.

Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen anytime soon. Our elected officials either do not understand just how much the planning departments role affects almost every aspect of city life, or they are putting "politics" over substance and not doing the job that they were hired to do.

So, we need to go over the politician's heads and make Windsor's electorate intimately aware of this important municipal department and how empowering them would put out many of the fires that are constantly erupting in our city before they even ignite. We need to "Sex It Up" and make it interesting to them, especially now with the planning department undergoing their 5 year Official Plan Review and the average resident holding the bulk of the power at this stage in shaping the vision they hold and the destiny that is possible in the city of Windsor.

Cut You Car-Use Tip - Auto Insurance By The Mile!

2008-01-16T16:01:00.000-05:00

I have always thought that there must be some carrots out there that would encourage people to just drive a little less. You know what I mean; walk to the store to get milk or start your kids walking to school instead of being chauffeured. As it stands now, the only thing we would save is a little bit of gas. Until I came across this article by Springwise...

Auto Insurance By The Mile!

Back in 2005, we covered Norwich Union's Pay-as-You-Drive program in the UK to charge consumers for auto insurance based on how often, when and where they use their vehicles. Starting in Texas, the United States will soon see a similar service for the first time thanks to MileMeter's "auto insurance buy the mile."

Like Norwich Union's offering, MileMeter will use consumers' usage levels to determine how much they must pay for auto insurance. Unlike Norwich Union's, however, MileMeter will not use any kind of vehicle tracking device to record that usage. Rather, consumers will buy coverage in advance in increments of as few as 1,000 miles; when their odometer reaches the end of that increment, the coverage expires. The cost per mile varies with the geographic area and the age of the driver, but a reasonable ball park for a 30-year-old driver and minimum coverage in a midrange urban ZIP code in Texas might be 4 cents per mile, MileMeter CEO Chris Gay says. Multiple drivers in a household can also be covered for a single vehicle.

Dallas-based MileMeter will launch in Texas this summer, with plans to roll out quickly to other states, Gay says. In the meantime, it's attracted a fair bit of attention, not least because it was one of only seven finalists in the most recent Amazon Web Services Startup Challenge. Because it doesn't use gender as a basis for determining rates, MileMeter has been ardently supported by the National Organization for Women (NOW). And by rewarding drivers who use their cars less, it has the potential to make an environmental impact as well.

Sounds like a win-win all around—time for more entrepreneurs to start thinking in increments!

I don't know about the legalities of this type of insurance in Canada, but this is something that we should really have access to. I know that my vehicle spends most of its time just hanging out in the driveway collecting dust, and I would be very interested in reduced auto insurance. The more reasons for people to opt out of using their cars, the better the health of our communities.

Gentrification: Dr. Jekyl or Mr. Hyde?

2008-01-16T06:11:00.000-05:00

Over the past 20 years suburbia has drawn the tired masses from the urban centres of cities, large and small, with promises of owning a piece of the American dream. Marketed as a haven for low price, high opportunity housing, surburbia blossomed like a toxic plume, leeching residents, retail and real estate investment from the heart of the city. One-time mixed income neighbourhoods were bought up by real estate speculators and absentee landlords driven by profit margins and profit taking. Vibrant neighbourhoods were decimated by a largely disinterested population, exacerbated by tragic civic planning, who were lulled into believing that they were somehow 'less' than the McMansion Monarchy.

Geo-political events of the 21st century have begun to coax some of the suburban masses out of their gated (whether physical or economic) developments into the urban cores. Of great importance are the Gen Xers, give or take a decade, who, upon leaving their parents suburban homes, are opting to buck that elitist trend and exploring home ownership in the rehabilitated cores. Cities are seeing a renaissance of revitalization. Young, educated and often well-funded residents are taking up the cause of restoring the allure of urban living. What starts with one or two 'urban pioneers' quickly becomes a full blown 'urban village' attracting progressive investment, including those elusive real estate dollars, as urban blight is gentrified.

The word gentrification has a polarizing voice eliciting visions of restored real estate, trendy shops and entertainment venues mixed with a diverse social network, albeit built on the monotony of economic prosperity. The opposing voice sees the same physical composition of gentrified neighbourhoods but, instead of celebrating the economic restoration, declares gentrification as a well-heeled battle against the urban poor, lobotomizing true social diversity with Starbucks branded comradare.

The topic of gentrification, both its' benefits and risks, has come up among the ScaleDown staff as we discover our place in the future of Windsor. After contemplating the ideas and visions we are advocating for as part of the process of 'scaling down' we realized that gentrification is product of monstrously misaligned 'supply and demand'-based market. It is not the product itself that causes the gentrification, but a supply void of a product that is so heavily in demand that consumers will pay almost anything to be a part of this urban revolution. Instead of fearing gentrification we intend to harness the effects of this social stigma for the benefit of the entire community. By pushing for strict development standards, advocating for, and designing, socio-economic diversity and engaging urban citizens in acts of advocacy, on both a civic and human scale, the process of gentrification can be tamed to draw investment dollars without impeding the new social fabric. With wide-scale reinvestment into core communities the economic tragedy most often associated with gentrification can be mitigated, if not avoided. Success in establishing 21st neighbourhoods as replicas of the early-20th century communities will prepare us for the challenge of rehabilitating the suburban wastelands that are sure to be the bane of the next generation.

PS: If you want to read more about gentrification, both the pros and cons, Google gentrification and read the diversity of information from both sides of the arguement.

After hours council wrap up

2008-01-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

To close this after hours club debate I wanted to make the following random observations and questions.

1. If the original motion would have not been split, council would have rejected last night's proposed solution 6-4. Alan Halberstadt gave us a masterful display of politics, He played the other councillors against each other making them look foolish. It shouldn't have came to that.

2. For the life of me, I cannot understand why a motion that was supported by the vast majority of residents, businesses backed up by the city's own hired Expert Peter Bellmio wouldn't pass unanimously. Why defending the rights of 3-5 after hours clubs was more important to some than the demands of the entire community. Fulvio need to be the self appointed defender of 3 businesses over the demands of the entire community disappointed me the most.

3. I don't understand why Diane Sibley misrepresented the amount of businesses that would be affected, implying that there were 60 (later corrected to 50) affected businesses when her own report stated that there were only 3 clubs that operated after hours in the downtown

4. Why councillor Joanne Gignac feels the need to endorse only "All or nothing" solutions. Would she also be against exemption applications to the noise bylaw that sees events such as film festival outdoor screenings?

5. The simple answer to the mystery of "why Adult Entertainment clubs are not high risk facilities while certain after hours clubs are?"

Answer: because the nature of the customers of each type of business is completely different. The customers of adult entertainment clubs go out of their way to avoid drawing attention to themselves when leaving our downtown.

The customers of certain after hours clubs, go out of their way to draw attention to themselves.

One doesn't affect public safety or detract from the silent buffer needed between day and night while the other does.

6. Why the mayor felt the need to criticize the DWBIA, implying they weren't doing enough. The DWBIA has initiated a facade grant program, camera's, lobbied for the creation of an HRP. All the while fighting the foot dragging of city administration to accomplish many of these initiatives (Camera's took 2years to install, HRp took 1 year to get city endorsement) However, I can tell you that the BIA will happily accept his challenge to continue implementing solutions.

This is not over yet. Administration must have their feet held to the fire to ensure they properly follow the instructions of council to the letter and in the spirit. After that we must ensure that the body overseeing exemption applications remains neutral and is enstructed that although their foremost priority is safety, their mandate is to encourage businesses that manage their establishments responsibly.

The real victory here is that this issue united past and present members of the DWBIA, who spoke in unison. Kudo's to Paul Twigg and Michael Plunkett, former leaders of the BIA for joining our current leadership in their struggle. It also united the vast majority of business owners with the residents of downtown who need to fight arm in arm to better downtown as often as they can.

Shameless Plug Alert!

2008-01-14T07:40:00.000-05:00

OK, I know we espouse an altruistic attitude here and all, but it's time for me to throw all that out the window for a moment.

VOTE FOR US!!!

We feel honoured to be put in the ring, vying for the title of "Best New Blog" in the Canadian Blog Awards 2007 competition. Thank you to everyone who has supported us, contributed to the site and made us into the quality blog that we have become.

Yes, the nomination period is over and it's time to vote for the best blogs of 2007. You can vote only once per category, per round. ~~(...Scale Down is located about 3/4 of the way down the list)~~ The results of Round One voting will be revealed a day or two after voting closes January 21st, 2008 11:59 PM PST. Final Round voting will start on Wednesday January 23rd. The second round of voting will narrow the list of nominees in each category down to the top 5 from the first round of voting.

So, help us survive the first round of voting by visiting the site and casting your vote for "...Scale Down, Windsor". There are a ton of competitors for this award, so we'll definitely need your help. Enlist your family and friends too. We're not shy!

Reprint: Why London's downtown matters

2008-01-13T10:19:00.000-05:00

I couldn't help reposting this editorial from the London Free Press. They seem to get it better than some Windsorites.
Why London's Downtown Matters
The London Free Press
Jan. 11, 2008.

No discussion of urban design, or placemaking, or the Creative City, or a vibrant economy, or healthy suburbs can occur without a lot of talk about a city's downtown.
And there has certainly been lots of discussion about London's over the years. As early as the 1950s, downtown businesses have been fretting about a decline, while politicians have made various attempts to "revitalize" the core.

It's an ongoing project.

Downtown gets more attention than any other neighbourhood in London, politically, economically, socially.

And it should: it's the biggest in Southwestern Ontario.

Planning rules have been eased and taxes removed to encourage development of residences in the core. Laws have been written to prevent office skyscrapers from being built outside the core. Grants have been made available by various agencies to redevelop apartments above retail space and improve retail facades. The list is endless.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in public money have been invested in such institutions as the John Labatt Centre, the Covent Garden Market, the Central Library, the Convention Centre, the Central Y and the VIA Rail station -- all because community leaders, private and public, know a healthy downtown means a healthy city -- a healthy region.

It's all paying off. People are returning to the core to live. But that doesn't mean there's not still plenty of work to do.

Some Londoners believe the downtown is unsafe. Hogwash. Some believe there's nothing to buy. Hogwash. Some say traffic is a problem and parking is scarce. Hogwash. London's downtown has a larger variety of retailers, the best restaurants, more cultural activities, the biggest sporting events, superior business opportunities and unique residential options that beat out those anywhere else in the city. They're as not predictable as those in the suburbs, but they are treasures and they're unique to London.

Meanwhile, London's core is healthier than many other downtowns across the province, and certainly across the continent. The reasons for this are myriad, but mostly it is because community leaders have faith in it and have continued to invest in it. And they have faith in it because they know the downtown is not just the heart and soul of the city, it's the future. We can never be allowed to give up on it.

Bringing in the ringers

2008-01-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

The University of Windsor announced the creation of a new Cross-Border Transportation Studies Institute on Thursday. According to the press release, the new Research Chair, Dr. William Anderson, spent the past 10 years with Boston University as a part of the Department of Geography and Environment. Of particular interest to ScaleDown readers, Dr. Anderson (link to CV) was also a part of the Centre of Transportation Studies who, with third party funding, published a number of papers relating the economics of mass transit, new urbanism and the global economy and urban land use.

I spent a few weeks in Boston nearly a decade ago and witnessed, first hand, the enormity of the project passionately known as The Big Dig. Much like Toronto's battle with the ill-conceived Gardiner Expressway, Boston's core was butchered by a series of raised highways built in the 1950s as a way to alleviate urban traffic congestion. Instead, thousands of residents and businesses were displaced and neighbourhoods were alienated by a swath of elevated traffic. The billion dollar plus project moved the raised highway underground, added tunnel capacity and even had (although not implemented yet) a plan for a rail route connecting two of Boston's airports.

Now that Dr. Anderson has decided to make Windsor, and the Unversity, his new home, I am sure that we can expect to some outstanding and thought-provoking research out of the new Cross-Border Transportation Studies Institute. With the Institute's mandate to focus on cross-border transit we can finally look forward to an impartial voice on the DRTP and Greenlink, as well as some real experience in dealing with a large scale community transformation through infrastructure realignment. Let's hope that Dr. Anderson can avoid the political plague that mars so many of ideas in this city and push for some real, innovative and sustainable change.

Four More Years ?!?

2008-01-11T08:09:00.000-05:00

That’s how long we’re putting the Community Improvement Plans for Sandwich, Downtown, Glengarry-Marentette, Ford City and Little River on hold. There have literally been hundreds of thousands of hours--those of our salaried administrative staff and the volunteer hours of prominent community leaders and residents--that have been invested into these documents.

Community Improvement Plans are a provincial governments requirement prior to a municipality requesting any incentive that would require a contribution from them. I’ve argued many times that Windsor is one of the largest cities in North America that has not offered targeted incentives to revitalized core neighbourhoods. London is our nearest Canadian example, and Detroit being our nearest geographical one. They’ve worked for both of those cities, as London has seen 5 new high rise apartments built in their core, and Detroit saw a population increase of over a thousand people in their core while the rest of the city had its population decrease by over 50 thousand.

Here is a brochure of incentives London has been offering for a decade. I don’t mind being a bit behind London when it comes to economic development, but waiting over 10 years is ridiculous. Tax Incentive Financing is the best example of an incentive that the experts say does not cost the taxpayers one red cent. Rate increases are phased in over 10 years on new investment, while the municipality still collects the taxes on the existing property as it was prior to the new investment. The city only gives up any revenue it wouldn't have received without the incentive. If we would have started this 10 years ago, the phase in would be done by now on any new developments that we would have seen. Not only that, but the province would be kicking in their portion of this tax incentive so technically we’d be getting provincial funding that I believe would be far greater than the costs of completing the community Improvement plan in itself.

Here is a great powerpoint presentation from New Mexico that explains the concept and benefits of TIF’s.

The effectiveness of this type of incentive has only been debated in Windsor. The debate has ended in 48 U.S. states and every other Canadian city in favour of this economic development tool. Think of it this way, had we simply completed one before we moved on to another, we would now have had the incentives in place for 3 years and would be able to judge them on their effectiveness, for a fraction of the costs invested.

This is not a give away. Windsorites claim they want “tax cuts now” and the best way to get them is to stop suburban sprawl. Core development saves moneys on infrastructure, less fire stations, road widenings and a host of other costs associated with sprawl.

We simply can’t afford to wait 4 more years to finish the Community Improvement Plans to help restart core development.

Letting the economy do our dirty work for us...

2008-01-10T07:37:00.000-05:00

Why is it that it takes an episode of economical crisis for the trends to change to a more sustainable path?

When gas prices rise to over $100 a barrel, people begin to demand better fuel economy in their new vehicles. When job loss hits a region, people begin to stay put and renovate their current homes, or move into existing neighbourhoods. That is the news Dave Hall brings us today in his business column..

Housing starts lowest since 1984, down 41%
Falling to their lowest levels since 1984, housing starts across the Windsor area dropped by 41 per cent in 2007 compared to the previous year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Single-detached starts fell by 40 per cent and multiple home starts dropped by 44 per cent. Overall, there were 614 starts in 2007, compared to 1,045 a year earlier.

"A combination of adequate choice in the resale market, job uncertainty and weaker consumer confidence has resulted in less demand for new homes," said Margot Stevenson, a market analyst for CMHC.

In December, there were 26 single unit starts, unchanged from a year ago. Multiple starts, which consisted of four semi-detached units and 12 apartment rental units, were 56 per cent higher in December than a year ago.

In a year-to-date comparison, starts fell by 55 per cent in Windsor, 43 per cent in Lakeshore and 41 per cent in Amherstburg.

In LaSalle, they increased by 44 per cent over the same period and by a whopping 157 per cent in Tecumseh.
Across Ontario, starts fell by seven per cent in 2007 compared to 2006.

It seems that it takes times of economical crisis to force the changes that the experts say we need to make to move towards a more sustainable existence. Is it because people equate this more sustainable world to one of strife and stagnation?

I think this is one of the primary messages we need to conquer if we are to make the core areas of Windsor a more attractive and viable place to live and raise a family.

James' Lunch Date...

2008-01-09T07:41:00.000-05:00

Guest Blogger - James Coulter

I went to lunch last week with a city employee.

My intention was to get some input/advice for the downtown charrette. I ended up, well, a little disappointed.

The conversation around the charrette was productive. My city friend helped me establish a framework for a questionnaire and really helped me nail down why I want to organize this event. I want to demonstrate to our elected officials that the people of this city really care about downtown and that they want to be involved in the planning process.

How did I end up disappointed? Well, once we got through the first part of our conversation I started to ask about certain areas of the city and why they ended up the way they have. Specifically, I wanted to know about the East Riverside Planning Area. I live in the East end, and my running routes sometimes take me through this sloppy, wasteland of chipboard and vinyl, crapola houses.

I said to my friend, “I remember seeing the plans of survey for this area back when it was first being developed. I remember thinking that this was such a great opportunity for the city to develop a new town centre. Something like a modern Olde Riverside or Walkerville. You know, a main street with shops and offices and apartments with nice residential streets intersecting.”

He said, “That was the plan. It was drawn up like that - really nice.”

“Well”, I asked, “What happened?” The answer was ridiculous, but it said so much. It seemed the developers came back and said that they couldn’t sell the kind of housing that the plan called for. The market wanted the suburban home, the kind with the big garage and a house behind it. So the plan was amended and the rest is history. Our city is in trouble because our officials amend the official plans to accommodate developers, contractors, and high-school buddies, whatever. The city’s official plan is full of progressive language talking about mixed-use development, walkable communities and alternative transportation. Yet the building department allows continual expansion of big box developments and more and wider roads and housing, miles from any amenities.

I guess it was naïve on my part to imagine that city government is any different from higher levels of government where special interests and lobbyists “grease the wheels”, but really. Our elected officials live in our neighbourhoods. They drive the same roads as us and worry about the values of their properties and business interests - just like us. So how can they make decisions that do nothing to improve the quality of life for their constituents, their neighbours? City politicians are closest to the electorate, why should a developer or an out-of-town land owner’s interests be more important than ours?

Politicking to save a part-time job and some kind of quasi-celebrity status, it’s nauseating.

James Coulter is an Engineering Technologist with the School of Building, Design and Construction Technology at St. Clair College. His opinions are plentiful and may not reflect those of his employer or the teaching faculty at the college.

Zenn and the art of responsible motoring

2008-01-08T21:38:00.000-05:00

I know, you're an intelligent, responsible person who just wants to do the right thing. You recyle, use compact flourscent light bulbs and avoid Wal-Mart like the plague, yet there's still that gnawing feeling something isn't right...

"I know that I should buy a more fuel efficient vehicle, yet the best are Japanese imports! What's a responsible Canadian consumer to do?"

Well, imagine that there existed a vehicle that produce zero emissions and was made right here in Canada. Yes, a truly responsible vehicle for those who must drive and it would support your Canadian economy. It exists.

But you can't buy one.

Rick Mercer doesn't understand either

Huh? "But Stephen Harper says that we can't meet our Kyoto obligations. Why on earth would he deny a zero emissions vehicle the right to Canadian roads? Wouldn't promoting vehicles like the Zenn move us in a direction of saving Canadian automotive jobs?"

Good question indeed. And one that you should personally ask the Ministry of Transportation if you want to see the Zenn car, and others like it, on our roads. (of course, you will do this after demanding more walkable, pedestrian friendly communities, therefore decreasing your need for a car in the first place, right?)

Can't we all just get along?

2008-01-08T08:24:00.000-05:00

"Cities everywhere are facing shrinking revenue streams and struggling to provide municipal services. By working together and sharing resources, local governments can maintain and even improve essential public services like fire and police protection."

Sound familiar? What kind of progressive, downtown revitalization group would say such a thing? Nope, that was the Michigan Suburbs Alliance.

"In order for southeast Michigan to move forward, it is imperative that municipalities also cooperate with non-governmental regional stakeholders. Just as intergovernmental cooperation can stretch municipal resources, collaborating with others in the region, such as our world-renowned universities, can enable cities to make accomplishments they would not be able to individually. As funds continue to dry up, regionalism will prove to be not only important, but essential to maintaining the vitality of mature suburbs."

So they took the bull by the horns and actually did something about it. By creating the Creating Collaborative Communities program, they are teaching city managers, mayors, council members, human resource and finance directors, fire and police chiefs, and union leaders how to best approach joint service delivery and continue providing high quality services to their residents.

Can you say "Road Trip"?

There are many resources available to groups that deem it imperative in this day and age to work towards regional cooperation. The advantages of doing so in Windsor/Essex are crystal clear - survival.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has identified regional cooperation and coordinated regional planning as a priority. This is a timely issue as the global competition amongst regions becomes more pronounced. Virtually all growth-related issues—from how to achieve economic diversity to how to integrate land use and transportation planning in order to accommodate growing populations—are regional in scale. Recognizing the importance of regional cooperation to the future economic competitiveness and livability of metropolitan regions, ULI works with District Councils and ULI members on regional efforts that will enact change on the regional and local levels. They have recognised Regional Visioning as such an essential aspect of growth management, they've developed the Reality Check program to engage regional leaders in a regional dialogue on growth issues.

“Reality Check brought together many of Southern California’s warring constituencies and led to a broader and more inclusive vision for the growth of the Los Angeles region.”– Stuart R. Mork, Reality Check Chair, Los Angeles

After the evidence provided by Windsor city councillor Fulvio Valentinis last night, we couldn't be further away from our adjoing municipalities when it comes to regional cooperation. But to call them "warring constituencies"? Possibly.

What do you think? Is it time that our region's stakeholders get locked up into a room (like these folks (video) in Washington) until they come up with a solution? It is painfully obvious that the Windsor/Essex region will not move forward together unless they collectively deem it a priority. The video you just watched shows a region planning for unprecedented growth. We need to plan simply for survival.

A rose amongst thorns before council tonight

2008-01-07T09:21:00.000-05:00

Coming before tonights council is an important document that I really hope our elected leadership reads front-to-back.

You see, by administration's own admission, the Essex-Windsor Regional Transportation Master Plan "establishes an important base from which the City, County and local area municipalities can coordinate efforts to achieve a sustainable, efficient and effective regional transportation system."

That's quite the goal, and believe it or not, there's some good stuff in there! The staff that assembled these recommendations clearly know that there are certain roads the city must take in order for us to head in a more sustainable direction when it comes to our urban land use and transportation planning. Yes, I said land use, as it also acknowledges that there is a clear tie between how we develop our land and the resulting transportation infrastructure needed to access it.

I'll stop here, because SDW's Josh Biggley has written a very concise letter to be included in tonights council package addressing our concerns as well as voicing our support for certain aspects of this proposed regional transportation policy.

"Sustainability needs to become the measure for economic achievement and public investment"
- Clive Doucet, City Counselor, Ottawa

We are writing today to express praise and concern for Item 5, the Essex-Windsor Regional Transportation Master Plan (EWRTMP), as representatives of Scaledown.ca. Scaledown.ca is a local advocacy group and media outlet focused on establishing sustainable social and economic development in Windsor.

We applaud the conclusion of the EWRTMP that states "in order for the County, City and Towns to plan for an acceptable level of transportation service to year 2021, the focus will have to be on a combination of selected roadway capacity enhancements, and changes to development forms in urban settings that offer alternative transportation choices and reduced transportation needs." (emphasis added)

We draw your attention to the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategy which includes providing financial incentives, and disincentives, for single occupant vehicle usage, an integrated planning approach combining land use and built form to impact travel patterns, and the use of "hard urban edges to control urban sprawl". Modifying demand through creative and sustainable land use will prepare Windsor to service the aging Baby Boomers and their long-term independence, retain the socially conscious Generation X and generate a growing tax base for future civic needs.

We support the Demand-Side Options including funding and advocacy for non-motorized modes of transit, ride-sharing, urban design techniques to reduce trip length and, of critical importance, "providing for more transit, cycling and walking-friendly neighbourhood design." We enthusiastically sustain the findings of the study that demonstrate "intensified and mixed use urban development forms would have the greatest long-term benefits to the regional transportation system."

We caution against the premature approval of roadway expansion without exploring the opportunities that exist "through the application of ‘Smart Growth’ land use … to minimize or avoid the need for physical capacity improvements." We support the findings of both the EWRTMP and the 2005 Brownfield Redevelopment Study that show a 380% ROI on brownfield rehabilitation, not including a projected annual transportation cost savings of $66,000/hectare and a 10% increase in tax revenues for the surrounding 2.5 kilometers.

We express dire concerns with a regional transportation approach that facilitates the continued fall in urban population density in favour of the bedroom communities of Lasalle, Lakeshore and Tecumseh. We object to policies and plans that support the perception of Windsor as an obstacle to be navigated through and around as opposed to a residential, entertainment and employment destination. We oppose plans to improve commuter routes that facilitate the relocation of Windsor residents to outlying communities, especially at the expense of our urban neighbourhoods.

We strenuously object to the inflammatory language contained within the EWRTMP regarding the importance of the proposed roadway infrastructure expansion. By stating that "further delay will result in oppressive traffic delays crippling local industry and discouraging local investment and job growth" it suggests that it is impossible for Windsor to achieve economic prosperity without road expansion. To suggest that the proposed roadway expansions will, alone, "achieve a sustainable, efficient and effective regional transportation system" makes misleading correlations between economic sustainability and an increase in road capacity.

We ask council to directly allocate funds to address "the availability of alternative transportation modes … making transit, cycling and walking more attractive to regional residents." We ask that council resolve to fund and implement "more compact built forms, mixed-use neighbourhoods and developments, and [adopt] transit, cycling and pedestrian-supportive land use planning and urban design policies" in support a sustainable city. In addition, we ask that council consider these options before allocating funds for roadway expansion to support objective 4 of the EWRTMP which is "to provide transportation systems that enhance physical mobility and better [serve] the economic and social needs of the community."

Signed,

Joshua Biggley
Chris Holt

Mark Boscariol

We urge you to not only read the document for yourselves and reach your own conclusions as to how this plan, if fully implemented, will affect our regions quality of life, but to also contact your councillors and let them know those feelings.

It is through exercises such as these that we will have our biggest impact as concerned citizens

Growth and the case for Scaling up.

2008-01-06T06:59:00.001-05:00

I'm having a bit of an off blog semantical debate with others on this site. Chris wrote a great series called debunking the growth myth but my views on growth are different.

I am in favor of growth in Windsor, and lots of it. I want to see the density of the core of Windsor grow 10 fold. I want to see tens of thousands of new residents in our core, growth of new development of mixed use residential, commercial and office space. I want to see growth in the amount, size and quality of public spaces and the links between them. I want to see growth in Windsor's live music and venue's to host them. I believe this type of growth is necessary in creating a sustainable Windsor.

What I don't want to see is sprawl, big box development because that is unsustainable growth that leads to unwalkable neighborhoods. Lets face it, there should be a simple rule that council and our planning advisory committee should not permit anything to be built that they themselves do not want to live next door to.

Heres some exerpts from an Urban Land Institute that debunks the growth myths making the case for the growth of higher density in the core

Myth #1 - Higher-density development overburdens public schools and otehr public services and requires more infrastructure support

Fact #1- The nature of who lives in higher-density housing-fewer families with children-puts less demand on schools and other public services than low-density housing. Moreover the compact nature of high density development requires less extensive infrastructure to support it.

Myth #2 - Higher-density developments lower property values in surrounding areas.

Fact #2 - No discernable difference exists in te appreciation of properties located near higher-density development and those that are not. Some research even shows that higher-density development can increase property values

Myth #3 - Higher density development creates more regional traffic congestion and parking problems than low-density

Fact #3 - Higher-density development generates less traffic than low-dnesity development per unit; it makes walking and public more feasible and creates opportunities for shared parking

Myth #4 - Higher-density development leads to higher crime rates

Fact #4 - The crime rates at higher-density develpoments are not significantly different from those at lower density developments.

Myth #5 - Higher density development is more environmentally destructive than lower-density development

Fact #5 - Low-density development increases air and water pollution and destroys natural areas by paving and urbanizing greater swaths of land

Myth #6 - Higher-density development is unattractive and does not fit in a low density community.

Fact #6 - Attractive, well-designed, and well-maintained higher-density development attracts good residents and tenants and fits into existing communities

Myth #7 - No one in suburban areas wants higher-density development

Fact #7 - Our population is changing and becoming increasingly diverse. Many of these households now prefer higher-density housing, even in suburban locations.

Myth #8 - Higher-density housing is only for lower income households.

Fact #8 - People of all income groups choose higher-density housing

Maybe this puts me semantically at odds with scaledown's name and purpose. What do you think?

Letter to council

2008-01-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

Just to follow up on my post regarding After Hours Bars, here is an open letter to council

Although I'm pleased to see that the after hours issue will finally be dealt with, I am saddened that it will be done in a very political climate where there is a possibility for an over reaction to an complex issue that is not black or white but grey.

I propose the following solution in order to continue flexibility.

Whatever gets proposed for closing times should have an exemption process similar to the noise bylaw.

Applications for exemptions on specific nights by specific establishiments should be brought before the Hospitality Resource Panel (HRP) Made up of administration, police, industry representatives and residents. At this time a report should be sent to council recomendding for or against. If required, the HRP can work out conditions for that establishment whereif ignored will constitute cause for not recommending future exemptions (staggered closing, drink prices, controls on drink contests or any other tool of responsible management)

At that point the recommendation of the HRP can be put on the consent agenda with no need to politicise these requests.

The HRP should be instructed to facilitate exemptions for all responsible owners so that we do not end up curtailing the chance to lure world class entertainers to our city. This is a way to reward responsibly run establishments while controlling those who do not manage their locations responsibly. Please, we have one chance to get this right. Get it right.

Mark Boscariol

P.S. When can we get massage parlors on the agenda? We have the solutions, we just need to get them before council. It's astonishing that our democratic right to get an issue before council can be denied

No Fortune Teller Necessary...

2008-01-03T09:18:00.000-05:00

Look before you leap. That is a piece of advice that my parents told myself, and parents around the globe have no doubt imparted upon their young charges, since time began.

Did Windsor's city councillors receive that same advice while they were impressionable young people as well? With all the signs pointing to a drastic societal change roaring towards us, now would probably be the best time to start preparing the citizens who voted them into office for the new world ahead of them.

"...persistently high gas prices may mean that the next building boom will take place not at the edges of metropolitan areas but far closer to their cores. People are more willing to drive 20 miles each way to work every day, burning a couple of gallons of gas in the process, when gas costs less than milk. But as gas prices climb, long car commutes become a rising tax on exurban homeownership, and the price people are willing to pay for homes in remote areas will fall.

So why is it our councillors are still adopting sprawl-inducing amendments to our official plan and regional transportation policies at the expense of strengthening Windsor's core? Have they not heard the news? Are they hoping that these high gas prices will just go away sometime in the near future?. Well, folks, according to The Washington Post, these are realities that the most successful municipalities must prepare for if they are to survive into the next decade.

"...sprawl was built on the twin pillars of low gas prices and a relentless demand for housing that, combined with the effects of restrictive zoning in existing suburbs, pushed new development outward toward cheap rural land. Middle-class Americans, not able to find housing they could afford in existing suburbs, kept driving farther out into the countryside until they did. Gridlock in the suburbs and the expense of providing municipal services to sparsely populated communities imposed their own limits on how far we could spread. As a result, the density of metropolitan areas, which fell steadily in the postwar years, had begun to creep back up in the 1990s.

It's bad enough that Windsorites are feeling the blow this early, as our local economy has been forever bound to the sales of big V-8 and V-10 engines powering huge trucks and vans. We are the canary in the coal mine as we are the first to feel the collective trend away from these vehicles. Let's not impose more misery on the folks who call Windsor/Essex their home and keep hoping and dreaming that this is a nightmare we are soon to wake up from.

It is your duty as leaders to ensure that the big changes looming on the horizon do not take us by surprise. Please take your heads out of the sand and begin to take these developing global trends seriously.

ED: I forgot to link to the Windsor Star article that made me want to post this piece in the first place: Oil And Gold Surge. With oil topping $100 a barrel for the first time ever, people MUST be starting to take notice of this barrage of events.

What's in a "Scene"?

2008-01-02T17:59:00.000-05:00

Richard Florida, guru of all things creative, has come out in his latest Globe and Mail article to tell us that a thriving music scene has a lot to do with a city's economic growth.

Richard, tell us more!

Music combines with technology and business trends to put these places on the map. It reflects their openness to new ideas, new people and new sounds. If you really want to see entrepreneurs in action, go talk to local musicians. They have to put their band together, get gigs, market their songs, promote themselves, set up tours, manage budgets and meet payroll. The places where these music scenes flourish have the underlying commercial ecosystem that is open to new ideas and can mobilize real resources around the market opportunities they signal. And as one of my former students once put it, music is the best way to market a region. Creative people don't like marketing slogans. But they do identify with a city's sound - what he called its "audio identity."

So, if a thriving music scene is an indicator of economic growth, what does a retreating music scene tell about it's host community?

Do the recent losses of primo indie music venues Sky Lounge and the Avalon Front tell us more about the fate of our local economy than Dennis DesRosiers dire automotive predictions? Well, that's sort of comparing apples to oranges (sorry folks, but the automotive industry is probably not going to be defining Windsor's phoenix-like economic rise from the ashes) but you get the point.

"It signals the rise of regional ecosystems that are not only open to new sounds and new ideas, but have the size, scale and commercial oomph to retain key talent and turn their ideas into global commercial successes. Once music scenes of this scale get going, they produce a logic and momentum of their own and signal that more entrepreneurship is on the way."

Windsor's attitude towards our artistic side shows that we really do not understand what we need to do to safeguard our local economic future. The Capitol Theatre is probably on borrowed time, and there are other popular venues to take in a great local band, but our choices are dropping instead of rising.

This should concern more people in city hall than it does.

9 attitudes of Highly Creative People

2007-12-30T09:46:00.000-05:00

I couldn't resist reposting an article I found somewhere else, I think this is what Windsorites should look for in who they listen to

Written on May 9th, 2007 at 12:05 am by Darren Rowse

Today I’d like to look at some attitudes to build into your approach if you want to be a more creative person:

1. Curiosity

I’ve written previously on the topic of curiosity because I’m convinced that it is an essential skill to build as a blogger. Learning to ask ‘why’, ‘what if’ and ‘I wonder…’ are great questions t build into your life if you want to be a more creative person.

2. Seeing Problems as Interesting and Acceptable

One of the problems of the Western mindset is that we often see problems or obstacles in life as unacceptable parts of life. We avoid pain or suppress it when it comes and in doing so don’t often see and feel symptoms that are there to tell us something important. Creative people see problems as a natural and normal part of life - in fact they often have a fascination with problems and are drawn to them.

3. Confronting Challenge

Many of the most creative ideas through out history have come from people facing a challenge or crisis and rather than running from it asking ‘how can I overcome this’?

4. Constructive Discontent

Creative people often have an acute awareness of what’s wrong with the world around them - however they are constructive about this awareness and won’t allow themselves to get bogged down in grumbling about it - they take their discontent and let it be a motivation to doing something constructive.

5. Optimism

Creative people generally have a deeply held belief that most (if not all) problems can be solved. No challenge is too big to be overcome and no problem cannot be solved (this doesn’t mean they’re always happy or never depressed - but they don’t generally get stumped by a challenge).

6. Suspending Judgment

The ability to hold off on judging or critiquing an idea is important in the process of creativity. Often great ideas start as crazy ones - if critique is applied too early the idea will be killed and never developed into something useful and useable. (note - this doesn’t mean there is never a time for critique or judgement in the creative process - it’s actually key - but there is a time and place for it).

7. Seeing Hurdles as leading to improvements and solutions

This relates to some of the above - but by ‘hurdles’ I mean problems and mistakes in the creative process itself. Sometimes it’s on the journey of developing an idea that the real magic happens and it’s often out of the little problems or mistakes that the idea is actually improved.

8. Perseverance

Creative people who actually see their ideas come to fruition have the ability to stick with their ideas and see them through - even when the going gets tough. This is what sets apart the great from the good in this whole sphere. Stick-ability is key.

9. Flexible Imagination

I love watching a truly creative person at work when they’re ‘on fire’. They have this amazing ability to see a problem or challenge and it’s many potential solutions simultaneously and they have an intuitive knack at being able to bring previously disconnected ideas together in flashes of brilliance that seem so simple - yet which are so impossible to dream up for the average person.

Is Creativity tied to Personality Type or Can it be Learned?

As I read through this list of traits of creative people - the question that I find myself asking is whether creativity is tied to personality type or whether it can be learned.

My own uneducated answer to this question is - ‘yes’.

Some people are just creative - they don’t train themselves to think like they do and they often don’t even know that they are any different from the rest of us - it’s just who they are.

However I believe that we can all enhance our ability to be creative over time.

Let's Get Windsor Moving (out to the county)

2007-12-29T17:38:00.001-05:00

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”

Apparently, it is imperative that the city begin work on these projects, as “(f)urther delay will result in oppressive traffic delays crippling local industry and discouraging new investment and job growth” Wow, they seem pretty sure of themselves. My question to the city would be exactly how these projects will encourage new investment and job growth, as those are some of the reasons thrown about that nobody can question, because if you do you are anti-Windsor and anti-growth.

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.

Story of Stuff

2007-12-27T11:43:00.000-05:00

I probably should have posted this entry prior to the beginning of the holiday shopping season (known affectionately as "Black Friday"), but yes - I got caught up in the cycle as well.

Baby steps, Chris. Baby steps.

Take 20 minutes of your time and watch this short, animated film. Try not to get put off by the preachy-ness of it, as it contains some great information about our stuff, and the life-cycle costs it imposes on our society and our overall quality of life. After you're finished hearing the story, be sure to pass it on to your friends and family. Everyone needs to know that we are voting with our dollars for things we normally wouldn't support in an otherwise sane world.

It is the general consensus by us SDW chaps that if we only took a few steps back and took in more of the "Big Picture", we wouldn't make the same choices we are making today.

Happy New Year, and look forward to some more regular entries here in the near future...

Respects and hope for change

2007-12-23T01:00:00.000-05:00

What a horrific way to win an arguement regarding after hours clubs. The blame here should not fall on council and/or Mayor. They can only make decisions based on the reports that administration and Police give them. When a special interest group like the DWBIA conflicts with those reports, confusion results. This was not an unforeseen incident, this incident was foreseen. Someone needs to focus on why Police and administration reports claimed that there wasn't a problem at this location even though there was as many shootings in the past as there was years go by. Even though video footage exists that shows a problem existed at this location.

The only way I know how to honour this latest victim is take measures to ensure we don't need a 3rd plaque to commemorate the next victim.

Maybe Mr. Rogers was right after all...

2007-12-21T20:31:00.000-05:00

For many of us in Generation X Mr. Rogers was a staple of television life in our definitve years. I still remember his cheery song, "Won't you be mine? Won't you be mine? Won't you be my neighbour?" Mr. Rogers was a true urban visionary with his veiled advocacy for a walkable and diverse neighbourhood. In spite of being a product of the automotive driven sprawl fanatacism that still permeats our culture today, Rogers was able to, with a change of shoes, find all that he needed in his mixed use habitat. Though Mr. Rogers wasn't really a new urbanism advocate, he was a concerned neighbour, a friend, hoping to make a positive change in his little part of the world.

I've been thinking about neighbours since moving to a new neighbourhood last year. South Windsor is highly car dependant, with a glaring lack of sidewalks and streetlights to impede its' walkability. In spite of the challenges I see multitudes of people out walking, riding their bikes and otherwise engaged in the experience of living in a diverse neighbourhood. Alas, my generation is quite addicted to our 'convenient' automobiles, but the older generation, many who have lived in the area since it was built in the mid-50s, take the time stroll the streets, mingle with neighbours, and stoke the fires of friendship that have burned for decades.

I'm quite proud of my little block on Academy Drive. When we moved in our neighbours, who have lived in their home since it was built, came to introduce themselves. They quickly got our names and phone number and added us to the neighbourhood directory. We were invited to the neighbourhood BBQ held every August and got the low-down on all of the neighbours; who had kids (more than I thought), who liked kids (pretty much everyone) and a myriad of other neighbourhood history. Although there are no sidewalks on my street the neighbours religiously reclaim the road for impromptu discussions, often under the auspice of "trying to round up the kids" or, my personal favourite, "mowing the lawn". Our small block takes pride in bucking the trend of isolation, instead cultivating and developing strong personal ties within our little enclave of urban happiness.

The real sense of community was displayed last Sunday when Windsor got its' first winter storm of the season and, even before the snow had stopped, neighbours were out shoveling their driveways. However, instead of each neighbour tackling their own drive neighbours swarmed each others driveway clearing the snow with military precision. From driveway to driveway this little army of snow shovels traveled, enjoying the process of simply being together.

It behooves each of us who cherish the neighbourhoods that we live in to echo the call of Mr. Rogers and ask our fellow citizens, "Won't you be my neighbour?" Sure, it means turning off the television, putting away the iPod, logging off the internet and going outside to interact with each other, but our future depends on restoring the strong human interaction that technological conveniences have unwittingly stripped from us. I am sure that you will find, as we have in our neighbourhood, that the richness of friendship and a vibrant community far surpass the electronic solitude sold to us as mass media.

He's makin' a list, checkin' it twice...

2007-12-20T13:52:00.001-05:00

OK, class. It's time for your holiday homework. Take a cue from James and put your New Year's Resolutions down on paper and be sure to post them in a spot in your home where they are easily within view of not only yourself, but whomever you share your abode with.

You want to stick to them, right?

I am just about to do this myself...

Guest Blogger - James Coulter

…scale down, James

It’s that time again. The end of another year, a time when we look back at what has been and look forward to what may be. We make resolutions, some we can keep, some we can’t. Here are my resolutions for 2008.

Drive less. Over the last year I have gotten much better about how much I actually drive. This past fall I added lights and reflectors and was able to ride my bike to work into November. For 2008 my goal will be to ride to work no less than three times per week and other than big weekly grocery trips I will not drive for trips shorter than 5km round trip.

Get involved in my community. My wife has told me more than once “if you don’t like what’s going on, do something about it”. My first step has been to get involved with …scale down, Windsor. For 2008 I will watch, attend or at least read the minutes of Council meetings. Also for 2008 I will volunteer with my community residents association.

Use public transit more. If there is an event downtown I want to attend, I will use the bus to get there (if my bike is not an option).

Start a garden. My backyard needs some sprucing up, so I will plant a vegetable garden rather than a cartoon landscape.

Continue to work on my home to improve its energy efficiency.

Visit the library twice each month. In 2007 we started to go to the library as a family activity. Our visits have been irregular, so for 2008 I will plan to hit the books more often.

Keep stirring the pot. In 2007 I sent a couple of letters to the editors at the Windsor Star. I kept that up in 2008 along with my work here. I think the Windsor blogosphere will have a big impact on the next municipal election and I want more Windsorites to get involved with the blogs and other activities to make a difference until 2010.

James Coulter is an Engineering Technologist with the School of Building, Design and Construction Technology at St. Clair College. His opinions are plentiful and may not reflect those of his employer or the teaching faculty at the college.

Advice from beyond the grave

2007-12-19T13:07:00.000-05:00

Dean Vernon Wormer, of Faber College fame, came back from the grave last night to repeat these words of advice for our City Council...

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

A dying city's magic pill

2007-12-18T08:33:00.000-05:00

I have always enjoyed spending my time in places that were geared towards pedestrian movement. They are just places that I feel most comfortable in. Judging by the numbers of people saving their money and vacation time for places like Walt Disney World, Greenfield Village, Amsterdam, Venice, all-inclusive tropical resorts and even cruise ships (all vacation hotspots with a glaring lack of cars whipping about), I am not the only person who thinks this way. That is why I have always been perplexed as to why people do not demand that their home towns and communities start exhibiting the same qualities they demand in their vacation places. Maybe when they did, we wouldn't feel the need to save up thousands of dollars to "run away" for a little R & R.

Building a business case for a walkable and livable Windsor is what's needed today. By living through a tremendously difficult transition period where our entire economy is going through some extremely tumultuous growing pains, now is the time to investigate exactly how we can not only survive and thrive in the new economy, but how we want the built environment we spend our daily lives in to evolve as well.

In the following article by Neal Pierce of the Washington Post Writers Group, Christopher Leinberger, one of America’s top real estate analysts and now Brookings Institution fellow (also an Ann Arbor teacher - listen to Smart City's interview with him here), is quoted as saying that cities that do not develop “walkable urbanism” -- places with the mix of destinations people want, from shops and parks and schools to pubs and entertainment, all accessible on foot" are “probably destined' to lose out economically"

I have deep roots in this community and do not want to see Windsor lose out economically. Do you?

WALKABILITY = LIVABILITY = BILLIONS
By Neal Peirce
Sunday, December 16, 2007
WASHINGTON - Could it possibly be that Washington, for years bashed by politicians, its population shrinking and at one point almost bankrupt, has become a model of how the entire nation might smartly develop in the 21st century?
I never thought I’d see the day. But Christopher Leinberger, one of America’s top real estate analysts and now Brookings Institution fellow, makes a startling case for it in his just-published book, The Option of Urbanism - Investing in a New American Dream (Island Press). Leinberger’s case isn’t about Washington’s radically improved politics and city management. Rather, it’s about walkability. It’s about dramatic reinvestment --some $8.2 billion worth -- pouring in the city’s downtown since 1997. Complementing monumental Washington, there’s been a rush of new cinemas, theaters, quality restaurants and trendy retail stores and a wildly popular sports arena, all helped along by a downtown business district providing special security, marketing and planning.
But the success story’s not exclusively a downtown one -- the entire Washington citistate of 5.3 million people is now booming. And it’s starring especially in what Leinberger calls “walkable urbanism” -- places with the mix of destinations people want, from shops and parks and schools to pubs and entertainment, all accessible on foot.
In a sense walkable urbanism is nothing new; it was the way towns and cities were organized from the first urban settlements some 5,500 years ago into the 20th century.
But after World War II, with Americans’ rush to thousands of new suburban locations, a never-before-seen norm appeared. Leinberger calls it “drivable sub-urbanism.” And what a market smash it proved, offering Americans a sense of freedom, mobility, privacy, their own piece of turf and a yard for the kids to play. Plus plenty of jobs and profits, from autos to oil to real estate to fast food. The new form became virtually synonymous with the American Dream. Two generations of Americans knew practically nothing else.
But in the 1990s the model began to lose some of its luster. Suburbia’s big parking lots and low-density zoning meant an auto for every trip. Walking and transit were impractical. Older suburbs began to decline, inducing families to drive farther and farther to new suburban rings. Thousands of malls and shopping strips were abandoned.
Traffic congestion -- and Washington’s no exception -- became so severe many families were obliged to build their lives around it. Kids had to be driven everywhere. Vehicle miles driven in America shot up a stunning 226 percentfrom 1983 to 2001, while population increased just 22 percent.
So by the mid-1990s a significant number of Americans -- and not just the poor and minorities long-consigned to inner cities -- began to ask: Isn’t there abetter way? Popular media began to shift its images of the city from crime and violence to the exciting, hip, place to be (such television shows as Seinfeld,Friends, and Sex in the City).
Urban crime rates took a deep dive. Most downtowns began a surprising revitalization, with more offices, entertainment, restaurants, and a leading edge of middle-class people (often youth and empty nesters) returning. And the ideas of walkable town and city life, spread with fervor by the architects and planners of theNew Urbanism movement, gnawed at the decades-old supremacy of the suburban ideal.
None of this, Leinberger insists, means “drivable sub-urbia” will disappearany time soon: a huge weight of custom, continued consumer choice, zoning and the sheer vastness of today’s spread-out suburbia assure it will remain dominant for years to come. Nor will cities’ problems, from poverty to schools, disappear soon.
But walkable urbanism has demographics going for it. The share of U.S.families with children at home has been declining sharply; the largest household growth in the decades ahead will be empty nesters, never-nesters and singles, many likely to look to cities and their excitement. And cities, competing, will likely keep heeding advice to lure creative young professionals; in fact those that don’t offer true walkable urbanism, Leinberger suggests, are “probably destined” to loseout economically.
In the 1980s the Washington region had two highly walkable places--Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria. Today, Leinberger calculates, it has 17 highly walkable, beckoning urban centers, with at least five more emerging -- the most of any U.S. metropolis.
Significantly, 16 of Washington’s walkable centers have subway stops; the modern Metro system, begin in the 1970s, has transformed the region as communities --Arlington County, Va. is the star -- have consciously planned dense, multi-use development around the stops.
But Washington started its Metro when generous federal aid still flowed. Denver’s doing it the harder way, with a $4.7 billion light rail system that’s 80 percent financed by local taxpayers. But the Denver region will end up with 119 miles of track, many walkable centers, and a burnished reputation. In the process it, too, is setting a national model.

Think you have it bad? Try a 240-km commute

2007-12-17T15:07:00.000-05:00

How about this? Would this be defined as "progress"? Then why is this lifestyle the one the majority of Canadians/Americans aspire to?

From the Toronto Star;

Think you have it bad? Try a 240-km commute

December 08, 2007
Tim Harper

BERRYVILLE, Va. – With West Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains and bucolic farmland still virtually in her rear-view mirror, Lori Forrester wheels onto Route 7, her target fixed, 120 kilometres southeast.

A quick left. And then she stops.

Pastures of green have given way to taillights of red...
...Research by David Dinges, chief of Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, shows that the work commute is squeezing Americans' sleep.
When he and colleague studied why Americans are sleeping less they found, to their surprise, that the extra waking hours were not spent on leisure, in front of the television or with family, but sitting in the car.
"The more time people spent commuting, the less they slept,' he said. "The other activities did not relate to sleep time.''
It is also known that a lack of sleep, fewer than seven hours a day (or more than eight hours) also leads to obesity and risk of heart attack, diabetes and stroke, he said.
While that doesn't mean that lack of sleep is killing people, it plays into other factors that might.
It could mean that long commutes mean more fast food, he said, but that has yet to be proved.
"What's really going on here is that we can't do anything without getting into our motor vehicle and going somewhere,'' he said.
Beyond the health risks of sleep deprivation, there are also psychological dangers.
Dinges says fatigue leads to more risk-taking on the highways, likely adds to road rage and general "emotional deregulation'' which leads commuters to expect greater rewards for their time.
Alan Pisarski, a commuting consultant and author of Commuting in America, said there is still a significant economic advantage if your housing prices are cheaper in the exurbs, even with transportation costs going up.
"You have something you wanted, something you have always valued,'' he said.
"But how do you get to enjoy this thing when instead of being there, you're sitting in a car?''

I'll take my ten minute bike ride anyday, thank you very much!

The times, they are a'changin'

2007-12-17T13:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my whole family decided to enjoy the first major snowstorm of the season and go for a walk. We headed up to Ottawa street, playing in the snow drifts and pelting each other with snowballs. We then ducked into Karen's 4 Kids, as two of the three tykes needed something a little more substantial on their feet.

The kids didn't know what to do when the salesperson lead them to a chair, sat them down and took off their shoes. When he sat on the stool in front of them, cradling their tootsies in that silver foot measurement device, they looked as if they were being strapped into some medieval torture device for some long forgotten offence. Then it dawned on me...

They've never had their feet measured before!

In all the years their parents have been putting footwear on their feet, those shoes and boots have just been pulled down off the department/big box store's shelves and thrown on without a second thought. Then, here was this salesperson, dealing not just in manufactured goods (some actually made in Canada as well!) but also in service, pulling out an assortment of boots for the kids to chose from, trying them on and test-walking around the store. It was an experience that I remember participating in hundreds of times growing up, but have since forgotten as those store owners and shoe salespersons evolved into "sales associates" over the years.

The kids actually had fun shopping for winter boots, once they realized they weren't in trouble.

Razing Reederz?

2007-12-15T08:11:00.000-05:00

Guest Blogger - James Coulter

On Tuesday, the Windsor Star proclaimed “Windsor Rated 7th in Innovation”. The Dave Hall story calls Windsor “one of the country’s leading cities for innovation”.

The ranking came from a report published by the Conference Board of Canada titled City Magnets – Benchmarking the Attractiveness of Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA’s). I went to the CBofC’s website looking for the report. It’s behind a paywall, if you want to read the full report it’ll cost you $2400. However, there is a ten page summary that is free and I read it over. The report ranks 27 CMA’s according to several categories including; economics, housing, education and innovation. CMA’s were given a letter grade A, B, C, D, depending on how each fared against whatever criteria they used. The report sheds some light on economic and social trends in Canada and who the best, biggest and brightest star cities are. The overall top three were Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver, while the report had Saguenay, St. John, and Thunder Bay at the bottom. Remember my last post, big cities getting bigger, smaller cities getting left behind.

I found what the report had to say about cities and innovation. The top CMA was Ottawa/Gatineau. Make’s sense, lots of government research facilities, software companies a good university. In fact there is so much research and ‘innovation” going on in Ottawa/Gatineau that they scored AAA. No other category had any CMA scoring more than an A. Calgary and Toronto were distant B grades. According to the summary more than half the CMA’s scored no better than a D. At best Windsor’s 7th place is a C. It seems a little misleading to describe Windsor as “one of the country’s leading cities for innovation” when our C is so far behind the AAA of first place Ottawa/Gatineau.

For me, the big news was in the Star story. Dave Hall revealed a dirty secret about our city. According to the Star Windsor’s “educational rank is dragged down by the worst adult literacy rate among the cities surveyed”. For a city that wants to reinvent itself as a knowledge economy centre this is a huge problem.

The last paragraph of the summary says, “Although some indicators, like climate, are beyond the control of policy-makers, we believe that all levels of government should look at the results of this benchmarking study to help determine priorities. Canada’s future depends on it.” In Windsor, our priorities need to change to include literacy. In light of this report’s findings it is outrageous for the Mayor and Council to impose budget cuts on the city’s libraries. Save the $900,000 branding monies and use them for literacy campaigns and reading programs. Education and knowledge are priorities and we should demand that our city give us every opportunity to learn and better ourselves.

James Coulter is an Engineering Technologist with the School of Building, Design and Construction Technology at St. Clair College. His opinions are plentiful and may not reflect those of his employer or the teaching faculty at the college.

Defining Progress?

2007-12-14T18:21:00.000-05:00

How does our city define progress?

Is it a quantifiable measure of the increase in our standard of living? Our quality of life? Our cost of living? This is a definition that must be nailed down.

Today, after four months of heavy investment, the section of Wyandotte, between Walker Road east to Drouillard is scheduled to open to vehicular traffic. Watch the "progress" of this investment here.

This is where we need to decide our most appropriate definition of the term "progress". This infrastructure investment will (much like Riverside Drive's Peabody Bridge, which for the life of me I could not find a picture of!) no doubt increase the speed and safety for the cars, yet it doesn't provide for the safe passage of cyclists. The backfilled road cut has provided the abutting property owners with Wyandotte frontage - no doubt drastically increasing the value of their property.

Yet, one must keep in mind that the road renovation removed much esthetic interest in the neighbourhood, as well as an historic structure that was excavated and built by hand by the town of Walkerville in the early 1930's. Anyone who has ever travelled along Wyandotte will remember this bridge.

How do you define the term "progress" and when, in the evolution of our city, do we stop "progressing" before we establish our version of that definition?

Driving Sustainability

2007-12-14T14:36:00.000-05:00

The recent report from the Conference Board of Canada did not bring good news for Windsor. Our city received a C grade, ranking 23 of 27 cities on the list. Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Victoria were the top 5 cities, with Windsor, St. Catherines-Niagara, Saguenay, Saint John and Thunder Bay bringing up the rear.

One of the areas that Windsor scored poorly on was public transit. Anyone who has attempted to make use of our public transit system knows that we are in terrible shape, without some sort of 3rd party think-tank to tell us. With a decreasing tax base, and lacking a visionary council (aside from Alan Halberstadt), our infrastructure, from sewers and roads to sidewalks and bikepaths, has suffered. As council has permitted, through sins of omission, the sprawling residential, and now commercial, landscape, costs of providing a usable transit system have spiralled. Instead of increasing service and decreasing costs, Windsor is doing exactly the opposite.

A couple of months ago I read an article by Dave Olsen of The Tyee entitled Fare-Free Public Transit Could Be Heading to a City Near You. Olsen suggests that municipal transit systems are self-castrating, effectively stopping any possibility of growth because they insist on doing exactly what Caroline Postma and the rest of the transit board have done -- raise rates while restricting service. After reading the article, high on hope and delusions of grandeur, I emailed Alan Halberstadt and suggested that Windsor adopt policies similar to those of Chapel Hill (NC), Vail (CO), Logan (UT), and a myriad of European cities. Halberstadt's response was disheartening, 'great idea, but you couldn't sell that in Windsor'.

It seems that the blogsphere may be right, and council is the impedence to the growth of Windsor. Mayor Bloomberg of NYC was quoted in the New York Daily news saying "I would have mass transit be given away for nothing and charge an awful lot for bringing an automobile into the city." A massive population density has both allowed and compelled NYC residents to become dependent on public transit, even their billionaire mayor uses the subway to get around. With a visionary mayor at the helm of that city, the future looks bright for NYC public transit. Windsor city council plays it safe, opting to build an arena (hey, everyone loves a good hockey game right!?!) instead of leading out. When council tells us that there is no more money for transit, after spending $65 million (without ancilliary property developments), I find it hard to believe that they really have the best interests of the city in mind. I believe that the problem with council is that they don't often feel the impact of their decisions. It is easy to cut the library budgets, transit budgets, etc. because, I hypothesize, council does not frequent these public institutions. If they did, they might find public transit and library books a priority.

Fear not, I have a plan! I suggest that councilors be required to use public transit to travel TO and FROM all city meetings. That means council on Mondays, board meetings, and especially those all-to-frequent "closed" meetings. I think that, after a week or two of riding our buses, council might find their purse-strings loosened.

It really is a travesty when it takes 1.5 hours to travel from the University of Windsor to Forest Glade Arena, each way! The irony of the situation, as pointed out by Olsen, is that the more we fund transit, the more ridership increases, the less we spend on infrastructure development and maintenance. If you listen to Mayor Francis, we can't afford the infrastructure costs we have despite multi-million increases in funding over the 2006 levels. Investing in public transit would increase the mobility of all of the citizenry of Windsor, decrease traffic levels on all commuter routes (the Mayor said that EC Row is at capacity already!) and provide benefits to our air quality. This does not mean that the automobile will become outmoded, rather people will be able to decide to take the public or private transit as they discover all that Windsor has to offer. When we decide to invest in our built environment and learn to be good stewards of all that we have in this city, only then will our perception of ourselves, and perception of our city by others, experience a positive change.

Mike Kakuk - Enviro-Luddite

2007-12-13T15:42:00.001-05:00

Ok, I'm not really much into name calling, etc. I think that, generally speaking, it defeats the purpose of a conversation. I suppose I could justify my enviro-luddite label for Mike Kakuk, but in reality, my emotions are running high and I'm resorting to name calling.

Mike's latest blog post, Is the price of convenience too high?, starts by acknowledging the destructive nature of idle-thrus but suddenly takes a wild right turn and demands that we examine the "bigger picture." The big picture, according to Mike, is that governments and car companies should make cars that will allow us to idle, guilt-free, with zero- and low-emission cars. He goes on to explain that in order achieve the perfect environment that we should all drive a horse-and-buggy and burn wood to heat our homes. (Truth be told, this is the part that wound me up).

Mike's solution to the whole problem!?!? Keep the drive-thru moving quickly by having people who want to order food go inside! Oh, come on man! The issue with drive-thru's isn't just the idling cars, but the volume of traffic, the impact on surrounding neighbourhoods and the exacerbation on our 'secluded' society. To think that Windsor and Essex County is subject to Mike's social babble every morning on AM800 scares the hell out of me. When someone with such a short view of the world around them is an integral part of the mass media machine we really have our work cut out for us.

I've often accused Mike and Lisa of throwing Mayor Francis a lob ball on his Tuesday morning spin session, but I really had no idea that the problem was this pervasive. I think the irony of this turn of events, at least in my mind, is that I decided that, aside from listening to the Mayor on Tuesday morning at 7:20, that I am an 1550AM (CBC Radio) man. I might only be one listener, but, as my favourite saying by Mahatma Ghandi goes, we need to be the change we wish to see in the world.

Last item -- here is a link to the Mayor's position on drive-thrus in mp3 format.

BTW: Don't forget to vote in the online poll that ends on 17 December. The question is Should drive-thru's be banned to improve the environment? Just click on the link to Mike's article (see above) and then scroll down on the right side. Let's show Windsor, Mike Kakuk and our city administration what we really think!

The Shock Doctrine

2007-12-13T11:43:00.000-05:00

One of my favourite authors over the past couple of years has been Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, among other hard-edged non-fiction. Her newest book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, including the accompanying short film (high quality version here), makes some serious allegations about the profiteering and politics associated with the natural, and unnatural, events of our global community. While I haven't yet read her book (I'm trying to frequent the library to help sustain those vital knowledge stores -- but that's for another article), her short movie reinforced an idea that has been festering in my mind, and has occassionally found it's way out of my mouth, for more than a year now. The idea is, to echo Klein, that our local economic disaster is being exacerbated by capitalists who masquarade as saviours to a city, but offer nothing more than a rich-get-richer scheme dressed up in slick marketing and spin.

A case in point -- the CocoBox bigbox development proposed for the border of Windsor and Lasalle. Though Jenny Coco has owned this land for nearly a decade, during which time she has switched from commercial, to residential, now back to commercial zoning, she has only recently settled on a project for these lands. To hear Jeffrey Slopin, her legal representation, sell it, this is the best thing for Windsor since the automotive industry. Slopin and Coco are selling this development as a well-spring of prosperity, creating 1500 jobs and generating nearly $4 million in tax revenues for the city of Windsor. It reminds me of that 80's classic from Dead or Alive, You Spin Me Round - "you spin me right round, baby, right round". The facts are meaningless when the promise of jobs and money are dangled over the heads of the unemployed masses. Let's be honest, the last thing that Windsor needs right now is another shopping centre to siphon away our dwindling paycheques. Consumption consumerism is the drug of choice for so many people. Coco, Slopin, and even city council, are spinning this development into a cure-all for the economic ailments of Windsor when, in reality, we are severing our hand to cure a hangnail.

There is a moral to this story. Information is knowledge. Knowledge is power. We have elected representation, but that does not mean that we cannot, or should not, speak out about the issues facing the community around us. More important, we must be educated, even vigilent, about the slick marketing, information spinning profiteers at all levels of business and government. The message of SDW is to reinvest in our built environment, developing sustainability and quality into our community, not just quantity. Projects like the east end arena, tunnel purchase, CocoBox, GreenLink, etc. etc. should all be examined with a discerning eye. There is no quick-fix for Windsor; only hardwork and perseverence are going to return the social and economic dividends we are hoping for. Let us all be wary of those preaching economic salvation without works. We can change Windsor, but we are going to have to pay penance for our past, and, most important, challenge the status quo of disaster economics, in whatever form it takes.

The Future of Festivals in WIndsor

2007-12-12T07:06:00.000-05:00

I am proud of having been a part of Windsor’s Destination Development Committee - a committee that spent significant monies to research and prove, once and for all, that Windsor and Essex County should do more to support its festivals. I do, however, want to draw attention to a number of issues that need to be addressed if we’re ever going to be successful in accomplishing our mission.

Again, I have to declare my vested interest in both Downtown and the Windsor International Film Festival. Just as I have invested in property in the city centre because I believe that the future of Windsor lies in its Downtown, I have also invested my community service in the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) for numerous reasons including:

1. I believe that the future of Windsor’s tourism lies heavily with the number of people draw to its festivals which significantly contribute to distinguishing our city from that of any other

2. I am an avid movie fan who believes that Windsor is deprived of independent Canadian and international films due to the fact that conglomerates, with programmers, agents and bookers based in Toronto, control the programming of the silver screenings. These individuals have little interest or understanding of our market.

As an international Film Festival that has ties to Windsor and Detroit, WIFF is accomplishes our political leaders stated goals including:

- Municipal government’s Two Nation Destination, and our
- Federal counterpart’s slogan “The border connects us, not divides us”
- WIFF has numerous initiatives that reach far beyond its six-day festival including the 48 Hour Flick Fest, its educational component, and its monthly screenings.

In my opinion, many if not all festivals face obstacles related to the costs and bureaucracy of starting and maintaining these events including:
A. Professional fees to incorporate a non-profit or for-profit organization, obtain charitable status, and annual audits
B. Significant cost of due diligence related to insurance.
C. In order to qualify for future municipal funding, each festival will be required to become a member of the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) at a cost of $131, and a member of the Canada South Festival Network (which has not held regular meetings in over a year, if not longer) at a cost of $200 plus $50 per additional event.
D. It is highly recommended that festivals also sign up for membership of Festival and Events Ontario which facilitates provincial listing, aids in provincial funding etc. Attending the annual conference is an additional cost but critical to success. Membership to FEO comes with a price tag around $200.
D. Windsor City Council has just adopted a new insurance policy that appraises each festival based on a far too simplified point system (the liability of an event serving alcohol with an attendance of 200 is equal to that of an event which draws 10,000 people). Estimated cost of $5 million liability insurance is in excess of $4,000 annually.
.E Provincial and Federal funding streams refuse to align their application processes. Cultural Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, Telefilm Canada, OCAF, Trillium etc. all have a completely different application process - each of which require a considerable amount of time (many in excess of 50 hours) to complete, add or modify the application. (BTW, virtually all successful non-profit festivals receive a minimum 20% of governmental sponsorship funding. It’s an industry standard everywhere but Windsor!)

Basically, as a festival you’re having to raise over $10,000 cash as well as countless hours of professional services just to say "Hi, how do you do?"

I think it’s great that the City of Windsor has taken the first step (more like a giant leap) and recognized that festivals are a significant part of our tourism and economic future, not to mention the cultural and entertainment benefits we are derive. Now we need to begin focussing on the issues outlined above. These issues must be addressed if we are to move forward strategically. Whether it is through a festival ombudsman to help obtain public funding (a position that Ed Agnew successfully held for many years) or though any other creative means, this is a discussion that must begin right now!

Windsor - the rebellious teen?

2007-12-11T22:14:00.000-05:00

Guest Blogger - James Coulter

A recent post on …scale down, Windsor featured an article by Avi Friedman. Mr. Friedman described the trend of small town populations declining and city populations growing. He goes on to tell us that high-rise development will evolve into high-density clusters and the residents will be serviced by economical transit services and so on.

Last week the Star reported that the city of Windsor’s population increased 3.5% from 209,218 in 2001, to 216,473 in 2006. What is more important is how Windsor grew. The population of the central part of the city experienced significant population losses –“areas west of Pierre saw steep, double digit dives" - while the outer edge of the city saw new housing development and increased, lower density population. We should be very concerned about this because the cost to provide basic municipal services increases significantly as the area increases. If the density is too low it will mean even higher tax bills or much less service per taxpayer. So far, Avi Friedman’s future is not playing out here.

It could be because Avi Friedman’s future doesn’t apply to all cities. I came across the 19.20.21 project the other day. The 19.20.21 project is a multi-media study of the nineteen largest cities in the world as they approach populations of 20 million (or grow even larger) in the twenty-first century. If the world’s largest cities are going to grow even larger, will Canada’s largest cities grow too, at the expense of smaller, economically distressed cities? The almost gravitational pull of the larger cities, more jobs and more opportunities in an increasingly centralized economy may be irresistible to people desperate for work.

In his recent presentation to the Greater Windsor Homebuilders Association, Dennis DesRosiers said that the worst wasn’t over for us in Windsor yet. The CIBC’s Metro Monitor (Dec. 7, 2007) says, “Reflecting the difficulties in the manufacturing sector, cities such as Windsor and Saguenay still face major challenges.” Another CIBC report on the same day reported that October to November of this year 16,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Canada. With this kind of economic outlook (and the looming disaster of the “sub-prime mortgage fiasco” still playing out in the financial markets) and the pull of the big cities, will Windsor see a population increase in the next census or will the population start to decline?

If our population declines, is it a bad thing? No. If our population continues to grow, is it a bad thing? No. If our density continues to decrease, is it a bad thing? Yes.

We are already seeing the cost of lower density development on our utility bills and in the current city budget discussions. Less service with bigger bills to keep it all spread out.
How can we get the leaders of this city to understand that what is happening is going to turn out horribly wrong? Perhaps we can file a class action suit and sue to city for negligence or incompetence? Just a thought.

I want to repeat a paragraph from Chris’ first post on …scale down, Windsor.

“So now it's time for our community leaders to add a new term to their repertoire ...scale down. By scaling down our drive to grow for the sake of growing, we will in turn strengthen our community. (Organisms in a natural environment do not grow in perpetuity. At some point in their existance they reach their limit to growth and start to mature and strengthen) By redirecting the millions of dollars we're allocating to auto-centric infrastructure, we can invest in welcoming, pedestrian-scaled walkable neighbourhoods. By scrutinizing our current fixation on Big-Box retail development being built on agricultural greenfield sites, we will reinvest in our locally owned Mom-And-Pop stores that keep our wealth right here in Windsor where it belongs.”

What we are talking about is the survival of the City of Windsor. Scaling down our community isn’t about branding, or marketing or appealing to certain demographics. It isn’t a mental exercise, or a “wouldn’t it be nice” thing. If this city does not scale down it will go bankrupt or we will, trying to pay our taxes and user fees

James Coulter is an Engineering Technologist with the School of Building, Design and Construction Technology at St. Clair College. His opinions are plentiful and may not reflect those of his employer or the teaching faculty at the college.

Francis on banning the sale of cats and dogs at pet shops...

2007-12-11T10:33:00.000-05:00

Want to hear exactly how Windsor mayor Eddie Francis thinks drive-thru's are as natural to an urban area as cats and dogs are to a pet shop? Listen to his spin during his weekly talk with AM 800's Mike and Lisa here.

When other municipalities, like the ever-successful London, Ontario, are putting forward progressive legislation in the hopes of making their communities better places to live, we have our Mayor essentially making fun of them.

Who do they think they are, anyways? These "outside experts" who run successful cities?

Lifestyle Center vs. Power Center

2007-12-09T08:14:00.000-05:00

I have a bit of a different view than some of my fellow Scale Down Bloggers when it comes to the Big Box Power Centers. Although I became a part of Scale Down because of my desire to support locally owned independant businesses, I am not opposed to the multinationals in themselves. I am opposed to what I believe is the City Of Windsor and Essex County Prostituting themselves to these Corporations.

Righ now I'm in Florida and was just at a wonderful example of what a big box development could look like. Coconut Point is a mixed use complex that almost recreates a main street.

Why can't Windsor and Essex county demand the same type of site plans? I mean, sure, it would drive up the costs of development but have you ever heard of Walmart, Home Depot or the rest bypassing a city because of development costs? Do you actually think that there wouldn't be a Walmart in Windsor if we raised the price of admission.

We're selling out, and we're selling out very cheap. Why? Mainly because the city and the county refuse to work together as a region and compete against each other in a race to the bottom.

These well planned Lifestyle Centers can actually address the economic development and social fabric problems that Power Centers create although they would still not be able to address the fostering of Windsor's distinct and unique Culture. There would be no cool owner- operators you could meet there. Still, 2 out of 3 ain't bad and is a lot better than the current big goose egg (or should I say Goose crap) our city gets now.

Now don't get me wrong, I still prefer the independant locals, but I think democracy is all about freedom of choice. If someone wants to shop big box or multinational, that's their right. But why are we letting these big box's create unwalkable blight in our community. Why do we allow the parking lagoons to exist. Democracy also means that the citizens of WIndsor have the right to demand certain things from developers as well

I'd like to hear a report from Planning on this, I feel like the Jack Nicolson scene from "a few Good men".

"The Truth, You can't handle the truth"

As an explanation

What is a Lifestyle Center?

Lifestyle Centers are open-air shopping centers generally designed with a pedestrian orientation. They may or may not include any anchor stores. These centers focus on upscale national chains, entertainment and theaters, restaurants, and specialty stores. Lifestyle Centers are often designed as a destination center with more than just retail to encourage browsing and multiple activities in one visit. A Lifestyle Center can generally be defined as a shopping center or mixed-used commercial development that combines the traditional retail functions of a shopping mall with leisure amenities oriented towards consumers. Lifestyle centers emerged as a retailing trend in the late 1990s and are often located in suburban areas. More info on shopping centers here.

The International Council of Shopping Centers indicates that the service area of a Lifestyle Center is typically 8-12 miles. Examples of Lifestyle Centers are: University Village in Seattle, and Redmond Town Center in Redmond.

...Scale Down, Windsor

The Mayor of Monmouth: Historic Seagrave Building Murdered. City in on it.

Time to redirect to the NEW Scale Down!

Challenging Windsor's Future

Tonight, Watch Council make a Smart Choice

And the Winners are...

Kick back and enjoy Family Day.

What am I doing here?

Bridge access to downtown

The Arts: London funding vs. Windsor’s Creativity

The meaning of it all....

Get (scale)Down!

Cities: A Smart Alternative to Cars

Chris Turner Book Giveaway

Under the microscope...

The gift that keeps on giving...

Let's Co-operate

Congratulations to St. Clair Students

The Arts Part 1: Introduction and Funding

After hours bars study correction

Bringing Mom and Dad back into the city

Shout out

I must have been dreaming...

Rejected...

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

London's best practices belong to Windsor!

Scaledown means Windsor can only go UP!

Scale Down Our Economy

Correction

Another London Article

Of Mice and Men

Municipal letdown or neighbourhood opportunity?

In Your Face Art

Ultimate Musicians Workshop

Scale Down Predicted to win CBA "Best New Blog" 2007

Where have all the leaders gone?

Official Plan Review - Public Information Sessions

The Urban Village Saga Continues...

Get the Lead out

Raise the Hammer

Molasses in January

The 905 view on Strip Clubs and Sprawl

The Professional Planners of Windsor and Essex County Want to Scale Down

Scale Down, UNVEILED

Dr. Phil: House of regional Planning

Redeveloping Windsor: Think Globally; Act Locally

Big Box articles

WE MADE THE CUT! Now, for round two of the Canadian Blog Awards "Best New Blog of 2007"

Windsor, Ontario - Bike Capital of Canada?

Accepting the Challenge to make Downtown Safer

Build it, and they will come...

Windsor's OPR - A real opportunity

Stop the presses! News you won't hear anywhere else in Windsor.

City street as social space. Hans Monderman 1945 - 2008

The CocoBox Battle, Round 2

Look Boss, the Plan! the Plan!

The time is now to "Sex Up" the Planning profession

Cut You Car-Use Tip - Auto Insurance By The Mile!

Gentrification: Dr. Jekyl or Mr. Hyde?

After hours council wrap up

***Shameless Plug Alert!***

Reprint: Why London's downtown matters

Bringing in the ringers

Four More Years ?!?

Letting the economy do our dirty work for us...

James' Lunch Date...

Zenn and the art of responsible motoring

Can't we all just get along?

A rose amongst thorns before council tonight

Growth and the case for Scaling up.

Letter to council

No Fortune Teller Necessary...

What's in a "Scene"?

9 attitudes of Highly Creative People

Let's Get Windsor Moving (out to the county)

Story of Stuff

Respects and hope for change

Maybe Mr. Rogers was right after all...

He's makin' a list, checkin' it twice...

Advice from beyond the grave

Shameless Plug Alert!