Institutionalized NIMBYism

Eddie Francis has sunk to an all-time low now on the border.

If it was not bad enough that he has done everything in secret so far...If it was not bad enough that he "rallied" citizens for a billion-dollar short-term dream rather than a long-term solution...If it was not bad enough that he hid from us that he was ignored by the Senior Levels resulting in the "snub..."

Now we get the Eddie Francis scare mongering.

I am not sure what the outcome will be other than re-creating the animosities that existed before amongst the various neighbourhoods. Oh I know what he wanted to do but that is not what he is creating. He will pit neighbour against neighbour all over again. He learned his lesson well on how to do this from what happened when he was a Councillor. We are back to where we were 3 years ago under this Mayor. What a disgrace!

Check out the City Website and the "Open House" letter to Windsorites. Of course, what you do not know is that a different version of this letter has been sent out to different parts of the City, for example, people who live near E C Row. Their letter is addressed to "EC Row Corridor Residents" and is a different letter from that posted on the website. I guess this is called target-marketing.

And what does the letter say to scare people out of their minds:

1. THIS COULD AFFECT YOU! in bold capitals
2. The overflow of truck traffic could filter on to local roads
3. construction could take as long as 3 to 5
   years
4. The international truck route and service road could lie just 5 meters from the back of properties
5. All business and residential properties fronting on Talbot Road, and Huron Church Road south of EC Row, could potentially be removed.
6. this could affect you! (affect used 5 times in case people are slow to get the message.

"Could" but does not have to.

I am no fan of DRIC frankly, but if you have been reading my BLOG then you know I am hardly a fan of the way the Mayor has been handling this file. HE HAS FAILED !

I wonder which of his strategists advised him to create a diversion and pretend that he is now the champion of the people. After all what else can you say if you are running for re-election and have accomplished nothing on the border file!

Just wait, we will probably get a "public" meeting at Council at the end of the month after all of this fear-mongering to "ratify" in public the secret resolution that Council passed in the last few weeks. Well, maybe not if the same 16 delegations sign up as they did to oppose the infamous Agenda Item #5. Council may "defer" again if the going gets too tough.

It really does not matter what we say though, the script has been written in the Mayor's Office but I am afraid it may not be a happy ending.

By the way, what were the results of the July, 2005 meeting for which we paid out thousands of taxpayer dollars? I guess they did not help Eddie's position so were buried.