Predictions Scorecard

I trust that you had a great holiday!

I gave you a day of grace. Now that you have been back at work for a day and are all caught up, it's time that you started reading my BLOG each morning again. Can you think of a better way to start your day?

Just to show you that I am prepared to be judged on my predictions for last year, here they are from 2006. I thought I did pretty well all things considered:

1. The border will still be an important election issue but amalgamation of the City and County will become a major topic
   
   


2. The City will be hit by a huge scandal-----I was a few months early on this one
   
   


3. The relationship between the Mayor and Councillors and amongst Councillors themselves will deteriorate badly, finally coming out into the open
   
   


4. Eddie Francis will be a one term Mayor IF any credible candidate runs against him, a big IF right now-----Bill Marra could have been Mayor today, easily, especially after Project Ice Track announced its move to Tecumseh.
   
   


5. Bill Marra will decide early in the year if he will run for Mayor or Ward 4 Councillor or at all
   
   


6. If Bill runs for Mayor, Eddie will desperately seek someone else to run to split the vote so he can sneak in.
   
   


7. There will be big surprises in Wards 1, 4 and 5.
   
   


8. The Raceway arena will effectively be dead and gone early in the year. ---but who could have predicted to Tecumseh instead!
   
   


9. St. Clair College will pull out of the Cleary deal since the price will be too expensive but will still relocate downtown, perhaps in a joint deal with the University---the College is having serious concerns about moving forward and I hear some within the College wonder if it was all a huge financial mistake that should not be allowed to proceed..
   
   


10. The Mayor of Detroit will rebuff Eddie's entreaties over the Tunnel
    
    


11. Sam Schwartz will appear back in Windsor to make a new presentation on the border and soon thereafter close his office here.
    
    


12. No one will care what the City says on the border issue
    
    


13. The Americans will force the ending of DRIC---not quite, yet, but the Michigan Legislators' actions have made all Governments rethink their position
    
    


14. Governor Granholm and Mayor Kilpatrick will announce a major initiative with the Bridge Co. to redevelop SouthWest Detroit---premature by a year or so
    
    


15. In Windsor, the Mayor's Office will continue to churn out press releases like the one saying "Windsor‘s Economy is Shifting into High Gear" rather than actually doing something.
    



16. The Bridge Co. will start building their 200 booth "intermediate" border crossing project---a few months too early
    



17. The DRIC road to the border will be started by the Senior Levels as part of a "jobs" and economic redevelopment program for Windsor since hundreds of people will have to be employed to build it---wait for the Federal and Provincial elections to see this happen in spite of Eddie and Council
    



18. The two floors in Canderel will finally be rented out but at a huge discount and there will be vacancies in the Income and Security Building that will be filled by more City workers being moved over
    



19. Some new financial surprises will come out that will cost taxpayers dearly resulting in a lowering of Windsor's bond rating.---just wait until the bond rating services understand Windsor's real fiscal picture and understand what our new Canderel, the East end arena, will really cost us
    
    


20. The Windsor Star will face serious challenges this year resulting in significant changes.

As for my 2007 predictions..........more of the same I am afraid. The only big news will be if Eddie decides to run for the Tories provincially.