What Sandwich and Delray Can Learn From Port Huron

NO, I am not going to talk about the 1999-style arena that PCR is building here after their Port Huron deal failed nor about the twinning of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron and Sarnia nor the building of new expressways to their crossing. Nope, it's more interesting than all of that.

I cannot keep up. There is too much going on. Dealing with important matters like Councillor Budget's absurd remark at Council, watching out to make sure that the gazelles do not eat the grass in the economic gardens and wondering if Eddie will run for the PCs or Liberals is tiring after all.

I try to find various articles of interest as you know to keep you, dear reader, informed of various matters that may have an impact on Windsor. I haven't been able to do that because of some of the matters I referred to above but let me try and make up for it today.

Maybe it's just me but I have been suspicious of the JMC/Bi-national/DRIC process since it has started. I remember doing a presentation early on attacking the JMC Report accusing them of having their "principles" pre-determine the results. If you frame a study a certain way, then you are guaranteed the result you want. It's as if your boss wants to promote you but has to go through a formal selection process. He/she just ensures that the qualifications are designed with you in mind so that only you can be picked.

I did the BLOG the other day about former Minister Rock and his "deal" on the Tenth Point of the Nine Point Plan with ex-Ontario Minister Flaherty. That troubled me a lot.

I know that some "trust" the DRIC process. That is their choice. Having lots of meetings, "listening" to the community, having computer sessions to let people choose the kinds of plants along the road or colours of lights for a bridge is all part of why people say that we have influence on their decision-making.

Here is a good example from the other side of the river quoting John Nagy, head of the Delray Community Council:

• "MDOT officials have met frequently with residents, promising to sweeten the pot if and when a bridge is built. At 23 public meetings conducted so far in southwest Detroit, agency director Kirk T. Steudle and study director Mohammed Alghurabi have sat with residents in community centers and high school gyms, answering questions and seeking input. They promised the agency would help bring housing and commercial redevelopment to the neighborhood, showing pictures of varying styles of residential buildings, cultural attractions and business projects, asking residents which would be most welcome.
  
  At first, Nagy says, he had no intention of agreeing to an international crossing running through his neighborhood. But after hearing MDOT's promises, his opinion changed.
  
  "I think, overall, the bridge is a win-win situation," he says. "It's going to do away with a lot of blight and contaminated properties...
  
  Nagy says, it's better to work with government officials to address problems instead of trying to kill the project, especially when the alternative would be to have a privately owned business calling the shots."

The reason I pick his quote is that

• "Activists and politicians from the west-end community of Sandwich are vowing to work hand-in-hand with their southwest Detroit counterparts in Delray following a bus tour of the historic industrial community across the river.
  
  The two communities are hoping if they have a common voice on a preferred location for the next Windsor-Detroit border crossing, they will influence a binational government team assigned to select the best option.
  
  "We've said time and again to people over here, we consider this family," said Mary Ann Cuderman, leader of residents' truck watchdog group in Sandwich."

So imagine my surprise when I read this Editorial in the Port Huron newspaper:

• "MDOT shoves plaza expansion plan down Port Huron's throat
  Jan 26, 2007 _ Port Huron Times Herald
  
  Were you shocked? You have to believe Port Huron Mayor Alan Cutcher, the City Council and City Manager Karl Tomion were as well.
  
  Under public pressure, the council invited Michigan Department of Transportation officials to its Monday meeting to inform Port Huron residents as to the status of the now 6-year-old Blue Water Bridge Plaza expansion project. We have learned that MDOT has a bright, talented staff and they are, well, pretty clever.
  
  Wasn't it about a year ago that St. Clair County Administrator Shaun Groden held a similar show at St. Clair County Community College to corner MDOT about the project's status? Shaun demanded an answer as to which plaza design MDOT was going to build.
  
  MDOT shocked everyone at that meeting by announcing it had decided to do yet another environmental-impact study, so we will get back to you in a couple of years.
  
  The anger on Shaun's face that night is what we would see again this week in the faces of Cutcher and Tomion. They were stunned when at the beginning of its presentation MDOT announced it was issuing a press release stating that the Port Huron Township Plan was dead.
  
  MDOT officials hereby declared the Customs Hybrid Plan, with its footprint in the heart of Port Huron at ground level, was now being fast-tracked, and they were immediately moving ahead with implementing this plan.
  
  The city manager and the City Council were dumfounded. It was obvious they didn't have a clue. How could MDOT blindside the council? Why would state officials show so much public disrespect to Port Huron leaders? Why didn't the council fight back? How far down on the food chain are we, anyway?
  
  Was this MDOT's plan to shut down the questioning voices gaining momentum in our community against this hybrid plan? It's done; it's over; and if you behave yourselves, we may throw the city some bones, but understand we don't have to, but we feel your pain.
  
  It's unbelievable that without the completion of required studies, especially MDOT's Holy Grail, the environmental- impact study, it was issuing the edict that the heart of Port Huron was to be turned into a giant truck stop handling 14,000 to 20,000 vehicles a day, growing to 30,000 a day over the next 40 years.
  
  As Councilman B. Mark Neal pointed out, Port Huron is where they send trucks that are so dangerous they will not let them cross the border at the Ambassador Bridge or go through the Windsor Tunnel in Detroit. Apparently, Port Huron is expendable.
  
  Didn't we just have an eye-opening lesson with the Canada trash trucks and how vulnerable we are to a terrorist or a toxic chemical cloud floating over Port Huron?
  
  As Dick Reynolds, business agent for the local carpenters union, declared, this is going to happen, so you should just "suck it up" and move on.
  
  Your leadership appears to have little stomach for a fight. While MDOT and Gov. Jennifer Granholm will continue to feel your pain, you have the choice of "sucking it up" or grabbing your children and running to the townships that are going to catch a windfall from Port Huron's suffering."

Pretty strong language...you should hear other stuff being said:

• Port Huron officials were misled
• Expressed outrage over a state and federal plan to begin buying property for the expansion before an environmental impact study is finished.
• Appalled by this abuse of power
• Three days after a federal administrator told the Times Herald he would deny a state-requested special exemption to accelerate the Blue Water Bridge Plaza project, James Steele was speaking with far less confidence. ""I am sorry to report that he was considerably less certain of his agency's position on this matter,"
• Steele's inconsistent statements are typical of what Tomion said he has been hearing lately from state and federal transportation officials. "They tell you one thing at one meeting and another thing at another meeting," Tomion said.
• He called their actions and statements "illogical" and "obtuse
• Irrevocable harm will be done to the City
• The Mayor described a feeling of betrayal
• We've been involved for three years in the process. MDOT cut off our legs at the knees by changing the process
• Illogical, Orwellian
• Decisions are being made supposedly on security concerns but nothing at all has been received from Homeland Security
• Promises of mitigation appear hollow
• Mitigation does not include financial assistance
• There is no substantive assistance
• We cannot spend transportation money to buy new housing or rehab existing

To Mr. Nagy and the West End activists and polticos, with friends like these.... well, you can finish it off.

Just like the Port Huron people are being finished off nicely in the name of expansion of the plaza "to improve the safety and movement of goods across the bridge and increase efficiency of inspections"