The Emails Just Keep Coming

Here are more reader thoughts:

1) Eddie's speech reminds me of the Captain America cartoon. I can just see Eddie deflecting all issues as the tune plays....

• "When Captain America throws his mighty shield, all those who chose to oppose his mighty shield must yield.....

If any policy from any government has been implemented at any time there might have been a lot more cushion.

I forwarded you the letter I received from the Provincial powers that be. They knew years ago what was happening. They did nothing. Now there is reaction just before an election. Cute.

The jobs lost in this area are overwhelming. The reaction to the job loss is less than helpful. Gazelles. Big bad bridge company.

Eddie should keep that shield handy. It seems that's what you need to be politically successful on your way over the fence to greener pastures.

Ken Lewenza Jr. must be infuriated.
Current council should be ashamed. Period.

They may not have been able to do anything about the manufacturing sector, but they sure as the blue sky they could have had thousands of construction jobs on the go in this area.

Infrastructure with funds available for the last 6 years.

How much money has been put aside for projects and single source purchases?

What percentage of job cuts at City Hall are required now to pay for those projects?
Windsor deserves better.

By the way, is Detroit hosting any other significant event? Windsor needs to be on the heels of something......

2) What The Chrysler Sale Means For Windsor? Darkness, yes or no.

It all depends on Windsor, the workers, the civic,provincial and federal leadership and most importantly it depends on the product Windsor produces.

I wonder if anyone in Windsor realizes that yesterday was probably as big a day in this city's 105 auto history as anything in Chrysler's 82 year history.

So what will happen? A lot!

For Chrysler Holdings LLC, they have a lot more freedom to do what they want. Recall that Chrysler, like Ford and GM and pert near every other car company on this planet is now have to peg their recovery and their future to the Toyota Business Model. Do anything else and your days are numbered. And this is what they will do:

They'll reduce the number of dealerships in North America. An ugly job considering how dealership franchises are set up; particularly in the U.S. as dealership franchising is legislated through individual U.S. States. Chrysler's General Counsel
will be busy.

The unions and the white collar will take a hit. Look for upper management structure to change dramatically and flatten out ala Toyota or Nissan. The Chiefs will be closer to the Indians. A greater emphasis will also be put on "product first" rather than "me first" which is so prevalent in the Detroit car industry.

The rank and file are going to lose a few as well. I think there are no surprises there but the UAW and CAW will squawk. Recall now they deal with a private
company. The rules are different.

Jeep has too many products. They currently have 7 and need no more than 5 nameplates. The Commander and Compass don't need to exist. Bye ya!

Chrysler's mid-level cars are not up to snuff. If you consider that segment the equivalent of the little black dress..........everyone has one. If you dont do
well in that segment it really shows the overall health of your company. They need to dramatically re-style a segment that is fairly new.

Too many SUV's as well. Deep sixing the Pacifica was a no brainer. I will miss that vehicle though as going down E.C. Row behind one allowed me to get better gas mileage. Who says NASCAR is only on the tracks of the Southeastern U.S. ?

But what about Windsor?

Unfortunately, 1 Riverside West will be almost empty soon and the surviving punters will be on their way to Mississauga. Those Spitfire guys will have the whole building to themselves. Mayor Francis should seriously take a look at moving City Hall downtown and make the old city hall site an urban village (wink..wink).

For Windsor Assembly to survive, it goes without saying that the product has to have high quality ratings and be what the consumer wants. Prices will be higher as GM and Ford bowed out of that market so rebates will not be as prevalent. With a single wheelbase vehicle as well, the marketing types better have gotten in correct. Having that new VW van built there will help. Somehow VW has a good reputation amongst the muckety mucks. VW quality in the last 6 years has been atrocious. Let' see if Windsor can turn the tide on that.

But where WAP needs a break or needs help is 1) a new border crossing. Times running out and Spanky, Eddie, Sandra, Masse, Dalton and Harper better step it up. Otherwise the UAW will lobby hard for more work in the U.S.

The dollar needs to sink too. Or should I say the U.S. dollar needs to strengthen. That is out of the hands of anyone in this town but it plays a great part in the survival of WAP.

As for local leadership. Tom Lasorda is currently King but only because Wolfie Bernhard has a no compete clause for two years. I am sure the Cerberus brass will cut some deal with VW now that the sale is public, to make sure Dr. Bernhard takes the helm eventually. He is a far, far superior product guy to LaSorda. Ask anyone in Auburn Hills.

Finances....Daimler ain't stupid. They saw that Cerberus has 51% of GMAC and that provides a nice return when merged with Chrysler Financial.

Eventually Chrysler will come out of this much leaner and more Toyota like. It will have an interesting effect on GM and Ford now that Chrysler Holdings can move quicker. They will have to react to what Chrysler does as much as anything. Look for the Ford family to eventually sell their voting stock..........gee, maybe Frank and Belinda can buy it.

3) Ed, you have done it again! Thanks for the column on the downtown campus.

You are correct that the city has yet to even tender a RFP. You are also correct that this is going to be a fiscal and logistical nightmare. But you failed to mention that the city hasn't even tried to advertise the area and what they want to accomplish. Instead the city decided to spend more money on the arena (go figure! We knew there would be cost overruns) and on the double priced peace beacon (remember, it was to cost ONLY $300,000).

Instead the city would rather the university take over the urban village and have the students run amok like they do in the UofW district. Nothing says loving like furniture piled 8 feet high on garbage day or fire code infractions, dismal landlords etc...

Forgive me if I don't agree that 19-21 year old students will turn the downtown area around considering students have some of the lowest disposable incomes in age demographics. So what will we get for our downtown turnaround? More bars and more policing! I thought a vibrant downtown needed to be diverse? I guess all of those studies that other cities have paid for are just toilet paper when it comes this administration.

Why does this city always go against the norm and try to do what they "think" will work when instead of what has been tried and what is true?

Can you take another 4 years of Eddie? I will be glad if he does go away after this term but what will replace him? Bill Marra?

We are in for a rough ride whether Eddie stays or Bill comes up next? Maybe London isn't looking so bad now?

4) WUC is significantly increasing water rates following three years when there was no increase as the mayor and the counsellors were too afraid politically to deal with things properly. They are using the excuse that watermains need replacing now for the increase, but the program to replace the mains has been going on for at least ten years. A reason for the increase is the need to put up the Banwell Road reservoir ($20M) to accommodate the addition of Tecumseh on the Windsor system.

I wonder if the water increase will also create a significant increase in the Sewer Surcharge for the City in this years budget. Remember the sewer surcharge is 180% of the water rate.