Major Illness Sweeping Windsor

Forget about that fellow who may or may not have TB. His illness is nothing compared with what is happening in Windsor.

The Center for Disease Control should have a team of people in Windsor investigating this. I think that Vitamin D tablets should be given out to every man, woman and child in Windsor to contain the adverse effects until we know what is going on and what the cure is.

I think I know the cause of the illness: the "unscrubbed" fumes being spewed out of the "heritage" Tunnel Ventilation building downtown and going over City Hall. After all, the Mayor and Councillors are there so many hours per day.

Yes, dear reader, the Mayor has had a relapse of the dreaded CITYHALLITIS better known as AMNESIA. Others are being infected badly as well as the disease spreads rapidly.

Councillor Gignac has been struck recently by it. She was so pleased that the reconstruction project of the Tunnel Ventilation building came in $2M under budget (actually it was $5M OVER the original budget but who is quibbling). I think the Councillor should be aghast that the $2M savings must have been made at the expense of not putting in air scrubbers to remove the pollutants----of course there is no such technology available. But that would hurt the Mayor and Council's argument that we need a multi-billion dollar Tunnel along the DRIC road. It would be a waste of money but again, why quibble.

You see in Dave Battagello's Star story on Saturday on the request by the Bridge Co. to demolish homes on Indian Road and to make the area environmentally improved in an alliance with the Green Corridor people from the University, the Mayor said:

• "The whole purpose of the interim control bylaw is to allow for proper development of a plan for community growth," Mayor Eddie Francis said recently. "This (saving houses) is the next step. It allows us time for proper community development."

See how bad the disease is. Even Battagello is suffering from it and he just recently started covering City hall. On the same Agenda as the Bridge Co. request on Monday night, they both forgot to mention that Council will ask the Federal Government to tear down the Outlaws home in Sandwich, a few blocks away because it is a saftey hazard and public nuisanc.

So in one case they want a home demolished and in another they do NOT want homes demolished. Not only is the Bridge Co. the City's "enemy" and competitor, they are treated worse than a motorcycle group! Whew....what a reputation.

But I have to tell you that it is even worse than that. The Mayor totally forgot what he and Councillor Jones siad weeks before when the By-law was imposed about its purpose:

• "Mayor Eddie Francis and Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones said the interim control bylaw was passed to maintain historically significant structures -- and there are plenty of them in the area -- while the community improvement plan is developed."

Come on Mayor, which came first--saving homes or proper development of a plan...is it a chicken and egg issue for him for which there is no answer?

Oh my goodness, the Mayor forgot something. He forgot that this is not a reason for passing this by-law. He already has another project in place about heritage which is to do that. He forgot that this could be viewed by the court as using the powers to freeze as "bad faith."

Are the homes really that important? I think some people forgot what they said in the recent past. In fact, just before the interim by-law was passed, back in October, 2006 Councillor Jones said in a Star story

• "While the bridge company can bulldoze its own properties, city infrastructure such as roads, sewers and other utilities are off-limits, Jones said."
  
  Jones also said ""We have (city inspectors) going in there on a regular basis to ensure our concerns are met. I have talked with one inspector who said they have not touched our infrastructure and (are) staying on their property."

He did not have a concern about "heritage" when he talked about the bulldozing. I guess he forgot that.

He also said in that story:

• "They are buying up properties and letting them deteriorate. Unfortunately, the way some of the neighbourhood is starting to look, it seems like they are getting somewhere."

It was said in answer to the comment that

• "The bridge company has been bulldozing its properties, levelling them off."

I guess the Councillor forgot that this demolition did not bother him either at the time. I'd bring up the Grad House just outside of Sandwich and its demolition but I won't.

We are not so dumb as the Mayor and Council thinks. We know what this is really all about. Stop the Bridge Co. the competitor of the City. If anyone really cared about Sandwich, the City Report on Sandwich would not have said:

• "Since the Neighbourhood Improvement Plan of 1979, community improvement in Sandwich has lost momentum and the area has experienced a period of declining investment."

We read also that

• "Windsor City Council also reaffirmed its commitment to its strong tradition of wide-ranging public consultation forthe Olde Sandwich Towne Community Planning Study by requesting that a focus group consisting of a diverse group of community stakeholders be selected to serve as resource to the (city) staff.”

Yet Dave's story tells us:

• "Second, the (bridge company), as a major landowner in the study area, was not consulted in the preparation of the study."

Now I had a point in telling you all of this but I forgot what it was.