Thanks to all of my readers for sending in notes last year. I look forward to your comments in 2008.
1) I will not pretend to know the exact or even ball park values of the things I will mention. The point is that we are looking at hundreds of millions of dollars tied up with little public benefit and meanwhile we have a huge level of debt in the city that is debentured and therefore not callable for early repayment. We could however go to some old fashioned means of finance and have sinking funds set up to take care of these debentures when they mature. Those stupid old people generations ago that did not have internet, ipods and DVD's in their mini-vans did know how to build a city and to pay the bills. It might serve us well to be equally stupid.
The airport in the paper again. It makes very marginal money when it works and causes real losses when it is in a funk. The sale of this property has to be huge in dollar value and divided into packets could fund sinking funds for many of our specific debts.
The Windsor-Detroit Tunnel interest the city has is looking to be less valuable and less profitable as time goes on. More assets that would make us less in debt if we converted the cash to reserve funds and sinking funds.
The city is involved in businesses such as golf courses and fitness clubs (Glengary Pool). Make a detailed list of all of these and prepare a statement as to why each business is important and why it requires the city to run it. Let the taxpayers decide the validity of this and liquidate all that is without full justification.
When property taxes are in arrears there are cases where property reverts to the ownership of the city. It then becomes a care and cost to the city as grass needs to be mowed and there is no collection of tax. List and determine which if any have strategic value and liquidate the remainder to unburden the city financial burden.
ENWIN and WUC are hugely expensive utilities that are proving not to be serving the public needs in a financially conscious way. These are hugely expensive properties. They need best management which seems to call for privatization. If not privatization then we need to fire the management and find a professional management group that will turn these operations around and eliminate the politics, nepotism and feather bedding that is rampant.
Fire and Police. These are places where the money goes in huge amounts. The city can't even get a private operator to take care of our parking lots and meters as these jobs are 'owned' by the union. When did workers start owning the jobs? If I hire someone to paint my house does he then have the right to use my backyard forever? When the last payment is made and the job is done it is good bye. We have a retiring Police Chief and the time is right to begin anew on this file. Identify what our force does best and make sure crime solutions and investigations are getting done. A lot of police patrols involve using 2 highly paid fully trained officers to drive around looking for suspicious looking activity and making sure there is no theft at the donut shops. Could some of this routine not be filled with use of some private security firms that would have radio links to dispatch if full fledged officers are required? The precincts could have a smaller group of officers ready to roll where there is a need much like the ambulance service. The traffic enforcement seems to be OK in the city as I see they often are ticketing but all aspects should be reviewed as we should not assume anything to be either excellent or failed. I might add that if there was a mix of private in the policing it would make criminals wary of all cars that were from private security firms as they would have to fear they might be out looking for them.
If the city is so certain the mortgage on the Capitol Theatre is so secure then it should be sold at a discount to net more cash to deal with the cities debts.
The city needs to stop getting involved in entities like the Candarel where we provide capital funding for private enterprise, multi-national businesses.
2) interesting piece Ed.
Here is some background. I used to do business with Wickes. The ground around that facility is so overloaded with nickle sulphamate (spelling??) ...
The settling ponds are a completely other issue. Here's how the city will make that go away: This kind of contamination is extremely expensive to eliminate. They have to scrape and dig quite deep and all of the contamination has to go to Corruna to be dumped into a massive underground cavern. This costs millions. If you remember, there was a plating facility on "hot Row" (McDougall Ave.) called Industrial Platers. They closed doors and the U.S. ownership (from Ohio) left the city with the same problem. For years the City was after this company to clean the site but nothing ever came of it (the city eventually assumed ownership).
As you know the city let the building stay vacant for a few years until some kids tried to torch the place. Shortly after that the city built the new Traffic Engineering building on top of the site. Did it ever get cleaned up? We never heard anything of it ever since. The interesting part is this. The new building has no basement or crawl space. It is built "slab on grade". So in the end the Wickes site will probably make a good parking lot. Interesting.
3) here is a bit of info.
Taxes per year while I was in Tecumseh $12,000 per year. Taxes per year in Tilbury $1,200 per year. That is no typo......
I had no sewers, had to pay to have my garbage picked up and declining services with budget cuts. In Tilbury, I have sewers, twice weekly garbage pick up for commercial and a community that is excited about new business, without political jousting.
I received several calls about my move and quite a few were customers who were giving me a better opportunity because I was no longer in the Windsor area. They are afraid of the bridge crossing, militant talk coming from labour, and the lack of leadership to grow business investment.
Windsor is NOT the rosy picture being portrayed by the Mayor and his cohorts. Business will continue to leave and close down. The opportunity is perfect for big business to move operations and close facilities that have no value left. I mean value as in regional development assistance and deals to grow business, not grass for gazelles.
Call your local machinery movers and ask how many NEW installations they have done. Then ask how many closures and moves out of town. It is an eye opener. Of course WIndsor does have the Casino, which of course does help ALL of Essex County(I'd like to see that report).
There are many excuse for declining interest in the Windsor area but the biggest one is that they are not trying to work for new business. The two biggest Liberal Cabinet Ministers in Ontario have the highest rate of un-employment and lowest development. Still no words of encouragement. Mexico continues to blossom.
I like Windsor, I really do. It is way too tough a market to justify investment in hopes of "things turning around" like they did before. This is a new business climate, and it takes investment. If profits are taken by the governments with taxes and levies, there is not much left.
They say invest in new equipment. Small business has a difficult time convincing lenders the Windsor area is a decent market. My bank wants to me to go to Toronto and answer some delicate questions about Windsor. Do I give them the Dennis speech or the Mayor's????
This is going to be interesting.
4) Too bad the Mayor and council didn't work that closely on the WUC.
.95% tax increase.....
How many levies are there? What increases on the existing levies? User fees?
How much will it cost to groom Mr. Lowenza for the Mayor chair?
The next year is going to be interesting to say the least.
5) (Re CRTC complaint) YOU GO, oh great watcher of the gazelle feeders and other critters at the ZOO!
6) Mr Arditti:
That sound that you hear in the distance may very well be the sound of CKLW's and Jason Moore's underwear getting a bit tighter as they consider today's blog.
Way to go!
7) Economic climates are the result of outside forces that we have no control over.
It's how we react to the circumstances that makes us who we are.
Point and shoot from the hip (the lip in this case) or grab on and get the job done.
8) Good article today in the New York Times on Detroit. Note the comments about revitalizing Downtown Detroit. A 30 year strategy with tons of investments but no improvements. Windsor could learn from this example. "Detroit Revival Vies With Industry’s Decline"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/business/19detroit.html?em&ex=1198126800&en=a729240b334b9f33&ei=5087%0A
The airport in the paper again. It makes very marginal money when it works and causes real losses when it is in a funk. The sale of this property has to be huge in dollar value and divided into packets could fund sinking funds for many of our specific debts.
The Windsor-Detroit Tunnel interest the city has is looking to be less valuable and less profitable as time goes on. More assets that would make us less in debt if we converted the cash to reserve funds and sinking funds.
The city is involved in businesses such as golf courses and fitness clubs (Glengary Pool). Make a detailed list of all of these and prepare a statement as to why each business is important and why it requires the city to run it. Let the taxpayers decide the validity of this and liquidate all that is without full justification.
When property taxes are in arrears there are cases where property reverts to the ownership of the city. It then becomes a care and cost to the city as grass needs to be mowed and there is no collection of tax. List and determine which if any have strategic value and liquidate the remainder to unburden the city financial burden.
ENWIN and WUC are hugely expensive utilities that are proving not to be serving the public needs in a financially conscious way. These are hugely expensive properties. They need best management which seems to call for privatization. If not privatization then we need to fire the management and find a professional management group that will turn these operations around and eliminate the politics, nepotism and feather bedding that is rampant.
Fire and Police. These are places where the money goes in huge amounts. The city can't even get a private operator to take care of our parking lots and meters as these jobs are 'owned' by the union. When did workers start owning the jobs? If I hire someone to paint my house does he then have the right to use my backyard forever? When the last payment is made and the job is done it is good bye. We have a retiring Police Chief and the time is right to begin anew on this file. Identify what our force does best and make sure crime solutions and investigations are getting done. A lot of police patrols involve using 2 highly paid fully trained officers to drive around looking for suspicious looking activity and making sure there is no theft at the donut shops. Could some of this routine not be filled with use of some private security firms that would have radio links to dispatch if full fledged officers are required? The precincts could have a smaller group of officers ready to roll where there is a need much like the ambulance service. The traffic enforcement seems to be OK in the city as I see they often are ticketing but all aspects should be reviewed as we should not assume anything to be either excellent or failed. I might add that if there was a mix of private in the policing it would make criminals wary of all cars that were from private security firms as they would have to fear they might be out looking for them.
If the city is so certain the mortgage on the Capitol Theatre is so secure then it should be sold at a discount to net more cash to deal with the cities debts.
The city needs to stop getting involved in entities like the Candarel where we provide capital funding for private enterprise, multi-national businesses.
2) interesting piece Ed.
Here is some background. I used to do business with Wickes. The ground around that facility is so overloaded with nickle sulphamate (spelling??) ...
The settling ponds are a completely other issue. Here's how the city will make that go away: This kind of contamination is extremely expensive to eliminate. They have to scrape and dig quite deep and all of the contamination has to go to Corruna to be dumped into a massive underground cavern. This costs millions. If you remember, there was a plating facility on "hot Row" (McDougall Ave.) called Industrial Platers. They closed doors and the U.S. ownership (from Ohio) left the city with the same problem. For years the City was after this company to clean the site but nothing ever came of it (the city eventually assumed ownership).
As you know the city let the building stay vacant for a few years until some kids tried to torch the place. Shortly after that the city built the new Traffic Engineering building on top of the site. Did it ever get cleaned up? We never heard anything of it ever since. The interesting part is this. The new building has no basement or crawl space. It is built "slab on grade". So in the end the Wickes site will probably make a good parking lot. Interesting.
3) here is a bit of info.
Taxes per year while I was in Tecumseh $12,000 per year. Taxes per year in Tilbury $1,200 per year. That is no typo......
I had no sewers, had to pay to have my garbage picked up and declining services with budget cuts. In Tilbury, I have sewers, twice weekly garbage pick up for commercial and a community that is excited about new business, without political jousting.
I received several calls about my move and quite a few were customers who were giving me a better opportunity because I was no longer in the Windsor area. They are afraid of the bridge crossing, militant talk coming from labour, and the lack of leadership to grow business investment.
Windsor is NOT the rosy picture being portrayed by the Mayor and his cohorts. Business will continue to leave and close down. The opportunity is perfect for big business to move operations and close facilities that have no value left. I mean value as in regional development assistance and deals to grow business, not grass for gazelles.
Call your local machinery movers and ask how many NEW installations they have done. Then ask how many closures and moves out of town. It is an eye opener. Of course WIndsor does have the Casino, which of course does help ALL of Essex County(I'd like to see that report).
There are many excuse for declining interest in the Windsor area but the biggest one is that they are not trying to work for new business. The two biggest Liberal Cabinet Ministers in Ontario have the highest rate of un-employment and lowest development. Still no words of encouragement. Mexico continues to blossom.
I like Windsor, I really do. It is way too tough a market to justify investment in hopes of "things turning around" like they did before. This is a new business climate, and it takes investment. If profits are taken by the governments with taxes and levies, there is not much left.
They say invest in new equipment. Small business has a difficult time convincing lenders the Windsor area is a decent market. My bank wants to me to go to Toronto and answer some delicate questions about Windsor. Do I give them the Dennis speech or the Mayor's????
This is going to be interesting.
4) Too bad the Mayor and council didn't work that closely on the WUC.
.95% tax increase.....
How many levies are there? What increases on the existing levies? User fees?
How much will it cost to groom Mr. Lowenza for the Mayor chair?
The next year is going to be interesting to say the least.
5) (Re CRTC complaint) YOU GO, oh great watcher of the gazelle feeders and other critters at the ZOO!
6) Mr Arditti:
That sound that you hear in the distance may very well be the sound of CKLW's and Jason Moore's underwear getting a bit tighter as they consider today's blog.
Way to go!
7) Economic climates are the result of outside forces that we have no control over.
It's how we react to the circumstances that makes us who we are.
Point and shoot from the hip (the lip in this case) or grab on and get the job done.
8) Good article today in the New York Times on Detroit. Note the comments about revitalizing Downtown Detroit. A 30 year strategy with tons of investments but no improvements. Windsor could learn from this example. "Detroit Revival Vies With Industry’s Decline"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/business/19detroit.html?em&ex=1198126800&en=a729240b334b9f33&ei=5087%0A
9) You are correct Ed, if he [Jason Moore] or any one else for that matter attacks personally, then they should be responsible for and accept the fact of equal time, especially when it becomes personal. Even then if they want to make statements, then they should answer to the criticism back and accept it gracefully with maturity.
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