My Take on the State of the City
Like most other observers I was not really surprised by anything in the Mayor’s State of the City Address. The only real twist was the plan to establish a regional fund for economic development. All in all not a bad idea however, it’s about ten years too late.
I’ve said it before, I’m behind scaledown.ca because I believe that the practises of building dense urban centres and walkable neighbourhoods that support vibrant communities are vital not just to our health and well-being but, will be necessary for our city to be viable in the next economy that is just over the horizon.
That “new economy” the Mayor wants us to have the tools to compete in has been around since the Marshal Plan at the end of the Second World War. The global corporate giants have gotten about as fat as they can at the trough and now it’s beginning to look like the kettle is boiling dry and something new is cooking on the back burner. Since last summer there have been numerous infusions of “liquidity” into the markets, banks on both sides of the Atlantic have now been bailed out, the U.S. dollar, the currency of world trade is losing its value faster and faster as the Federal Reserve Bank continues to cut the prime lending rate. Inflation is looming large at the same time as the U.S. domestic economy is tapping out. The experts still cannot see any end to this mess but it’s not the only problem for the global economy.
Oil is the fuel that allowed globalization to really roll, the problem is that there are only so many oil fields, rigs, tankers and refineries to keep it flowing. It is the belief of many that June 2005 was the peak of world oil production (conventional oil) and since then the producers have been doing everything they can just to keep up. Add to that the increased demand from emerging China and India as well as the economies of producer nations like Saudi Arabia and Russia and it becomes clear that this commodity is going to go only to the highest bidders. As the price of oil increases it fuels inflation, raises the costs of petroleum products and the cost of transporting raw materials and finished goods.
Globalization was facilitated by relative geopolitical stability. During the Cold War each side did what they could to find supplier nations to exploit. There was no real conflict to get in the way of gutting developing nations and so global corporations used cheap materials, cheap labour and cheap transportation to out source and off shore work typically done by the working classes in the OEDC. Now we have an open and festering conflict in the Middle East. In the past week a top commander of the U.S. Navy has resigned. He was very outspoken against any action against Iran. Iran continues to be in the bad books of not just the U.S. but other NATO allies. Add to this Kosovo, Turkey and the Kurds, Israel and its neighbours and China trying to keep things together and there is more than enough potential escalations to conflicts in that area alone. That area also happens to be where most of the world’s oil is.
In the event of war or escalations that cut off or disrupt oil shipments things will get worse faster for the “global economy”. Even the Internet can be used to prevent commerce. Iran recently had it’s cyber-communications cut (mysteriously) and the U.S. military and China have recognized the strategic value of the Internet.
The next economy that is starting to form is not going to be an economy of consumption like we have today. Factories and farms will not be far flung, connected by air cargo and long distance trucking. No, it will have to be more regional. Cities and city regions will have to produce a number of goods for their own consumption and for trade with other, nearby city regions. There will still be trade at a global level for sure, but it will not be as important to a city’s economy as regional trade will be. Cities with manufacturing legacies like Windsor will be very important because we will be able to start turning out a variety of goods. This is the real value of our trades and research and development workers. To be able to make goods that people need. Not consumer goods we want, actual things that are necessary. The next economy will be about austerity and producing practical goods and delivering necessary services. The next economy will have to address food and water and shelter first. Pedicures, yoga sessions and car detailing will be reserved for the very well off. The rest of us will have to earn our livings doing things that actually matter.
So, let’s take this new fund and use it to make sure we are positioned for the next economy. We need to invest in local businesses that provide real services and companies that produce real goods that people need. We need a city that is denser, so that we can live closer to where we work and shop. Let’s get on with local food production for local consumption first and trade with other regions second. Use that money to nurture companies that have a future, not global giants trying to hang on at the taxpayers’ expense. The next economy will require cities and city regions to look after themselves. Our senior levels of government are going to have their hands full just maintaining our power supplies, prisons, military and regional welfare schemes.
My five point plan for Windsor (and Essex County)
1. Re-localize food production, processing and distribution.
2. Invest in essential infrastructure - water treatment and distribution and waste water treatment and sewers, public transit and renewable energy like solar and wind.
3. Provide incentives for local shops and artisans that can produce goods for sale and trade.
4. Provide incentives for local companies to move their offices and plants back into traditional industrial and commercial centres inside the city.
5. Identify layers of bureaucracy that are no longer relevant in the next economy and remove or redistribute departments and responsibilities.
It’s the next economy we need to prepare for. The current economy based on something for nothing and cheapest is best is pretty much done.
Tags: economic development, investment, local economic development, Regional cooperation, relocalization, scaledown
Post Feedback
I like your five point plan far better than the Mayor’s . Not a big fan of 3 and 4, but that’s the fiscal conservative/libertarian in me.
What makes me chuckle is how the Mayor held a straight face in holding up Kitchener as an example to follow in regards to their economic development fund while touting his plan for Windsor. Kitchener used their development fund to refocus economic development in their core while Windsor does everything but.
According to today’s Windsor Star, Kitchener’s mayor, Carl Zehr, states their fund… “exceeded our goals in terms of timeline.”, and “Things are changing faster than we had dared hoped for”
What makes our mayor think we can echoe the same success as Kitchener while ignoring the very foundation (reinvesting in the core) that city has used for economic development leaves me scratching my head.
James - great post, and interesting ideas, sounds like a much nicer alternative to what we have today.
BBS - I consider myself a fiscal conservative as well. Incentives in the next economy will probably not come in the form of cash infusions but rather support networks, like cooperatives for start-up businesses. All levels of government will be cash poor as they try to maintain the necessities that they have ignored for so long.
Incentives could take the form of lower property taxes in areas that need to be redeveloped or providing small start-ups with marketing and front office support from the economic development commission.
Good thoughts James. Cities have always been the driving force in our history going back seven thousand years, it is only now in North America that we are starting to realize that fact as is the rest of the world, that cities are their own economic engines as Jane Jacobs put it so well. It is in the density of cities that innovation, education, the creative arts that feed each other in the daily course of life of crossings each other’s path.
In the daily comings and goings of citizens, you can’t predict where the next idea will come from, but creating a city where those citizens rub shoulders with each other and see what the other is doing is to put in place, a place where an idea can come from. Move ideas and knowledge, not people, the internet is a great tool for doing that, as we all know here! The trick being is getting those ideas out to people who can do something with it or get their ideas out into the world. Anywhere can be here!
How do we convince the citizens of this city and city council, that there will be no more huge factories, employing a large number of under educated workforce, paying wages that are beyond the wildest dreams for a mindless job. We have at least two generations alive now (and almost three generations before that) in this city that have contributed nothing to their job, except showing up as a warm body.
How do we convince our citizens that an education is needed just not in the academic subjects but the skilled trades, that our artists can also become industrial designers and on and on…If we all work together and see the value in everyone to contribute, even at the smallest level we will be better off, maybe not right now but down the road.
How do we convince people that the transportation infrastructure is threaten with collapse as fuel prices rise and are threaten with political interference as you mention.
We can’t keep going with cap in hand to other levels of governments and asking for help, if at first we don’t help ourselves, the mayor has failed here because in his speech he didn’t convince anybody of his vision. He would have been better off admitting that Windsor is a true basket case of the last century and the perfect storm today is about to roll the city over.
I think that the micro loan idea would be a good idea for the city to invest in and giving them subsidies for a limited time for start up for ideas that can prove they have legs .
There must be a forum for people to bring ideas forward, “not just call us we can help.” Help how is what we really wanted to hear on Monday night and not be killed by bureaucracy in attempting to do so. We must convince the naysayers, and not with my tax dollars you aren’t types in this city, that we must invest in ideas that are generated in this city. No, these ideas might not employ 500 - 1000 workers at a time. But many small ideas employing small numbers, might feed off each other to create the economic force that we need. The grand slam of employment is over!
So on Saturday let us start!
The comparison with Kitchener was not even close. They invested in their core, Windsor does some streetscaping and touts it as the be all end all. Sorry, but I think cracking down on absentee landlords will do far more than a streetscape plan as will incentives to bring in new retailers. They put their words into action by allowing Wal-Mart to choose where WAL-MART wants to build instead of the other way around (interesting to note that for those who shop at Wal-Mart, it is LaSalle residents who will benefit themost from this location). The city CHOSE to put a new urban village next to Tecumseh, along with the arena, which again will serve Tecumseh residents better than it will serve Windsorites.
the big kicker is that almost all of Kitchener’s investments went to institutions NOT manufacturing.
In fact I do not believe that it is legal for a city to GIVE money to corporations, but they could do the same thing by offering tax incentives amongst other types of incentives to bring in more business instead of just handing out cash.
Here is an interesting post from Allaboutcities, that I got today on nightlife and creativity and anarchy:
March 18, 2008
Creativity, anarchy and civilization
From Journalist Frances Bula’s City States Blog:
My son, who does visuals for DJs … sent me an email from Austin today. He’s of course at the South by Southwest music festival … It seems he also has something to say about city policy.
“we went to a show last night that started at 3am and was on a bridge. like basically imagine if a band played a show on cambie st bridge and 800 people showed up and it didn’t get shut down. i asked a cab driver how it’s possible that all these shows can happen in such crazy locations and he said sxsw funnels something like 30 million dollars into austins economy so the city just turns a blind eye to all these crazy events. i thought it was really funny imagining these bands filling out paperwork to get a permit to play a show on a bridge at 3am but i guess there is none, the city just lets people do whatever they want.
i wish vancouver would relax it’s liquor license laws and take the same attitude, which would promote art and culture, instead of spending millions of dollars trying to force designated “culture†or “club†sections of the city. and only giving liquor licenses to people who can afford the 250 thousand dollars or whatever which only corporate superclubs can really afford. a similar sxsw event could happen in vancouver if only they would do that.
[apparently there is some organization of the spontaneity according to a reply from Gary Etie, an engineer and consultant in Austin]
“I just want to get the word out, because, as you say, it is a very critical issue, that affects the arts, and the ability to party, while preventing disasters that can occur from overcrowding in unsafe buildings, if not done properly and professionally.â€
Full post below:
http://allaboutcities.ca/
When you say provide incentives for businesses to move back to the core, we could probably start by simply “stopping” the incentives of bad land use such as the Coco Big Box development for businesses to move out of main streets
That’s one of the huge things we could accomplish - stopping unsustainable land-use patterns. But - the only way to do that is to educate the general population as to why we must stop it. Basically, we must keep our eye on the prize, because that is what we’ve been doing since SD’s inception. As long as there’s appetite for the “sprawl” option, getting our city to reinvest in the core will be a much more difficult task.
The old “Carrot And Stick” approach will work every time.
What is the cocobox status? still at OMB? The land is getting cleared already. OMB just has to say no right?
I noticed Coco clearing land behind the Costco on Provincial…
A little birdy says a Lowe’s will get added to the Big Box Sprawl.
I’m heading out to my brother’s place in LaSalle this weekend and will stop to take some pics of Coco’s perserverance by the Ojibway complex. We’ve heard rumours of two additional big-box developments coming before council soon. We had better get more delegates before council for the next round or two, or we’ll never stop these bad-boys.
What was someone saying about Windsor being over-retailed already? I believe it was Matt Fisher.
30 million dollars definitely isn’t enough to get us back on our feet, not even 100 million. It’s pretty pathetic our mayor encourages us to find work out west.
WOw… still more bigboxes… How many more can be in the works for Windsor? Is this the last one? Are there more? I cant believe that the critical mass is not fed up with this yet? You hafta wonder what it will take to get the meesage through..
Chris, Sign me up. I will go as a delegate.
MArk, you are absolutely correct. We may not be able to say no to the wal-marts of the world for fear of litigation but we CAN tell them where to build and if they don’t like it then they can go elsewhere.
The other incentives can be good guildlines with regards to facades and/or building maintenance. Tax incentives, parking incentives promoting various neighbourhoods in the city and re-investing in the interior of the city. And I don’t mean just a streetscape but tree-lined streets, park benches, soem streets could be cobble-stone, different lighting for a different neighbourhood…if we have money for a $65 million arena then we have money to invest in our neighbourhoods.
Attaboy, ME! Anyone else want to sign up to take a very public stance in favour of saving our city?