The Phrase “Lose a City”
Is the automotive crisis the best and only time to use a shock phrase? Chris and I had an interesting discussion regarding the mayor’s use of such a phrase. To try to paraphrase Chris, he said he hated the use of that term. I think especially when referring to an industry that we’re supposed to be attempting to diversify from.
Considering the impact of the auto industry in our city, I think the mayor’s use of the phrase was appropriate. I mean, I don’t have any illusions that this bailout will see the Big 3 survive in their current form. They’ll need to use it to reduce dealership networks, duplicate product lines etc.etc.etc..
However, I think there’s some other appropriate issues in our city that this term applies to.
If Windsor does not reverse population decline in our core (not just downtown but all the BIA’s) we will “lose a city”
We are following Detroit’s path in the 70’s and 80’s. We are hollowing out our core and look what it did for them. My most recent discovery was the real number of downtown residents. I had always loosely thrown around the figure of 10% decline. In reality, using the DWBIA boundaries the population has shrunk from a high of just under 11,000 to just over 5,000. 50%!!!! Sure, much of that is not necessarily vacant units, its households of 1 and 2 residents that used to be homes to families of 4 and 5.
Windsorites and our councillors seem to think that we need a single development such as a casino, convention center, arena, canal etcc….. as opposed to the not-so-sexy incentives such as residential Tax incentive financing, CIP recommendations, facade grants, leasehold improvement grants, faster implementation of streetscape that London has in place.
Its not an either / or! You need the incentives in order to leverage the larger developments. The casino, bus terminal, convention centers or college campus weren’t wrongheaded decisions in any way to revive downtown, its just that we’ve failed to place what I call the “incentive infrastructure” in place to leverage those developments.
Without those policies and incentives in place, the canal plan, campus or whatever the next silver bullet proposed, will be less likely to work. London figured this out when they built municipal offices in heritage bldgs, built an arena downtown but laid a groundwork of incentives to ensure those decisions yielded spinoff development
If we keep putting off acting on downtown strategy meetings or implementing the plethora of recommendations from the CIP’s and Official planning documents we will in fact “Lose a city”
If our community leaders, especially those at the Chamber and University continue to remain silent on these issues, they will be have done all of our children a disservice. They need to speak up, (even if they disagree) so we can start a debate that our neighbors in London have already had and acted upon.
Post Feedback
Maybe one of the reasons why the University hasn’t commented on this situation is because there is no longer an urban planning program, and those who are educated on this very issue are no longer at the University, or even in the city.
The reason I have put Francis in the doghouse over his admonition that if we don’t bail out the “Detroit 3″ Windsor will die, is the fact that statement just screams out to Windsor citizens that they do not possess the power themselves to do anything about it! Francis is basically saying that without someone coming in and saving us from ourselves, will will roll over and decompose.
What a horrible message for the city’s “spokesperson” to relay to its citizens.
I have no doubt that when the automakers vacate this city (and they will - it’s only a question of when) it will leave a huge hole in our psyche as well as our tax revenue, and that is something for the mayor to be concerned about, and plan for. However, the mayor has a responsibility to the citizens to prepare them for the day that it does happen. It is an opportunity squandered, much like when Bush decided to ignite the fires of hate and division after 9/11 instead of using the global outpouring of concern as an opportunity to promote unity.
We need the people in power in this city to start speaking out about the tough times ahead of us in a realistic fashion instead of protecting their status and positions by remaining deafeningly silent while waiting for “someone else to do it”.
Where are our true leaders in these times of crisis?!?!?
Chris, I agree it was a horrible message for the city’s spokesperson to relay to its citizens and outsiders but for a different reason. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the big picture and Windsor’s advantage. The restructuring and downsizing of the automotive industry in this city is the final piece in reaching a post consumerism economy. This is where North America is going and we’ve got there first. We can reap the first-mover advantage (preempt scarce resources, reputation benefits, learning curve benefits, early profits can be re-invested to improve resource base, etc.)
While almost no one saw this coming it is now becoming clear what is going on. Consumerism is dead and Windsor is the model for the rest of the country, which is why there is a national fascination with our city.
Just watch, the darkest days are behind us. Windsor’s population decline will reverse and population will start to grow quickly. The cities unemployment has peaked. Our affordability cannot be ignored anymore.
Do you see this picture of desperation in Windsor?
http://www.greaterfool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/free-car21.jpg
Congrats Windsor! We are the first in Canada to reach a post-consumer economy. No unaffordable homes, no maladjusted main street economy. We have/are making the difficult adjustments. We are a lean mean machine that is ready to move forward.
We must live without ’sugar daddy’: Economist
http://www.canada.com/must+live+without+sugar+daddy+Economist/1497979/story.html
Yeah! Go 13.9% OFFICIAL unemployment! Go no economic plans! Yeah! Go snubbing levels of gov’t!
If this is your so called post-consumerism paradise you can have it. By the way, Windsor never was on that bandwagon. In fact we were one of the only cities that actually built things and made tangible goods. Compare that with pimps who swapped leveraged morgages for $$$.
If you don’t build a tangible good who is going to buy your “ideas”, your creativeness, your education? (psst, don’t tell Richard Florida that, he is too busy selling snake oil to those who need someting to cling to).
Unemployment is a lagging indicator.
Look at the number of mature students at our college and university. Look at the level of dialogue in the city. Dialogue in the sense of listening not just one-way talking. Look at the ideas that are sprouting up. Look at all of us finally facing reality. Those are leading indicators.
“Windsor’s population decline will reverse and population will start to grow quickly. The cities unemployment has peaked. Our affordability cannot be ignored anymore. ”
I can’t think of a city core that has revitalized and been reborn without a gov’t plan and regional land use policies in place. If our population decline reverses and we have no incentive infrastructure in our core it will be tecumseh, lasalle and lakeshore who will see growth. All while Windsor’s population and demographic continues its decline.
I just want what every other region in Ontario has. Kingstion, Waterloo region, Toronto’s greenbelt. Why are the policies that are implemented throughout our province completely absent from Windsor Essex county
Mark you have never been so right!
Exactly why would ANYONE relocate to the downtown area? What is there to attrat them? Other than pioneers who are trying to set the trend, the majority of people have no reason to go downtown. In fact it has been stated too numerous to mention that the downtown is a place to be avoided!
If canal plans are the remedy, I sure hate to see what is in store for the rest of the downtown. Because if people don’t want to live next to a mile wide river, with an outstanding skyline as a backdrop and a wonderful 8 KM park then why would they live or go downtown to see a 20ft wide canal that is 4 blocks long?
Now imagine taking the money for the canal fiasco (lets call it what it is) and spreading it throughout downtown. Better steetscaping, fountains, incentives as you propose, welcoming signs for people coming downtown…..our ENTIRE downtown would change for the better.
As it is, why would anyone, other than landlords who want to make a quick buck on dilapidated houes, move to the downtown especially if there isn’t any incentive? I can add the reasons why but we already know them. We need to now act upon those reasons and change them.
Even in cities with a great housing stock (though needing work) of Victorian, Edwardian, Richardsonian, etc. housing need incentives and Windsor has very little of those houses left. Will Windsor act upon this or continue to ignore their own CIPs and their own taxpayer funded studies?
W.E Can? You better believe it!
Mark, the plan: smart growth. The catalyst: infrastructure spending. The leaders: well, we will need to mobilize and demand it or else we will have only ourselves to blame.
At a time that we will be rebuilding our infrastructure for the next 50 years the concept of smart growth is critical. I fear, if we get this wrong, we will LOSE a golden opportunity to change our fortunes.
The following comes from:
Understanding Smart Growth Savings
What We Know About Public Infrastructure and Service Cost Savings,
And How They are Misrepresented By Critics
By Todd Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Smart Growth (the future of Windsor?)
Density:
Higher-density, clustered activities
Growth pattern:
Infill (brownfield) development
Land use mix:
Mixed land use.
Scale:
Human scale. Smaller buildings, blocks, and roads. Designed for pedestrians.
Services (shops, schools, parks):
Local, distributed, smaller. Accommodates walking access.
Transport:
Multi-modal transportation and land use patterns that support walking, cycling and public transit.
Connectivity:
Highly connected roads, sidewalks and paths.
Street design:
Streets designed to accommodate a variety of activities. Traffic calming.
Planning process:
Planned and coordinated between jurisdictions and stakeholders.
Public space:
Emphasis on the public realm (streetscapes, pedestrian environment, public parks, public facilities).
Why do we need to make the shift? Smart Growth can provide various economic, social and environmental benefits.
Economic
Reduced development costs.
Reduced public service costs.
Reduced transportation costs.
Economies of agglomeration.
More efficient transportation.
Supports industries that depend
on high quality environments
(tourism, farming, etc.).
Social
Improved transport options and mobility, particularly for non-drivers.
Improved housing options.
Community cohesion.
Preserves unique cultural resources (historic sites, traditional neighborhoods, etc.)
Increased physical exercise and health.
Environmental
Greenspace & habitat preservation.
Reduced air pollution.
Increased energy efficiency.
Reduced water pollution.
Reduced “heat island” effect.
Policy reforms we need to DEMAND.
Smart Growth Reforms
Changing Planning, Regulatory and Fiscal Practices to Support More Efficient Land Use
http://www.vtpi.org/smart_growth_reforms.pdf
Infrastructure catalyst
“Finance Minister Jim Flaherty vowed on Wednesday to speed up infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy, warning that new economic forecasts to be released later in the day will paint a bleaker picture of the coming year.”
My guess is that the emphasis will be on small infrastructure projects that are ready to go or can quickly be developed. So, Windsor what kind of city do you want to grow-up to be? Windsor, do you want to be gluttonous, sprawling and inefficient like Detroit or united, smart and efficient like Copenhagen?
It all boils down to the enterprenuer spirit.
The guy who is willing to go out and make a difference. You start with one, then two and so on.
If the local government doesn’t let the small guys develop, there is less chance the big ones will take hold.
Remember when they said the casino was going to save the downtown?
Remember when they said the Canderal building was going to save the downtown?
Now a canal is proposed and so forth.
Does city structure and policy give the little guy the respect he deserves each and every day he struggles or do we just choke him out with bigger development?
Walkerville has turned into an extraordinary area. Did the city plan that?
Windsor can be the area to come to. We just need to convince the current leaders the population can do it instead of being micro-managed.
I agree, kdduck. What we need is to set the right conditions for success and then let market forces work. But when market forces fail like encourage sprawl then policies are needed to correct the failure and prevent market distortions. Remember the mess we are in was caused by a flawed totally hands-off ideology. Ironically, the failure of this totally hands-off ideology has lead to virtually a command-and-control system.
James Kunstler says that suburbia and the highway system that support it are the “greatest mis-allocation of resources in history” what will so-called stiumulus plans and infrastructure make-work projects be but the final binge spending on a totally unsustainable way of living.
Ready to go infrastructure projects are leftovers from a previous era.
More roads and bridges will not help except that we will get a warm feeling that our government cares enough to spend money they don’t have on crap we don’t need. If we’re going to mortgage our childrens’ future to try to get out of this current financial disaster at least let’s put some thought into the projects we’ll fund.
Transit, local business development, local agriculture and place-making projects like parks and public libraries would be far more beneficial and profit the future.
One point I also wanted to bring up is that why didn’t the mayor use the “lose a city” threat when fighting for the $100 million diversification fund.
For 3% of the autobailout we could be diversifying into new industry. Why doesn’t he tell the feds their bailout package doesn’t include 10% towards funds like the one he proposed that we’d “lose a city”
James, I don’t fully agree, while I fully appreciate that we can’t sustain the suburban infrastructure, we still need roads that take us from city to city and town to town. I think Leamington is sustainable and we will need roads and bridges to that town. We’re going to still need to connect between cities. Its the little “bridges to nowhere” that we must start to decide to cut. I think its important to specify the difference
There are worthwhile ready to go infrastructure projects (BUMP, CIPs, transit investments, etc); whether we choose these over wasting more money is the key.
I have hope, we are so beaten-down that we are willing to re-examine long held doctrines and forget personal motives and do what is right for the city. Maybe I’m naïve but I really belief that.
The FIRST X-URBAN CITY IN CANADA?
I’ve been thinking for several days after hearing the fatalistic and dire comment from our supposed city leader “Lose a city!!” It is his and city councils to lose because he and they have done nothing of importance and that includes the new arena in Tecumseh. If he continues to stall, sue, litigate or whatever non event he is after, Windsor will become Canada’s first x-urban city, a title given to Detroit several years back and is holding true today.
I live in the core, work in the core, don’t own a car and have done so for twenty years but I want out. It came to me the other day, it is a struggle to get anything done in the core, to shop, to meet even the basics of a daily life.
I’m coming to a point of buying a car and moving to Lakeshore or Kingsville anywhere but here! I was born in this city but have lived and worked in other cities across this country and never have I seen such a basket case as this city administration (including all of them for the last twenty years! and back) and a majority of the population that just doesn’t get it, they’re not citizens in the true sense of the word but consumers with a limited vision of their lives and their city.
And I suspect that any infrastructure money this city gets will be squandered on all the wrong things, they don’t dream, have no imagination, no spirit and absolutely NO VISION! Almost all our neighbourhoods are failing and running down. The housing stock of war time homes are not adequate to meet the expectations of today’s modern homes, especially those that are the size of garden sheds on steroids (of one in which I was born into), Sandwich might be historical but let’s face it that’s all its got! Walkerville is the only gem in this city. Sandwich is butt ugly and the coke plant across the river doesn’t help it all. As long as Con Edison runs that coke plant, which has been sighted more times than not by the EPA for particulate violations, nobody is going to move to the west end of Windsor. Perception is everything! Detroit (and by proximity Windsor) because of its air quality has been rated by Forbes recently to be the fourth worst city in the United States in which to live in.
A four block pee trough won’t do it for any developer nor the citizens that might live in that area. As someone said above or on another blog, if they won’t live by a mile wide river with a park, what makes this mayor and city council think that they would live by a pee trough filled with individual urban transportation vehicles (shopping carts.)
Mayors and city councilors have been losing this city for a long time, this city is at the pinnacle of all what has been wrong with urban planning for sixty years and on a whole, butt ugly as a city. Outside of the riverfront park and Walkerville, there’s nothing to point to and plant streetscaping is only lipstick on a decaying pig.
And I heard through some city hall scuttle (overheard in a restaurant downtown) that the mayor and his immediate administration are planning massive budget cuts to museums, libraries and the arts, while protecting the police and fireman in forth coming labour negotiations by putting city employees in different groups and practicing divide and conquer. Also heard that our mayor is working on something big for himself and his family that will take him away from Windsor and that it has to do with produce or something like that and he won’t run in the next municipal election, he’s out of Windsor that is why he is missing so many meetings with all types of departments and committees.
Am I angry at this city and the condition of this city …you bet! Our anal retentive mayor and his myopic vision haven’t served us at all, along with the majority of city council, the double dippers, the Scrooge, the wanna be mayor but with no guts, one that is penny wise and pound foolish, one that is just a clown for comic relief and one that can’t read the cue cards anymore, and the one that wants to be everybodies mother and plays nice!
It’s theirs to lose and they have lost it! We at Scaledown know that but we have a discussion going that doesn’t have to make it so but there is a lack of balls in this city of which even Viagra won’t cure!
Thus ends my rant for today! God bless us all because nobody else is or will!
But with that said above, I have an idea, about a 100 million dollar plus idea. If we can invest/spend 71 million dollars on a private enterprise and eighteen year old boys and minority of people in this city/county, surely a cool hundred mil for the rest us is worth its weight, I think so! But you will have to wait until I polish the draft guest blog that I am writing now.
What I am writing is building for the future, not for the sewer people, not for the sub-urban sprawlers, nor the big boxers and walmarters. As far as I am concern the day of the jocks and jockettes and assembler monkies ruling this city is over. The status quo is so passe!
A few years back, I and a past city councilor were watching them put the finishing touches on the Candyall building downtown and both kind of stated at the same time, that it won’t burn as easy as the Plywood Palace did but will become the weight around the Albatrosses neck, the one that said that this building will make us a world player and on the world map, you can barely see it in Google maps without zooming in to the max! We also agreed that most of Windsor should be bulldozed! That was about six years ago that that conversation took place. It holds true today.
To tease you! The title of what I am preparing is: A New Mall for Windsor!
You temptress, you!
The case for BUMP and RDVIP.
Your choice: transform the city for the 21st century or fill in potholes.
Bikeway Economics
http://www.alanhalberstadt.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10016&Itemid=1
Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany
http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Irresistible.pdf
The case for Transit improvements.
Your choice: transform the city for the 21st century or fill in potholes.
Air quality - A place for political will
http://www.windsorstar.com/quality/1076432/story.html
High frequency transit –
http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/hop-skip-and-jump-aboard-a-boulder-bus/?autostart=true
A little to fatalistic for my palate Urbanrat.
I’m in for the long haul in Windsor, (Although my current work takes me to Tecumseh, the king of unwalkability)
My point is that the “lose a city” phrase was not necessarily wrong to use in that situation, just that the population of the core dropping in half or no moneys available to the mayor’s 100mill diversification fund could “lose a city”
MArk, who’s fault is it that the core (and all BIA’s) are losing population? What is the city doing to keep these residents and/or investing in these neighbourhoods? I haven’t seen much of anything.
Sure the new trees on Dougall look great but that isn’t a neighbourhood (well, to squirrels it might be).
I understand Urbanrat’s feelings of frustration 100%. It shouldn’t be a burden to live downtown and have to drive all over (or take the bus) in order to do the basics of everyday living.
I also understand the same thing when talking about budget cuts (heaven forbid any cuts to a bloated police department. where is a cop when you really need one? Want to save money, start having them walk the beat again). But we cannot tell the police servics how to spend their money due to provincial laws.
That paltry $35,000 for the arts is shameful! But even that might not come to fruitinonext budget session but I am sure there will be lots of extras for legal counsel and PR work. Who wants to have the legacy Eddie is goin to have?
The good news is that the DWBIA has a new Executive Director who does not tow the party line but is very cordial; A true mediator that will give both the city and the residents & businesses what they are looking for. He has some outstanding ideas that don’t cost a lot but would make big impacts.
I too have felt like throwing in the towel but I love my home and no one, not the city, not some stupid piss trough idea (I love that! Because we know that is exactly what is going to happen) is going to tell me otherwise. I believe we need to make ourselves stronger and more vocal and we are, slowly, getting our message out there. Just hang on, changes are coming especially when the passport issue takes place. We may in the end, get our downtown back for the residents of this neighbourhood; Our downtown!
WHose fault is it that our core is losing population? Its all of our fault.
Its the fault of everyone who fails to hold their councillor accountable. You think London’s council just gave the incentives they gave. Wrong. Their citizens voted for councillors who supported it, business leaders made presentations before council, their newspaper called for it. Their university academics studied and endorsed it.
Mark, I usually don’t rant and go rampaging on blogs or in posts but this time around there aren’t even life boats on this ship of a city.
I think Windsor of all cities in Ontario and maybe Canada is the least ill prepared city to survive this economic armageddon that is being waged right now. We were and are now still a one industry town, and don’t talk about diversification or diversity, they have been catch words since the sixties in this city but we always come back to the status quo at the great relief of every mayor and city council who have basically sat on their hands, turned off the lights and went back to sleep.
I am not as optimistic this time around as others here and I’ve been over the years. Money for infrastructure is drying up as our governments struggle to come to understanding what is happening globally now, in finance, in banking, in manufacturing, the trickle down affect from the failure of Wall Street is just now starting to hit main street and the avenue that you live on AND it is just beginning there are several more bubbles to be burst yet.
Go to CBS’s website and the program Sixty Minutes for last Sunday, and search on ALT A and optional ARMS, if you think subprime was bad, wait till this come due! Baby, you haven’t seen anything yet! And to scare you there have been papers written and published two years ago about these types of mortgages and the trouble they will cause.
North America has been over supplied with automobiles for ten years or so, economic meltdown or not GM etal would have eventually gone under anyway.
All the ideas that have ever been and are going to be posted here are great but when you have no leadership, or a leadership that will litigate rather than overcome a personal ego, a city council that is afraid of that leader, then this ship will sink. The voice of the city is more like the voice of sic great OZ behind a big curtain.
I think the construction jobs are a life line that the cynic in me says we won’t even take advantage of.
Diversification is a great catchword but we spent how many years trying to reform our WEDC. London had to go through the same exercise and was only a few years ahead of us.
There’s not enough green industry to go around and its all based on gov’t subsidization of the end product, not just the production.
My fear is more that we’re losing the talent we need to recover
The wrong type of capitulation
I’m horrified when I hear Urbanrat, James, and even Chris (scaledown radio on Monday) so frustrated and tired of the good fight. I expect capitulation. In fact, it is a vital part of revitalizing the city, needed to change long held doctrines and moving towards the right solutions. But I’m hoping it comes from the misguided ones not the champions of the solutions.
I have warned about the coming Armageddon but also that we will be mostly immune from its effects.
http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/poll-results-and-a-guest-blogger-is-windsors-economy-tops-in-canada/#comments
Today, I’m even more convinced that we will make it through this okay. The de-leveraging that is the cause of the economic mess all around us has been going on in Windsor for years an is nearing an end. Economic activity is reaching absolute minimum levels. Signs that Windsor is the place to be are louder than ever. In summation we have nowhere to go but up.
This is the time to do the right things. This is the time to demand those in power listen. Guys, this is the time we need you most.
You are right Mark in that the population is at fault. If we think these people are going to change and vote for councillors who have a clue, then sorry we are screwed.
Just look at how Windsorites cry about spending money on the beautification of our main arteries. They would rather live in a bland, boring, stale city than use tax dollars for the betterment of their own city. The population sorry to say, just can’t see past their own noses.
I believe one of the reasons why Windsorites are this way is because of the low education levels. They don’t know what they are missing.
Another reason is the boondoggles this city gets in with their grandiose schemes. They tout how great ONE idea is and how it will tranform the area that it resides in. In the ned it never does and it costs a fortune to do. Closed door, in-camera meetings sure don’t help the cause either. This city has bred cynics (to which I am one half of the time), apathetic people and so-called naysayers. Why because we haven’t been shown anything else but the above.
Mark, you are right on point when you say we are losing the talent to recover. Who in their right minds would stay here? We are not retaining the graduates of the UofW and we are losing the ones who are already here. As for the WEDC? What a joke that commission has become. They can’t even keep their #1 position and now #2 is gone.
When our leaders continue to pretend they have the answers and it must be done THEIR way is it any wodner people have lost hope? Hasn’t Eddie Francis stated he wanted to change the conversation? He wants to listen? This was nothing but pandering and posturing. The sad part is our council just blindly goes along with it.
Do you now know why they want to re-draw the boundaries and lessen the amount of councillors? It isn’t because they want to save money (how about outsourcing parking to the tune of $500,000+/yr that trumps their $300,000 savings doesn’t it?) It is because it will secure their jobs that is why. The only hope is a complete revamp of city hall by putting money where it is supposed to go, giving Managers and employeed the tools needed to do their jobs, and include them inthe decision making and a complete turfing except a few of the councillors and mayor.
Rather than education, I lay much of the blame on the fact that Windsorites are not well travelled. Because of our direct I-75 corridor to Florida (which coincidentally is the worst planned most sprawled state in the U.S.) and our penchant for all inclusives and cruises, Windsorites simply haven’t seen enough good examples.
Thats one of the many reasons I invested in the Windsor Film festival. I figured I could contribute to Windsorites seeing that there’s a world beyond florida’s gulf coast, Cancun and Cuba.
I always said that the way to change the conversation is to acknowledge and address the other’s concerns so that you could move beyond it.
I like the idea of carving the city up into 8 wards (each ward being a thin slice that includes both inner city and suburbs. Try to get at least one BIA in each ward) one councillar per Ward.
But what are the chances of them redrawing the wards in a way that will not pit suburbs against core residents?
Good point Mark! as in; “I lay much of the blame on the fact that Windsorites are not well travelled.” I to have noticed that about the people of Windsor. For me, Windsor has always presented itself as an inner core suburb of Detroit, a bedroom community of labourers that rather shop and play in Detroit with their car doors locked and breathing a sigh when the border comes in sight. So why should they have to redefine themselves when it has worked for almost a hundred years and they can live the middle class dream without to much work OR education!
Why should Windsorites go looking for good city examples, when they are sated on the status quo! My job yesterday will be the same today as it will be in the future, why change things, why rock the boat, once in, they will have the Chinese Communists version of the “Iron rice bowl.”
Windsorites do travel but its not to great cities, they don’t see themselves as urban but sub-urban consumers of things not of experiencing what a great city is or what it can offer. And that comes back to education and educating, which Windsor sorely lacks across the general population.
Edwin, I’m not capitulating but feeling what has been festering in me for the last twenty years of coming back to this city in which I was born and partially raised in. I left this city with my parents in 1958 for other parts of Ontario when Windsor was a vibrant smaller city and before the devastation of GM and Ford leaving Windsor and we have never really recovered from it. But upon coming back to this city after thirty years away, it was like stepping back in time, I just couldn’t believe it, nothing had really changed except that city now sprawls beyond belief with no change what so ever in attitude, except that the heart of this city is in ruin.
Life will go on as it did for their grandfathers, fathers, uncles, aunts and it will be good for our sons and daughters. Yep! A Wal-Mart on a Saturday night!
We had endless mayors and city councils that did nothing more than maintain the status quo and then only presented knee jerk reactions when it seemed that the situation was going down the tubes, only to rebound to their collected relief. We have never had real dreamers or visionaries in this city, the ones that can see something better because the citizenry never wanted anything better than what everybody else had, an elusive contrived false middle class dream that is now collapsing around us and can’t be maintained.
Edwin, being the eternal optimist that I am, I might agree with you that Windsor is in a good position but I think that we will have to shrink even more before anything good happens. The middle class in the States is being hammered and they aren’t finished being hammered on, now it is creeping into Canada and it will have devastating affects on us. If retirees can’t sell their homes in wherever Canada to move here because the book value of their homes is dropping, and the supposedly the SFN (Something For Nothing, as per Chris) jobs are disappearing rapidly having affordable homes here isn’t going to make the difference. Canadians have a lot of their retirement investment in property and not in liquidity, like the once big three retirees here in Windsor (and now their pensions might be in jeopardy as other cities hooked on the Detroit 3 are.) Who is going to buy their homes if their children have left for somewhere else and nobody elsewhere can move here because of the same situation everywhere and their children are working for less than their parents.
We have to grow our own! Every city in this world is now scrambling to define, re-define itself, all are looking for the next big fix….anything green, anything infrastructure and beyond. All this is going to take time, especially when you have a city leaders and administration that is still operating in the mid twentieth century with the same mind set of the “golden age” when money flowed from SFN, thus not having to put in to much work or care, life will flow on as it did before attitude of just rubber stamp it and move on.
I believe that the only way we are going to get change in this city is not by the ballot but by direct confrontation on every move made by the mayor and council and this city’s administration. In other words, we are going to have to take it to the streets! To challenge, to defy, to re-evolve this city! To tell they aren’t doing a good enough job, they aren’t responding to a city burning around them, while one man fiddles…a…litigates. Expect higher suer fees in the next budget!
Chris Schnurr, Ed Arditti and this great place are the only public voices of this city as far as I am concerned. We can’t really on the Windsor Star to present any real alternative voices or ideas, when ever have they looked at another city and the best practices of that city AND reported on it! I spend ten minutes on line at the Star then buy the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star as good reading newspapers. But that is what Windsorites want a comfortable, grade ten level newspaper that doesn’t raise any real opinion, especially when it comes to reporting on City Hall and one person in particular. I know a lot of educated people who haven’t and won’t buy or read the Windsor Star because it is just that, a safe, comfortable suburban newspaper.
So, what’s left but a handful of good intelligent, well researched blogs, with caring supporters who want more for this city than this city has ever wanted to deliver.
Optimism is fading fast for me, when the majority are waiting for the return of the SFNs! All of North America is waiting for the return of the SFNs! They will never leave us but we won’t recognize them as they once were and at lower wages.
City of lost opportunity (sound familiar)
Mediocre leadership, lack of vision, high costs have squandered Toronto’s once-glittering prospects.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/556657
“MICHAEL WARREN
Twenty years ago Toronto was on the cusp of becoming a world class city. Since then it has squandered that potential. Today it’s just another struggling North American city bracing for the onslaught of the worst recession in living memory.
This lost chance at greatness didn’t just slip away on its own. It is the result of accumulated underperformance on many fronts.
First there is the mediocre political leadership that Torontonians have imposed on themselves since the mid-1980s. The last Metro chairman, Alan Tonks, was well-intentioned. But other than leading Metro toward amalgamation, he was ineffective in dealing with many of the core issues of his decade in power. He was followed by two terms of Mel Lastman (what were we thinking?) – eight years of confrontation, confusion and embarrassment…..”
Great interview with Stephen Roach, must watch big picture stuff.
Themes: global recession, Detroit3 bailout, boom bust cycle, comparison of 1990 Japan to current situation, credit bubble, infrastructure spending, and end of consumerism.
http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=Stephen%20Roach%20Says%20Economic%20Recovery%20Would%20Be%20%60Anemic‘&clipSRC=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vU.NoWBz8CE0.asf
GM Opens Eighth China Plant, Won’t Add Further Capacity Soon
By Tian Ying
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp. opened its eighth vehicle plant in China and said it had no plans for adding further capacity amid slowing demand in Asia’s biggest auto market.
This “has been a big year in terms of expansion” and it “probably will keep us occupied for the foreseeable future,” Kevin Wale, GM China’s president, said by phone today. He spoke from the northeastern city of Shenyang after the opening of the carmaker’s new 2.67 billion yuan ($390 million) plant.
GM expects to boost China sales about 9 percent next year as it adds new models and an economic stimulus plan helps revive overall demand. Auto sales in China have declined in three of the past four months because of the global economic slowdown.
“That is a short-term downturn,” Wale said. We are “building capacity for the long term and we are very comfortable with what we are doing.”
GM, the biggest overseas automaker in China, is counting on emerging markets and U.S. aid to help it survive a plunge in North American sales. The Detroit-based automaker expects to sell as many as 1.2 million vehicles in China next year, Wale said on Dec. 5.
Shenyang Plant
The new factory in Shenyang will be able to make as many as 150,000 vehicles a year, using a two-shift system, the automaker said in an e-mailed statement. The plant is an equal venture between GM and SAIC Motor Corp., China’s biggest automaker.
GM’s total capacity in China is more than 1 million vehicles a year, spokesman Henry Wong said. The carmaker opened a new plant in Qingdao, eastern China, in March with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year.
GM has no plans to shed workers in China, Wale said. The automaker expects a “single digit” increase in industrywide sales next year, helped by China’s $584 billion economic stimulus plan.
The “strong stimulatory action” will “start to kick in in the second half of next year,” Wale said.
The new Shenyang plant will begin full production of Chevrolet Cruze compacts in the second quarter of next year. GM plans to introduce 10 new models in China by 2011, according to Wale. The carmaker added a new Buick Regal on Dec. 1.
GM’s China-made vehicle sales rose 8.1 percent in the first 10 months to 861,458. Its U.S. sales fell 20 percent to 2.56 million. China’s industrywide auto sales jumped 11 percent to 7.83 million in the period, compared with a 15 percent drop in the U.S.
GM and Chrysler LLC are seeking $14 billion in emergency aid from the U.S. government to keep operating through the first quarter. President George W. Bush may decide on the bailout as soon as today, according to a government official who spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tian Ying in Beijing on ytian@bloomberg.net
If you must watch/read the big picture, then read on:
London Banker: “The market has failed, and officialdom is perpetuating that failure.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21486.htm
London Banker blog here and original posting.
http://londonbanker.blogspot.com/2008/12/deflation-has-become-inevitable.html
Great article Urbanrat. On my checklist of unconventional “panic” measures to expect from Bernanke, he is down to dropping money from helicopters. With these types of lunatics running the asylum I still don’t know whether the end game is deflation or hyperinflation.
The rise and fall of the credit bubble!
Follow the credit bubble using the Borrowing Domestic Non-financial Sector from US Flow of Funds (in billions of dollars).
The rise 2000-2005
2000 - $865; 2001 - $1,153; 2002 - $1,412; 2003 - $1,677; 2004 - $1,991; 2005 - $2,323.
The leveling-off 2005-2007
2005 - $2,323; 2006 – $2,422; 2007 – $2,523.
The fall 2008Q1-Q2
2008Q1 - $1,687; 2008Q2 - $1,010.
The Federal government steps in to fill in the hole 2008Q3
2008Q3 - $2,348
But $2,079 or 88% comes from federal government borrowing, which is about a 700% increase from normal levels.
My view on the credit bubble is that whenever credit growth stopped the mal-investments would surface. Credit growth started leveling-off in 2005 to 2007. In Q1 and Q2 of 2008 credit growth dropped-off a cliff. In Q3 of 2008 the federal government began adding huge sums of money to fill-in the hole. These huge sums are unsustainable – adding 2 trillion dollars a year to the already unsustainable US government debt levels means something has got to give.
I.O.U.S.A.
http://www.iousathemovie.com/