Why the Chamber gets it wrong again
First off, the oscar for the best line of the night goes to the …….. DWBIA
“Solving your jobs problem through incorrect planning is like solving your weight problem by taking up smoking”
The Chamber’s main objection tonight was that they outright reject the premise of “Zero sum”. That new rezoning of agricultural and residential land for commercial does not have to result in jobs lost or moved from another area.
Technically, his statement is true, in a perfect world, under normal circumstances, economics is not zero sum. Entrepreneurs are magicians that can create jobs and industry out of thin air, look at apple and microsoft as examples in tech. However, neither of these is true in Windsor. Here are the three things that the Chamber either is denying or ignorant of.
1. Population growth is actually a decline. Job growth is in decline, both are necessary for these expansions to create permanent jobs. Any takers on this bet “next census will show a population decline of a minimum of 1,000 per year for the past 3 years (probably more like 2,000 or up)
2. The past rezonings in Windsor have not lead to job growth in Windsor. At no time has the building of commercial ever resulted in job growth beyond the construction phase. New Big Box strip malls results in less money kept in Windsor than if spent on the businesses in the core.
3. Development charges do not cover the costs of creating infrastructure in these areas and Property taxes do not cover maintenence of that infrastructure. This results in higher property taxes which kill jobs and cause people to exit
Thats why the chamber gets it wrong yet again
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As an addendum, Fulvio is right to point out that we need to work regionally.
Where he goes wrong is in thinking the city should wait for the county to do it.
Never saw a tail wag its dog.
If the county wants to plan poorly then let them, the best thing that Windsor has to compete against Tecumseh for residents is the fact that they do not have a walkable mainstreet. We have plenty of them. Protect them and they explain to tecumseh residents the benefits of living on them when they retire from their Tecumseh McMansions.
BTW, whats the drop in price of homes in Tecumseh Lakeshore vs. the drop in price in homes in South WIndsor. South Windsor holds 10 times better than the homes off patillo
disappointed by the no show from the Windsor Essex County Environmental Committee. They should not let the Chamber’s position unchallenged as rezoning these sites is the number one cause of increased Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT’S)
VMT’s increasing has nullified any increase in CAFE standards which the Auto companies point to for hurting them. Its ironic that WIndsor has nullified the only positive that came from handicapping our Local Auto industry by Windsor’s past poor planning
Mark Boscariol, reporting from Texas, everyone….
(who says we don’t take this stuff seriously)
I think the major disappointment for me tonight was that many of our city councillors were voting while obviously misunderstanding what was being discussed. Oh, that and Valentinis stating how bad it would be for us to put any limitations on the cities developers.
Bradley! Did you catch Halberstadt’s shout-out to the articles you keep sending him? It’s nice to know that someone reads them, eh?
BTW, I said in my post “At no time” thats not true, It should read Not Since Windsor Crossing and Walker/Provincial has rezoning lead to new jobs. Thats means only in the past 20 years have we not seen a net increase in jobs
Submitted a letter to the Editor today, Chris Van der Dolen just doesn’t get it or he’s trying to inflame small business owners like myself
http://www.windsorstar.com/business/Core+land/2733009/story.html
No author, apparently these are the views of the Windsor Star.