Light at the end of the tunnel? (updated)
I know - a lot of people will view this footage from last nights city council meeting as another lost battle in a war that is destined to consume us. True - Big-Box won another one last night. But I would just like you to consider that; A) Councillor Halberstadt is unwavering in his objection to the status quo, B) council actually voted AGAINST Coco, and C) Councillor Hatfield is trying to broker talks between “Walkable Urbanism” activists and the developers of sprawl.
Part One
That is a big step forward, folks. It may not seem like it at the moment, but when you witness Lee Anne Doyle dancing like crazy to make big-box a little less horrible, you know that all this lobbying is having an effect.
Part Two
So watch the proceedings and make up your mind. I am including chapters 1 and 2 now, as YouTube is terribly slow at processing these videos and chapters 3 and 4 aren’t ready right now. Check in later tonight for the ending of this “cliffhanger“!
Part Three
The Final Chapter
I also wanted to take this opportunity to express my regrets to everyone who has offered up their services as delegates in future Big-Box debates. This one sort of snuck up on us and we were rushing around last-minute to arrange our delegation. Blame it on the Planning For The Future event or our lack of organization skills. We will do our best to keep everyone in the loop in the future, and would appreciate it if you did the same for us 
Tags: big box retail, City Council, Downtown, local economic development, PAC, pedestrian, planning department, revitalization, Urban Design, urban sprawl, Video
Post Feedback
I was going to post that you forgot to get a hold of me to speak as a delegate. We wil get them next time.
I truly believe that people are starting, though somewhat, to understand that their property taxes (and the multitude of levies) are directly linked to this unsustainable sprawl. This sprawl that isn’t being made because of our population is exploding but because developers and the city are looking at their own best interests. Money the developer makes and the money that goes into the city coffers today.
The sad reality is that there is absolutely little planning by our city leaders that will help us in the future.
Does a person cut of their arm because there is a hang nail? No!
P.S. the streaming is a bit lagging.
It appears to me and this is my opinion but there seems to be an elite list of developers in this city, that don’t have to waste their time with the city planning department but go right into the mayor’s office to get what they need, who then tells city council how to vote on all their glorious designs.
Why do we have a city planning department at all, to continuously produce glossy reports and hold tonnes of time wasting meetings with other planning officials from the county, who reports don’t matter either, to show the public that their money isn’t being wasted and they are progressive…….in language only, I dear say! But not in action!
Forty or so years of futility, plan after plan after plan, imagine how green our city could have been, if those trees weren’t cut down for paper. If those plans really meant something, we would have a city that isn’t the city we have now and no future plan would have been needed!
The true name of the city planning department should be called the Knee-jerk department along with city council, always afraid that some developer will take their grand development somewhere else more accommodating, they swallow their plan and let unbridled development go ahead, to the future detriment of this city. But is presented as a grand design, a real keeper for the city, it will put us on the map! I dear say…To ruin and future unsustainability but what the heck it looks good now and it really shows the city is progressive! And the Windsor Star will print the buzz! And we will have to go and dig it up again to point to the city, their failures in the not so distant future!
This newest development will go a long way in making “The New Windsor,” or otherwise known as the Kingdom of Eddie, that which is east of Lauzon Road more livable for the SUVers and Vanners, and they won’t have to travel to that old mall that is accessible by bus and poor people. But it will make the SUVers feel good about themselves because everyone in that new development will just be like them, rich, upper middle class, clean, speak English with no accent and be able to spend to their hearts content and not worry about the cost of anything!
So go ahead and build the Blandwell development, you will eventually pay for it and this citizen will remember, so when you come asking for a bail out, I and others will be your worst nightmare!