Prediction: Watch for todays victory declaration
I wanted to write this post before today’s Windsor star which kind of makes it even more obvious but:
The new DRIC route will have more tunnelling, that will be enough for everyone to declare victory and move on. The point is that we have to move on.
Finally, its over. The real problem throughout all of this was how long it took to make a decision. Hopefully we all pull together and start rebuilding relationships
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All I can say is yes, it is time to move on.
All I can say is yes, it is time to move on.
I guess it’s not over….
Did you see/hear Francis’ reaction? This has only just begun, friends!
No border solution is going to make 100% of Windsor-Essex happy. And the ones who don’t get their way will be the most vocal, making the whole thing seem like a bigger deal than it really is. I have been a fan of Greenlink in the past and from what I can tell DRIC incorporates most of the stuff I liked about Greenlink. Unless there’s something I’m missing that is not making its way through the media filter today, it looks pretty good so far. I hope Francis’ & Co. look at the facts objectively and do not let hurt pride and personal agendas stand in the way of what could be a good solution for “most of us”.
What kills me is that the mayor could have looked better. He could have said that the 1billion increase in DRIC’s proposal was the return on his 5 milliion greenlink investment.
I think they should have declared victory and then said we want some more victories in the form of more covered areas.
Apparantly someone told me that we should have seen Lewenza jr in the parking lot yelling at construction workers to get back in their trucks and go home. From what I heard, pretty bizarre site to behold
At this point you have to weigh more covered areas against what those resources could yield in other areas.
Here’s where I want to come out with a strong opinion. My questions are Why doesn’t this connect to the core through the Huron Line corridor? Why does it stop at E.C. Rowe? Its not about connecting it to the ABC only, its about connecting it to Riverside Drive.
If we don’t sit down with the ABC soon, we will lose are already existing connections from the borders to the core of our city.
I’d like to see the resources that would be put towards improving the DRIC proposal put towards finishing this routs connection to the Bridge and the connection from this route and the bridge to downtown and the rest of the city’s core.
You do realize that it’s basically the same proposal as before, right? They added some trails along it, sure, but comparing the new proposal with the old, it’s the same for the most part. The tunnels look to be mostly unchanged in the bulk of the city. The reality is that the Greenlink is still head and shoulders better than the DRIC proposal.
Compare for youself:
http://www.weparkway.ca
http://www.greenlinkwindsor.com/visualoverview.htm
Huge PDF of the new proposal here: http://www.weparkway.ca/pdfs/Parkway_TEPA_MediaWebsite.pdf
They haven’t really finished everything, only to tell the public Eddie is not getting his way.That is the milestone.
The major players are on board and want something done.
The Province wanted to shut Eddie up and this was the perfect way to do it.
If Eddie starts legal action againsst the Province he will be inviting the wrath of everyone and not just the MPP’s.
Eddie’s career is sinking, fast.
I can’t wait for the Spit’s contract to come out. Of course Eddie will be too busy planning his retirement with the litigations to come from his legal consultants.
What a way to job security.
I know that Greenlink is better than DRIC, more tunneling will always be better than less. However, how much more at how much cost.
I don’t really get th numbers but someone told me that it was 1 billion more than what was proposed a year ago. Thats a victory. If they could negotiate more tunnels than that would be more victories.
I still like the fact that you can sell this as being a billion dollar return on our city’s 5 million greenlink investment. Whats the ROI on lawsuits and more investment?
BTW, these are my views only, the rest of the folk at scaledown haven’t weighed in.
I just look at it like this, Right now we have x pollution and community connectivity created by the current situation. For 1.6 billion we will reduce it by a factor of Y. Y is very large, it takes into consideration below grade highways, the stop and starts and the covered areas included in DRIC.
If the city gets greenlink we will reduce it by Y+Z. the province believes Z is not enough of a further reduction to justify another billion dollar expenditure.
Lets face it, The city is negotiating from a position of weakness. The city has a community divided, a best case scenario of only achieving a lengthy delay, acrimonious relations with the province and you watch, a further split within council.
The delay in making a decision is the source of our community’s strife. That delay is not worth the price
Again this is my opinion and my opinion only
I was listening in the CBC radio yesterday (forget which program - sorry) and the host and guest were discussing the DRIC/Greenlink circus and mentioned something that I’ve never heard a major media outlet proclaim over the airwaves. And it thrilled me to death.
They were discussing the current global resource problems and whether or not constructing infrastructure to accomodate and encourage more transport truck traffic was the direction to take! Yes, thse who know me know that this is the prime reason my voice has been so silent during the whole Greenlink debate and this is precisely my point of view. But I heard someone else say it! On the radio, no less!!
I know the reasons we say we need Greenlink, and I know that any of these solutions that are being offered to us will give us a level of connectivity that we haven’t seen before between communities. (like Mark - I would like to see this connection run right into Windsor’s core, however) That said, I view this exercise solely as a political football. I don’t believe it is going to bring forth all the benefits that it’s cheerleaders say it is going to do (air quality, etc.) but I know that it is an “investment” that must be made to cover a lot of political ass.
Those are my thoughts, not yours
How do you keep a straight face when talking about the importance of connectivity of neighborhoods when its death defying to get a bike accross the E.C. Rowe Expressway.
Hasn’t the city already stated where it places its importance on neighborhood connectivity with the expressway
Doesn’t the fact that its death defying to ride a bike from south Windsor across the expressway at Walker, Howard, Ouellette and Dominion pretty much show what our city standard is?
Why not this, accept DRIC as is and ask the province if we can take them up on their offer of taking over the E.C.Rowe provided they bring the crossings up to DRIC (sub)standards at those 4 intersections?
I would love to dump the expressway onto the province.
There’s not much I hate more than knowing that my hard-earned tax dollars are going to increase the capacity of a road that is doing nothing but accomodating and encouraging commuters to drive out to their ex-urban bedroom communities, taking their property tax doallars with them!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!