PARENTAL ADVISORY! I used the word “assinine” on today’s show. My apologies to the faint hearted!

Well, Mark and I felt the need to prepare as many people as possible about next Monday’s City Council meeting, as there are so many things being discussed that will have a lasting impact on the way that our fair city develops, that we dedicated today’s entire show to it. It’s not as boring as that description sounds, trust me.

It was an unusually energetic day in the studio today. Maybe it was the SnoCone and Cotton Candy that the volunteers at Windsor Welcome Week “made” me eat as I made my way through the throngs of students on campus today, or maybe it was the intensity of emotions that we feel towards todays topic. Whatever it was, we were on fire in the studio today.

Discussion centred around the up-and-coming PAC agenda item going before council, which included the Residual Market Demand And Impact Analysis (RMDIA) that we’ve been waiting a long time to read (and which we wish we had before us last October when Josh and I went before council to speak against the BigBox development rezoning out in the Ojibway Prairie Complex), as well as the Residential Intensification Analysis Report (RIAR) which estimates demand for new housing based on population growth. Both of these are big-ticket items for ScaleDown readers. In a nutshell, the RMDIA is telling councilors that we need to scale back with our fixation on big-box development in lieu of strengthening Windsor’s “Main Streets”, and the RIAR is saying that we need to focus on infill at the expense of suburban sprawl.

Huh?!? Was it Scaledown readers and contributors who wrote these reports?

We wound out the last remaing seconds of the show discussing the progressive ideas behind Fulvio Valentinis’ Community Based Strategic Rail Study, also going before council next Monday. To highlight what we liked - the consultant’s report stressed that if the rationalization plan was to be implimented, the “leftover” rail beds MUST be conserved so that they may be utilized for alternative modes of inter/intra urban transportation. I know - holy crap!

Like we mentioned, it’s going to be a big night at council on September 8. Be there, or be square!

Music:

Lead in tune, as always, was If I Had To Eat You by Ten Indians.

Enjoy!

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ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Tuesday (but will be switching to Mondays on September 15th!), from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

Tags: Alternative Transportation, City Council, Official Plan, planning department, ScaleDown Radio, transportation costs, urban sprawl