1. Mark Boscariol on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 9:04 pm Reply

   I am curious why my comment in the Windsor Star about this article did not make the comment section. Didnt’ save it but basically it pointed out

   “Around Town measures a city’s walkability, airport activity, commute times and mass transit opportunities.”
   “Windsor did particularly badly in Earning and Around Town”

   I said that the Around Town Category is essentially Scaledown’s raison D’etre (other than airport activity)
   That it is pretty much included in our our mission and vision statement. That until we acknowledge and address this issue Windsor will not succeed in any ranking of a city which covers this area in one way or another.

   I wonder if it is the mentioning of scaledown.ca that stops my comments from being published or if it they somehow didn’t receive it. I will email them this question.

2. Mark Boscariol on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 9:10 pm Reply

   P.S. Chris I think we need to keep hearing this news until it penetrates our collectively thick skulls that we have to address the specifics that got us this result.

3. Tristan on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 9:29 pm Reply

   I just watched the podcast about the NGC study. I too often wonder whether anybody in our civic administration is tracking how we’re doing on these various indices and why the liveability imperative doesn’t inform more council debates. There should be a website that tracks these things year over year, and if we continue to languish, councillors ought to find something else to do with their spare time.

   I couldn’t help but cringe as I watched the montage of Tim Hortons, strip clubs, speedy car commutes and massage parlours in the report. It would have been nice for News at Six to have juxtaposed all of that crapiness with at least a couple of the city’s real gems like the Pause Cafe, which rivals any Montreal or Toronto soup shop I ever ate in, or the Fringe Festival, which seems to really be on an upward trajectory.

   The good news is that contrary to the doom and gloom people are starting to get the need to change and countless creative people are pouring their hearts into transformative projects across the city.

   The social capital measure we ranked well in is accurate and is going to pay off.

4. Mark Bradley on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 6:00 am Reply

   I am really grinning, heck, I’m gloating over this statement in yesterday’s Windsour Star article;

   “He did point out that Windsor did well in the Learning index because of its libraries and post-secondary institutions, as well as in Social Capital.”

   http://tiny.cc/ptaR9

   “Because of its libraries!” As much as the mayor and council have run us into the ground, in their mean spiritedness to gain control of Windsor Public Library, WPL gets a good rating in the Learning index in this study!!

   Libraries and post-secondary institutions - two institutions the mayor does not control, does that tell you something!

   Windsor Public Library, the lowest funded public library system in Canada per capita becomes one of the only bright spots in this study.

   Windsor’s greatest export for the last 80 years has been this class of people Next Cities talks about. For eighty years, the status quo of the auto industry and its under educated, over paid assembler monkeys held this city by the throat, making it hard for any other business or profession or creative person to get a foot hold in this city, so they left. And all the mayors and city councils during this time, including the current government are still blind and hostile to this class (just reflex on the budget this year and who got the money and who didn’t get the money and it will tell you why we can’t attract the creative class!) to the change and are still clinging against all hope that the auto industry as they know it will come back to Windsor.

   Our mayor and city council are just as bankrupt for ideas and actions as is the once big three auto industry is now.

   I hope Councillor Gignac is enjoying her free lunch!

5. juxtaposeur on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 7:09 am Reply

   I am wondering how this drive to attract and retain young people jives with Windsor’s dream of re-inventing itself as the retirement capital of Canada? I am not saying these are mutually exclusive and certainly a happy middle ground could be achieved, but given the one-track approach Council usually takes I am wondering who is going to be left in the dust.

   1. Edwin Padilla on Friday, July 31, 2009 at 6:20 am Reply

      Juxtaposeur, in my opinion, there are a lot of synergies to be harvested from a strategy to target the three particular market segments of young professionals, seniors, and tourist. In addition, Windsor has a very competitive product if we chose to offer it properly. Finally, we would all benefit as a result.

      Nuff economic talk, what does this mean?

      First, to try to understand the synergies we need to look at the three groups from an economic sense. From an economic sense you have to look at young professionals as long-term human capital; seniors as long-term financial capital; and tourist as short-term cash. Through their training and schooling young professionals have built-up a nest egg, of sorts, of human capital. Over their lives they will convert this human capital to financial capital through work. Seniors are at the other stage in the time line. They have a nest egg of financial capital that they built over a working life. Thus, seniors bring long-term financial capital. Tourist can be view as short-term cash.

      In my opinion, the key lies in that all three market segments are joined by one thing: disposable income. Young professionals anticipate having more disposable income as they pay-down debt and their salaries rise. Seniors have the financial resources and the spare time to slowly over the long-term dispose of their built-up income. Dido for tourist but in a short-term, immediate, cash in fist sense.

      Now, what we all dispose our income on is similar no matter who you are. Certainly, it would be wise to tailor and position our product to appeal more to these three market segments but there will be a lot of overlap regardless.

      Second, I’ll keep saying this: Windsor has the potential to be at the top of this list if we wanted to. We have all the major elements to lead in this study and many other quality of life and economic studies if we choose to. We have the moderate weather of Victoria minus all the rain. We have the wonderful waterfront of Halifax minus the cheap carnival feel. We have the big city amenities of Vancouver and Toronto with the small city feel of Ottawa and Kingston. All we lack is the desire to take advantage of these opportunities. This is sad because we would all benefit from the quality of life and economic improvements that would be the result.

6. Dave on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 7:41 am Reply

   Chris, your second question really is a hard-hitting one which I am sure most of our elected officials can’t answer! I am doubly sure that there is no plan either (we still need partnerships with the UofW).

   Until the WEDC starts to look at investments from entrepreneurs for new post-secondary graduates we will continue to lose them to other more PROGRESSIVE cities.

   Let’s face it. Windsor is a stagnant city if even a backwater community. The mindset of most of this population is startlingly narrow-minded, but it is changing. Especially with civic-minded people such as Scaledown, Internationalmetropolis and a few of the business-owners in the core.

   I think a two-pronged approach should be looked at when trying to attract new residents. Retirees AND youth. But until this city starts to focus on diversifying the economy (more serviceable lands at the airport is not the answer, we have many empty buildings now) and on QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES we will never succeed regardless of the rhetoric spewed forth by our politicians.

7. Chris Holt on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 8:05 am Reply

   You hit the nail on the head, Jux. I guess it could be argued that with the attraction of the retiring boomers comes jobs in the service industry to make their time here more appealing, but should that be the single-minded goal (as you mentioned) of this administration?

   Nail the kids filtering through our post-secondary institutions into LOVING this city during the brief time they’re living here (see the Young and Restless Study for their potential impact in a community) and they are more likely to settle down and start their businesses and families here. That gives them decades of contributing to Windsors economy and quality of life as opposed to a decade (max) that each retired boomer brings.

   But don’t alienate anyone! That’s what got us in the predicament we are currently experiencing.

8. Margaret on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 9:12 am Reply

   I am curious about something in this study - although Windsor was 24 out of 27, there are 33 census metropolitan areas in Canada with populations over 100,000 so there another 6 not reported here including Peterborough and Gatineau. That doesn’t mean that coming 24 out of 33 is great, but its not quite as bad as coming 24 out of 27. (For those who will reply that CMA is not the same as city, for purposes of attracting people, CMA is highly relevant. In fact, in Windsor’s case, the proximity to Detroit is a huge selling factor. And, the only reason Abbotsford (which is a dump) made the list at all is its proximity to Vancouver.)

   I also agree that we have to grow the population of young professionals, but my experience is that Windsor has not had a retention problem until very recently. Only in the last couple of censuses has the issue of net population decline been raised as a problem. In fact, anecdotally, Windsor has a very, very high retention rate - stunning by comparison to many of the cities in the study with which I am familiar. Some of us think that we need to do less retention and more attraction - that is, send our home growners away to tell people what a gem Windsor is and get some new folks with energy and new ideas to move in.

9. pc on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 10:31 am Reply

   the local paper reported on this study and interviewed a couple people about it. One of them being Patrick Perischilli, the vice president of WEDC. The article states:

   Patrick Perischilli, vice president of the Windsor-Essex Development Commission, also pointed to Windsor’s proximity to Detroit. It’s something the study seemed to overlook.
   “Being a border city is a huge competitive advantage for us, which I think is always underestimated,” says Perischilli…”You’ve got access to Detroit’s sports teams, you’ve got incredible entertainment venues you can tap into.”
   But he was quick to point out the Windsor side has many homegrown “jewels”.
   “We’ve got a tremendous opportunity in terms of being a diverse culture centre which obviously is important to a lot of people.”
   “Our wineries are fantastic. We’ve got Pelee Island, which is an incredible place to visit….”

   What disturbs me most about this article is that we don’t hesitate to mention the “jewels” outside the city….but what about what actually exists WITHIN THE CITY?

   I appreciate that we live next to Detroit and love that we have the county, but if we are ever to move forward from this mess we are in, we need to start celebrating and embracing what actually exists in our own city. Look within. Our city has the potential to be great. Yet, many citizens (not all) consistently neglect the wonderful things we have right here. Invest in the city…and I don’t mean with just dollars but with time and energy.

   If our own WEDC can’t point out what is great about Windsor, the people who are supposed to promote us, then how can we expect others to?

10. Mark Boscariol on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 1:36 pm Reply

    Margaret, where is the information regarding Windsor’s retention coming from? I’d like to know what are retention rate is compared to London.

    I have always assumed we had a poor retention rate for those with post secondary education.

    Just had my Chef consultant announce he got a job at the Bayfield Inn.

11. Mark Boscariol on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 1:36 pm Reply

    Margaret, where is the information regarding Windsor’s retention coming from? I’d like to know what are retention rate is compared to London.

    I have always assumed we had a poor retention rate for those with post secondary education.

    Just had my Chef consultant announce he got a job at the Bayfield Inn.

    1. Tim Miron on Friday, July 31, 2009 at 6:50 am Reply

       Just a note: I moved here from London and prefer Windsor by far. As a city, London has recently been much more progressive and has made some great choices - but that wasn’t always the case. When we moved here in 1999-ish, Windsor WAS “The place to be”.

       Before we moved, I remember watching a documentry on a local TV program in London about the decay of their downtown and how their city was being overlooked and failing to attract investment or retain the huge flow of young talent that flows out of the UWO. This is in stark contrast to the present.

       The one huge point I think Windsor has over London is our culture / our people. London can be a very nose-in-the-air, dont-talk-to-me-cause-I-dont-know-you, snobby type of city. I was culture-shocked on many occassions after moving to Windsor that complete strangers would strike up conversations, or even at the amount of cultural diversity our city has.

       All of that said though, in recent, London has made much better decisions to turn their ship around while Windsor continues on the same dead-end course. Just my two cents.

    2. Margaret on Friday, July 31, 2009 at 9:44 am Reply

       The retention stuff is strictly anecdotal. In every other city in which I have lived and worked as a professional, almost all my colleagues were from somewhere else. Here in Windsor where both my spouse and I are professionals, all our colleagues are from here - born here, all degrees from U of W, all family here and want children to stay here. From my current desk 10 of the 12 people out my door are from here, studied here and stayed here.

       Faculty report that they can’t beg or bribe grad students to consider other universities for advanced degrees - which is in U of W’s interests because it spreads the good work they do far and wide.

       So, I admit that it is not scientific but it does seem significant.

12. Mark Bradley on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 4:26 pm Reply

    THE HUMBLING OF DETROIT NORTH, if it weren’t for bad news, Windsor wouldn’t be noticed:

    From the Economist magazine as mentioned in the Windsour Star.

    THE HUMBLING OF DETROIT NORTH
    Jul 30th 2009

    http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14140341%20

    The decline of America’s car industry has hurt the Canadian economy
    too. Revival depends on making it easier to cross the border–or on
    seeking markets elsewhere

    FOR almost a century the fate and fortune of Windsor, Ontario, have
    been intertwined with those of Detroit, Michigan. General Motors (GM),
    Ford and Chrysler made cars on both sides of the Detroit River, sending
    parts and vehicles back and forth at will. Windsorites worked in the
    car plants, loyally bought the cars, followed American sports teams,
    and thought nothing of driving over the Ambassador Bridge or popping
    through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel for a night on the town.

    So the collapse into bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler has brought Windsor
    down along with Detroit. A blue-collar city of 273,000 people, Windsor
    now has the highest jobless rate in Canada (14.4%) and faces an
    uncertain future. Its decline is visible on Ouellette Avenue, the main
    commercial artery. On some blocks, more shops have shut down than are
    still open. The brightest sign on the street announces the grand
    opening of Dollarama, a deep discount store. On the riverside promenade
    the headquarters of Chrysler Canada, opened with much hoopla in 2002,
    stands partly empty, a “For Rent” sign on the plate-glass window of its
    showroom. Truck traffic between Windsor and Detroit–the busiest
    crossing-point on the Canadian border–fell by a third in the first six
    months of this year compared with the same period in 2008.

    Windsor’s woes are echoed across southern Ontario, the heartland of
    industrial Canada, which depends on exporting to the United States.
    Tighter security at the border after the terrorist attacks of September
    2001 and a stronger Canadian dollar constrained the region’s economy
    even before the American economy plunged into recession in late 2007,
    with Detroit leading the decline.

    Between them, Canada’s federal government and Ontario’s provincial
    administration contributed C$14.5 billion ($13.4 billion) to the
    bail-outs of GM and Chrysler. That was enough to deter them from
    pulling out of the country. But they will cut a slimmer figure. Output
    and employment in Canada’s car industry will end up at least a third
    below the 1999 peak of 3m vehicles and 160,000 workers at assembly
    plants and parts-makers, says Dennis DesRosiers, an industry analyst.
    It helps that Toyota and Honda, with factories in Ontario, are keeping
    most of their workers.

    Ontario’s problems go wider than cars. Recession has curbed demand for
    its minerals and forest products. Nortel, a telecoms firm that was once
    Canada’s leading high-tech company, recently entered bankruptcy. Bits
    of it are being sold off piecemeal. Two-thirds of the 370,000 jobs lost
    in Canada between October 2008 and June 2009 were in Ontario, most of
    them in manufacturing.

    Ontario’s economy is still the biggest in Canada. But it is no longer
    the richest. Indeed Ontario is now classified as a have-not province,
    making it eligible for handouts from a federal fund to equalise public
    spending across the country. It has even been granted its own federally
    funded economic development agency.

    Some pundits reckon that rather than bailing out industrial dinosaurs
    government should be encouraging new technologies. Supporters of Dalton
    McGuinty, the province’s premier, say that he had no choice but to help
    to bail out the car industry because of its size. (He also offered a
    subsidy of C$10,000 to each purchaser of an electric car.) Critics
    contrast this largesse with the government’s failure to help Nortel.
    Stephen Harper, Canada’s Conservative prime minister, faces nationalist
    pressure to veto a bid of $1.1 billion from Sweden’s Ericsson for its
    wireless technology division and find a Canadian buyer.

    Even in car-mad Windsor people are starting to realise that change is
    inevitable. Eddie Francis, the mayor, says he hopes to make the
    municipal airport a processing centre for perishable cargo. He says
    that some of the city’s car-parts makers have started supplying oil
    companies and Quebec’s aerospace industry.

    But diversification is not easy. Caesars Windsor, a massive casino,
    convention centre and hotel aimed at the 17m Americans who live within
    a three-hour drive, is suffering along with the car industry. Its
    workforce has shrunk from a peak of 5,400 before 2001 to 3,800 today.
    “It’s not true that casinos are recession-proof,” says Keith Andrews,
    the casino’s spokesman. He is sitting in the hotel’s 10,000 square-foot
    (930 square-metre) lobby, where statues of Roman gods and goddesses
    outnumber guests.

    Canada’s economy, like that of the United States, shows signs of
    recovery. Though weakened, the car industry will survive. The biggest
    headache for places like Windsor may be the thickening border. Since
    June 1st those returning to the United States from Canada have been
    required to show a passport (or another approved identity document),
    where a driving licence was always sufficient. Janet Napolitano, the
    secretary for homeland security, talks of treating America’s northern
    border more like its southern one with Mexico (where the building of a
    fence on long stretches continues).

    Security measures are not the only impediment to travel between Detroit
    and Windsor. The privately owned Ambassador Bridge and the public road
    and rail tunnels that link the two cities are old and narrow. Plans to
    build a new bridge, or add a span to the existing one, have bogged down
    in lawsuits. The owner of the Ambassador Bridge wants to protect his
    near-monopoly.

    Like it or not, Canada is uncomfortably dependent on the United States
    as a market, with 76% of its exports going to its southern neighbour.
    Mr Harper’s government has tried to open new markets. It is now
    negotiating a free-trade agreement with the European Union, for
    example. But places like Windsor, just a short stretch of water from
    the flickering beacon that is Detroit, can only hope that the American
    economy is quickly restored to health.

13. SBW on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 10:06 pm Reply

    Hey, look on the bright side - less people less sprawl

14. Peter Moorhouse on Friday, July 31, 2009 at 10:24 am Reply

    I just wanted to say that I applaud and appreciate the positive discussion happening on this blog site. I work for NGC (I’m the Canadian), and I’ve been disappointed at the consistently negative focus of the media. The purpose of the release of the list is to provoke constructive discussion, and that’s exactly what I see here. I’ll check back, in case anyone has any questions that I might be able to answer about the list and the ranking.

    1. Chris Holt on Friday, July 31, 2009 at 10:30 am Reply

       Thank you Peter. We have always tried to look at ways to improve our community, and work to accentuate the positives while working to correct (but not dwell on) the negatives, and comments like yours prove to me that we are succeeding.

       I feel that the ScaleDown community is one of the brightest lights in Windsor’s future, and we welcome studies like NextGen’s that help us identify and achieve our goals. Thank you so much for your insights!

    2. Chris Holt on Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:12 am Reply

       Peter, I would invite your insights into today’s Opinion piece written by The Windsor Star’s editorial staff. It calls into question the conclusions NextGenConsulting reached in your study.

       
       

       Our city

       Cold statistics versus warm reality

       The Windsor StarJuly 31, 2009

       No city’s perfect, but Windsor has a lot more going for it than Next Generation Consulting seems to realize. The U.S.-based company rated our city 24 out of 27 in a survey of the top Canadian spots for young professionals to live and work.

       How did they do it? Certainly not by visiting our fair city to experience our attributes up close and personal. The firm collected three-year-old statistics, created seven categories and scored us based on the “cumulative” result when they tallied the numbers.

       We appreciate some might think we’re a little over-sensitive when we say, categorically, that Next Generation is wrong in its assessment. So let’s dispel the notion that we lack objectivity by first agreeing with the research firm and saying yes, you’re right: Windsor does have some issues when it comes to air and water quality. These problems are apparent, and they’re being addressed.

       When it comes to green space, we can only imagine how pleasant it would have been for your researchers to roller-blade or bike along our waterfront, or to relax in any of our magnificent parks. How unfortunate you didn’t have the time.

       Those other six areas that influenced your decision have us baffled. When it comes to learning, we’re hard to beat. Windsor is well-known for its law, engineering and medical schools. This year, the University of Windsor joined with St. Clair College to form a partnership that sets an exciting new benchmark in education. Our “social capital” is also legendary. Windsor is safe, accessible, diverse, generous, loyal and community-minded.

       True, that earning index you talk about has suffered recently, thanks to the global economic meltdown. But for generations Windsor has enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the country, and as we continue to diversify the local economy — so important to young professionals — we are confident the city will top the list again.

       That brings us to the cost of living, and surely there’s no better place to put down roots than Windsor. Buying a house or renting an apartment is, enviably, more affordable here than in most cities of comparable size.

       But what really makes us scratch our heads in astonishment is the assumption that Windsor folds its tent every day at five o’clock.

       Next Generation gave us poor marks for our “After Hours” opportunities, which is simply ridiculous.

       It’s not just that we have bars, restaurants and first-rate entertainment at places like Caesars Windsor, although these venues have been exciting enough to bring young American professionals here in droves.

       It’s the fact you cannot talk about Windsor without factoring in Detroit. Residents and visitors alike embrace Detroit bars and restaurants, major league sporting events and cultural spots as our own. We have all the benefits of big-city living while enjoying a small-town lifestyle, and what could be more cosmopolitan than that?

       With all due respect to Next Generation, it is thoughtless to take hard, cold statistics — outdated ones at that — and use them to misrepresent a community. Stats cannot speak to the lifeblood of a city or capture its vibrancy. So next time, take a day. Stay a spell. We think you’ll like it here. Especially the night life.

       © Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

       I would suggest that you write a letter to the editor ([email protected]) and feel free to plug the good work we’re doing here at Scaledown.ca

15. Peter Moorhouse on Friday, August 7, 2009 at 10:28 am Reply

    Thanks for the heads-up on the editorial. I did respond, but so far as yet it has not been published. So I wanted to at least post it here for your readers:

    To the Editor,

    Since the release of Next Generation Consulting’s Canadian Next Cities list last week, we’ve had a great deal of interest from community stakeholders in Windsor who were concerned about the city’s ranking. I am writing today to respond to the editorial “Cold Statistics, Warm Reality” (Windsor Star, July 31 2009).

    Firstly, it is true that our ranking is not based on the subjective experience of spending time on the ground in each of the cities named to the list. Our ranking is based specifically on quantitative measures, gathered from sources like Statistics Canada, that are comparable ‘apples to apples’ from one city to another to ensure that the ranking is equitable. Moreover, our list uses more individual measures (43) than most other ranked lists. These measures aren’t arbitrary; they have been tested and proven through the research NGC has done with Gen X and Gen Y since 1998 - nearly 40,000 survey responses and counting - studying the choices they make in the companies they work for, and the cities in which they live. These measures, and the Seven Indexes they fall into, are reliable predictors of a community’s ability - or potential ability - to attract and retain young, talented knowledge workers.

    That being said, I have personally spent a great deal of time in Windsor, and I agree wholeheartedly with the point that there is much to be experienced in the city that can’t be measured by statistics alone. There is no readily-available statistic, for example, for the number of rollerblade paths on a waterfront, but I know Windsor’s riverfront is beautiful. And while access to Detroit’s amenities is undoubtedly a great benefit to living in Windsor, it is true that we don’t give bonus points for being near a larger city.

    I would like to highlight a fact that seems to have been overlooked in many of the conversations we’ve had: there is more to the data than just the ranking. No city on our list scored well in every one of the Seven Indexes we measure. And within each of the Indexes, Windsor scores better than average on many individual measures. For example, in the Learning Index, Windsor scores better than average in student-to-teacher ratio, expenditure on education, and the number of WiFi hotspots. In the Earning Index, Windsor’s median income is above average. Couple that with the lower-than-average housing and transportation costs in the Cost of Lifestyle Index, and Windsor has an excellent value proposition for many young professionals. In the After Hours index, Windsor did (as the editorial pointed out) score very well in the number of bars, restaurants and entertainment options.

    Perhaps most significantly, Windsor scored far better than most cities - better, in fact, than four of the top five - in the Social Capital index. Windsor’s volunteer rate, ethnic diversity and religious diversity are all well above that of the average city. This is a fact of which Windsor’s citizens should be very proud. And rest assured - these factors are powerful drivers for young talent.

    These are tremendous strengths upon which to build, and we sincerely hope that the Next Cities list has kick-started a discussion in Windsor about how to capitalize on its assets, and to ensure that - as we firmly believe is the case - Windsor’s best days are ahead.

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