Did you know that Windsor was the very first municipality in Canada (many even claim North America) to have an electric streetcar line?

Of course you did. You read the blogs and are aware of Windsor’s storied past. Many, however, had no clue that we once possessed a public transportation system that many other cities looked to for inspiration. Whoda thunk, eh?

So today, we (Andrew was camping up on the Bruce Peninsula, so I was joined in-studio by Ron Drouillard of “All In A Days Work” fame) welcomed noted local transportation historian Bernie Drouillard, as well as historian and blogger John Stefani into the studio with us to give us an idea of just what Windsor had that made all these other municipalities so envious. And indeed they did, painting a transportation picture that made me want to go back in time and experience a more walkable, pedestrian friendly Windsor. As John said during the show: it happened once before, which means it isn’t impossible to do again!

“The fact that we’re becoming more environmentally conscious and becoming more green will make public transit and public transportation infrastructure projects more and more important.” stated Patrick Persichilli, vice-president of the WindsorEssex Development Commission.

“In Europe, the cost of oil and petrol has been significantly higher than in North America for years and that’s created a greater need for public transportation infrastructure projects,” said Persichilli. “We’re headed that way as well.”

“It will also decrease the reliance on automobiles, thus reducing pollution with all the added benefits for health, helping the natural environment and reducing congestion,” added Lindsay Boyd, outgoing chairman of the board of the Windsor Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce.

With our elected officials claiming “History has shown us that access is critical to economic development,” as Fulvio Valentinis did, it’s not that difficult to speculate that they would support the investigation into implementing a streetcar component into Windsor’s current public transportation scheme. Yeah - alright. All these quotes were taken from todays article in the Windsor Star espousing the benefits to be realized from a high-speed rail link from Windsor to Montreal, but why can’t they also pertain to a streetcar system in Windsor? Seeing how council voted in February to spend $42,500 to become part of a HSR feasibility study, surely they would be interested in taking a peak at the benefits to Windsor of a reintroduced streetcar system, right?

Well, they will get the opportunity in October when a local group will be cohosting an exhibit on the history of Windsor’s streetcar system with the Art Gallery of Windsor. Guest curator Andrew Foot will be teaming up with Bernie Drouillard, who has been archiving any-and-all evidence he can find of Windsor’s system for decades, along with John Stefani who has been working tirelessly to bring Bernie’s collection to the masses, to create a show that will hopefully enable visitors to step back in time to another, more vibrant Windsor. Running from October 3 to January 3 at the AGW, there will also be a public information component of the show. For the opening, expect a public forum with Bernie Drouillard (date TBA) where guest can listen to Mr Drouillard and he explains exactly what we used to have here in the city and county. There will be time for a question period immediately following. And later in the exhibition, a public forum on the possible reintroduction of a streetcar system in the Windsor region will be explored, as guest speakers will be brought in from communities who have reintroduced the notion of light rail to the communities, aiding in their rejuvenation. The dates for these forums will be announced at a later time.

All this - AND MORE - on today’s ScaleDown Radio!

So kick back and enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download today’s broadcast instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

As you probably know (we were defiitely NOT shy about sharing the news) Andrew and I welcomed Richard Florida into the CJAM production studio last week. Well, his voice anyways. And Prof. Florida, being the nice guy that he is, ignored the 15 minute time limit given to us by his “handlers” and spent nearly 40 minutes on the phone with us.

So, without further adieu, listen in to Richard Florida’s thoughts on Windsor’s future, the posibilities of a high-speed rail link between Windsor and Montreal, the labour/creative culture divide and much more!

So kick back and enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download today’s broadcast instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

I don’t know why, but the CJAM archive machine is out of whack a bit as of late. It started copying our show about ten minutes into it. Oh well, listen and you’ll get the jist of what we’re alking about.

We covered two topics that we could have easily done a show each about. The first haf was dedicated to the issue of parking in urban areas, and we had the exective director of the DWBIA, Chris Edwards, on the phone with us to discuss their recent downtown parking survey and some of the issues involved in the concept of “free” parking.

And the second half of the show was dedicated to Fridays groundbreaking municipal government episode of the mayor being (finally) dressed down by a city councilor. Needless to say, we believe that this event will signify a paradigm shift as to how our city council interacts with our mayor.

It couldn’t have come soon enough. Just to give you a little background of the incident of which we are speaking, here is a clip of the hastily called special meeting of council, which I am sure you’ve seen at least a dozen times so far…

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

First, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone once again for showing your support for the work Andrew, Mark and myself do on ScaeDown Radio every week, as well as your continued support for the countless volunteer-hours expended on making CJAM the community jewel it is. Your support has earned our little radio program the distinction of being voted CJAM’s “Best New Show“for 2009, and coming within 4 votes of taking the “Best Spoken Word Program” award.

Apparently, I can’t thank you enough!

Today, Andrew and I wade into the community-action waters by speaking with a few groups that are taking a leadership role in working to cure what ails our community.

Despite herculean attempts (on both sides) to conduct an interview, we were left empty handed for on-air time with the good folks behind Citizes for Jobs, NOW!, a citizen-led coalition with two importat guiding principles:

Mission Statement Established: To create jobs and secure the economic growth of Windsor Essex County by holding all levels of government to account for immediate action on infrastructure projects, corridor and border issues.

Coalition to be non-partisan. This means that the people and organizations coming together will cover the spectrum of political “party” opinion but the group itself is committed to the mission statement. Regardless of party affiliation: where political leaders take action in support of this mission, CJN supports their efforts; where political leaders impede this mission, CJN will speak out.

If you’re on Facebook and would like to be kept in he loop when it comes to this organization, be sure to cick here. That way, you can join the impressive list of influential community leaders in giving this group the influence it needs to bring its mission statement to life.

But they’re not the only ones working at making our city a better place to live, work and play, despite the perceived innaction from our local elected representatives. We were joined via telephone by Justin Langlois, from Broken City Lab, to talk about the huge array of projects this group of mostly-students are taking on. BCL describes itself as;

“an interdisciplinary creative research group that tactically disrupts and engages the city, its communities, and its infrastructures to reimagine the potential for action in a collapsing post-industrial city.”

They believe the city of Windsor is broken, and both Andrew and I firmly believe that if Windsor can somehow manage to retain these engaged and energetic activists, we will somehow manage to buck the trends and emerge a better place than we were before.

Also joining us via telehone is the ever-present Tom Lucier, who filled us in on the group he works with called Big Table. According to Tom, Big Table is a group of resource-laden citizens who bad together to bring worthwhile projects to fruition. Whereas they may not initiate many projects (they have though, like the media-darling Big Walk, and Big Pamphlet which is meant to advertise our local independant community-friendly businesses), they definitely work hard at getting projects from the planning stages to implemetation.

It is our hope that listeners will come away from his episode of the show with a sense of hope, as well as a burgeoning desire to get involved more.  There’s lots of people who are working hard here in the trenches and we want them to be as successful as humanly possible.  If you happen to know of other community groups working at reversing the trends in this city, please let us know about them.  Many hands make light work, my grandfather used to say, and we wat to pitch in as much as we can.

Why?  Because they are Windsor’s best hope in turning our fortunes around.

Music:

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

Yes, again Andrew and I talk about the Ward Boundary Review. No - stop, don’t go! We actually cover new ground today…

We were joined over the telephone by Dr. Robert Williams, who is the consultant hired by the City of Windsor to conduct the Ward Boundary Review due to Windsor’s ever-changing demographics and inequities currently experienced between the wards. Some ward councillors deal with 30,000 residents while others deal with 50,000. It was time to take a closer look into those boundaries.

So tune in and hear Dr. Williams give us a synopsis of where he is in the process and what he has learned so far from the public consultation meetings he has held over the past week.

As well, there is still time to get your comments in before Dr. Williams presents his final recommendations to council at the end of May/beginning of June. The deadline for comments is May 15th and you can send them in to him at [email protected].

Remember to mark this Friday, April 24th on your calendar, as CJAM’s annual awards night will be taking place. The Jammies will be held at FM Lounge (formerly The Fish Market) starting at 8:00PM. Show up to meet your favourite CJAM host and buy her/him a beer. These dedicated volunteers bring you their best every week and deserve your accolades!

Also, on Tuesday, April 28, the providers of the theme music for ScaleDown Radio for their first year, Ten Indians, will be reuniting under the name “Shiv and the Shams” at Phog Lounge. Check them out as they haven’t done this in years, and it should be a great night.

Music:

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

Here’s today’s episode of ScaleDown Radio.

Everything Austin - Watch Mark fumble with the board at CJAM and make several errors.  I stumbled along with guest Mark Schincariol just a friend that I travelled to Austin with. So Mark n’ Mark (minus the Funky Bunch - Chris and Andrew)  brought our perspective of what we saw and how it relates to the importance of promoting Local Independant Business.

How these businesses transformed themselves into destinations within Austin and how each and every one contributes to the success story that is Austin, Texas. A sleepy little drinking town with a Live Music Problem

Music:

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

cjam-090323-1200-t1237806001.mp3

Today, we’re taking a look back at our roots.

As you are well aware, ScaleDown is predominantly a weblog, with our foray into radio being quite recent (April of 2008).

After hearing of an english class at the University of Windsor being devoted to the study of blogging, we couldn’t help but be very curious as to their findings. They studied five Windsor-area blogs, and we had the opportunity to interview two students from Dale Jacob’s class on their findings and the focus of their class. Many thanks to Cristina Naccarato and Nicole Markham for taking the time to meet us in-studio for that great interview!

Wanna catch up with what these two are up to?  And you thought YOU were busy…

Washing Machine, Women’s Radio Collective, Drink Coffee and Destroy, Wake-Up-Grrl, Smash The Glass, and Eco-Veg Footprint

And here’s the link to their blogging course.

Music:

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

Music:

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

Windsor City Planner Thom Hunt is in the studio today.

I’m pretty sure regular ScaleDown readers know how we feel about the discipline of urban planning and the role our built environment plays in the quality of life that Windsor residents enjoy.  Yeah - it’s that important.

Today, Andrew and I were lucky enough to have Windsor’s city planner, Thom Hunt, in the studio with us for the whole hour.  We discussed many different topics, but tried to stay focused on the ideas of Heritage Conservation Districts to reflect the Sandwich HCD going before council tonight.  We need to make sure that we dispell any of the myths surround heritage designation that could derail this process.  It’s pretty inportant that this historic jewel of a neighbourhood remains intact.

So listen in and find out more about the man in charge of Windsor’s planning department.  After speaking with Thom after the show, it sounds like we may be able to get him in again in the near future.

Music:

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.

I would love to be able to give you a first-hand, play-by-play account of today’s show, but that would be impossible as I wasn’t there. This bug that’s been going around has kept me in the dark as of late, in more ways than one!

So, we’ll have to take Andrew’s account of the show to heart, as it was Andrew and Mark that lead the charge today. According to the notes sent to me, the topics of discussion were:

And since my audio player seems to have also caught this bug, I still haven’t listened to the show! I know these guys and KNOW they did a superb job!

Music:

Enjoy! [See post to listen to audio]

Want to download it instead and listen to it at your leisure? Click here.

ScaleDown Radio is broadcast live every Monday from noon until 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM, redefining radio in Windsor and Detroit.