windsorINB - Windsor Independent News Blog

Chrysler Announces Windsor Built Bicycle

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:31:01 -0800

In a last ditch effort to answer to critics who have long criticised the automaker for not providing products that represent sustainable forms of transportation, Chrysler in exchange for a 40 billion dollar grant will be retooling its Windsor Assembly Plant this summer. The grant, which will come from funds from the E.I. surplus, has been welcomed with open arms by CAW brass. Officials at Pentastar Central are not revealing many details, but have indicated the bicycle will be powered by a V8 Hemi engine and will be available with an optional Class III tow hitch and 2 1/2 on board DVD players for the kids.

30% Rise in people on Employment Insurance in Windsor.

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:02:13 -0800

From AM800:
A dramatic jump in the number of people receiving employment insurance benefits. According to Stats Canada, the number of people relying on E-I rose 30-percent in Windsor compared with 2007. By comparison, the national average rose by 3.9-percent.

More Suicides in Windsor

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:56:55 -0800

A recent story on AM800's website talks about a "Dramatic increase" in suicides across Windsor and Essex County. Averaging 1 per day.

Windsor Police's (shitty) website has some statistics on suicide which you can read here. Previous years seem to have about 20-30 suicides. the difference could be the fact that that Windsor police's statistics do not include the rest of Essex County. However, the dramatic increase is still concerning... No surprise that the shitty economy is being blamed for this.

Masters of War

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:08:53 -0800

I work in a factory, I work very hard and I sacrifice my body and my youth for the big three. I am not alone in this. Many people, stretching back 100 years in this city have done the same as I have and lived to tell the tale. Now those tales will no longer be told. The sunny photographs of vacations at the lake and the camping trips on sunny weekends will be erased. The 8mm reels will be rewound and burnt to a crisp and this city will never be quite the same.

Neil Young: How to Save a Major Auto Company

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:12:34 -0800

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neil-young/how-to-save-a-major-autom_b_143749.html

Find a new ownership group. The culture must change. It is time to turn the page. In the high technology sector there are several candidates for ownership of a major car and truck manufacturer. We need forward looking people who are not restricted by the existing culture in Detroit. We need visionary people now with business sense to create automobiles that do not contribute to global warming.

"Too Polluted for JAIL"?

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:10:58 -0700

This very telling story on AM800 caught my eye:

"Pollution is being cited as the reason why Ontario's Ministry of Corrections decided not to build a jail in West Windsor. Ministry Spokesperson Julia Noonan says Brighton Beach is heavily industrialized and would not be conducive for a jail. She says the area probably would not get the necessary environmental approvals."

Makes you wonder about the residents of this area...

The "insert adjective here" Case Scenario

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:56:53 -0700

For 200 years society has been on the move. We have moved from small, rural communities in droves for the cities just beyond the horizon. We went in our huddled masses, we yearned to be free and reinvent ourselves in a new, golden metropolis. The invention and proliferation of the automobile made this possible. Before long, people grew tired of living in rancid, crowded tenements and ached for the country air. We moved in droves to the suburbs, bought a few cars, had a few kids and we thought nothing could be better.

A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Windsor

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 03:21:04 -0700

I admit I blather on and on about useless information. I write as I speak, so imagine being a friend of mine and listening to me talk can be very taxing. I talk more than Joe Valachi. Joe Valachi? Look into him, an eternally fascinating character.

This time I will skip the foreplay and go straight to the meat of the story.

If we are to be a great city, we must change our thought process. We must change the cultural makeup of what makes Windsor people Windsor people. We absolutely must give up our autocentric frames of mind and reach out to the electric engine, the brick house, the trolley, the free thinkers and artists, because the combustible engine has beat us into a small, blathering pulp.

Hargrove, the One Fingered Bandit

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:14:08 -0700

Class, is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as : elegance, grace and dignity. These traits in no way describe Buzz Hargrove, or anyone else who calls themselves "Buzz" for that matter. Well, maybe with the exeption of Buzz Aldrin. I guess Edwin Aldrin wasn't a cool enough name for him. Hargrove's real first name is Basil. From this point on I will refer to "Buzz" by his Christian name. Perhaps it will remotely transport a bit of elegance, grace and dignity to his profoundly short sighted brain and ingrained sense of spectacular ineptitude.

A Day in the Life of a Factory Employee

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:57:33 -0700

The alarm goes off at 5:30am. Too early, as if I were a farmer who needed to milk his cows. Yet I am not a farmer, I don't have the intrinsic pleasure of working for myself, I work for a large corperation, so I, like almost everyone in this city who has a job, works for someone else.

Bleary eyed, I walk out of my front door into a cold morning that wakes me up better than any coffee could ever do. I walk to a bus stop, sit there looking into idling cars waiting for the lights to change, and smoke a cigarette. The bus comes, the same time every day, and I get on, and see the same faces I see every day.

DWBIA Wants Airport Moved Downtown

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 08:17:32 -0700

WindsorINB reporters have discovered that the Downtown Windsor BIA has been lobbying Mayor Eddie Francis to move the Windsor Airport into the downtown core. Larry Horwitz has opined that such a move, combined with a high speed underground rail link connecting the proposed canal-marina, would help boost tourist presence in the core. When questioned about a potential site for the tower, Mark Boscariol suggested a 32 story stucco'd combination arena/convention center in the middle of the "horseshoe" where Howard joins Aylmer and Glengary, with the control tower at the very top, concluded by some quotes from Winston Churchill.

The Temp Agency Proletariat

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:32:30 -0700

One cloud is enough to eclipse all the sun - Thomas Fuller

Everyone knows a guy, or is related to someone, or has a cousin who used to know this guy who worked through a temp agency. I myself have worked through temp agencies, I did for sixteen months with the same company. I made eight, count em, eight dollars an hour for one year and four months with absolutely no benefits and no job security. For those of you who don't know what being a temp entails, I will enlighten you, and for those of you who actively are a temp as we speak, go have a beer. You earned it today.

Geritol Landslide, Close the Gap Between Us

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:49:59 -0700

Yesterday, in the Windsor Star, as most of you know by now, the mayor announced plans to construct a canal system in the much-maligned near-west section of downtown. These canals will be lined with luxurious 300,000 dollar condominiums (urban village, anyone?) lovely docks for 300,000 dollar yachts, and quaint shops. Well, about as quaint as a large contracting firm can make a building, I'm sure. Plans for this site have been numerous, and as of now, completely irrelevant. This is the beginning of something big, the mayor promises.

Windsorites drive the most gas guzzlers in Canada.

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:19:07 -0700

From DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc:

Fuel Efficiency of Vehicles in Canada's largest CMA's - Another dubious distinction for Windsor

One of the databases we have is a census of vehicles on the road that is produced annually by R.L. Polk. We recently took this information base and merged it with Transport Canada's fuel efficiency guide. The results are quite interesting I will write up an analysis and publish it in one of my Observations but in the meantime I ran off the average fuel efficiency of the 25 largest Census Metropolitan Area's in Canada and found the results quite interesting. In order to normalize the information I also looked at the fuel efficiency with and without commercial use vehicles (defined as pick up trucks and panel vans). My figuring is that some CMA's are tied to very resource intensive economies and thus they need to drive more pick ups and panel vans. So it wasn't fair to compare these CMAs to more urban oriented areas in the country.

Windsor Cyclist Killed

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:14:25 -0700

It's stories like this that really make me sad and upset. Another person killed because they wanted to enjoy life on a bicycle. Killed because someone thought they'd drive a car while drunk.

TOBERMORY, Ont. - An impaired driving charge has been laid in the case of a Windsor woman who was killed after she was hit by a pickup truck Saturday night.

Provincial police say Meredith McPhee, 32, was riding her bike in Tobermory in the North Bruce Peninsula when she was struck.