Very Cold Weather

Don't you find it amazing, dear reader, how quickly the weather changed! Oh sure, it was cold out before but nothing like the temperatures around the 19th mark in January. And  now, is it ever even colder. As for snow, we had not seen anything like we are seeing this year so far.

Naturally the weather people give us predictions now about what is going to happen in the rest of January and then February but who knows how accurate they are going to be.

I could write a lot more about the weather but I do not see that there is a need for me to do so. I am sure that you know just about as much about it as I do. All that I know is that we went out shopping to buy the groceries before the weather temperatures dropped and the first big snow storms came.

Luckily for us, we had also gone to the Library and taken out a series of videos about Perry Mason. The collection that we were able to obtain had thirty videos in it. Each of the video stories was about an hour and a half long. With this cold weather, we watched two or three of them a day because they were so exciting. It certainly gave us an alternative to doing very little because of all the snow that fell.

Unfortunately, we did not watch the last four of the videos. I just happened to see that the actor who plays Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, had passed away and two other actors filled in for him for those videos. To be honest, I just could not handle watching someone else be involved in these types of lawyer/detective stories. I was able to convince my wife that we should return the video without watching those four. Burr played such a wonderful role so that I just could not bear watching some other people filling in for him in a similar role.

I even found some time to sit down in front of my computer and dictate a new posting for you, dear reader. Here are some issues that I hope you will find interesting.

ADVENTURE BAY POOL

How lovely recently was the nice story on Windsor’s swimming pool, Adventure Bay.

Mayor Dilkens attended its fifth year anniversary party recently. Here is the story I saw in the Windsor Star about his attendance at the pool:

“On Adventure Bay's 5th birthday, mayor talks new rides to keep it 'vibrant'” (Taylor Campbell, Windsor Star January 20, 2019) 

It is amazing to me to read what the Mayor had to say about the pool and its future

“We heard loud and clear before we built it that people in the community wanted something for kids to do, a place for kids to go, and something different, and we were able to keep folks here...”

Funny though that I did not see anything in his comments what how well the pool was doing financially. I did see this comment that he made:

“We thought, based on the conversation that the community was having before we opened, that there was going to be a lot of excitement about Adventure Bay, and that’s sort of proven itself out over time here,” Dilkens said.”

I was not exactly certain what this comment meant. Hmm, I wonder if this was why people got all excited. I have seen that the $78 million pool was still losing millions of dollars every year as I have seen in the past. The Mayor did not mention anything about it as he talked about spending even more money on the pool.

Oh well, it should be interesting to see what happens this year if the Mayor asks Council to spend more money on the pool.

AMBASSADOR BRIDGE PROBLEMS

More problems at the Bridge. However, I wonder how many people know whose fault it really is. There is no doubt that the Moroun Family will be blamed for this and that people will forget the real reason for the blockage in the future:

“The northbound lanes of Huron Church Road haven’t been easy for drivers lately.

For consecutive days this week, the heavily-used route to the Ambassador Bridge has been clogged with long lines of transport trucks due to delays on the U.S. side of the border crossing.” (Dalson Chen, Windsor Star, January 17, 2019) 

I found this comment rather interesting because it is what I expect to happen in the future:

“However, Comartin said he hasn’t heard of the delays being related to any “work to rule” protest by unpaid CBP officers.

“We’re not getting any information that it’s the result of that,” Comartin said.”

Of course, if that was done, then no one could blame the Ambassador Bridge Company in the future and if they did, no one would be able to state:

“There’s nothing we can do from our side,” Comartin said. “It’s all on the U.S. side.”

IT IS GREAT TO RENT AN APARTMENT HERE

Although this may seem spectacular to you, dear reader, I would suggest that it is not that unusual compared with what has happened here in the past. Unfortunately, not too many people seem to know about this both within our area and outside of it:

“Windsor has lowest rental rates in Canada, says apartment-hunting site

In an analysis of the rental data of 24 metropolitan areas in Canada, Windsor had the lowest median monthly rates in the country, according to the site PadMapper.com. (Dalson Chen, Windsor Star, January 16, 2019) 

Take a look at the rental rates between Windsor and London, Ontario:

“Windsor came in 24th, with a median monthly rate of $730 for a one-bedroom dwelling and $990 for a two-bedroom dwelling.

Windsor’s nearest neighbour on the list — London — came in at 16th place, with monthly rates of $1,020 for a one-bedroom place and $1,210 for a two-bedroom.

That’s 39 per cent and 22 per cent more expensive than Windsor.”

It seems to me that this could well be a good reason why people in more expensive cities should decide they should move to Windsor as I did years ago. Sure, if the person is not retired, he/she must have a nice job here to help pay for the rental cost. I would suggest that salaries are not all that different between cities in Ontario so that fewer people can really afford to be living in the higher rates of rent in other places.

It is certainly a great reason why out of town businesses should set up an operation in the cities and towns in Essex County. Their employees will have a relatively inexpensive place to work and will not demand higher salaries so they can afford to pay the outrageous sums they must pay for rent where they are living now. Or for the purchase of homes.

I have to admit, dear reader, that I expected some of this to happen when I first moved here so many years ago. I saw the same kind of numbers back then. I thought it was a great advantage to live in Windsor as I was experiencing when I bought a house here that was so much cheaper than my home in Toronto even though it was actually bigger in size. Unfortunately, nothing very much has ever been done to convince people that they ought to move here to work and to convince their employers to setup an operation here.

It would be wonderful if lots of people in our area finally figured out that it is something that should be promoted right now in order to be successful in future growth here. It is also time that it should be done.