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Originally Posted by Blitz
I certainly agree with everything you said and most Windsorites would as well (Francis would be re-elected in a landslide if he wanted to run again). That article was completely flawed. The thing is that Londoners don't know the story about how he has completely turned Windsor around starting with the culture of how the city is run. He's a self-proclaimed control freak but that was exactly what Windsor needed when he took over 11 years ago. With every decision he makes he has the full support of all city councilors...it's just remarkable when you think about it. If someone like Fontana was running Windsor during the downturn of 2009 it would be totally screwed right now.
For me living in London while still following Windsor politics I've been able to see the huge differences between the two city councils - London's is a complete mess with zero direction, constant bickering, and seemingly no defined plan.
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I was in Windsor a few weeks ago and noticed that there is a lot of new and important construction going on, like a new and very nice looking building for the University of Windsor's Faculty of Engineering, which is located very close to the downtown core. It was also interesting to see that the city has started on constructing the below-grade freeway that will take traffic from the new bridge after it has been built, and the scale of construction for that part of the bridge project alone is fairly massive.
Windsor's downtown is also looking cleaner and nicer than it used to.
The way things seem to be progressing in Windsor, the city appears to be poised to take maximal advantage if and when the next wave of large-scale economic growth happens.
By comparison, London seems permanently stuck in the doldrums. The GDLS announcement is big, but it doesn't mean that much for London, since it's only getting one third of the total number of jobs - and I suspect that no net new jobs will be created, but existing ones at GDLS will be preserved.
I've lived in London for well over twenty years now, and the lack of real action from city council I've seen in that time suggests that it not only lacks real imagination, but it's utterly hide-bound too, and paralyzed by a multitude of special interest groups that don't seem to care if London moves forward, so long as they get their way.