Will Windsor's new hospital heal the city or do it harm?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT - - - May 6, 2019, The Globe & Mail: Will Windsor's new hospital heal the city or do it harm?

Who Are We? For those who have used degrading, disparaging or vilifying language in speaking about Citizens for an Accountable Mega-hospital Planning Process, please remember:   We are your neighours, your family, your coworkers: We are all members of the Windsor-Essex community. Everybody deserves accessible and adequate healthcare services. This is CAMPP's mission.

Some recent comments from our friends and neighbours:

"I donated because I have grown tired of the portrayal of opponents of this location as the minority. The location is wrong and everyone with any sense knows it. I am also tired of the bullying and scare tactics by hospital bureaucrats. I can't afford much but I am making a contribution. Enough already."   ~   "I think that the Globe article will increase CAMPP's credibility with the Windsor media... Maybe it would break through the blackout that keeps these concerns away from the average citizen...." ~   "I think about the seniors in Windsor, my dad is almost 94 and doesn't drive. He lives in a seniors place, his own small apartment there and going to the hospital has always been easy. he's had some heart issues the last few years and I've been grateful the hospitals are there for most of the population, which is downtown."   ~   "Great to see all the forward momentum on the hospital issue!"   ~ "I can’t help but think about the increasing amounts of flooding and leaking that people are experiencing in Windsor as the infrastructure of our city ages and becomes inadequate for our needs due to climate change and building/renovation that adds to the over burdened system. Obviously tax dollars and city workers will be utilized to remedy the problem by contracting companies to build new infrastructure and having city workers continue to maintain it, both of these resources have limits. I then start to wonder about the frivolous nature of adding a whole new need for infrastructure in an area where none has previously existed. I hear talk of how the new hospital will attract the need for new housing as well and with new housing generally we can expect some new retail, now the need is growing more and more along with the cost and the maintenance, none of which will be paid for by the Province. So, now I am thinking about what that will look like. Will the City work just not get done because the hospital can’t fail or will Windsor taxes have to be increased exorbitantly to cover the cost of both projects? Neither of those outcomes is satisfactory especially when the chances of my dying on the way to said hospital will have increased exponentially because it will be out in the middle of nowhere."

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In celebration of activist mothers

“There is nobody against this  NOBODY, NOBODY, NOBODY but a bunch of … a bunch of MOTHERS!” -- ROBERT MOSES

“It is very discouraging to do our best to make the city more habitable and then to learn that the city is thinking up schemes to make it uninhabitable.” -- JANE JACOBS

On this Mother's Day weekend, we remember the women (and men), who over 50 years ago challenged the powerful unelected  New York City official Robert Moses, described as "one of the most polarizing figures in the history of urban development in the United States." Moses famously denigrated urbanist Jane Jacobs, who along with other local residents advocated for a rethink of controversial development plans in New York City. He accused them of simply being:  "a bunch of mothers."  What could these mostly regular folks possibly know about what their neighbourhoods, much less their city, needed? However, residents ignored his insults and didn't back down. They ultimately succeeded in preventing the construction of a highway system a half century ago that would have destroyed the character and liveability of much of lower Manhattan. This geographic area, that five decades ago was considered undesirable, is home today to the most socially and economically vibrant neighbourhoods in the city (and New York's most expensive real estate): Soho, Greenwich Village and Tribeca.

“...all our human economic achievements have been done by ordinary people... Yet without understanding this, people are all too willing to fall for the idea that they can’t do this, they themselves, or anybody they know, because they’re too ordinary.” -- JANE JACOBS