Neighbourhood Budget Meeting

By Joyce St. Antoine

On Friday March 22, the Life after Fifty centre held a public 2019 municipal budget meeting.

More than 40 residents from the west side and downtown areas of Windsor attended the meeting, expressing their concerns about unfair parking spots, safety of alleyways, etc.

Sarah Cipkar is the Community Development Coordinator for the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative, one of the hosts. The other organizations involved were: Our West End Neighbourhood Renewal, Ford City Neighbourhood Renewal and The Initiative. 

“We’re having a meeting for all four neighbourhood groups to get together across the city and talk about issues that will find their way into the budget and that are priorities; things like bulk item pickup, park investments and active transportation,” said Cipkar.

Four councilors from separate wards attended and participated in a question and answer session. Fabio Costante from Ward 2, Ed Sleiman from Ward 5, Chris Holt from Ward 4 and Rino Bortolin from Ward 3.

Fabio Costante said that concerns are ward specific. In his ward, the construction of the Gordie Howe Bridge and the potential replacement span of the Ambassador Bridge are his biggest priority.  

“We need to increase our investment and basic infrastructure, like roads, sewers and sidewalks. We need to look at core city services, like road control programs, bulk item pick up, dirty yards. So basic maintenance,” said Costante, who continued to say this is important for all Windsor residents and their families.

The Old Sandwich Street grocery store building was for sale in 2018 and is a prime example of revival. Westside Foods Olde Town Grocery on Sandwich Street closed before the Christmas holidays and the community was disappointed.

“How do we bring all this back these core amenities that make neighbourhoods livable, fun and accessible?” asked Costante.

Ward 4 councilor, Chris Holt, said that municipal meetings like this are important to listen to the residents to find out what is important to them.

“I could come into budget deliberations, with my own preset agenda, but that’s not really the focus of it,” said Holt. “It’s to listen to the residents and find out exactly what it is that they want and the priorities that they have.”

“It’s about the dwindling of services, whether it’s a bylaw enforcement, whether it’s cleaning up alleys and parks, that type of thing. So it’s not as much ‘I want a big investment,’ it’s, ‘I want to improve the services that we already have,’” said Holt.

A woman from the audience said she thinks there is improper use of residential parking for apartments and it is unfair not being able to park in their designated spots because the public are using it. Another attendee said she thinks re-branding the city is unnecessary as the million dollars could be spent elsewhere and tend to more important needs.

If you have any personal issues or issues that need attending to around your home area, you can email or call each councilor individually to figure out a solution.