| meet prey leave |
The "suits" were there to tell an already co-opted council that the Not-NASCAR track will bring wonderful things to Fort
Erie - mainly jobs. And the council obediently voted to change the zoning to accommodate the over 800 acre speedway.
All the buzz words and phrases were used by the project manager while the off-shore owners smiled from the back of the
gallery, in their Savile Row suits.
Joining the tableau were candidates for local office, some of whom were total strangers to the council chamber, such as
Kim Zanko, Jim Thibert's hand-picked candidate to challenge Bob Steckley in Ward 3. "I'm just here to see what goes
on," she said within earshot of yours truly. She might have been surprised that the public does attend council meetings,
although there are still lots of closed meetings, like the one held just before council. Of course, in the EDTC Board on
which she sits on, there are never open meetings. And the public has no right to find out just what they're up to, although
the EDTC is funded, to the tune of over three quarters of a million dollars, by the taxpayers. It might have come as a bit of
a shock to Ms. Zanko to witness Democracy: Fort Erie Style where delegations are routinely insulted and denied a
chance to speak. It is worse now that the election season is upon us.
And lame duck councillors with big plans like Sandy Annunziata, giving a representative of a business owner a hard time
because he wants to add to his zoning designation in order to attract more tenants to the 70% occupancy at the old
Horton Steel plant. But Sandy wants his company to close down and tear down the buildings to make way for another
Rino Mostacci dream: Town Houses on the Brown Field a.k.a. Love Canal 2.0. Which begs the question: just why is
the retiring councillor so very interested in turning his particular brown field into housing?
Of course, no one asked the big question regarding the Not-NASCAR track: how can a town that has no fully functioning
hospital even dare to build something that could attract over 60,000 people to an event? Oh, I guess that the Niagara
Falls Hospital will have to cover for that. Along with the hotels and everything else. Yes, there will be a massive influx of
people coming to Fort Erie across the Peace Bridge when the Not-NASCAR track is built. And they will get on the QEW
and head straight to Niagara Falls for lodging or camping. Then, they'll go to the track; watch the races and go back to
Niagara Falls or the States. A friend of mine is in contact with a woman from Holland, Michigan, the site of a real
NASCAR track. The woman cannot go out of her house when there's a race because of the traffic and the noise.
Fort Erie Council should have a theme song playing as they gather to show the people who elected them how hard they
work for the people. I suggest, Send in the Clowns would make a great theme song for our clowncil. They even brought
in the ringmaster, Jim Thibert to orchestrate Tuesday night's meeting. All the usual suspects were there - even Canuck,
one of the providers of the slander blog. A desperately-trying-to-stay-sober faux newsman did not even last the whole
evening. And neither could I.
Send in the Clowns?
Don't bother, they're here.
Erie - mainly jobs. And the council obediently voted to change the zoning to accommodate the over 800 acre speedway.
All the buzz words and phrases were used by the project manager while the off-shore owners smiled from the back of the
gallery, in their Savile Row suits.
Joining the tableau were candidates for local office, some of whom were total strangers to the council chamber, such as
Kim Zanko, Jim Thibert's hand-picked candidate to challenge Bob Steckley in Ward 3. "I'm just here to see what goes
on," she said within earshot of yours truly. She might have been surprised that the public does attend council meetings,
although there are still lots of closed meetings, like the one held just before council. Of course, in the EDTC Board on
which she sits on, there are never open meetings. And the public has no right to find out just what they're up to, although
the EDTC is funded, to the tune of over three quarters of a million dollars, by the taxpayers. It might have come as a bit of
a shock to Ms. Zanko to witness Democracy: Fort Erie Style where delegations are routinely insulted and denied a
chance to speak. It is worse now that the election season is upon us.
And lame duck councillors with big plans like Sandy Annunziata, giving a representative of a business owner a hard time
because he wants to add to his zoning designation in order to attract more tenants to the 70% occupancy at the old
Horton Steel plant. But Sandy wants his company to close down and tear down the buildings to make way for another
Rino Mostacci dream: Town Houses on the Brown Field a.k.a. Love Canal 2.0. Which begs the question: just why is
the retiring councillor so very interested in turning his particular brown field into housing?
Of course, no one asked the big question regarding the Not-NASCAR track: how can a town that has no fully functioning
hospital even dare to build something that could attract over 60,000 people to an event? Oh, I guess that the Niagara
Falls Hospital will have to cover for that. Along with the hotels and everything else. Yes, there will be a massive influx of
people coming to Fort Erie across the Peace Bridge when the Not-NASCAR track is built. And they will get on the QEW
and head straight to Niagara Falls for lodging or camping. Then, they'll go to the track; watch the races and go back to
Niagara Falls or the States. A friend of mine is in contact with a woman from Holland, Michigan, the site of a real
NASCAR track. The woman cannot go out of her house when there's a race because of the traffic and the noise.
Fort Erie Council should have a theme song playing as they gather to show the people who elected them how hard they
work for the people. I suggest, Send in the Clowns would make a great theme song for our clowncil. They even brought
in the ringmaster, Jim Thibert to orchestrate Tuesday night's meeting. All the usual suspects were there - even Canuck,
one of the providers of the slander blog. A desperately-trying-to-stay-sober faux newsman did not even last the whole
evening. And neither could I.
Send in the Clowns?
Don't bother, they're here.
*Thanks ML for the better title
for this piece.
for this piece.