Should we build a proper stage on the Riverfront or spend $900,000 over the next two years (page 4 of the .pdf, Item 3 - Image Campaign) hiring image consultants to tell us we should build a proper stage on the Riverfront to improve our "brand".Windsor came close to losing two of its major outdoor attractions -- the Festival Epicure and Bluesfest International -- in the same year.
A combination of bureaucratic power plays, a lack of communication and declining corporate sponsorships threatened to scuttle both events and leave the city's prized Riverfront Festival Plaza without activities in the busiest month of summer.
"Like Ted (Boomer), I had encountered a lot of misunderstanding and even resistance to what I was doing. There was no discussion ahead of time. Decisions seemed to be made on the spur of the moment with little or no thought."
"(The city) has built a million-dollar pizzeria (the $3.2-million City of Windsor Beacon at Dieppe Park)," Boomer said, "and yet they want me to bring in major international acts to perform on a plywood stage. Where's the logic in that?"
PS - add the Grand Prix money and we might even be able to throw in a sound system.
10 Councillors and 3 and a half years to go. Hopefully six of them can figure it out between now and then.
