Latest / Kvetch & Release / AM800 CKLW Tuesday Roundtable with Melinda Munro and Syx Langeman

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AM800 CKLW Tuesday Roundtable with Melinda Munro and Syx Langeman · Kvetch & Release

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Join that conversation The Dan McDonald Show with guest host John Lidkey on AM eight
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hundred. Let's talk things out. I'll be quiet the same heyze on the
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horizon name. It's only been a couple of days and now miss you.
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Yeah, nothing real. It goes to plan stub toe breaking, can how
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do everything a can to the gube if you're feeling good morning everyone, hop
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you're doing well. John Lydkey here filling in for Dan McDonald this week and
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next week on the aptly titled Dan McDonald Show. July twenty third. For
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those of you watching on YouTube, you would have just seen one of our
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roundtable guests, six Langman graciously brushing his beard with his fingers. Was a
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little that he's got onto you, and I'm kind of do you often use
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your fingers to do it? Or do you use a column for the beard?
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A brush? A brush? A brush it's got a lot more like
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the fingers. You only got ten, but a brush has a lot more
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like a lot more. But it probably puts a little like nice oil in
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there, like just how it helps with the softness of it. And now
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we're on the Man the Manscaping Hour. Yeah, welcome to manscaping. This
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is a No, it's not. Melinda Monroe's voice is what you heard just
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there as well, municipal consultant and a council watcher. How you doing,
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Melinda, I'm well done, Thank you, How are you great? Thanks
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for being here. Also, I should mention not only does six have a
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beard, he's also a photographer. I do some of that, community activist,
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a rabble rouser. Yeah, you can throw that in there too,
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directory of the spinning stories, director of a I mean yeah, I guess
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there's a lot we could say that thing too. Yes, look at you
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shameless self promotion that doesn't come until plugged in at the end. You know
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that, you know the format, Dan goes away and the guests run them
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up. You know, Dan throws like timing all out. You know that.
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Come on, you come on Dan's show and you talk negatively, but
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he's not even in the city to listen. No, no, no,
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I love what he does that because we get we are going on some great
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topics and then we just the time is just whatever. However, we are
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on the John Litkey Show this morning, and I know to the minute you
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are going to make sure that everything is taken care of. Well, that's
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obviously what's been occurring for the past couple of minutes here tell you what.
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Let's dive into our first topic though. Absolutely you've been hearing about the H
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four hub here on Am eight hundred for a number of months. Since the
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move has been announced. We've been diving into it. We know that city
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officials are preparing to submit a business case to upper levels of government. This
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thing is going to cost a lot of money. A couple million, a
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couple million more, maybe a few more million after that, and a few
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more times. But it's a big deal. You're talking about one hundred and
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twenty supportive housing units built as soon as possible, another two hundred and thirty
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units built over the next five years after those open up. Melinda, when
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you were on Rows City Politics with me, we chatted about the homelessness situation
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and the housing situation windsor for a number of years. Quite frankly, it
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hasn't been an issue that has turned around on a dime. It's very difficult
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too, when it's such a serious issue. These are big numbers, though,
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one hundred and twenty supportive units right off the bat, two hundred and
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thirty more that's going to have a serious impact in our city three hundred and
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fifty supportive units. No, I think it will. And it's and it
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really just recognizes what we've already. We've known about how to support people who
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live who are unhoused for at least ten years. So let's see, when
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did the shee New report came out in like the twenty ten or something like
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that, which said, if you surround people with supports, then you can
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keep them in stable housing. And that the criteria that we should be measuring
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for how we're doing on homelessness isn't did we get someone housed, but are
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they still in that housing a year later, two years later, three years
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later, And it's provoting those supports. What's interesting is that it's so it's
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such a change from let's say, even I don't know, two or three
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years ago, community housing for example, was just we're just landlords. We
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own apartments. You live in our apartments or you don't live in our apartments.
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And now moving with Fabio Castante as the chair of the House of Community
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Housing Board and the new CEO, Cynthia Summers, moving into how can we
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build supports around people from mine, or small things like kids programs, to
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big things like what we're talking about with H four. I think the only
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thing that would cause me to be a little nervous is that we also know
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that we used to take people who struggled to live in sort of the rough
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and tumble of the ordinary world, and we stuck them away in institutions.
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And we realized that was a really big problem, and so we got rid
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of those institutions. And part of what we see with homelessness and being on
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house now it's people who used to live in mental institutions, for example,
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recreating community community sort of communal supportive housing. We have to remember our history
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and not just recreate the old institutions we used to have that were so terrible.
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Yeah, I mean, and we know what those issues are, and
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we still have the institutional knowledge to be able to avoid those pitfalls. I
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think there's a little bit of a concern of, you know, the clustering
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that we're seeing with this conversation. I know that councilor Costante has spoken about
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how this does not follow through with what the core tenants of what council had
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already voted upon one was, which is not to centralize every one of these
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services in one area or rather spread them out, because you don't want to
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see, you know, one neighborhood specifically just become a target for you know,
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some of the negative more negative situations that could come as a result of
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these facilities, you know, the clustering and just people that are maybe you
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know, interacting in residential neighborhoods that weren't hoped to see. And of course
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in the West End, I mean, there was this whole sale pitch of
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eighty knocks being redeveloped as the starting off point of a new neighborhood redevelopment,
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and so there is concern in those wards, in that ward specifically word too,
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that there's a change with what that plan was. Six. I'll bring
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your voice in. I know that you want to talk. Yeah, I
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think the centralization is you know, I can see this as being a problem
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number one. It's it's a step we got to make. So as long
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as we can get you know, some kind of good number and good data
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with what's with what kind of goes on there in the first couple of years,
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maybe we're going to be able to see things kind of open up in
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other parts of the city. I mean, I think that we had support
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systems, you know, all the way over like Prince Road and all the
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hospitals sort of had these these things before, and things get spread out a
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little bit more, and yeah, centralizing everyone to one area is you know,
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probably going to increase some of that negative rhetoric that we have going on.
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People worried about you know, their neighborhood property values going down and that
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sort of thing. But the fact is as we need it, you know,
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we absolutely need It's it's a big problem in our city and you know,
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everything from addiction, mental health and all that sort of stuff has to
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be looked at. So I'm glad it's moving forward. Well, you know,
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these are our community members. And for everyone who says, you know,
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I don't want to see my tax dollars going to this, I don't
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care. Why can't someone else just go and get a job and you know,
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turn themselves around, It's like, well, this is our community.
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We all live here, and this is the situation that we're presented with,
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and we can't just go you know, for lack of a better term,
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shuffling people around and pushing people out because we don't one I don't want to
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see that. But two, I don't believe that it's in the government's role
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to go, you know, pushing people from community to community and getting them
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out because they don't like the way that it looks. These are our community
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members, just like we all collectively spend money on roads and sewers and all
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the other things that we decide to This is also important. I just want
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to add if I could, John, there's a kind of a myth to
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around the idea that people go to where the services are. So we sort
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of think, well, they're all downtown because downtown is where you get your
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Ontario works, or downtown's where the mission is, or downtown is where the
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supports are for people who are living in poverty or people who are on house.
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But actually there's some graduate students at the university did some work not that
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long ago in part with in partnership with the DWBIA and others, and it's
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actually that the services go to where the people are. And part of the
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reason the people were downtown and remain downtown is because it's where it's the least
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expensive to live. And so you say, well, we're going to just
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shuffle everybody off to the age four and we're going to put them over on
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Wellington. Well, it's one thing to sort of move the services and hope
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that people will follow. But if it still remains inexpensive to live in the
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downtown core, people are going to live in the down downtown core and then
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walk over to where the services are, right, They're not going to move
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to where the services are if it's still too expensive to live. You're absolutely
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right. We've got to take a quick break right now. Otherwise Six would
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be very upset if I didn't follow the time markers that we have here at
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AM eight hundred CKLW. We'll be right back after this. Listening to the
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Dan McDonald Show with guest host John Litkey on AM eight hundred. Hey,
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we're back, John Lytche here on amix hundred CKLW, having a fun roundtable
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already Tuesday roundtable with Melinda Monroe and six Langman. And we know that across
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Ontario and Canada there have been significant declines in new home starts in June,
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even though we are in the midst of a building, bigger, better,
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faster push from this provincial government, at least obstensibly so the numbers aren't really
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panning out, but in Windsor they actually are. We're seeing a surge in
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new home construction occurring to the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp. Windsor region had
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fifty eight new single detached home starts last month and three hundred and five multi
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unit starts. A percentage basis, this translates to a increase, well up,
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an increase of five hundred and forty eight percent in June of home starts,
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which is a big deal. But here's the thing. Are they affordable?
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Are they attainable? Are they market rate? We know that for the
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most part, most of the homes that are coming out are not affordable,
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they aren't even attainable. They are for what market rate is. And market
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rate is completely different now than it was five years ago, ten years ago,
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twenty years ago. Where you know, things have had been for quite
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some time, traditionally very stable in this city. Not so much anymore.
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And I remember speaking with Tangemis, who will be talking with later on in
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the show, about how he expects that the new resting home price is going
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to be somewhere around five hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in Windsor Melinda,
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I want to ask you first on this one. When you hear about that
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five hundred and forty eight percent increase, it's a big number, but we
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are, you know, only talking fifty eight single homes and three hundred and
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five multi units. This is not going to be the silver bullet that fixes
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every good. No, it's not. I mean, in somebody's it's funny
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they call it chalking, because I don't think it's stat shalking. If you
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think about how we've kind of been. We've always been a few months or
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you know, a cycle behind everyone else, so everyone else had a big
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spike in housing, and now we're having that. We took a long time
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to get going. Now we're going. I also think, I know,
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and perhaps this is going to be controversial, but even if these units aren't
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necessarily affordable, they they take up a tranche of the market that opens up
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another tranche of the market, which maybe you know, subblind man, does
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you know, have some impact. But you know, we're seeing such a
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huge growth in population that it's not necessarily going to you know, match the
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amount of construction. But I tuned to the city council off and ONO it
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yesterday and I had this, there was this hilarious moment in which council was
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debating about housing, approving various housing things and wanting maybe to inform the public
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better about why sometimes they had to say yes to stuff that people and neighborhoods
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didn't want. Because one of the things I loved seeing about this was all
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the different places where these multi residential buildings are going, so LaSalle, Almasburg,
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all across the city, like we're starting to see that density growing.
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And they were debating about so the mayor was basically be rating the counselors for
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coming to counsel and voting against something that that's clearly required by planning law,
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that they had to approve and that they were just, you know, performative,
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And then Counselor Francis and he got into a bit of a shouting match
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about whether it was performative or not and maybe the public needed better education and
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how could the city help, And at the end of it, Counselor Chris
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Dante said, I feel like this has been like a therapy session for counselors
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today. We've really been able to get our feelings off our just about how
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we feel about housing and approving these planning principles. It was pretty hilarious,
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but this and it kind of ties into this, like it's nice to see
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that. Finally, we spent the last two years yelling about whether we can
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even allow four plexus in neighborhoods, and now we got lots of multi unit
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housing going in and I'm really happy about that. Well, we heard a
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lot of fear mongering about the four plex issue, but we know that people
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want housing, and I mean, you're absolutely right my concern, Melinda.
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The only thing that you say is we know that as you add more supply
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ideal or demand, that you know, the price should go down as things
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balance out. Unfortunately, Windsor has become like really attractive for people all across
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the country. So I don't know if the net inflow, could you know,
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the amount of homes that we're building will counter that, So that is
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still an issue. We need a lot more six I don't know, there's
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fifty new homes being built. Those are single family homes, so there's fifty
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eight families that are going to sell their house apparently in winds according to Drid
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Jilkins, and then move to these newer houses. So it'll leave more affordable
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housing, you know, for those fifty eight homes. I think that's the
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sarcasm filter was on there. Yeah, I yeah, relate to the game.
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We need more housing, There's there's no doubt about it. Four plexus,
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by right should have gone through. I mean, there shouldn't have been
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the argument from literally from our mayor about this and respecting neighborhoods. I mean,
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the fact is is, if you want to start respecting the neighborhoods,
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I don't know, maybe concentrate on the core. Oh yeah, yeah,
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he's all doing that right now too. And we're seeing some developments go in
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the core where apparently, you know, in the Narwhal interview, there was
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we all had to build out, we could not build up, And now
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we're starting to build up and there is densification. And oddly enough, these
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are you know, these are practices that happen in other cities, in plenty
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of other cities around the country. So you know, I hope that we
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start seeing these numbers increase more on the multi family side, you know,
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fifty eight single family Like, I'm not too worried about single family homes.
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We need more multi multi unit complexes built, and they need to be in
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areas where people also are going to live, like you know, our downtown
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core, where we have transit and we have all these things that are accessible
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to people that are trying to get into the housing market, and we aren't
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building them out in some farm floodland where you have to have two cars and
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insurance and you have to drive an hour to get to work. So I'd
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like to see a lot more of these be built in our core, and
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I'd like to see those numbers go up and up and up for another five
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years. I don't understand why. I don't know if it's controversial or if
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it's just that, you know, people are set in their ways, but
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why we can't seem to be always prioritizing infill and serviced areas where we already
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have roads and sewers and electrical lines and all of that fun stuff, rather
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than, as you said, you know, let's go build a new subdivision
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and have to deal with all of that onerous stuff. And Melinda, sometimes
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decorative light poles that some neighborhoods get to have grandfathered in for a time in
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tonightem shoot. Well. One of the things I like about this story,
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though, just is to sort of respond to six of it is that Amhersburg
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built is a goot one hundred and fifteen apartments. As part of that list,
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Winter is one hundred and nine. But even Lakeshire has fifty eight apartments.
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And I think and we've start to hear some of that rhetoric in the
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councils, and Lakeshire is an interesting one where they want Lakeshore to become a
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walkable neighborood. So perhaps in contrast to what you're saying, is that people,
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even people in the county, are starting to see that they want to
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build up within their own community so they can live in an apartment. Maybe
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they had a nice house they're retired now, or they've got their kids want
16:03
to live near them and they can live in an apartment. They can walk
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to the beautiful new cafe am Or and Bell River, for example, or
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they can walk to a nice craftbury in Kingsville because there are apartments and they
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don't have to drive. We know what people like when you go on vacation,
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if you go to like Milan, or you go to you know,
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the old world cities, they're all tiny and you're walking through alley corridors.
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With shops backing onto the street, or even when you go to you know,
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Disneyland, you you're just you're walking in a really tight clustered area.
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You don't want to be walking fourteen miles to get to the hotel room.
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I don't know the same thing should apply to our cities as well. We
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got to take a quick break right now, nine twenty nine. You are
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listening to the Tuesday Roundtable here on the dam McDonald show on AM eight hundred,
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joined by Melinda Monroe and six Langman. John Lidkey here, we'll be
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back right after this. Hey, we're back John Lydkey here on AM eight
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hundred. Ckl W. Hope you're all doing well. It is the twenty
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third of July, nine thirty four. We're gonna keep our conversation going here
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on the Tuesday Roundtable, joined by mil Linda Monroe and six Langman. And
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we've got some story he's here that we've done to dive into about Windsor Regional
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Hospital. And you know, there's an ongoing issue that we have not just
17:15
in Windsor, it's across the country. It's across the world quite frankly right
17:18
now with mental health issues and We know that the hospital has rolled out some
17:23
new programs. There is the nurse Policing team, which has seen by all
17:29
accounts, pretty great success, and the hospital has some priorities that they are
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rolling out In a new strategic plan that's being developed. They want to focus
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on those community partnerships aimed at the city's most vulnerable populations. Want to address
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the next steps in planning for the mega hospital and the beginning of the construction
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to add another table at the cardiac cathlab along with another MRI unit at the
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elect campus. So there is a lot of stuff happening here, but it's
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that mental health component that we wanted to talk about right now. And six,
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I know that this is an issue that you've talked about a lot here
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on the show, We've spoken about it off air, and I guess you
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know, I mean, we could dive into the details of the Minnu show
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of the story, but I think it's probably just better to have sort of
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a top level conversation here. You look around the community, I wonder what
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do you see, Like, what do you think we need? What are
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things that other communities have done that you think we could roll out here without
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having to go and spend millions on studies and consultants and try to figure out
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how to reinvent the wheel. I hope that this is the start of some
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of it. I hope that this is the tip of the iceberg that's finally
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coming up where we have Karen right now doing some things for the area and
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moving some of those services to the downtown and making those commitments. Again,
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I think we're a couple of years behind on that. You know, in
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our last election, it was literally made our medical healthcare here was totally made
18:48
a political issue, with Drew Dilkins, Mouche and Mara saying that you know,
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what Chris Holt wanted to do was bring those mental health services down.
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We could have jump started this a couple of years ago, but instead,
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you know, Drew Dilkins called it a risky move. He teamed up with
19:07
you know, his two friends and said that there was no agreement between them
19:11
to move forward on this. I mean, we essentially had a politician that
19:14
wanted to to start pushing not only healthcare and mental health in this area to
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the downtown where we needed it, but would also push the province to kind
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of start funding that. And it was called risky then, but you know,
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I'm glad to see that. You know, Drew Dilkins has maybe changed
19:30
a little bit of his tune and it's a little bit more concentrating on the
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core. We have somebody new at the helm here, so I think maybe
19:37
that direction might help out a whole lot. What we need is what we
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are starting to get and it's just too late, or not too late,
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but it is late. We needed to do this a while ago. Well
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why don't you pick up on that. I mean, it's great to see
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these things happening. There's no doubt about that. Money is flowing, partnerships
20:00
are being created, and there are positive outcomes. But as Sik said,
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I mean we're really late to the ballgame here, and I mean, like
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home construction starts, I wonder just like, how how long is it going
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to take to clear the backlog, if you will, of people that are
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in need of, you know, dire help. Well, it's it's a
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nice dovetail with what we were talking about about the Age four hub in some
20:22
ways, and then also even you know with six here, I'm kind of
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like dovetailing it to another story that's in the news about the next our plant,
20:30
So the next star plant and how I get there Because I'm looking at
20:33
six and I'm thinking, I'm going to be as radical as I can.
20:37
So you know, we're in this kind of what sometimes we call late stage
20:40
capitalism, and we're creating mental health issues because of the way we expect people
20:42
to live in the world. Why we keep removing it's hard to live,
20:47
it's expensive to live, all of these things. And so next to our
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plant is talking about being kind to its employees, right, like making a
20:53
nice place for them to work, providing them with a doctor on site,
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all of these things that actually make it nice to live, which might reduce
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some of the mental health pressures we see. Then we look at this story
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about the Metal Health Services coming back downtown together with a cath lab, together
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with an MRI unit, and what we see is all of us who fought
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like hell against moving the hospital services out to the county and said, at
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the very least, you have to keep something in the downtown. Finally we're
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seeing not only are we keeping stuff in the downtown, we're adding more to
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the downtown. Oh so we weren't completely crazy radical nut bars. And then
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we see that tied into the H four thing where we just talked about.
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People don't go to where the services are, they go to where housing is
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affordable. So we're going to build H four and Wellington, but we're actually
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increasing the mental health supports on alet. So how are people going to get
21:45
from Wellington back and forth to a lot to be able to access the services
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they need at H four and access the services they need at Hotel Do which
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is down at a lot now at Winter Region was down at a lot now,
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Like these things all kind of work together. We can make a community
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where it's easier for people to live and be happy and reduce the pressure on
22:03
our systems without just having to add more and more supports in the form of
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the crisis level, acute care level and so next s our H four Hospital
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and Mega Hospital kind of come together in this story to say, as six
22:17
as we were right, we need the services in the core. We were
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always right from the very first time we said don't move the hospital to the
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county very much. I think our healthcare is needed not in one location.
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I grew up in Leamington. I was born in the Lemington Hospital. My
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mother died in the Leamington Hospital. Past couple of years ago. I've had
22:37
conversations with a couple of counselors where I just literally even say it's like,
22:41
do we have a working helipad at any of our hospitals here? And the
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answer is like no. Ask them how the new hospital is going to be
22:51
funded. It's a P three consortium, which means that as a private public
22:55
partnership. So the bottom line is going to be making money at this hospital
22:59
over the next time couple of years. That isn't just about healthcare. That's
23:02
the big issue with me. So you know, we we need to see
23:07
I think what I started, you know, these these arguments a couple of
23:10
years back, and and was it was helping with the campaign. We need
23:12
to see health care in areas, multiple areas. And you know, I
23:18
you know Prince Road for example, I lived across from Hotel DO and I
23:22
was living in Windsor as well. You know I live over near the Walker
23:29
Sorry, what's the other metropolitan Yes, do you know where you're going to
23:34
wipe that? YEAHA but but you know, we needed those little hospitals.
23:41
We need a Leamington hospital. We don't need a gift shop in that hospital.
23:45
That's pretty much what that hospital has kind of become. We need actual
23:48
health care in the hospitals that exists, and it's nice to see that,
23:52
you know, we're starting to shift that focus back to these locals that need
24:00
it and moving those the health care to those areas. We know that we
24:04
need more health care. It would in all forms, whether it be from
24:08
you know, family doctors, more nursing practitioners, our ends, doctors,
24:15
specialists, the whole gamut. We need more of it. I'm glad that
24:21
you know, as we are seeing the mega hospital progress forward, that we
24:23
know that the downtown campus isn't going to be shut down and that it will
24:27
be having twenty four hour emergency access remaining there as well as other services.
24:33
That's fairly important. But I do take your point, and not just with
24:37
a grain of salt, six, that communities shouldn't be sort of left in
24:41
a desert to be told, yeah, well look the hospital's just you know,
24:45
it's down the expressway. Jump in a car. You'll get there in
24:47
like seven minutes. I don't have a car. Yeah, how do I
24:51
get there? We'll get on a bike. We'll get lanes at some point,
24:55
maybe a bike parking lot too. I don't know, you know,
24:56
it's just it's easy to get cynical about this stuff. Yeah, I mean
25:00
I grew up in Wheatley, so my closest hospital was eleven minutes away at
25:03
Leamington, which was great as a child, and now that whole area has
25:08
to travel into the city, you know. I mean during COVID my grandmother
25:11
had a stroke. She lived in Leamington, five minutes away from the hospital,
25:17
but they had to bring her into Windsor to you know, see if
25:19
this was a stroke, and you know, assess her that way, and
25:23
she's pulled right into the core of where we have, you know, all
25:26
a huge amount of COVID and a huge amount of outbreaks and you're literally seeing,
25:32
you know, a whole hospital just being ignored, ignored, Okay,
25:37
the public. It's easy to have these conversations about it, like around a
25:41
table like this, But when you do dial nine one one and you're sitting
25:45
and you're waiting for an ambulance to show up, and then there's the time
25:48
to get to the hospital, that's when you really start to realize that,
25:52
oh, now, the seconds they matter, And when you start stacking sixty
25:57
on sixty on, sixty on sixty on sixty one, you get to a
26:00
number that I'm not able to do quickly off the top of my head because
26:03
I did not go to school for math, but for other reasons as well.
26:07
We got to take a quick break right here. Six, Sorry,
26:08
but that it is nine forty three, just about nine forty four. John
26:11
Lydkey here on AM eight hundred CKLW we're back right after this. You're listening
26:15
to The Dan McDonald Show with guest host John Lidkey on AM eight hundred.
26:48
Hey, we're back, John Lydkey here a l w W. It's the
26:52
Dan McDonald Show Roundtable, joined by Six Langman and Melinda Monroe. Hey six.
26:56
A couple of years ago, I mean we were just talking about the
26:57
Mega hospital and healthcare the region. You and I went for a drive.
27:00
Yeah, we were on the AVB podcast, AJ myself, you, Philippa,
27:07
Philippo was in the car and is just four of us. Well,
27:11
I mean it was a car, so yeah, it was a van.
27:15
But yeah, we took a drive from the Grace location, the old Grace
27:19
Hospital again another hospital we've lost. We did it at about two thirty or
27:25
three o'clock in the afternoon, which is during rush hour, and we drove
27:27
from that location to the location or the new proposed location for the hospital.
27:33
And this was done on a live stream, so there was no editing,
27:37
there was no cutting. We had cameras, multiple cameras in the car showing
27:42
the traffic that we had to drive through and our interview and I think we
27:48
were pushing about it was it was over forty minutes, forty five minutes to
27:53
get from Grace to where this new hospital is. And you know, when
27:59
we see that they're going to bring or at least keep the Olette campus open
28:03
for twenty four hour emergency. I mean, this was sort of the question
28:07
we brought up in that drive plenty of times. It's like, forty minutes
28:10
from the downtown core all the way out there is way too long of a
28:14
time for everybody in the city to have to access any sort of er.
28:18
And the fact is is we you know, here a horrible thing to say,
28:22
but we do not have the road infrastructure for that to get down Windott
28:26
or to get down University, or to get out of the city quickly to
28:30
get to that hospital. And that was a huge thing when when we drove
28:34
it was it was evident right away, you know, trying to get through
28:37
that downtown core to just get out there. It took way, way,
28:44
way too long, So you know, I don't know. We went for
28:47
a nice car ride and I proved what we all knew. I guess that
28:52
is what it came down to. You know what other people have been doing,
28:53
Melinda, going for some car rideses. They were able to plot out
28:56
where to get alcohol during the SELCB strike that happened, And the reason for
29:00
that is the government was able to roll out a really nice interactive map that
29:04
I know some people had some issues with it, but it showed every brewery,
29:08
winery, distillery, sidery bar, not every bar and restaurant, but
29:12
a bunch of them, a lot a lot of the places of access to
29:15
Melinda. I think it was a masterful gamut how they rolled it out.
29:19
But I'm also like a real cynic about things, so I can appreciate how
29:26
they did it well while also still going like, come on, you guys,
29:29
what do you think about the fact that you know, I saw a
29:32
lot of conversations about how during COVID people weren't able to find vaccines, but
29:37
the minute a strike happened, here's a mapp and you can make sure that
29:42
you get yourself the beer that you were even doctors at this point. Yeah,
29:45
well yeah, so you have a map within literally hours, you have
29:48
a map of where you can buy alcohol. But it was the Hunger Games
29:53
from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two and a half or twenty twenty three
29:57
about where to get a vaccination, and so how come you were able to
30:02
do one thing and not the other. But you know, the other thing
30:03
is hilarious about it is that is there a map of where the near safe
30:07
consumption side is? Well, there's a map of where the nearest safe consumption
30:11
of alcohol side is interactive. You can get it on your phone, you
30:14
can get it while you're driving drunk, perhaps to that bar, but you
30:18
can't go and get safe consumption of something that actually might save your life.
30:22
It's just crazy to me. This government is so obsessed with alcohol that they've
30:27
lost track of the fact that alcohol is a poison. I mean, I
30:30
drink, don't get me wrong. It was one of the most addictive drugs
30:33
that there is, and yet we've got easy access to alcohol and tobacco and
30:38
no access at all to things that are going to keep people from dying in
30:41
the streets. Yeah, what was there, you know, just kind of
30:45
the dovetail in how many how many opioid warnings did we get in the last
30:52
month. It's like every two weeks we're getting over time five warnings. In
30:56
the last month sixty calls for OD sixteen more than our monthly average. So
31:03
you know, I know doug Ford may not be tuning in here, but
31:06
you know, maybe our mayor is, and you can make a call,
31:08
and this is this is something that needs to be looked at. Doug Ford
31:11
needs to be pushed back on this. You know, closing the safe consumption
31:15
consumption sites was an absolutely ridiculous self centered move on his point or his part.
31:22
He just doesn't want to care. You know, one small incident like
31:25
that to shut down a whole province of help is ridiculous. And like you
31:29
say, LCBO is safe, well maybe not consumption sites, but we get
31:33
to purchase it safely there. We should be able to have that same sort
31:37
of Well, the bars and the restaurants are safe consumption restaurants are safe consumption
31:40
sites, and now our convenience stores are you know, you can just walk
31:44
down a block and you can get you can get liquor because you can get
31:48
ready to drink cocktails down at the Max and drink them on your way home
31:52
down to back alley. Well, I mean, like you do what people
31:53
already do it. When I worked at the when I worked at the casino,
31:57
I was a valet and I had to be smart served. I had
32:00
to be able to refuse people their keys and say, no, you're not
32:04
driving this car. You're drunk right now, I'm not giving it to you
32:06
can come back tomorrow. The fact of the matter is is when it comes
32:09
to alcohol, our whole society is geared around it and ensuring the safety of
32:15
it. The reason prohibition ended was because of bathtub gin for gosh sake.
32:19
I mean, people were dropping dead and going blind r and we decided that
32:22
safe supply was necessary. And that is the foundation of our modern alcohol production
32:30
and retail system. And there's lots of checks and balances across and I don't
32:36
know why. I mean, we're not talking safe supply right now, Melinda,
32:37
We're talking about just like safe consumption sites. It's just like we're never
32:43
going to get to a point of being able to completely address these underlying issues
32:46
and take best practices from other areas where we know that they work. If
32:51
we can't even get to having the bare minimum, well that's not fair.
32:54
We did have the bare minimum now for eleven months. Yeah, because of
32:59
people like Peer probably ever who have decided to wrap up the rhetor I can
33:02
say these are drug dens when what they are is healthcare. Let's just leave
33:07
us. Let's leave it there. So absolutely, I want to get you
33:10
to talk a little bit about spinning stories because it's time for our plugged in
33:15
segment. And I presume that that's what you want to plug in. If
33:17
you don't have to, no, I already did that at the beginning.
33:20
We're tuned in, all right, the plugged in I work with the Ottaway
33:25
Street BIA and next month we have the Pride Fest going on on the street,
33:30
so nice weekend long of festivals. Outaway Street is also closing on the
33:35
Saturday, August tenth, and we're looking for some vendors. So if you're
33:38
a local vendor, if you have a shop, if you sell some of
33:42
your own creations, we need local vendors for that Saturday of August tenth.
33:47
Our website is oddly enough, Outawa Street Windsor. Our Instagram is Autawa Street
33:53
Windsor, our Facebook is Autawa Street Windsor And you can find the links on
33:57
all of those to get into the the vendor form and it'll just get sent
34:01
out to et and where you go. The cost of that is a whole
34:07
whopping twenty five dollars and you're there for the whole day. So we started
34:10
about eight thirty and we go until about six at night, and streets will
34:15
be closed and lots of people down there, a lot of people come out.
34:19
Yeah, it's going to be a nice, busy weekend. Definitely.
34:21
I'm really glad that we've kind of teamed up with Pride to do a full
34:24
weekend on Autawa Street that like just just for the parade, the whole area
34:30
there becomes bustling, but like a whole weekend, it's going to be a
34:32
lot of fun. Yeah. And there's a lot of great restaurants and cafes
34:37
and stores that are always there on Ottawa Street that you should be be a
34:42
patron at. Patrons. Well, that's a tough one. You don't want
34:45
to patronize them, yes, but you do want to patronize them, yes.
34:49
So English is so fun isn't it, Melinda, what do you want
34:52
to plug in? Well, I have a graint I think to plug in
34:55
today and you're here to heard it here first. So if you have been
35:00
around the last few summers, Parallel forty two Systems and my business, which
35:05
is Monroe Strategic Perspective, put on an annual summer fun policy event, and
35:09
this year we're super delighted. We're inviting Alana Altman, who is the co
35:15
executive director of the Bentway Project, which has taken all that land under the
35:19
gardener and is turning it into park space, animating it. They had twelve
35:22
hundred people at a yoga session there just a few weeks ago, so she's
35:25
going to be our keynote speaker. We're going to hold the event on the
35:30
lawn outside Art Windsor, Essex on August fifteenth. Ticket purchasers will get free
35:34
access into Art Windsor Rest at night, as well as a drink and something
35:37
to eat, and then get to hear from Atlanta and our very esteemed panel,
35:40
which is Dorian Moore from Center for Cities, local architect Jennifer matt Attack
35:45
who's the EDA of Art Windsor six, Lauren Hurd who is a photographer and
35:51
just did a big Lauren Hedges rather big mural project. And also Pat Papade
35:57
is from WIFF who's going to talk about the whole that with is animating public
36:00
works infrastructure in the city. And the topic is animating. So we've got
36:06
roads and sewers and bridges everywhere. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars every
36:08
year. How do we animate that for arts purposes? So come on out
36:14
August fifteenth outside Artwinsterustics and engage in the conversation. I always say that when
36:20
it comes down to municipal spending, it's the infrastructure projects like the roads and
36:24
the sewers that are the absolute sexiest things to talk about. Melinda, I
36:29
love that you want to just like put it up to eleven. Yeup to
36:32
eleven. Let's go deep on the infrastructure that I'll do it for rest here
36:37
on the Tuesday round table on the Dan McDonald show. Big thank you too,
36:42
photographer six Langman, as well as with the Ottawa Street BIA and spending
36:47
stories and you know a lot more other stuff that I'm not a professional.
36:52
Beard Coiffer, Yes, And Melinda Monroe, municipal consultant and council Watcher.
36:58
Thank you so much, both of you for joining me here today. A
37:00
a lot of fun