- I have compiled all of my previous “Thoughts” posts onto a single page for people to go back and review if they wish. A link is also found on the Table of Contents page
- For those wondering Ngaio Hotte is a PhD in Economics at UBC and Statistics Canad ahas stopped stracking expenditures at a local level on police because we can’t have nice things
- COVID is driving up Canadian household debt.
- Somewhat work related but also important, there is some significant lobbying around infrastructure funding cutting community consultation and benefit processes to speed up projects post COVID-19. If you don’t think that is right you can endorse a letter here.
- A radio documentary on my home town of Tillsonburg and the plight of a mechanics shop.
- Tropical Storm Christobal may have made history this week when it reached the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay.
- Sarah Morris and Councilor Bortolin had an interesting exchange on Rose City Politics on defunding the police and the Windsor Police. A few comments on the show:
- Councilor Bortolin said something important which needs to be considered is that due to the budget structure it means less officers and less services to simply “cut the police”. Research by Samuel Sinyangwe and Campaign Zero has broadly shown that this defunding due to police collective bargaining would actually unwind efforts to diversify the force. The impact would be younger more diversified officers would be laid off while more senior (& generally more white) officers would be kept.
- Unfortunately this transformation will take a long time and needs to start at the top (provincial). It will be evolution, you will need career officers to leave and the churn of new officers to make the force more representative to the community.
- The transparency discussion was also an important one. An easy solution around that is to release data on crime by Windsor Police in an open and accessible manner, not just some map.
- There was a great piece in the Globe and Mail around the impacts of urban planning on the racial tensions in Minneapolis.
- One of the links in the article is to a project at the University of Minnesota called Mapping Prejudice and the employment of Racial Covenant, which were: tools used by real estate developers to prevent people of color from buying or occupying property.
- CBC the House did a 40 minute discussion on the importance of Race based data and pandemic response
- So the question for Monday, is whether or not the Agri sector outbreak will prevent Windsor-Essex as a region from moving into Phase 2.
- Fewer than 300 cases in all of Ontario on Sunday, which is good!
- The other thing to keep in mind is Father’s day is next weekend and getting dad on a patio for dinner will be a high demand attraction.
- Approximately a week after Mother’s day the number of cases started ticking up again locally.
- Also next Saturday (June 20) is the first day of Summer, lock down began just before the first day of Spring (March 20th) – a season lost.
- My progress on the Simpsons has somewhat petered out in Season 18, having shifted my attention to Community and feeling nostalgic for Anthony Bourdain and travel – No Reservations
Finally, I end this piece with a heads up. Next week will see the return of the Windsor Research Project, with 2 posts (maybe more depending on how long they end up) on Racial Inequality based on local data. The posts include over a dozen maps, charts, statistical correlations and some hard questions about Windsor and Essex County. So keep an eye out for that!
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