LEDC - I have found something that deserves FFF

Yes, the dreaded Triple F. The LEDC (London Economic Development Corporation) is a sanctioned body of City Hall charged with bringing business opportunities, developing business opportunities and nurturing business as a whole within Pleasantville.

Problem is they never read their own mandate.

In actual fact, they drive away more business better than any other institution that could have been devised.

I know of meetings in other cities where local business leaders have met with their civic counterparts from other burgs from around Canada and the world and they each pretty much say the same thing - actually it's usually a puzzled question:

"Why is it so HARD to deal with the LEDC? Why do they always make it so hard to create anything in London... to get anything done?"

And they do indeed make it hard. For whatever their machinations might be, I often think of the LEDC meeting in a basement of a forgotten Manor House, in a scene straight from the film ‘Dr. Strangelove’, eccentric and completely self-absorbed buffoons deciding our collective fates - at least business fates in Pleasantville.

Well, it has to be said. They don’t want business to develop, err, at least ‘not them outsider types’. If they don't have a hot poker in the fire... they'll never light the match.

One case is the story of the German Auto Parts manufacturer who were willing to risk an investment in London, a huge investment actually, one that could have been American Auto Downturn proof, in fact - yet - when this company asked for a show of good faith by requesting a multi-year deferral of some development taxes, the city said NO with a pounding of their shoes on the podium.

So the auto parts plant went south to warmer and more hospitable climes.

This goes on all the time. I suppose what needs to be done is to eliminate all those Real Estate types from the LEDC - for they have no desire to see business come to London if they themselves are not cut a piece of the action. In fact - lets ban them altogether from any influence at City Hall in whatever capacity. You just might see outside investment come back to Pleasantville.

I find it odd that a city of this size does not attract more outside investment in manufacturing, commercial ventures and land development. Why? Because they are shooed away by that cabal in the basement at LEDC.

FFF - can the score get worse? Perhaps...

Later, I'll mention the London Business Magazine Curse of the Cover. (If you get highlighted on the cover of London Business magazine - months, even weeks later - you're out-of-bidness)

Peace.

Urban Planning, LTC and London - they exist not.

This blog is a response to what I have been hearing and seeing in this burg, nestled in the middle of South Western Ontario. Sometimes it's been called Melonville (see SCTV) and more recently Pleasantville.

What I hope to accomplish with this blog is to point out the idiotic issues and foibles this city is constantly mired in and especially the hopelessly outdated and mismanaged LTC ( London Transit Commission ).

Why? I don't suffer fools gladly... there are government agencies for that. I, on the other hand, must navigate through this city each day only to see and hear more things that make me spitting mad... or shake my head in disgust... or just wonder how any thinking creature could come up with these things.

I have often told outsiders, when they ask what it's like to live and work in London, Ontario, I tell them this - that it's a really, really, really, really, really, really, really big St Mary's. But I was thinking the other day this maligns St Mary's a great deal and does not deserve such a comparison.

What I have attempted to describe in that comparison is even though London approaches 400,000 in population... it thinks and makes decisions, feels like and has this sense of aura of, being a town of a couple thousand.

With the usual problems a small town has and it keeps making small town decisions when faced with big city issues. Here's my score card:

• LTC - the city's transit authority - D
• Arts - D
• Entertainment - C
• Downtown Core - F
• Roads and Highways - F
  
• City Hall - F
• Urban Renewal - F
  
• Environment - C
• Parks and Recreation - B
• City Services - D
• Housing - F

And most importantly, Urban Planning - F ( and if there were a way to give an F minus - I would)

Urban Planning is a curse word to anyone at City Hall. A word never to be uttered even by those who are urban planners. Why? There is none. None whatsoever. The city is governed by a mob mentality and even though there are urban planners and an urban planning department - any recommendations or suggestions or plans are promptly tossed in the garbage can. ( I'd say recycler but that's a different issue)

Then there is the LTC, a key component of Urban Planning, which this city has a history of bungling the likes which have never been seen since Los Angeles dismantled its streetcar system.

However, this is the first entry. I will get into detail in subsequent posts. As I have just returned from Toronto, spent a few days on the Danforth, only to return to this wasteland. And I've said before: one block of the Dnaforth in Toronto has more life and vibrancy on it than the whole of London. Remember Londoners! Walmart is not a cultural centre.

Peace!