Make City Hall Agile and Responsive to Residents' Concerns
The City Hall must use IT to make it easy for the residents to voice their concerns and to be informed about the progress at the City Hall in redressing the concerns.
Besides being agile in responding to the residents’ concerns, the city requires to bring greater coherence to its policies.
Bring greater coherence to city’s policies.
EXAMPLES:
(i) The City brands itself as Gateway to USA—but has no strategy to remove friction, of long delays and expensive toll charges, in cross-border movement. In a few years, the new Gordie Howe International Bridge should reduce traffic. Meanwhile both the Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge can support much higher traffic if more immigration booths are opened and are manned at the peak time.
In Windsor, Ward 9 has one of the highest number of people working across the border. as there are no high paying jobs in Windsor. Each commuter is paying about $10 bridge/Tunnel Toll daily as a non-tax non-deducible expense, besides gas and car wear tear. As a result, many citizens of Canada move to stay permanently in USA.
Moreover high toll rates and traffic affects cross-border businesses adversely.
An efficient regional transit system and seamless travel connecting Windsor with Detroit & other areas in USA and with London and Toronto in Canada can help businesses in Windsor.
The World Economic Forum has recently accepted a research proposal by Windsor, Detroit and Ann Arbor for studying seamless travel across international borders. This shows that it is a well-accepted fact that reduction of friction in travel across the boundary helps profitability of businesses.
(ii) The City markets itself as the retirement home for Canada. But it lacks facilities of adequate geriatric clinics for seniors, adequate number of hospital beds and convenient public transport for physically challenged.
In short Windsor City requires agility and a coherent strategy in its policy regime to develop Windsor into a prosperous city.
Alex can contribute to developing, sustaining and executing a coherent strategy due to his education and management consulting experience.