Coun. Bortolin launches bid for re-election in Ward 3
Ward 3 councillor launches re-election bid in alley behind Downtown Mission
Rino Bortolin is seeking another term on council, focusing on safety in neighbourhoods.
The Ward 3 councillor, first elected in 2014, released his platform Wednesday when he announced his candidacy. He launched his reelection run in an alley behind the Downtown Mission — an area that he called ground zero for the issues plaguing the city core. “While I am proud of my record over the last four years, I realize there is a lot more to do,” said the 44-year-old married father of three. “So today I am releasing a very aggressive platform. “It’s a three-point plan mostly revolving around stronger neighbourhoods, a safety, security and social-services strategy, and an active transportation and infrastructure fund.”
But the former restaurateur who now does consulting work said the most important part is the safety and social-services element. He called for the city to abandon the plan for a pedestrian underpass on Riverside Drive and to instead redirect the $2.4 million already allotted for that project.
He called for $400,000 to be put into an alley lighting and security fund, and for the rest to be spent on the hiring of seven outreach workers in the city core to help deal with the fallout from the opioid and homelessness crisis hitting Windsor.
“The top priority for sure is a safety, security and social-services strategy,” Bortolin said. “The No. 1 point is taking the roughly $2.5 million we have set aside for a pedestrian tunnel on Riverside Drive that we now realize we don’t need and nobody wants and actively addressing the No. 1 issue this city has right now, which is the opioid, mental-health and homelessness issue in our core.” Among the accomplishments during his term are helping implement a community-improvement plan downtown that has attracted “tens of millions of dollars,” lighting some alleys, adding a splash pad to Jackson Park, redeveloping Mitchell Park, implementing a second phase of development to Wigle Park, and arranging for Bruce Park to be improved in 2019. “Even on what some people call a divided council I’ve been able to accomplish things, regardless of a 6-4 divide,” Bortolin said. “There are a lot of things that we have been able to get done.”
In other Windsor elections news, Krysta Glovasky-Ridsdale has filed to run as a candidate for Ward 1. As part of her provincial campaign as a Green party candidate in Windsor West earlier this year, she canvassed in Ward 1 and said she “connected with many residents whose concerns were on the local level.”
Though she lives in Ward 9, Glovasky-Ridsdale hopes her “nononsense approach” will allow her to become an effective liaison between city council and Ward 1 constituents.