LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Rethink downtown by closing Ouellette

Ouellette Avenue and the surrounding area is an amazing place for music, fun and bar-hopping. I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve always loved downtown for all of this and more.

I recently moved downtown, finally living out my childhood dreams, and now realize this area isn’t my fairy tale happy place at all.

Since I’ve moved in, I’ve found multiple needles under my porch and seen numerous fights. The alleyways have great artwork but tons of garbage and potholes.

The Downtown Mission and the Salvation Army host great services, don’t get me wrong, but they also attract a lot of this mischief.

I’ve seen friends get pulled into the drug world by being surrounded by these places and they need a safer space away from the alcohol that pushed them to the drugs surrounding this area.

I’ve also realized the foot traffic would flourish if Ouellette Avenue were closed and used as a walking street, at least from Riverside Drive to Wyandotte Street. They have to close it on the weekends at night and for festivals down here anyway.

Why not try to build up the area with more foot traffic to add more businesses?

Closing Ouellette could mean fewer tax dollars will be needed to pay cops to sit in their vehicles, fewer people getting hurt or ruining vehicles, easier access to the restaurants and stores, and more space for patios, music and street vendors, including food trucks.

I hope this is all considered. Allison Crease, Windsor

Minimum wage hike hard on small firms

Increasing Ontario’s minimum wage to $14 an hour in 2018 and then $15 an hour in 2019 will be hard on small businesses like mine.

The government-mandated minimum wage increase for 2017 will cost my business $1,000 annually.

The 2018 increase will raise that to $8,500 a year and then $12,000 in 2019. This increase is going to happen practically overnight.

Over the course of five years that’s a $55,000 unanticipated increase in payroll. This doesn’t include any incremental mandated increases. How does a small business absorb that? Businesses budget and plan for the future. The government needs to consider this.

Over five years the hydro costs for our business have almost doubled, to $136,000 from $70,000. It’s outrageous.

As a proud owner who wants to expand my business by investing capital to generate more revenue and provide a better customer experience, it’s frustrating to watch the government just take it all away repeatedly.

This unprecedented wage increase is going to force the student worker out of the job market as higher wages are going to mean greater demands by employers on the young workers, who will need to find a way to compete with more mature skilled minimum wage hires. It is also going to put the squeeze on higher paid employees.

Increasing the minimum wage will force businesses to raise prices on consumer goods, much to the chagrin of minimum wage earners.

How can the government overlook the simple economics of this rollout? Shame on our elected officials who support and voted for this. Geoff Gerrish, Chatham-Kent

Obey flashing lights on school buses

My six-year-old son was riding a school bus that was rear-ended on the corner of Wyandotte Street and St. Louis Avenue on June 7.

In the last year, we’ve been catching the school bus there, we have witnessed cars speeding through red lights and near collisions.

But on a weekly basis, we see cars disobeying the flashing lights on the school bus and speeding by while children are exiting.

Now, a bus full of students was hit from behind.

Thankfully, none of the children were seriously injured, but as a parent, I ask that you please drive carefully and at the posted speed limit, especially around buses. Jasmine Plante, Windsor