Art in the Park?

It’s an annual tradition in Willistead Park, two days of arts and crafts in the open meadows, plus a very special evening concert feature this time around. But what is to be done about the ankle-length grass before Art in the Park gets underway? With the city strike in full swing, parks and public areas overgrown by weeds and tall grass, some have suggested that Willistead may be a bit cumbersome to navigate come June 6th and 7th.

There are some unfortunate rumours out there that Art in the Park may be cancelled because of the grass, garbage, and other items. I’m here to squash those rumours, they are most likely not true! Rotary-1918 will find a way to get the grass cut, and hopefully it’s done the right way, by City Employees, with a strike resolution possibly on the horizon!

May we have a great Art in the Park this year!

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annasays

nice pic!
fleeting_image

Cumbersome to navigate? That is nonsense. I hope they don’t cancel art in the park because of something so trivial. All this long grass has not stopped a lot of Windsorites from enjoying their walks in the parks.
liquidhuman

Art in the Park is one of my favourite events of the year!

Also, the Windsor birthday celebrations went ahead at the riverfront while CUPE was on strike… I fully intend on attending Art in the Park.

I think people keep spreading misinformation in hopes that it will work to their benefit. This is sad :(
anonymous

That event has survived some nasty summer storms in past years, attendants having trudged through ankle deep mud. I doubt some high grass would be cause to call it off. Expect disruptive CUPE pickets at the entrances though.
anonymous

Unfortunately, those rumours aren’t unfounded. My neighbour volunteers with the Friends of Willistead, and they are indeed contemplating cancelling AitP, due to the strike. I keep asking her, but she has no new information to give me.

Keep your fingers crossed, as AitP is one of this cities most successful events and is great for the Walkerville ‘hood. I don’t want to see it cancelled! – Chris Holt
hey_joe42

If they leave the grass, I’m sure it will be flattened once everyone tramples over it with their feet and baby carriages. Throw a little water on to make some mud started and the grass won’t be a problem at all
westerntragedy

yeah, I remember AitP 2000, had a nasty thunderstorm, lightning struck near the manor a few hundred feet in front of us. But we survived heh!
thenshesaidno

they’re definitely not cancelling it. there are ads for it everywhere.
_linabeanz

Rofl or Willistead could hire a private company and save some cash to cut and tend to the grounds if the strike resolution doesn’t come through.

Do you have a link to the latest developments?! Man, you’re on the PULSE.
westerntragedy

yah that would get crazy ugly though if they got a company to do it. the picketers would be all over that. bloody noses on each side I bet….. photo op!!!!!!!!

and, well, I’m still kinda in the dark about negotiations myself. i thought about putting up a lawnchair outside where they’re bargaining and just waiting, but that’d be going to the extreme for a story!? lol
anonymous

Get this – my kids came home from school and filled told me that the charity event they were supposed to hold in the park was cancelled, as someone sabotaged the park by threading in spikes and pieces of chain link fence that would wreck any lawn mowing equipment that tried to cut the lawn!

I tell ya, I’ve REALLY been trying to keep the focus in regards to this labour dispute, but when idiots pull shit like this and goe out of their way to threaten the safety of the neighbourhood kids, they’ve gone too far! – Chris Holt
anonymous

I feel the same way.
Any shred of support I had for CUPE is gone.
They’ve stepped over the line.
westerntragedy

whoa… that’s insane. I’m trying to keep focus too, and write objectively, but I’m starting to get teed off at both sides with regard to how dirty this is getting.
anonymous

It would be terrible if this got canceled since it’s a huge success each year. If all those vendors lost out on this event, some may not come back. Maybe the strikers should think of effects like that…it’s not just current things they are hurting.

If this goes on much longer the strikers will lose what little support they have left. I’m not an Eddie fan but recent stunts by strikers have pissed me off and I would just like them to be realistic for a while.

What else will you ruin for us just to prove a point? Art in the Park? Carrousel? Red Bull? Special Olympics?

Vicky
anonymous

Hello Fellow Windsorites Reading This Board: : :

Just a few facts to help clear up some some of your misconceptions about the colourful topic that is the current CUPE strike:

Whether or not you still have respect or evidence any support for the CUPE strikers is sort of beside the point. The Union’s collective position since talks broke down after 4 days on Saturday calls for binding arbitration from an impartial third party to be the answer to the current “impasse” both City and Union are at. Your Mayor, who is not even (supposed to be) involved in the bargaining committee, has balked at this opportunity to end the strike because he knows he will lose what strides his union-busting agenda has set for the city and CUPE’s not unreasonable terms will be met as soon as an outside agency sees what’s been going on. (Windsor, meanwhile has earned 9 million so far “in savings”; Eddie’s books WILL balance!) The Union wants to end the strike but — as long as the ball is in City Hall’s court — finds itself basically in lockout. Therefore, it is he, and your fearless leaders at Council, who are holding Windsor hostage by holding up the process and any attendant progress on this matter. Not the strikers (some of whom, yes, have methods draconian enough to give even Eddie a run for his money, it must be admitted. But that is what happens during a labour dispute. Both sides tend to fight dirty. All’s fair during… or hadn’t you heard ?)

And again, as for CUPE demonstrating at Art in the Park, it may happen, yes, but that’s only because CUPE madly loves all the art it can get its eyeballs around in art-deficient Windsor-town. And CUPE demonstrators, for the most part, are intelligent pink collared civil servants — hardly the sort anyone need fear. A point to keep in mind?

gustave m. — local hardcore polyartist AND member of CUPE 543
westerntragedy

Hey Gus, good post. What I’m trying to inform people of too is that there are literally “strike breakers” out there, hired by the city, to make CUPE look bad. I’m pretty much tired of reading all the anti-union stuff in the Star. There’s no way CUPE members would be lacing the park with dangerous objects.. that’s their workplace afterall. Nobody is that irresponsible except for those trying to bring down the union.

Maybe I’m wrong, I dunno, but I’ve seen ‘strike breakers’ in action through various strikes we’d have where I work at the University.
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