Friday, October 14, 2016

NOW, YOU SHOW SUPPORT?

This is beyond the pale for those of us who lived through "The Condo Wars." Now, years later, Kris Dubé who was once the main newspeak proponent for the twelve story condo tower that was to be built on the last piece of public beachfront property in Crystal Beach has decided that it was a bad idea after all. Stop the Presses and destroy all those pro-tower, anti-four councillors articles Dubé wrote when he was editor of The Times. He has now conceded that Crystal Beach is a "growing and thrives community." Like he just discovered this?

Kris is now a free-lancer at his former employer after a career move to an on-line newspaper that closed down after it had achieved its agenda. Much like the fate of the former ninja blog that spent a few years trashing anyone who opposed the tower, especially me and the Four Councillors, it is now gone, having achieved its agenda. Unfortunately, we remember and we will never forget the damage that was done to reputations, emotions and finances by those more interested in granting developers' wishes than what is best for the residents and visitors to our community.

And Kris's light-hearted mea culpa is an insult to anyone who worked and fought to save Crystal Beach from becoming an overdeveloped mess. He blithely dismisses the efforts of many people to keep our public lands from being given away to a developer by explaining that he "lived in the opposite end of town," as the reason for his support of the tower. Thus, he pointed out the biggest problem in Fort Erie: the divide of different parts of town. And that's why former mayor Doug Martin was able to be re-elected by five votes in 2010 despite being a poor leader. He and his followers used that divide to create even more of a division in Fort Erie and Dubé, family friend of Martin, made sure that The Times' editorial opinion mirrored the mayor's. It worked extremely well in the 2014 election where two of the councillors (John Hill and Paul Collard) lost their re-elections; one (Don Lubberts) was re-elected; and Bob Steckley tried and failed to be elected as regional councillor. Any other place that values its honest and righteous elected officials would have re-elected The Four. Instead, they were sued, slandered and hectored by the minions of a group of non-elected people who work behind the scenes and who funded the lawsuit to protect their hold on the town. And Kris Dubé has been their helpful public relations scribe at The Times. 

So, now Dubé now lives in Crystal Beach and has discovered what many of us already knew a long time ago: Crystal Beach is a hidden gem and a treasure. The "gem" has been polished with the help of hard-working residents and groups who took the recommendations of the 1996 C.A.U.S.E. Study very seriously. Like the study asserted, Crystal Beach is a special place that needs to enhance and celebrate its location, lay-out and heritage. Many of the C.A.U.S.E. Study recommendations were adopted e.g. building height only to be overturned in order to satisfy the ambitions of those involved in the Bay Beach development deal.

 The Friends of Crystal Beach has been doing for working for decades, despite the "really bad years" of red-lining, abandonment, dereliction and disgrace. The FOCB did not give up, despite little or no support from "the other end of town."

Kris is now enjoying one of the many events supported by the Friends of Crystal Beach. In addition, there are free Waterfront Park concerts featuring top-rated entertainment; Circle of Art Show in July;  and the End of Summer Parade/Festival Labour Day weekend. The group meets all year, usually the last Thursday of the month at the Crystal-Ridge Library.

Perhaps Kris will go "Full Crystal Beach" and join. The FOCB will welcome him. Really.

13 comments:

  1. Yeppers....
    Rather interesting in seeing his "transformation" from political mouthpiece for uncle dougie to crystal beach cheerleader.
    But hey, what the hell?
    Why before we know it perhaps we'll see jimmy thibert swingin' away while strutting down bay beach in his new "man-kini".
    I mean if kris can change then maybe pigs can fly (or a least take a walk on bay beach)

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  2. Looks and reads like a mock up script from Corner Gas. "I live here now, Its got really cool!!" The resemblance to Brent Butt? Poor Kris.

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    1. I guess we should be happy that he's had his "come to Jesus moment" but there was a lot of damage done by martin and his friends and Kris was the person who helped ruin some decent people's lives and reputations. Kris will never understand the pain these people went through, most of it behind the scenes and by cowards. He was too busy being brainwashed by family friends. Had to get away from the poison for a while to detox from the stupidity and greed.

      He has a lot to make up for; this article is a start but there's a lot more. Wish I had the stomach to write the whole, true story of the Bay Beach Debacle. I don't. My health, both mental and physical has been ruined by this issue and its aftermath. I can barely find the strength to say, "We told you so!"

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  3. I can only hope that Kris is sincere and that this is not a poor attempt at saving his butt from the severe ass kicking it deserves for trying to destroy the best beach for miles in any direction....as Editor of the Times he made sure the many condo rebuttals were never printed and deliberately misused his authority by engaging in complete one sided propaganda(ol boys bank accounts were at stake).

    Some Nazi editors paid the ultimate price after WW2 for these activities. Don't ever mislead the people again Kris.

    For penance you should begin sweeping these streets.

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    1. For many of us, Crystal Beach was a magical place; we loved it and many families saved up to afford to visit or live in Crystal Beach in the summer. It wasn't just the amusement park; it was the beach that attracted us. Those of us from Buffalo looked forward to coming to CB because of the beach and the laid-back life.

      We could never understand the scornful attitude towards The Beach by other sections of Fort Erie. While Crystal Beach thrived, other parts of town benefited from the influx of summer residents.

      When the bottom dropped out in CB, it was abandoned, scorned even further and left to rot even though the town had received a lot of money when CB was amalgamated into the town. All the tax money from the amusement park went into town coffers, but when the park closed, the town did little to help the village.

      Years went by and The Beach struggled while a group of residents fought to save their community. It seemed that, just when things were starting to turn around, the town decided to sell off a portion of the recently acquired Bay Beach Properties. When that effort failed, certain people took a break and, once a new regime was in power, the idea to develop the public beachfront land came up again. Thus came a ten year fight to keep the property in public hands. For that, the cabal that runs this town went on the offensive and made the lives of those openly opposed to the condo tower project on public lands very difficult.

      And Kris was the cabal's built-in mouthpiece, fueled by the long-standing scorn for Crystal Beach and its residents. And now he lives here. Ha. Poetic justice perhaps?

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  4. If Kris gets the cold shoulder in CB he should not be surprised, I am still perturbed by his abominable behavior, there are lot's of gullible people out there, that believe if it is in print, it must be true,{Sun Media Group} left the Press Council over ten years ago, embarrassed by their own lack of facts, when you have newspapers who resemble The National Enquirer, with startling headlines, but no tangible facts you will be caught. Kris Dube is not, and never was an unbiased reporter, I often thought that he was writing about an entirely different sequence of events , when he covered Town Hall Council meetings.

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  5. SOMEONE HAS A CRUSH ON KRIS DUBE!!!! It's obvious that she cares so much about you!

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    1. As CF points out it's "commentary" like this that allows us insight into the minds of the Dweep Thunkers whom still troll the web defending our towns worse nightmares.

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  6. Niagara Falls Mayor Diodati is on a business trip to Romania a country the same size of France, it is a beautiful country, stunning in it's beauty, a member of my extended family has lived there for over 25 years, the language is rooted in Latin so if you know Spanish, not too hard to figure out. My nephew who is an International Lawyer does the paperwork for corporations who invest and build large projects such as windmills, solar energy systems, environmental projects a speciality, I wonder what could interest Romania, in the Niagara Region? this is an unusual request, we shall know more next week.

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  7. thought provoking...thank you Porgey.....unlike the low grade poster before you who is so indicative of the reasons this town is in the crapper....must be a special farm hereabouts that breeds them then employs them as ol boy storm troopers, paid nothing but IQ challenged bullies do it for fun.....

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  8. Hi there,
    This isn't related to the above post, and really has more to do with Fort Erie than Crystal Beach (so feel free to delete the comment!), but do you know what happened to B R Smith Trucking on Helena Street? They seem to have disappeared almost overnight.
    The Fort Erie Chamber of Commerce doesn't list them, so I guess they have left town. That can't be good...
    Thanks!

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  9. Was it near where the toxic leak took place? Another one bites the dust but if you believe the insert in the Times from a couple of weeks ago, business is booming in Fort Erie, thanks to the EDTC and Jim Thibert. Look for a larger budget request this budget time for Jimmy's "projects" which include the rezoning of wetlands to allow industrial building to take place.

    Interesting Fact: Over 95% of Fort Erie's wetlands have been lost to development. Good one, eh? Thank the planning department and others for handing over zoning changes to developers without much regard to the importance of wetlands as the natural filtration system for the town's drinking water.

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  10. Canadians may feel helpless with the machinations going on within the United States, as what happens there, impacts us as well, CBC news had an account of Canadians, volunteering to support Hilary Clintons campaign, it appears that there are no laws forbidding Canadian citizens from helping our neighbours from a fate,that we consider on par with national suicide. The report they covered took place in Kissamee close to Orlando Florida. The Republicans at their convention, dodged a constitutional crisis when they chose another candidate over Ted Cruz. Teds, parents were both Canadian citizens, also they had voted in Canadian elections which according to State Department rules at that time, meant that they lost any rights to have American citizenship on their children.

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