The Urbanite – Jon Liedtke –
- The Urbanite: Uber cab competition
The City of Windsor needs to allow more competition in the cab industry argues Jon Liedtke of The Urbanite. - The Urbanite: All aboard The Tasting Trolley
Windsor was the first Canadian city to install electric streetcars and a new culinary experience is reviving the trolley to tantalize local foodies’ taste buds and provide an unique experience. - The Urbanite: NEW COUNCIL, NEW CITY
The 2014 Windsor election is over. Thank God. - The Urbanite: Vote now, vote then, as long as you vote!The 2014 Windsor election is fast approaching, and if you haven’t voted yet in advance polls, I urge you to vote on Oct. 27.
- The Urbanite: 136-year-old on top of culinary trends
The Dominion House Tavern parks a food truck inside the kitchen for new menu by food truck chef Billy Deslippe. - The Urbanite: Ottawa Street meets Bourbon Street
Even though Windsor is known for its whisky, a new establishment on Ottawa Street is catering to Windsor’s bourbon drinkers. - The Urbanite: Q & A with Windsor’s most secretive mayoral candidate
Windsor’s most enigmatic mayoral candidate broke the silence and sat down with the Urbanite to talk about his campaign to become mayor. - The Urbanite: Allegations, insults fly as candidates enter final stretch of election campaigning
With the 2014 Windsor election approaching, allegations and insults are flying in the final stretch of the campaign. - The Urbanite: Mystery mayoral candidate reveals platform to fellow candidatesBruce Martin, Windsor’s most enigmatic mayoral candidate, has now broken the silence after filing to run by releasing his platform to fellow candidates via e-mail.
- The Urbanite: Green the Plaza petition sprouts grassroots support
A local Ward 3 resident’s petition to green the Riverfront Festival Plaza has quickly become an election issue. - The Urbanite: The Walkervilles drop the needle on new LP
As Windsor Motown revivalists The Walkervilles’ success takes flight, their latest album is landing at a release concert Oct. 11. - The Urbanite: Marijuana March mobilizes for legalization
Local marijuana activists are advocating for Canadian cannabis legalization in a country that as of late is falling behind from gains made in the United States. - The Urbanite: More women needed in politicsSomething needs to change because there aren’t nearly enough women – let alone residents – seeking representation at the municipal level.
- The Urbanite: Is Mr. Wright Ward 5’s Mr. Right?
A week after Joey Wright celebrates his birthday, he hopes to also be celebrating his election to public office. - The Urbanite: JUDGE COUNCIL CANDIDATES NOW – YOU’LL BE STUCK WITH THEM FOR FOUR YEARSIt’s the time to judge Windsor municipal election council candidates. Following the election, no amount of judging affects the makeup or composition of council, short of a judgement rendering criminal charges.
- The Urbanite: Ask A Brewer: What’s the deal with carbonation?
Ask a Brewer is column, created by Jon Liedtke, where local brewers provide readers with an insightful and informative lens into the brewing industry. Paul Brady is the master brewer at Walkerville Brewery. - The Urbanite: Craft Heads Brewing Company joins the region’s growing microbrew trend
Craftheads Brewing Company hasn’t opened their doors yet but the plan is to beer over 20 unique craft brews in downtown Windsor. - The Urbanite: West end fest gets a hipster makeover
Move over sandwiches as the focus is now bikes, burgers and beers at the reimagined Sandwich Towne Festival. - The Urbanite: The Prince of Pot’s cannabis culture
Pot smokers, activists and media thronged Marc Emery, aka the Prince of Pot, when he stepped foot on Canadian soil for the first time this month since he was extradited to the United States for selling marijuana seeds. - The Urbanite: Full-Time or Part-Time Councillors?Windsor’s city councillors are classified as part-time and Jon Liedtke says its time to make the role full-time.
- The Urbanite: ASK A BREWER: What is Yeast?
ASK A BREWER with Blayne Caron, assistant brewer, Walkerville Brewery - The Urbanite: Residents appalled with noise, wild animals, weeds of CP Rail
Coyotes prowling backyards, excessive noise from train bells and whistles, health concerns due to excessive pollen and an overall feeling of marginalization is what some residents living in Windsor Essex Community Housing claim they face on an almost daily basis. - The Urbanite: Windsor: A city of opportunity if you get to workTo the local naysayers who say Windsor can’t achieve greatness, just shut the hell up and let those of us who want to champion and grow the city do so.
- The Urbanite: Alternative transit is broken in Windsor
Until our politicians and council candidates understand that residents want better infrastructure for alternative transit it’ll never arrive. - The Urbanite: Smackdown to Stand-Up: Wrestler to comic Windsor bound
Mick Foley is out of the ring and now performing stand-up in Windsor at Comedy Quarry - The Urbanite: Out to brunch: Windsor author’s class study through the lens of brunch…over easy
You might not think of brunch as a lens to study class issues, but author and urbanist Shawn Micallef found after moving to Toronto from Windsor 14 years ago that it was the perfect way to delve into the subject for his new book The Trouble with Brunch. - The Urbanite: WINDSOR NEEDS A REAL TRANSIT SYSTEM
It’s time to rethink transit. It’s time to read our municipal planning priorities. It’s time to admit that transit in Windsor isn’t working as it should be. - The Urbanite: The renegades of funk: Five Alarm Funk
Vancouver heavy-weight funk champions Five Alarm Funk are bringing their raucous and wild antics back to Windsor to perform at the Capitol Theatre. - The Urbanite: REVIEW: DEF3 – WILDLIF3 URBNET
You can tell that Def3, aka Danny Fernandez, spent his childhood travelling the world. His latest release Wildlif3 is a varied and encompassing album in scope, incorporating different musical styles, themes and nuances throughout this Canadian hip-hop album. - The Urbanite: The imaginary battlefield of Ingress
There’s a global war happening around us, all day, every day, being waged by two opposing factions the Enlightened and the Resistance and no one seems to notice. - The Urbanite: YELLING AT WINDSORWindsorites should be screaming. Screaming from rooftops and through open win- dows. Screaming at their neighbours, friends and family.
- The Urbanite: THE ‘DECLINE YOUR VOTE’ EFFECT
The election is over. The Liberals earned a majority government, Hudak is out, Windsor lost representation, but we haven’t discussed the outcome of the grassroots Decline Your Vote campaign. - The Urbanite: Voting for Dummies: The ease of voting and the ‘dirty little secret of Elections Ontario’With a looming provincial election scheduled for June 12, the time has come again for empowered citizens to promptly ignore their civic duty.
- The Urbanite: The new homebrew crew
The craft beer trend hit Windsor hard with multiple new breweries launching in the city and it’s moving to the consumer level with the introduction of the city’s first craft homebrewing supply shops. - The Urbanite: BREAK OUT THE PIRACY POPCORN
Consumers want choice and simplicity, and much like the free market necessitates that business cut costs to increase profit, so to do consumers cut costs and will always seek the lowest cost for goods… in this case free. - The Urbanite: Vodka bombs with Kenny vs. Spenny
“Every show was the fucking worst,” exclaimed Kenny Hotz while sitting beside Spencer Rice backstage at the Capitol Theatre while on the Chatham leg of their national comedy tour. I sat down to interview the comedy duo over vodka and Red Bulls. - The Urbanite: Windsorite localizes Cards Against Humanity game to Cards About Toronto
Scotty Graham is a Windsor ex-pat graphic designer based in Toronto and his recently released Cards Against Toronto and a series of Rob Ford Valentines and Mother’s Day Cards helped to elevate him onto the national stage. - The Urbanite: Kenny vs. Spenny vs. ChathamAfter six seasons, 86 episodes, endless competitions and hilarious yet often disgusting humiliations – Kenny and Spenny have reunited to bring their living room antics to cities across the country after being off the air for nearly four years.
- The Urbanite: East Meets West: Sushi Guru rolls into town
Located in the former The Olde Town Sweet Shop, across the street from The Gourmet Emporium, sits Sushi Guru. The restaurant sports rich, dark wood, deep red walls, Edison lightbulbs and a custom mural on the backwall. - The Urbanite: Caesars Windsor celebrates 20 years of Vegas-style entertainment
Two towers, one interim casino and art gallery and a riverboat later, Windsor celebrates 20 years of having a casino in the core. - The Urbanite: LCBO; CODDLE WITHOUT THE BOTTLE
OPINION: If we’re going to be treated like babies in a nanny state, at least give us our bottles. - The Urbanite: Border City Brawlers still in search of a permanent space
Swimmers have the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre, the Windsor Spitfires and Express share the WFCU Centre and while bikers, joggers and walkers have over 100 km of mixed use trails, Windsor’s Border City Brawlers still don’t have a place to call home. - The Urbanite: Phog Lounge becomes southern BBQ for sLow Down
Phog Lounge has partnered with Public Capital Projects to offer home cooked meals to hungry and thirsty patrons. - The Urbanite: Lifting spirits in Corktown: Two James is Detroit’s first post-prohibition distillery
Two James Distillery produces Detroit made bourbon, rye whiskey, vodka, gin, apple brandy and absinthe in the first legal distillery to open in Detroit post-prohibition. - The Urbanite: WHERE ARE ALL THE ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATES?With the entry of a third candidate into the mayoral foray, residents are left questioning just where the establishment candidates are for this fall’s municipal election.
- The Urbanite: Whistle Blowers – 14 years of Steam Whistle indie brew
Steam Whistle Brewing celebrated 14 years of brewing on March 22 and The Urbanite helped to ring in the celebration with a private tour of the brewing facility in Toronto. - The Urbanite: Windsor electro output; Therevox
Working out of a central Windsor basement, the 34-year-old Windsor native creates a custom electronic musical instrument which has been featured in films and on records. - The Urbanite: NDP leader sets sights on 24 Sussex Tom Mulcair takes aim at Stephen Harper
Tom Mulcair, leader of the federal New Democratic Party, has been traveling the country attempting to cast his party as the only one fit to govern the land come 2015, the year of the next federal election. - The Urbanite: Israel referendum approval deferred by UWSA; reaction mixed
The University of Windsor Students’ Alliance voted on Thursday evening to defer the acceptance of the official report of the controversial Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction referendum. - The Urbanite: WILLISTEAD PARK OPPOSITION UNWARRENTED
Windsor City Council will decide whether to install a 10-foot wide accessible pathway throughout Willistead Park at the recommendation of the Windsor Accessibility Committee and city administration and there is opposition. - The Urbanite: REVIEW: Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story
Jon Liedtke reviews CRAZY TOWN: The Rob Ford Story by Robyn Doolittle for The Urbanite. - The Urbanite: Voting none of the above as a legitimate political choice
TO VOTE, OR NOT TO VOTE? THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION Voting none of the above is a valid method to voice displeasure with the candidates and actively participate in democracy. - The Urbanite: Exclusive: UWindsor president addresses Israeli student boycott on campus
The Urbanite sat down for an exclusive interview with Alan Wildeman, University of Windsor president and vice-chancellor, regarding a referendum endorsing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the Israeli government. - The Urbanite: UWindsor becomes first Canadian university to approve BDS via undergraduate referendum
The University of Windsor Students’ Alliance has become the first student union in Canada to approve a boycott, divestment and sanction strategy of Israel through an undergraduate referendum. - The Urbanite: Student referendum brings crime and intimidation to UWindsor
A student executive’s office was broken into and vandalized on the eve of the BDS referendum at the University of Windsor. - The Urbanite: Kingsville taps into the brewpub trend
The craft beer movement is in full swing locally & continues with the announcement that Jack’s Gastropub in Kingsville will be offering their own house brews. - The Urbanite: Beer Exchange changes from change to Bitcoin
Nobody likes having to pay for beer, least of all with hard earned money. But one local establishment is shaking things up by accepting Bitcoin, an online crypto-currency, as one way to pay for a cold pint of brew. - The Urbanite: CBC’s Mr. D takes his class on a field trip
Gerry Dee has once again left the classroom to take his comedy routine across the country. - The Urbanite: Going against the grain
A local woodworker who specializes in custom dining room tables is being scouted by a production company that creates television shows for HGTV. - The Urbanite: Tapping into the micro-‘Brew’
Spring 2014 is set to be the season of breweries as Brew, Windsor’s latest in a series of soon-to-be-opened breweries, is set to launch within blocks of Caesars Windsor in an old chocolate factory. - The Urbanite: Bridging the virtual reality Rift
A Windsor expat is developing applications and games for the Oculus Rift, which has recently raised $75 million in venture capital to make it the most successful piece of virtual technology equipment to ever exist. - The Urbanite: WINDSOR DESERVES DOWNTOWN LAW BUILDING
In one swift motion, what could have been the finishing touches on the transformation and revitalization of the downtown core – the redevelopment and repurposing of the Paul Martin building – was effectively killed without warning and what could be argued in bad faith. - The Urbanite: All that Glitters is Mauro
Windsor artist Mauro has pioneered new mediums straight from 19th century Florence that he hopes will hang from Caesars Windsor to the walls of Saudi royals. - The Urbanite: From Valdy to Vivaldi and folk to Baroque
Receiving an Order of Canada and being colloquially referred to as a national treasure might be enough for some artists to hang up their hats and put their feet up, but not for Valdy. - The Urbanite: The Willistead gets a new addition
After a year of serving delectable eats to those stopping into The Willistead, chef David Dimoglou is ready to shake things up. - The Urbanite: The new brew; Midian Brewing
Midian Brewing is the latest craft brewery to have its sights set on Windsor. After roughly six years of both market research and product development, the brewery is expecting to open its retail operation in March, pending AGCO licensing. - The Urbanite: Campaigning for office? Here’s how
In the past year, Windsor has seen provincial and municipal elections and, if you’re suffering from electoral fatigue, there’s no end in sight. - The Urbanite: Motor Craft Ales racing to produce new brews
Not content to stay still, Motor Craft Ales is racing towards offering one of the most extensive beer selections in the region. - The Urbanite: Rino’s Kitchen preps for TV spot
You’ve Gotta Eat Here!, The Food Network’s popular television show is coming back to Windsor in January to film a segment at Rino’s Kitchen and Ale House. - The Urbanite: New Ward 7 rep focuses on education
Irek Kusmierczyk wins the ward 7 byelection & replaces Percy Hatfield who was elected to represent Windsor-Tecumseh for the NDP in the provincial legislature. - The Urbanite: Better Luck Next Year?The end of the year has arrived and with it comes a fresh opportunity to put our collective houses in order, and make no mistake, our houses are quite messy and in dire need of being put in order.
- The Urbanite: All is through the Google Glass
Jon Liedtke reviews the new Google Glass wearable tech device and interviews a Google spokesperson about it. - The Urbanite: Local Battlefield videos go viral
Ojibway Park was recently transformed into a figurative war zone by local video production company ApertureVFX, which filmed Battlefield 4: Divided We Stand. - The Urbanite: Soullière set to animate arts grants
Michelle Soullière has recently been appointed as one of two provincial cultural animators for the Ontario Arts Council - The Urbanite: CBC jock’s book is off the moorings
CBC Radio 3’s Grant Lawrence’s second book, The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie, is an introspective and revealing retelling of his rocky experience with Canada’s national pastime, hockey, and how he had previously associated the game with bullying, intimidation and violence. - The Urbanite: The War for Ward 7Advanced polls have closed and voting will soon be underway to elect a city councilor to represent Ward 7, which has been without representation since the summer.
- The Urbanite: The Totality of RecallJon Liedtke writes about the merits and pitfalls of recall legislation for elected officials.
Jonathon Liedtke is the managing editor of The Urbanite, Windsor’s alternative newspaper. He is also a member of Windsor’s “Punk with Horns” band The Nefidovs, and as such, is committed to enhancing and sustaining the arts community.
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