Brantford city council is tearing down a row of 41 heritage buildings, including the longest stretch of pre-confederation buildings in Ontario, and certainly its one of the most complete Victorian commercial streets in the region, particularly unique because the buildings are on a steep slope, backing onto the former river’s edge/canal. Some of you have been following the development of this sad, sad story with me. But now, The province has written the city to tell them demolitions should stop until proper environmental, heritage, and archaeological assessments have been made, and yet the city is proceeding with gutting the buildings at the west end of the street! Here are a few photos as the city has erected hoarding and started popping out windows, gutting buildings, etc.
There is a #savethesouth protest on Monday: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=350510019030&ref=mf
City officials are trying to get to the bottom of a surprise letter from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, hoping it won’t present another unexpected “bump” in plans to demolish 40 buildings on the south side of downtown Colborne Street.
The letter, from Chris Schiller, manager of culture of the ministry’s culture services unit, informed the city that the ministry has taken an interest in the city’s demolition plans and requests that it conduct a full assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act of the stretch of properties slated for imminent demolition.
According to the letter, obtained by The Expositor, the assessment is to include a “thorough heritage evaluation … prior to any demolition of the properties noted to satisfy that there is no provincial interest in these properties.”
The letter also requests that the city carry out an archaeological assessment “required” under the province’s regulations for determining archaeological potential -“prior to any ground disturbances and/or site alterations.”
The licensed archaeologist must carry out the assessment, it insists.
Oh, the sweet taste of sanity!
Read this for the backstory.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit this wonderful Canadian city - admittedly, my geography and knowledge of the surrounding area is lacking in nearly every way, but Brantford was quite charming in even my short time there. Particularly, a historical section of the downtown area stood out. Most people will probably only remember the area for its use in the Silent Hill films, but even that will soon be lost as the city blocks are about to undergo demolition, despite resistance.
From the article: Brantford must realize that the position it is in is not unique, but the decisions its councillors and mayor make could set the city apart from others who have traveled the same path. It is exactly this sort of “dumb and ordinary,” “messy vitality,” to quote two urban visionaries of the twentieth century, Robert Venturi and Jane Jacobs, that we have come to appreciate and cherish in the wake of countless failed experiments akin to the one upon which Brantford seems determined to embark.
(via sabbatical, my long-time friend who has been personally involved in trying to counter the demolition.)
Thanks to Phil Collins for his support of the fight to save Colborne Street! Below is the statement he made a few weeks back on our Facebook group:
I have only been to Brantford once - but I had the chance to walk down that street several times during my stay, and I have to say that it was one of the most charming parts of the city that I saw. As an outsider, I feel like the city would be tearing apart one of the things that has made itself so unique to someone like me. Maybe I’ll never see the buildings again even if they stayed - but there are many who, like me, will remember that part about Brantford very favorably when they get to see it.
Anyway, not sure how I can help as an American citizen living in Japan, but lemme know if there’s something I can do.
How it all got started. 1600+ members and counting.
Hoarding is up around the buildings in anticipation of the demolition of Brantford’s 41 heritage buildings on the south side of Colborne Street. Here is the Water Street side of the Pre-Confederate Block, which once backed onto a large canal, which has since been filled in to be replaced with a parking structure.
As seen here, because of the steep slope, many of these buildings, although only 2-4 storeys on the Colborne Street side, are 5-7 storeys on the Water Street side.
More at the protest group on Facebook, and on the Save the South Side tumblr.
— The City’s very own South Side of Colborne Street Task Force Report, 1995. (Convenient forgetfulness.)
Brantford city council recently voted to demolish three blocks of heritage buildings in the city’s downtown. Guest columnist Nigel Terpstra, of Urban Toronto, sent us this post about the situation.
The entire right side of this street will be bulldozed (and more). 41 heritage buildings, including one of the longest stretches of pre-Confederation buildings in Canada. According to last available real estate assessments, 5 of the buildings had “poor conditions” listed.
— Toronto
