Was This Election A Heritage Disaster or Victory?

I have just staggered in from the defeat party from the campaign I worked on, in a city where we have just elected a mayor who wants to cut every expense out of "respect for taxpayers"- expect challenges over frivolities like heritage when money could be going to roads. Mayor-elect Ford also says that "Toronto is open for business", and as the business of Toronto is redevelopment, we can expect some big fights over the next few years.

In Brantford, heritage activists made a difference. The leader of the South Side Six who rammed through the destruction of Colborne Street came an ignominious third in his campaign for Mayor. Lisa Wood, Branch President, reports that "Chris Friel, heritage friendly, is mayor. We spoke tonight already at the victory party about working together on a heritage master plan....  [ACO Member] Mary O'Grady lost, but ACO member Dan McCreary was re-elected."

In Guelph, Acorn editor and activist Leanne Piper was handily reelected; congratulations Leanne;  the content of the next Acorn will arrive shortly.

We have learned that having decent heritage legislation means nothing if you don't have the local politicians on side.  It is too early for me to tell what the results of this election mean across the Province, but where I live, the signs are not encouraging. The ACO is a charitable organization and could not actively support candidates during the election, but nothing prevents us from being satisfied by the victories of people like Leanne in Guelph and Dan in Brantford.

Comments

[Nancy Mayberry]

In St. Thomas, the anti-heritage mayor was defeated by a 34 year old member of the municipal heritage committee. She is one of those who fought the demolition order for Alma College as an alderman, so will be in a better position now to champion our cause.

[Graham Smith]

Hi Lloyd,

You are wrong to assume that people of the centre/right are automatically anti-heritage. I helped write policy for one of our local candidates and was very involved in all the local debates. What I garnered from this experience is that no one wants to tear down heritage buildings. The problem is that no one seems to announce that a building is heritage until after it has been purchased, plans are drawn up, permits are applied for and only then everyone goes crying to their Councillor at the 11th hour. As you said yourself, this is heritage conservation by crisis. The worst is that we actually expect that our Councillor can do something about it when the majority of the time the law is on the proponents side.

When this happens in our neighbourhoods we have no one to blame but ourselves. It doesn't take a genius to walk around the neighbourhood and see which properties are ripe for redevelopment, which ones are suffering neglect, which ones merit designation and guaranteed none of them are listed on the registry.

It is time for us to stop whining about our ineffective politicians and get out there with ratepayers groups, volunteer groups... and start getting our cherished buildings listed and designated. There are hundreds of streets and neighbourhoods across the Province that warrant HCD designation but no will to get them designated as such.

Having been on both sides of this argument I don't think anyone can complain about a developer or a home buyer that does their due diligence, discovers no red flags and has as-of-right development potential and then faces a torch and pitch-fork gang when going for permit. It's simply not fair and it was not the intention of the Heritage Act to be used as an anti development weapon.

If I learned anything in this election its that the centre/right is more proactive whereas the centre/left expects the nanny-state to take care of everything and are upset when it doesn't work out.

Let's all be proactive! Get out there, find a worthy property, get it listed. That alone would scare away most developers or homeowners looking for a tear down. I support Councillors recommending properties for designation but NOT when they are in the midst of planning application, that situation never turns out well for anyone and wastes a tremendous amount of time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Cheers - Graham

[Eric Rogers]

In Mississauga, MHC member Jim Tovey was elected Ward One Councillor (Port Credit). I'm sure a few of you will know him from the conferences.

[Michael Cruickshank]

Much as I value all the efforts of the
ACO I have to echo the comments made by
Graham Smith. I would take it one step
further by assuming that Toronto's mayor
elect is a "tabula rasa" when it comes to
heritage. We have the opportunity to show
him that heritage preservation pays as
exemplified by Liberty Village and the St.
Lawrence Market area. It comes at very
little capital cost to the city and engenders
higher real estate tax revenues to the city
faster than new development. Rob Ford will
be looking to people he trusts to guide him
in areas he doesn't know much about. We
should find a common ally to make the
heritage case to him before he develops any
contrary ideology.

[K.C. (Gus) Panageotopoulos]

In Loyalist Township, which is between Napanee and Kingston a small group of us that went to battle with our Council over the issue of dedesignation of the Ham Ham decided that we should form a branch of the ACO here. With the idea of a candiadte survey from ACO, we sent out questions to the 15 candidates that were running for office. We received 3 written responses (only 1 answered the questions) and 3 verbal responses. In terms of the Council Elect 3 of 7 are the ones that responded favourably to the issue of built heritage. Our problem is how to get people to buy in to the idea that built heritage is an economic tool? Any advice is welcomed.

[MBT outlet]

I agree with your idea.You look like very talented.It is very happy to meet you. Thank you!