Two months ago I wrote an article for the Acorn that should be
hitting ACO members' mailboxes around now where I suggested the lessons
we should learn from this. For those who don't get the Acorn, I reprint
them here.
1. We need better communication
They have been discussing Colborne Street in Brantford for thirty years. Last year when hearings were taking place over the expropriation, questions could have been raised. The people of Brantford didn't know that there were groups like the ACO, the Heritage Canada Foundation or even people at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture that could have helped them, so we all come in, as Councillor Littell notes, "at the 11th hour and 59th minute." We all should have been there a lot sooner.
2. We need to know what is out there.
1. We need better communication
They have been discussing Colborne Street in Brantford for thirty years. Last year when hearings were taking place over the expropriation, questions could have been raised. The people of Brantford didn't know that there were groups like the ACO, the Heritage Canada Foundation or even people at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture that could have helped them, so we all come in, as Councillor Littell notes, "at the 11th hour and 59th minute." We all should have been there a lot sooner.
2. We need to know what is out there.
Nobody knows; until a building gets listed, there is no database that says it is important. It is a catch 22; in Brantford, they can say with a straight face that the buildings are not historic because they have never been listed, but they refused to take the advice of the Heritage Committee and list the buildings. We are losing too many buildings not only because nobody is watching, but because nobody knows what to watch.
We have been working on this since I wrote this for Acorn; I
was going to show this in Chatham at the convention this weekend
but will drop it here. We are developing an early warning system, a
crowd-sourced real time database where people across the province can
let everyone know about buildings at risk, under threat, that they think
other people should know about. It is based on an open source system
developed in Kenya during violence a few years ago and has been used for
disasters around the world since; we are applying it to heritage
disasters in Ontario. Soon you will be able to point your blackberry or
iPhone at a building and add it to the database; in this very early
alpha version you need your computer. Try it out at thisplacematters.ca
3. We need the Province to take more of a Leadership role.
Having municipal councillors in control of heritage is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. Their campaigns are often funded by real estate interests and they don't usually understand heritage as it is today. Catherine Nasmith has often said that we should ban demolition; perhaps a first step is to have a requirement for a heritage assessment and provincial approval for all demolition permits.
4. We need ACO branches from border to border.
Tony Adamson said in 1976: "We can not wear two hats if we want to be either successful advisors or successful activists.....We must learn to separate our aims if we are to succeed." Nothing has changed.
It is clearly not enough to have heritage committees; they are appointed by city councils and are often intimidated by them. We need organized activists right across the province.
5. (Late Entry, Today:) We need money to fight these kinds of disasters and make sure they don't happen in this Province again.
I intend to ask Council to create what I tentatively call the Alma College/Colborne Street Memorial fund, after our two biggest, most tragic, and completely preventable heritage disasters. I want to raise half a million dollars to ensure that we can hire the lawyers, the planners, the heritage consultants and architects required to ensure that we are there at the beginning and can put up a substantial defense of our architectural and cultural heritage. Want to get it going? Hit the donate button.
3. We need the Province to take more of a Leadership role.
Having municipal councillors in control of heritage is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. Their campaigns are often funded by real estate interests and they don't usually understand heritage as it is today. Catherine Nasmith has often said that we should ban demolition; perhaps a first step is to have a requirement for a heritage assessment and provincial approval for all demolition permits.
4. We need ACO branches from border to border.
Tony Adamson said in 1976: "We can not wear two hats if we want to be either successful advisors or successful activists.....We must learn to separate our aims if we are to succeed." Nothing has changed.
It is clearly not enough to have heritage committees; they are appointed by city councils and are often intimidated by them. We need organized activists right across the province.
5. (Late Entry, Today:) We need money to fight these kinds of disasters and make sure they don't happen in this Province again.
I intend to ask Council to create what I tentatively call the Alma College/Colborne Street Memorial fund, after our two biggest, most tragic, and completely preventable heritage disasters. I want to raise half a million dollars to ensure that we can hire the lawyers, the planners, the heritage consultants and architects required to ensure that we are there at the beginning and can put up a substantial defense of our architectural and cultural heritage. Want to get it going? Hit the donate button.
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