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Colborne Street, and the future of Brantford

March 1, 2010
Sent to Brantford's Mayor and Councillors: 'dmccreary@brantford.ca'; 'MCeschi-Smith@brantford.ca'; 'jcalnan@brantford.ca'; 'jkinneman@brantford.ca'; 'jsless@brantford.ca'; 'vbucci@brantford.ca'; 'MLittell@brantford.ca'; 'jbradford@brantford.ca'; 'gmartin@brantford.ca'; 'rcarpenter@brantford.ca'; 'mhancock@brantford.ca'
Sent to various GTA newspapers and local Brantford community groups: 'dlevac.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org'; 'McColeman.P@parl.gc.ca'; 'goodyg@parl.gc.ca'; 'jzronik@brantnews.com'; 'torsun.citydesk@sunmedia.ca'; 'city@thestar.ca'; 'Newsroom@globeandmail.com'; 'webmaster@brantford.ca'; 'info@brantford.library.on.ca'; 'information@brantmuseums.ca'; 'brantford_kinsmen@canada.com'; 'normanphilpott1@on.aibn.com'

Dear Brantford City Council, et al,

My name is Nick, and I love Brantford, Ontario. I visit it, and many cities in Southern Ontario, as often as I can. I appreciate its unique character, its deep history, its rich architecture. I visit its cafes and its restaurants, and I walk its streets. I am also, like many, saddened when I pass through its once glorious downtown. An area that contained busy shops, bustling streets and its own streetcar network has been reduced by 20^th century economic trends to a shadow of what it once was. Here’s a photo of a very different time:

It has recently come to my attention that the Corporation of the City of Brantford plans on demolishing a large chunk of this history. I’m not sure when this is planned to happen, but I know that it’s soon, and I know that there are many within Brantford and without who would consider this a grave mistake. The hard lessons taught to us by other similarly afflicted municipalities seem to bear this out.

All of us in Ontario have seen Brantford’s struggles over the past few decades, and we’ve all seen the impact these struggles have had on your downtown. Underestimating how much of your history and how much of your character is trapped in those downtown structures is a common mistake among post-industrial municipalities, but I urge you not to make that same mistake with Brantford. Our understanding of how cities work is growing deeper by the day in the 21^st century. To resort to brutish 1960’s ideas when we know there are better solutions available would be a travesty, and you would be doing the people of Brantford and of Ontario, present and future, a great disservice.

Please re-think this course of action. With some thought and care, your downtown could be one of the most varied and colourful in southern Ontario. This is a promise.

Engage your populace. Engage your local businesses. Engage brilliant minds across the province. Make finding a solution to Brantford’s downtown a contest – Brantford could be at the forefront of a new way of municipal thinking. Do what it takes to make this happen, but do not, do not, follow this knee-jerk course of action. You are shooting your beautiful city in the foot, and Brantford will never recover. You are making the entire province and its history poorer with your actions.

Here are some helpful resources and recent press coverage:

A definition of adaptive reuse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_reuse

Memo to Brantford: Hamilton Heritage Demolition 101

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/1025/memo_to_brantford:_hamilton_heritage_demolition_101

Urban Destruction in the Heart of Brantford, Ontario

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/1019/urban_destruction_in_the_heart_of_brantford_ontario

Hume: Brantford will live to regret the tragedy of edifice wrecks

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/765606--hume-brantford-will-live-to-regret-the-tragedy-of-edifice-wrecks

Thank you very much for listening. I hope there is still time to reconsider these decisions. Please engage your populace. Please engage local businesses. Please ask the advice of those around you: planners in Hamilton, Waterloo, Kitchener and Toronto have been through this already and would be more than happy to work together with you towards a solution. Also, please click on the “adaptive reuse” link I provided, and research the concept further. There are ways of building community centres in downtowns while maintaining current structures these days. We know how to do this now. We’ve learned from our 20^th century mistakes. Please let smart people have a peek at this problem and figure it out.

With all respect,

Nick Warzin.