41 buildings that are about to be demolished

[flar]

Originally Posted by matt602

Wow...

"Coun. Jennifer Kinneman compared the city's contract with a demolition company to a marriage engagement.

“We are engaged to be married and yet we are going to go out on Lavalife or AshleyMadison.com and just see what’s out there,” she said. “And those prospective dates have no idea that we really don’t have buildings to offer up.”

At the end of Tuesday's meeting, Coun. John Bradford, who has supported demolition, moved a notice of motion that would “direct the end of any motions to be brought forward that create a potential delay in the demolition of the south side of Colborne Street.”

These people are pathetic and as I said already, criminal.

Apparently some developer from London wanted to buy a bunch of the buildings but they didn't even entertain his offer. That's plain irresponsible to the taxpayers of Brantford, and all Canadians, since it is federal funds they seek to have the buildings demolished.

[STLgasm]

I am just beside myself. Even the most dysfunctional of American cities would see the value of those blocks in this day in age.

[flar]

The end is near...

Originally Posted by Toronto Star

Brantford’s historic downtown may be gutted on Tuesday

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/arti...ted-on-tuesday

Forty one buildings in Brantford’s small downtown core — some as old as 170 years old—could be rubble on Tuesday if the town’s council votes, as expected, in favour of the demolition.

“I am hopeful that on Monday night, the council will unanimously agree to demolish these buildings so that we can get a fresh start,” said Mark Littell, a councillor. “These buildings are in a terrible, terrible shape . . . they need to go.”

...

In 2008, the city council spent $11.5 million to expropriate 80 buildings from 42 owners and resettle businesses and residents.

...

A few days later, the federal government stepped in and offered $1.3 million grant to assist in demolition under the Southern Ontario Developmental Fund.The government wanted an environmental assessment done, said Littell. “We did everything but were told in May it wasn’t enough,” he said. “What they wanted would have cost us $400,000. We don’t want that.”

[SABBATICAL!]

The buildings will come down any time now. Tonight city council voted to proceed with demolition despite FedDev's grant being withheld on the grounds that Brantford has not done a real heritage + environmental assessment for the properties.

Any calls to Minister Chan's office would be appreciated. He's the Ontario Minister of Culture - he has the authority to issue a stop work order, but apparently has not had enough pressure coming in as of yet - understandably he doesn't want to step on a municipality's toes.


Michael Chan - Phone: (905)305-1935 / Fax: (905)305-1938
Email:mchan.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

OR
Ontario Ministry of Culture - Phone: (416)212-0644
Toll Free:1-866-454-0049 & Email: info.mcl@ontario.ca


Also, some of us are hopefully going to try to get in front of the bulldozers, as it will likely now come to that. Anyone interested in coming down to do the same, feel free to contact me: a@aking.ca / 519-774-0773 (cell).

[flar]

This is the end...

Originally Posted by Hamilton Spectator

Brantford historic buildings being demolished

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/783407



Demolition of 41 historic downtown Brantford buildings has begun.

A wrecking crew attacked the fourth storey of a building at the west end of the Colborne Street strip at 10:50 Tuesday morning.

[Coldrsx]

^absolute idiocy

[le calmar]

What! That's terrible! How come I missed that! What a nightmare!

[lio45]

1960 called, it wants Mr. Hancock (and his councillors) back.

Thinking that my taxes are being used to pay for this havoc makes me sick...

I've been to Ontario often (I have a couple customers in the GTA) but from now on I'll have to make sure I NEVER set foot in Brantford. I'm not going to be spending a single penny there or encouraging that city's economy in any way.

What an epic mess...

[rockyi]

I'm betting that many citizens that were all for this nonsense will wake up after it's finally done and not see any improvement at all, just a giant hole where their city was. Talk about ripping out a city's character.

[subterranean]

What I think about in these situations is the myriad success stories of small and medium sized towns that have completely transformed their aging cores with historic preservation. On the flip side, I think about the aging modernist structures that were intended to infuse new life into downtowns, such as government office buildings, which most often turn out to create lifeless vacuums of dead space and straight up brutal architecture that ages terribly.

What I think every mayor, city council (or whatever Canada has), and citizenry must ask itself is: will something this special ever be here again? The answer, most often, is an emphatic NO.

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[Rizzo]

^ Couldn't agree more. Ironically they will see the lifeless new development get demolished as well sooner or later. You just can't compete with the fine grained personality these buildings once offered.

[flar]

Brantford will forever be known as "that place that tore down half their downtown."

[HomeInMyShoes]

Three jeers for Brantford.

I was watching some comedian the other night (okay a few months back) and they did a spiel on how suburban places are always named after the thing they destroy. Osprey landing. Falconridge. You know the deal. Anyone hazard a guess on the newly minted Brantford downtown slogan? Welcome to Historic Centreville?

[SABBATICAL!]

Some photos from the first building (Huntington Block, 1867) demolition: http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z...ns/south_side/

[LSyd]

too bad new wealth in the sunbelt can't just buy this block and relocate it to Charlotte or somewhere that decimated their old urbanity
Buffalo church to be rebuilt in Atlanta

-

[MolsonExport]

My city was gone: the Pretenders

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Except it is Southern Ontario, to the North of Ohio.

[rockyi]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Three jeers for Brantford.

I was watching some comedian the other night (okay a few months back) and they did a spiel on how suburban places are always named after the thing they destroy. Osprey landing. Falconridge. You know the deal. Anyone hazard a guess on the newly minted Brantford downtown slogan? Welcome to Historic Centreville?

I'm guessing it'll be more pretentious and wordy like.......Welcome to Olde Towne at Victorian Landing or something like that. The sign will be gilded and fancy but will be sitting next to an empty parking lot.

[DHLawrence]

They may regret this whether the land is built on or left vacant. When photos were posted on UrbanToronto, someone noticed that land was starting to shift where an old tree had been removed. Now imagine what it will be like with the whole retaining wall gone (as was already mentioned earlier in the thread). There may be no downtown Brantford left to pity!

[lio45]

Is there anyone living in or near "The City that Tore Down Half their Downtown" who could provide us with an update?

I'm curious to know what's going on... especially since there's a possible federal grant involved. My tax dollars at work!

[Centropolis]

Seems like this is an outlier in a country that otherwise values quality downtowns. I guess they should be free to not check themselves and wreck themselves if thats what they want.