RIP Lady Lister

DSC03113.JPG, originally uploaded by nfotxn.

It's been said that the new tree hugging is derelict building hugging. There is a grain of truth to this really. Of course there is also the negative connotations of crazy people whom are prone to chaining themselves in front of bulldozers. Those people are present but I think they're better medicated than before.

The outcome of the Lister Block debate was a bad one. The city did issue a demolition permit to a heritage building. Worst of all public opinion was in favour of tearing it down. It's hard to explain to people that the city's urban centre is so fucked because we tore down street walls, discouraged pedestrianism and displaced local business in favour of higher rent tenants. Those higher rent tenants left a long time ago.

I'm not adamantly opposed to the design LIUNA gave the city. It's a replica, but replicas are for Las Vegas and Disney Land. I'm just pissed off that they rail-roaded the whole process of even determining if the building could be adaptively re-used. The preservation side of the argument of course has it's biases but I believe the experts hired by them were a tad more experienced in the field. Considering they'd actually redeveloped buildings before.

It's all said and done now, really. It was exciting. Jelly and Freiberger were on TV, met with the Provincial Minister of Culture. Many letters were written and we weren't being passive or ignorant. But you end up feeling like a tool when despite all the involvement in public process, despite how right you are or how many hands you find in the public cookie jar really there is no stopping this shit. These assholes are the above-ground Mafia and they're hired into office. All the nepotism, hand-jobbery... I guess everyone involved in the preservation side of the argument can be glad about a few things. They had to hire a PR company to spin the issue and supposed testimonials by some actress who was a "concerned mother" about the issue. There were armed guards at the debate as well. The Mayor called Jelly an asshole, Matt called him one back "with all due respect".

I'm glad I could be a small part of this. I know we will have future battles to fight. But for the time being I believe us devote Hamiltonians are going to work on building things up. More on that later.