Everybody do the Colborne!

Last night, Brantford City Council held what I'm certain is the longest meeting they've had since I came to town in 2006.

At issue was the south side of Colborne Street between Grand River Hall and Icomm Drive (pictured as part of it was a few years ago), and the city's attempts to demolish the 41 properties in that stretch.

Actually, at issue was very little. As Coun. Vince Bucci and others made perfectly clear throughout the night, expropriation was going ahead, demolition was going ahead, and nothing that could happen inside council chambers would change any of that - which didn't stop 16 delegations from making presentations to council (a normal night would be two or three).

By a 9-7 majority, the delegations supported pressing ahead with the demolition (although I'm not sure how the Brant News arrived at those totals because one presentation was from Dr. Gary Warrick, whose goal was to see an archaeological dig). Arguments in favour can be boiled down to "it's an eyesore" and "it should have been done a long time ago". Arguments against included heritage and transparency concerns.

If the demolition is going ahead regardless, why did everybody pick last night to visit council? Because Coun. Dan McCreary was introducing a resolution that basically called for more transparency in city council's decisions regarding Colborne - and any excuse to get in there was good enough for the delegations.

McCreary's resolution was defeated, with the five council members on his side accusing a 'bloc' of withholding information from anybody outside their group, and the other six laughing at the idea of a 'block'.

(For anyone curious about future mayoral candidates, John Sless and James Calnan voted for the motion, Mark Littell against, Mike Quattrociocchi had issues with Powerpoint.)

Another sticking point for some was the lack of a plan for what would replace the demolished buildings - but Laurier's Dave Prang, another of the delegations, alluded to plans that would materialize after the buildings were knocked down.

It seems as though the "saddest street in Ontario" is coming down as quickly as possible. What will go in there? How much will it cost? Are we able to preserve any heritage aspects? Who cares?

--Ryan