BRANTFORD'S CONFEDERATION-ERA BUILDINGS: HERITAGE HOMES OR CRACK DENS?

When is a building a vital piece of history, and when is it just old?

It's a debate among all the world's urbanites that is touching down
in Brantford.

At issue is a three-block stretch of south Colborne St., a short walk
south of City Hall in Brantford's small downtown. Some of the
buildings here are over 170 years old, while others have stately
brick Victorian facades, but most of them are crumbling.

Six of the 11 members of Brantford's city council want to see the
strip demolished, this week, in favour of a slick facility for a
growing university population. To them, the buildings are just old.

The other 45 per cent of the city's municipal government want the
structures preserved and incorporated into a new complex. For them,
these are Confederation-era pieces of history that belong in
Brantford's future.

It's hard to tell just what would be best for a city beset with
post-industrial ills when the lead politicians on both the pro- and
anti-demolition sides are running for the soon-to-be vacated spot of mayor.

Leading the pro-demolition side is Councillor Mark Littell, a
Blackberry-toting modernite. He tours through the Empire Theatre, a
1912 building with a caved-in roof, and emptied rental housing units
scattered with syringes and crack spoons.

"We're not going to do a missing teeth scenario," says Littell,
dismissing out of hand the possibility of saving some of the more
intact facades while still revamping the majority of the site. "We
need a fresh start."

The anti-demolition side is led by Councillor John Sless, Littell's
main opponent for mayor.

"There's a great big rush to get the demolition done, but we have no
budget and no plan for redevelopment," says Sless as he shows off My
Thai restaurant, a high-ceilinged Colborne St. eatery that has a
sizeable lunch crowd on this cold February day (although Littell's
camp evicted the owners last December).

Both mayoral candidates claim Brantford's 90,000-person "community"
is behind them, and both see the same future for the city: students.

Like much of small town north America, Brantford went into serious
decline after its main industrial export, farm implements, was no
longer a money-maker.

Economic hardship plus poor municipal planning sealed Colborne's sad
fate. In the mid-80s, the downtown blocks around the neighbourhood
lost their mom-and-pop shops to the Market Street Mall. For three
decades, south Colborne has been a neglected eyesore, the few
legitimate businesses outnumbered by drug dealers and prostitutes.

But in the past decade or so a new, campus-scented life has been
breathed into Wayne Gretzky's hometown. Laurier University,
Nippissing University and Mohawk College have all opened outposts
here, bringing construction jobs, new residences and classrooms and
the need for student-priced restaurants and stores.

So in 2008, after decades of ignoring Colborne's decline, city
council spent $11.5 million to expropriate 80 buildings from 42
owners and resettle businesses and residents.

Now that they own the strip, the question is what to do with it.
Sless' anti-demolition side doesn't want to see Colborne torn down to
become "a pile of gravel," but no money has stepped up to preserve
Brantford's first telegraph office either.

Heritage redevelopments in southern Ontario are pretty, but their
success rate is up for debate. Beautiful condos have been reborn from
old banks and industrial buildings, but those are private spaces
whose residents are willing to pay a premium for nostalgia.

Both Hamilton's Liuna train station and Toronto's Distillery District
are gorgeous spots, and both are seen mostly by visitors and wedding
guests. Neither is a part of the everyday fabric of its city.

Ready to go either way, the YMCA has expressed an interest to partner
with the post-secondary schools in redeveloping part of the south
Colborne St. site. CEO Jim Commerford says whether to demolish or
refurbish is "a decision for the city to make." At this point the
question is moot, since his last request for grant funding was turned down.

Meanwhile, as of Monday, Littell had received 13 bids from companies
wanting to get a hold of a $1.38 million grant the federal government
has given Brantford for demolishing Colborne St., which has to be
used by the end of March.

The buildings on Colborne St. could be razed by mid-week. Or they
could be part of Brantford for another 100 years.