John Bradford
FOR BRANT NEWS

During the past three decades, four mayors and their councils have tried to revitalize downtown Brantford.
In December 1990, the “core area revitalization task force” was presented to Mayor Karen George and council.

Five years later, effectively none of 12 recommendations had been acted on. To be fair, the 1990 council, following Mayor David Neumann’s term, was still flush with the successes of the Eaton’s Market Square, the Icomm centre and the closing of Market Street. (In Writing 101, we call that “foreboding”).

The $6 million Sanderson Centre, the $4 million Beckett Building and the $5 million public library downtown, not included in the 1990 recommendations, did demonstrate sound investments. In addition, it was a “Rae Days” environment and provincial infrastructure funding dried up.

In 1993, the BIA commissioned its own “Sankey Report” unsuccessfully acted upon in the interim.

The June 24, 1995, Brant News editorial “Deal with it” referenced Mayor Chris Friel’s “task force on the downtown” received by council. The editorial characterization of politicians’ comments led one to think the work done by enthusiastic community leaders would be shelved like previous reports.

There was good intelligence that the practice of asking for community engagement and doing nothing was more reality than perception. The public attitude implored immediate political action.

Ironically, the chair of the task force was a respected businessman, Phil McColeman. The heated exchange between councillors over the 1995 process and funding decried having only two days to absorb the report.

The 1995 report ultimately resulted in four completed objectives: increased police presence in the core, the temporary hiring of a facilitator for downtown, the removal of  parking meters and removal of some regulatory restrictions around zoning.

However, 20 other objectives that were recommended and detailed with identified resources and specific champions were not engaged.

Jumping forward to 2001, city council adopted an estimates committee report supporting downtown revitalization, including funding of $1.5 million annually from casino dividends and a $25,000 dollar investment in a downtown master plan.

In 2002, the outgoing council in an election year received the “general implementation plan for downtown.” Although 15 recommendations were detailed and bore some considerable resemblance to the previous studies, only four were implemented, although it was Mayor Friel’s council that demolished the area to become the civic square and began Laurier negotiations.

It was Mayor Mike Hancock’s 2003 council that initiated loan incentives for the core, tax incentives for improvements, civic square planning and the downtown master plan.

Missing in council’s will was recurring recommendations for the core: assembling municipal ownership of property on the south side of Colborne Street, long term strategies for post-secondary development, the conversion of Colborne and Dalhousie streets to two-way traffic, practical parking and transit strategies, repairing infrastructure under the streets, creating a vista toward the river through removal of decrepit buildings, implementing a waterfront strategy, endorsing the YMCA downtown, recognizing the commercial and industrial history of Brantford’s downtown, seeking private development to implement the downtown master plan; and supporting the downtown BIA in their endeavors to establish growth in the core.

It was Mayor Hancock’s council of 2006-2010 that took the heat, but made a transformational difference in addressing most of the recommendations for the downtown supported since 1990 by the majority of Brantfordians.

The groundwork is now laid. This is not simply a downtown issue – it is a city-wide economic development issue. It is today’s council’s responsibility to move forward with courage and conviction to finish this project, this term. Therein lies the inconvenient truth.

John Bradford is a former City of Brantford councillor.