Struck by this thought tonight at the joint brownfields community advisory committee and heritage committee meeting considering the reports on Greenwich-Mohawk.
The heritage advocates in this city will likely, justifiably perhaps, be incensed if this or the next council does anything except preserve what’s worth preserving at the Greenwich-Mohawk site. This council’s task is unenviable— account for decades of neglect and attempt to address it with a pot of money that’s nowhere near large enough and a fiscal and political dynamic that won’t allow it to raise the necessary capital through taxation or debt.
Surely, predictably, heritage advocates will call for the seats on council if the spending required to make up for these decades of neglect is not supported and the decision becomes demolition over preservation.
It’s not this council’s fault. It’s not really the previous council’s fault either.
There are decades worth of councils that hold some of the responsibility for the current state of these buildings.
Worse yet, there are decades worth of voters who elected those councils that obviously didn’t see the preservation of these buildings as a priority.
So, before blaming this council should it choose not to spend what’s needed to preserve, take a good look in the mirror first.