This June, I (and many others) were saddened to hear of the death of Rocky Letourneau, a dedicated city councillor who represented Ward 5 here in Welland.
In a Tribune article published shortly after his death, Letourneau was remembered for his service to the Francophone community. As a Francophone himself, he was determined to keep French-Canadian culture alive in Welland, fighting for the inclusion and recognition of the French language wherever possible. The article also noted his habit of looking out for the 'little guy,' which was well reflected in his support of the Welland Hospital. During the (still-ongoing) debate over the hospital's future, Letourneau argued that it should remain open so that the people of Welland could benefit from it. Mayor Campion, interviewed for the Tribune, spoke well of Letourneau both personally and professionally, commending the fact that he never neglected his duties even during his illness, and describing him as a great family man.
I've attended more than my fair share of city council meetings, beginning in 2013 as a member of the MYAC. We were expected to make at least one presentation to council per year, as all city committees must do, in order to explain our plans and allow the council to formally continue or cease to support our operation. As in Parliament, the councillors don't exactly 'talk' to the presenters - they must ask questions, though they can use a lengthy preamble to their question to express whatever else they want to say. By doing that, Rocky Letourneau always found a way to voice his support for our group and encourage us to keep doing what we were doing, and he was always one of the first to vote to approve our continued operation. The other councillors were supportive too, of course, but you could always tell who was really interested and who just wanted it to be over with. Mr. Letourneau always fell into that former category.
I also had the pleasure, or displeasure, of seeing some really strange business go before council. I won't go into what it was, but suffice it to say that people go in there with grievances that aren't fit for the worst episode of Judge Judy. Rocky, along with a few others, was someone who saw through the nonsense and knew how to ask the burning questions. That's an admirable quality in a politician, and one that is especially needed in a local government. So I respected Rocky Letourneau, and when he passed away, I hoped that something could be done in his memory.
And now the city wants to rename Memorial Park after him.
Memorial Park. You know, the one that's currently being torn apart by developers' bulldozers to make way for a new subdivision?
I'm just not sure it's a good idea, is all.
When I was a kid I used to spend a lot of time at Memorial Park. With its open grassy areas, it was a great place to have a picnic, play frisbee, even set up a badminton net on a clear day. Driving by, I liked to get a quick glance at the baseball and softball teams playing at the diamonds on either side of the road. It was great for kite-flying, though that was always my mother's pastime rather than mine. In short, it was a great place for kids of all ages, and indeed that's what it was until quite recently, when the bulldozers moved in and the orange fences went up.
Little did I know then that my beloved park wasn't really owned by the city, but by the Seaway, who - by my understanding - leased that land to Welland for $1 per year. For whatever reason, this arrangement became less than optimal to the Seaway, who then offered to sell the land to the city at a price that was said to be far below its market value before offering it up to other buyers. Council voted not to purchase the land, and as anyone would have expected, it was snapped up by developers.
Now a majority of what was once Memorial Park is bare dirt, with roads put into it, and electrical wires on wooden poles sticking up all over the place. Soon, foundations will appear in the ground, and on top of each one will grow a 100% artificial cookie-cutter house, the same type that these new subdivisions always have. When they're ready, or maybe even before that, they'll be sold at prices probably beginning in the $300s or $400s, and if it is like every other subdivision of its kind in this region, most of them will be bought by Torontonians who've just sold their wartime houses (or the spacial equivalent thereof) for millions of dollars, and who want to live in a peaceful, small city while continuing to work in a noisy, dangerous, big city, at the same time driving up property values until nobody from here can afford to live here, and we, like them, are forced to move.
Am I bitter? Maybe, but this disturbing pattern I've described is very real. Allowing too much development of this type has done serious damage to places like Ancaster, which is now completely transformed from what it once was. The same thing is currently happening in Wainfleet, as the city folk who've bought their cookie-cutter homes there continue to harass April Jeffs in order to get the small town they live in to be more like the big city, namely by eliminating the smell of manure. This is a serious issue, and if we ignore it for too long, we will be up a certain creek without the proverbial paddle. Toronto ignored its own wacky housing bubble for too long, which is why Torontonians are now forced to move south to Niagara in order to buy homes at semi-reasonable prices. If we Niagarans have to move south the same distance, we will end up in Fredonia, New York, which is not optimal, since some of us don't even have our passports. (I kid, but only slightly.)
So we have this park, which was once a nice place for kids to play, and which has now been mostly replaced by an unnecessary and unwanted development project. What is left of the park, consisting mainly of the pool, splash pad, and pavilions, along with a little bit of grass, will be surrounded by houses and roads. The future Memorial Park will be a shadow of what it once was. This is what the name of Rocky Letourneau could now be attached to.
Imagine if the Pen Centre went out of business, just like Niagara Square did, and all that remained open was the Zehrs and the Cinema, while the rest of it sat vacant. Now imagine that shortly thereafter, the St. Catharines city council voted to rename the place to the Andy Petrowski Shopping Centre. That's not an honour, that's an insult. The difference is that Petrowski deserves the insult, while Letourneau deserves exactly the opposite.
It just doesn't make sense. You cannot take a butchered parcel of land, representative of the consequences of municipal short-sightedness, and name it after someone you are supposed to respect. Give Letourneau something that will memorialize him properly - not something that will attach his name to a negative image in the mind of everyone who went to this park in its original state.
What's the worst part of this whole thing? Rocky Letourneau, if he were here, would likely feel the same way. In January of this year, interviewed by Allan Benner for the Tribune, Letourneau said he'd been faithfully visiting the construction site to keep an eye on how things were going. To quote Benner:
Now, we know exactly what the park's long-term future is. We just don't know what it will be called. All I know is that it shouldn't be named after the late councillor. There are better ways to honour a man like Rocky Letourneau than to ravage a place he once loved and then name what remains of it after him."Letourneau said he’s concerned about the long-term future of a park that was the setting of many happy childhood memories.“It was a park that I used as a kid. I’d swim there. I used to walk there with my family on Sunday afternoons,” [Letourneau] said."
Rest in Peace, Rocky Letourneau.
Spot on.
ReplyDelete