Artistes Critical Of OMB Decision

I am not talking about the con artists at Toronto City Hall......

Unintended effects of knocking down a building
Column, March 17.

Cameron Smith is quite right about the "haughty disdain" the Ontario Municipal Board has shown toward an environmental assessment concerning the Bridgepoint Hospital (formerly Riverdale Hospital) redevelopment, known as the Half-Round Building. In a decision that took the OMB just two weeks to deliver, judges concluded that the Half-Round should be demolished and 150 trees clear-cut off the east Don River ravine.

The decision reads: "The road pattern of the precinct ... could be seriously impaired if the Half-Round were to be retained." The two judges justify the Half-Round's demolition for a service road to the Don Valley's edge because "condominium housing at this general locale is in acute short supply."

How can Ontarians seriously consider the decision merits of these appointed planning czars when they clearly show no sensitivity to sustainable urban planning that demands alternative forms of transportation – more bike and rollerblading trails, expanded transit service and preservation of pedestrian-friendly green corridors – as well as the reuse of old buildings in order to offset an imminent global meltdown?

As an artist who has worked in the Half-Round Building – performing on the beautiful rotunda room stage during Brain Injury Awareness Month – what kind of a message are we sending to disabled artists when the OMB not only deems it necessary to cut down Riverdale's old-growth trees but trashes its cultural legacy by further marginalizing Ontario's vibrant disability culture by demolishing a perfectly accessible stage? This kind of developer-driven destruction has got to stop.

As we become more aware of our ecological footprint, reusing cultural and historic assets, like the Half-Round, should become an environmental necessity if we are going to save this planet from global warming.

Davis Mirza, Half-Round Artists Collective, Toronto