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Heritage values being sacrificed
Councillor Column - Robin Cherbo, Nelson Star/30 May
History > Heritage > Culture
Any kind of movement within a society - positive/negative - constantly shapes/reshapes and adapts its culture - the society's mind. If adaptation is refused - a culture will stagnate. What we bring from yesterday into today is heritage: thoughts, actions and their physical manifestations. Rooted in history.
Nelson focuses on their physical manifestations only - thus this focus has no foundation, as in what made them possible. In this case usually: brutally hard work/working-conditions, very poor pay and inhumane treatment of many - directly/indirectly - doled out by a few. And these few financed what became Nelson's heritage buildings.
Heritage can't be separated from history, but what with Nelson's history not taught in its schools - the City and its Community Heritage Commission (CHC) have indeed found it relatively easy to affect a separation.
Making their concept of heritage nothing less than hypocritical.
Therein lies one reason for the CHC having to go and then the local concept of heritage having to finally be made all-inclusive - historically correct and socio-culturally contemplated.
I feel uncomfortable with this column's headline alone, and I wonder whether it originates with Councillor Cherbo or the Nelson Star.
Column
The first and last sentence pretty much say it all - whatever in between just substantiates that Councillor Cherbo is by-and-large ill-informed, often non-factual and consistently over-the-top.
LoJo, Victoria BC
First Sentence
Nelson is known in BC, across Canada and internationally for the beautiful heritage buildings on Baker Street and in the downtown core.
Across Canada? Internationally? There's an abundance of truly imposing part-of-daily-life heritage buildings all over Europe and Asia; I don't think the rest of the world is giving Nelson's architectural gems much thought. Or Nelson - period - for that matter.
Mr. Cherbo's Brigadoon-view comes from the same fog as one of the ten most beautiful villages in the world, the prettiest small town in Canada and the best small art town in Canada.
Victoria BC - beginning to acknowledge its white-bread heritage long before Nelson - got over this don't-touch-me-there complex and is bringing heritage buildings into the present (and life!) by joyfully (and respectfully!) painting them! Started in San Francisco in the 60s - the Painted Ladies - and from there spreading all over the Western world.
But not to Nelson!
For an exploration - see the post below:
Nelson In Living Colour
1 December 2011
In Between
As one letter to the editor stated, other communities in BC are working to establish heritage commissions modeled after Nelson and unfortunately we have chosen the course over and done with.
Unfortunately, Councillor Cherbo chooses his over-and-done-with view based on one (a single!) letter to the editor - without examples yet!
This reminds me of the 2 or 3 tourists-bringing-dogs letters to the editor - presumably e-mailed by disgruntled out-of-town dog-owners, who will never ever return to Nelson - and Council promptly fell for this! Hello?! Anyone can e-mail anything to the editor from here (while claiming to be there!) - or have someone e-mail it from there - and who's to know!
Neither Councillor Cherbo's insubstantial/unsubstantiated factoid, nor Council's reaction is confidence-inspiring.
Changes to the facade on the old Nelson Daily News building and other changes to store-fronts on Baker Street raise concerns...
...as do Mr. Cherbo's vague assertions. I see no changes to the NDN facade, except for new windows on the groundfloor - wood, attractively simple. And green! Which heritage-correct clearly is not!
Mind you, I am looking foward to seeing the Nelson Daily News sign put back, but that's a personal preference, and with the transformation not complete yet - who knows!
LoJo, Victoria BC
...and penalties to those who change building structures from the original design.
Bring on the building-structure police! Building structures?
It is said that some people do not put a value on the heritage buildings which have drawn tourists from all over the world to Nelson.
Maybe it's a parallel-universe thing.
The Civic Theatre is another example that could be restored, similar to the Capitol Theatre.
To keep this straight: Council - with Mr. Cherbo as member - gave the Civic away to a bunch of financially dicey guys from Vancouver. No restoration-talk then. They bailed unceremoniously, and Council has been at very loose ends over what to do with the place for quite some time. Then - suddenly - it allowed a very short period of time for public proposals. So how/when exactly could/would Mr. Cherbo's restoration-proposal enter? Does he actually have one?
As for the Capitol connection: its interior is fine - the exterior is one of the
most insipid in Nelson.
Last Sentence
With heritage being the theme and core of tourism in Nelson, hopefully (sic) citizens will demand protection of the heritage buildings in our community into the future for the benefit of all.
If heritage is the core and theme of tourism in Nelson - why isn't that what the marketing-people currently run to sell the place? And where's the mythical cultural tourist? Certainly not on Baker Street, oohing-and-aahing at the beautiful heritage buildings there. Has anyone ever actually witnessed him doing this?
Remember the Cultural Tourism Marketing Survey Results saying Our definition of a cultural tourist ... is someone who travels to experience the authentic culture of the Kootenay Lake region's people, places and activities. No heritageing specifically there!
Heritage buildings - on paper - are an attractive backdrop against which the tourist may shop - no more! - but in reality they have been protected to death - literally: they look shabby, their awnings are rotting, because generally they haven't been kept-up since the initial redo in the 80s!
That - at least in part - because of the CHC's imperious dictates. Queen City and all.
Does Mr. Cherbo really expect citizens to demand protection of these buildings ad infinitum to the tune of ever escalating taxation, seeing that his heritage core/theme is not providing the goods?
Mr. Cherbo's position - particularly as coming from a City representative - is problematic in its myopia.
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