[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto heritage in a dismal state"

[rfmcdonald]

Christopher Hume's Toronto Star article bemoaning the poor state of Toronto's preservation of its architectural heritage is notable, if despairing, reading.

As Heritage Toronto board member Mark Warrack said at the agency’s State of Heritage Report presentation Tuesday morning, what the city needs is “strong bureaucratic and political leadership.”

Warrack, Mississauga’s Heritage Coordinator, painted a picture of a system that lurches from crisis to crisis, budget cut to budget cut.

Though he found reasons for optimism in recent heritage-friendly amendments to the Official Plan, in most respects the process is deeply flawed and so confusing almost no one understands it. And even those who do are overwhelmed by backlogs that will take years to clear and rules that make it nearly impossible for them to do so.

Heritage Toronto, a charitable arm’s-length city agency, focuses on awareness and education. It’s the grunts at the municipal Heritage Preservation Services, planning department and the like that do the hard work.

It wasn’t lost on them that just last week Toronto’s budget committee recommended laying off eight more heritage employees. That decision must go to full council, but now that the city is in service-cutting mode — despite protestations to the contrary — there’s little chance it won’t approve these proposals regardless of how short-sighted they are.