| A resident is spearheading a fight against tentative plans to close the Bridgeland-Riverside Community Hall, saying the building is a crucial public space in a neighbourhood that has grown accustomed to community struggles.
At a meeting on September 8, the community association narrowly voted to close the aging building because its operating and maintenance costs were too high to justify its continued operation, according to Grant Poier, a community member in attendance at the meeting. A new hall is scheduled to be built as part of the massive redevelopment of the former General Hospital lands.
However, Poier says the community hasn’t considered different alternatives for keeping the building open. He thinks a coalition of non-profit groups could be brought together to occupy and support the building, or programs to share utility costs could be created.
"It just looks like there has been very little effort to make the place viable," Poier says. "I don’t think they (the community board of directors) are necessarily aware of the needs and opportunity we have."
Members of the community association’s board of directors couldn’t be reached for comment before press time.
Although plans for the Bow Valley Centre development in Bridgeland, called The Bridges, include the construction of a new community centre to begin in early 1994, Poier says he doesn’t that that deadline can be met, considering a design for the new building hasn’t been finalized yet. He worries that the community will be left without a hall indefinitely.
Poier says he thinks the board is "sincere in trying to do the best thing," but he fears that losing the building would be another blow to the community that has spent years wrangling over the redevelopment of the former hospital site. He also worries that the community has become too splintered and exhausted from that struggle to put up much of a fight to save the community hall.
Nonetheless, he remains optimistic that the board of directors will hear the call from those who opposed the closure and delay any action while options to keep it open are explored.
"The hall is a dump, but comparatively speaking, it’s got a roof and it’s better than some of the spaces we meet in," Poier says.
"What we don’t want to do is sit and twiddle our thumbs while we wait for our new community space." |
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