Local History:
History of Gore Park (13)
Now we get to the eighties. The era of the Gore Park Chainsaw Massacre.
On July 19, 1983 a city crew started the first phase of the Downtown Action Plan approved by City Council. Chainsaws were brought in and all the trees were removed from the park. What it had taken nature 100 years to create took man several days to destroy. The public reacted with shock, outrage and anger and the community development office was flooded with calls protesting the tree removal. One woman told a police officer that "the city should be charged with murder to the environment."
In December of 1982 the Du Toit firm of Toronto had presented their final plan. It "called for the creation of a distinctive urban park, complete with a major sculptured fountain, a waterfall and pool, paving stoned areas for pedestrians, and substantial areas of grass, shrubs and shade trees." The plan was approved but City Council, to save the $84,000 cost of having Du Toit supervise implementation of their plan, decided to use in-house staff. This was their first big mistake. These staff interpreted the plan in a way that started to steer it away from the concept that the Toronto firm had advocated. Their changed recommended plan was passed by the planning and development committee and unanimously passed by City Council. Nobody noticed that this was not what had originally been proposed. "The planning refinement process "that would have created an urban park in Du Toit's hands, created something entirely different in city staff's hands"."
The outcry that had come with the chopping down of the trees was nothing compared with the reaction when two concrete block buildings started going up. Tony Butler, of the Hamilton Historic Board and a local architect, attacked the plan. He checked the drawings and said "They are totally inappropriate to the character of the city...I'm ashamed to see what's happening in Gore Park." He said the drawings - developed by city staff had not followed the concept for the area developed last year by Roger du Toit Architects of Toronto. Council member were caught off balance by the vehemence of the protests and, while some of them staunchly defended the plan other "called the buildings too overpowering and monstrosities...[and] urged scrapping present plans and starting over."
The City Council bit the bullet and voted to tear down the buildings and start over, hiring a registered landscape architect to oversee the job. The Chief Administrative Officer still defended "his decision to implement the project with in-house staff..."That was a money-saving thing"."
Council started from scratch and hired the Toronto firm of Moorhead, Fleming, Corban and McCarthy in January 1984 for $54,000 to redesign the park. Their plan called for lots of grass, flowers and trees and a small fountain. On February 29, 1984 the City Council unanimously endorsed the plan with a proviso that the location of the fountain be reviewed. The Victorian fountain proposed was re-designed as a polished granite block one-metre square with water bubbling up through the middle. One alderman said that it would "turn into a urinal for the winos who hang around the park" and another said, "This isn't a fountain, it's a big hunk of stone". Nevertheless, that's what they approved the same day that the estimated losses incurred in the Gore Park fiasco were announced - $715,000.
In November of 1984 the renovations to the park and adjoining roadway were completed at a cost of $2.5 million. Three months later a whole section of the interlocking bricks had heaved up and was, in the works of one alderman, "a hell of a mess."
Consultants were hired at a cost of $5,000 to determine what went wrong with the bricks. Their report concluded "undersized interlocking bricks were used, sub-drains were never installed, contract drawings failed to show needed work, road design was inadequate, road slope was inadequate, inferior materials were used for a road base and the road was opened before it was ready to bear traffic. The cost for re-doing it correctly so that the problem would never recur was $87,500, Instead of following their advice, after paying for it, council voted to take on a cheaper half-price scheme to fix it. Their share would be $7,000, which had escalated in one week to $15,000.
The one positive note that could be stated was that, since there were no tall trees in Gore Park any more the starlings had moved to another location - City Hall. However, the pigeons stayed and in 1987 the Parks and Recreation Committee budgeted $3,000 to trap pigeons and send them to the S.P.C.A. The Downtown Business Improvement Area hired two people at minimum wage for an innovative approach to the bird problem. The Pigeon Poo Patrol prowled the park, cleaning up after the dirty birds. Pat Valeriano suggested a carved wooden owl to scare them away.
Somehow this all gives one a strong sense of deja vu. The history of Hamilton's first park points out quite strongly that the old adage is correct:
Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it!
