An article from a group called Novæ Res Urbis has caused quite a stir on the Corktown e-list, which was recently hurled, gasping, from the arms of the Corktown Residents and Business Association , to fend for itself on the very streets we walk.

Someone asked about "answering the misinterpretations here" and we thought we'd give it a stab, since here on The Seat, we think it's pretty much on the mark, an assertion we'll explore in more detail now... 

For those unfortunates privy to the Corktown Resident and Business Association’s listserv, which delivers a regular barrage of increasingly hostile and often curious messages, it has been painfully clear that it was headed on a collision course. Ideological differences and personal conflicts have rendered the group almost completely ineffective at lobbying for the needs of the Ward 28 community and now threaten the group’s existence.

Maybe so, but this is a situation that could have been remedied by the association taking a more active role on the listserv to communicate with the community more effectively. The listserv, with nearly 100 users, enjoys significantly higher attendance than any CRBA meeting. Nearly all Board members were either unaware of the elist or refused to use it, a situation which has changed recently and perplexingly considering the list's recent excommunication.

The final death blow may have been issued this week when two board members suddenly announced the launch of a duplicate group - the King East Village Association.

Yup, that was a really professional move on the part of existing, elected CRBA members who must have been suffering from Wajhid Khan syndrome.

Trouble began brewing last year over the McCord site, a 600-unit residential building, with 130-affordable housing units, between the Adelaide and Richmond overpass. The Corktown board pressured the West Don Lands Committee to take a position on limiting affordable housing and social services in its downtown neighbourhood. After the committee refused given its firm commitment to mixed-income housing, the Corktown folks packed their bags and left the committee’s membership.

The move neutered Corktown’s ability to work in collaboration rendering the organization a complaint-driven negative force.

Detecting a trend here? Don't like what you're hearing? Then shut it down or walk away! At this point, other than the website (kudos to local webmaster Chris Hutcheson) the now separated elist, one newsletter this year (!) produced by the estimable Ingrid Gadsden and a couple of event-specific flyers - nothing!

Of late, the Corktown folks seem to focus only on the community’s perceived problems, which are not dissimilar from other downtown neighbourhoods - drugs, prostitution, property crime, a methadone clinic (even going as far as taking turns photographing presumed clients going into the clinic), and affordable housing and related social services. The group was curiously preoccupied, Wilkey said, with wondering whether Regent Park residents would be moving into the McCord site.

Of late? Another ongoing trend, despite, to be fair, some Board members' efforts to focus on positive aspects of the community over the years. Meetings are regularly given over to the same issues, and people who come, motivated to participate, often leave - never to return, sucked into the abyss of a neighbourhood awash in drugs, crime, prostitution, and nameless hordes of homeless people - all of this clearly in some area other than the palatial digs of The One Who Sits.

The article goes on to talk about members' dislike for Councillor McConnell, yet as it points out, she won handily in the last election - which as we all now, is just about a genetic perogative for the incumbent councillor. However, we will give her the last word in saying:

“Corktown has so much to celebrate,” McConnell told NRU. “This area is on the cusp of a huge exciting transformation.” “It’s gratifying to see many people committed to the area, like Streetcar Development Inc., which believes in the neighbourhood so much it has bought up properties and is readying them for development,” she said. “It believes it’s a good place to make an investment.” “Those are the positive voices I listen to,” McConnell said.

Here at The Seat, we agree with her point about neighbourhood potential - though we'd also hope she's not just listening to developers, but hears and responds to reasoned concerns as well.