Is Saint John "The Lost City" ?

Today I would like to widen my focus and discuss events which have developed beyond the confines of the weathered limestone walls of the old valley. I do occasionally scan the Saint John paper online, and I am not unmoved by the stories I read. There have been a few recently which address the problem of poverty and urban decline, issues with deep historical roots which I suggest belong here in the Blog. John Chilibeck, the Telegraph Journal editor, wrote an interesting piece just before Christmas which essentially laid the blame for local decline on political mismanagement. The article, "WHY NO-ONE WANTS SAINT JOHN", Dccember 20, discusses the relectance to buying into Saint John's proposal for amalgamation of city and prosperous suburban communities. Chilibeck probably made an enemy or two at City Hall with his pointed views, but he has broad shoulders.

The Editor's salient point is that decades of bad municipal management and unreliable infrastructure drove thousands of families to distant suburban communities which keep them beyond the clutches of city tax men. I have argued in this Blog that much of the current malaise stems from the legacy of those who adopted Urban Renewal demolition policies as an engine of growth. They were the leaders of our parents generation. Their policies gutted the centre of Saint John and were hand maiden to the devil of steady population decline. Similar urban projects have been discredited in cities across North America, but Saint John seems to have had a Stalin-like belief in the infallibility of its decision making.

Chilibeck wrote that in "an estimated 120 boarded-up buildings blemish the city". That's a huge problem in a small city like Saint John, yet the City staff do not seem overly concerned. Last November a Vancouver reader of this Blog sent me fresh photos he had made on a trip back to Saint John. They were all unflattering, but then the Telegraph Journal has published several like them.

A common juxtaposition in North End Saint John - a 110 year old tenement, unpainted and unloved... with three new satellite TV dishes bolted to its face and a mini-van out front. A nostalgic Vancouver reader visited the old home town in November and sent me photos. His uncharitable summation of the North End streetscapes? - "What a dump."

Chilibeck reports that Saint John's population "has steadily dropped to 68,043 in the latest count two years ago from 89,039 in the 1971 census. That's a loss of nearly 21,000 people over 35 years." I am beginning to consider the idea of starting a sister Blog to "The Lost Valley" and I would have to call it "The Lost City".


The unpardonable fate of Centenary-Queen Square United Church

The faux-festive interior of Centenary-Queen Square Church - a photo lifted from the owner's Dec. 29, 2008 advert on Kijiji. The owner calls his property GOTHIC ARCHES and for a decade it stumbled along booking small music and community events. Currently he is offering unheated warehouse monthly storage on the main floor for $150 per month.

On December 29, 2008 The Telegraph Journal ran a local interest story with the cute headline: "Gothic arches could become condo heaven". "Gothic Arches" is the corny name appended to the old Methodist built Centenary-Queen Square Church. Since 1999, when its "United Church" owners sold the historic property, Gothic Arches has been a venue for rock concerts and any other event the owner could attract to help cover his bills. The owner now wants the building off his back, and recently dropped his asking price from $649,000 to $495,000. That's incredibly cheap, but his ludicrous suggestion that it will be converted to condos, will not earn him a sale. After trying to sell Gothic Arches on his own for a full year, the owner has at last turned to a professional realtor who might put a development deal together. That realtor, we learn, is "also president of the city's heritage board". Now that is smile worthy.

What I also found amusing was that on the same day Gothic Arches got free play in the Telegraph Journal, he took out a Free Ad on Kijiji. (Here in Vancouver some newspaper reporters sell advertising on the side, and you can guarantee a bigger story by buying expensive Ad space.) All kidding aside, I would really hope to see the Church saved. We cannot entirely major trouble keeping parishioners. It has a bitter history of faction fighting over the perpetual drift into Liberation Theology and gender politics. It's in trouble all over the map, including here in B.C.

Oddly, the Journal reporter refers to the property as the "former church". Therein may lie part of the problem. In my view, if the Soviets chose to warehouse truck parts in Jewish synagogues as they once did, the structures were still synagogues. It only remains for a newer , more responsible generation to do right by a nation's heritage buildings and reclaim what was allowed to fall into decline. Centenary-Queen Square is much more worthy than say, the twenty year old Marco Polo II project, which has been a fiasco since inception. With Polo II the goal is create an object of very limited utility which will require expensive monitoring and maintenance from the moment the last daub of paint dries. ... Well at least we know a place where they can store it under roof for $150 per month! It would be a bit tricky hoisting it through a stained glass window, but it can be done.

We Remember what we choose to Remember, and we Honour who we choose to Honour.

After learning the awful fate of another historic Saint John landmark I spent some time going through its history. Milestones in Methodism: A History of Centenary-Queen Square, was published in 1967 and it's the standard reference. One passage, on p.79, creates some resonance for me.

"On November 12, 1939, the congregation celebrated the 100th Anniversary of Centenary and the 148th Anniversary of Queen Square. The morning service was broadcast over CHSJ. [radio] This was Armistice Sunday and the congregation stood while the Rolls of Honour of World War 1 were read and then observed a period of silence." The roll is two pages long and includes six nursing sisters overseas in WW1.

I was immediately reminded of the Remembrance Service our family attended recently at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. Our son performs in a professional choir called Chor Leoni, and we attended a performance on a cold rainy night. Since the deployment of the Canadian Forces to Afghanistan the choir has revived the old tradition of calling out the names of our fallen. The choir disperses in a ring of voices which embraces the audience, and proceeds to pronounce each of the names of our war dead. The effect upon the audience is electrifying, as it must have been at Centenary-Queen Church in 1939, at the beginning of another World War. The tragedy of this act of remembrance was that as of November 2008 each member of Chor Leoni had two names to proclaim fallen, and they will certainly have occasion to make it three.

Afterthought: Since I began surfing the Internet about fifteen years ago, I've encountered material which is not available in any other form - which I why I maintain a list of approximately 300 bookmarks for S.J. material online. One of the funniest descriptions I've ever collected of Saint John as something of a 21st Century ghost town, was written by an American named Jim Leff. Jim wrote, two years ago: "I woke up in Saint John, which turned out to be a small, wind-swept, deserted city. It was very post-apocalyptic, very Twilight Zone. There were buildings, restaurants, parking lots, etc., but I felt as if I were on the steppes of Mongolia." You can read his entire column at http://www.chow.com/tour/1805

Now, before you blow a gasket and assemble a posse to ride across the border to lynch poor Jim... please take the time to listen to a recording he made in S.J.s downtown at 4pm. His point is well made with humour.