May 26, 2011 - Last week Anne Finlay-Stewart's store Around the Sound was destroyed along with several apartments in a fire caused by careless smoking.
This was no ordinary business and the proprietor is no ordinary woman. Supportive of local food, sustainable economies and growing practices, and all things green she knows that area producers need a store if their businesses are to grow and succeed. While the farmers' markets are a strong element in the local food supply chain, a retail outlet with regular hours allows consumers to shop at convenient times. This was not just one business that burned. It was the final link in the chain of 150 suppliers and small businesses.
After relocating once and very recently raising funds to build a community kitchen with colleague Kelda, she will not be able to rebuild this time. Depleted in resources, dispirited and bone tired, last week Anne declared that the business was finished. But in her good-bye email to her clients, she posited a vision for the future. She wrote:

“Now is the time for us to consider a collaborative community effort for any future iteration of the local food market. In my vision, it could find a wonderful home at the heritage CPR station on the east harbour. The City owns the building and recently received a grant for its restoration. What if we all worked on it together to create a really unique gem on our waterfront, highlighting local food, urban agriculture, and sustainability? Solar hot water heating, a community kitchen, a seasonal garden and outdoor cafe? Connecting our heritage with our future – a place of hope, community and innovation as a model of the possibilities. Well a girl can dream can't she?”
It caught my imagination, and it seems that many others who read it believe this is not just a dream but a workable plan. I have spent the better part of the week making this “vision” something more concrete than words, with helpful suggestions e-mailed in from many others. Local architect Grant Diemert suggested working with the heritage building's strong linearity, recreating a platform facing the harbour, built with thick recycled planks.
He had many ideas that I didn't have time to draw – rows of lighting poles to highlight the sense of perspective you experience when arriving on a train. I thought that parallel raised gardens could echo the vanished train rails, while reminding us of post-war modernist architecture. The website www.historicalplaces.ca offered more information on the heritage value of this building.
On the advice of a friend I've visited the site in Toronto called Evergreen Brickworks. You can visit online at EBW.Evergreen.ca. From their website "Evergreen Brickworks is a community environmental center that inspires and equips visitors to live work and play more sustainably. Evergreen, a national charity, has transformed the former Don Valley brickworks from a collection of deteriorating heritage buildings into an international showcase for urban sustainability and green design - a heritage destination where nature meets innovation in the heart of an urban center.” Our site is much smaller and our local needs very modest, but the kernel of the idea fits. Café, local food market, a community kitchen, and community gardens this could be a place where people shop, eat, garden and learn about the past and the future with optimism, in contrast to the derelict structure and the vacant harbour sites. Anne's vision would allow the public to participate in the space, unlike a private tenant such as a denture clinic or professional office.
Last week as I photographed the building I noticed a hole in one window– nd the telltale cooing of pigeons which spells trouble for the interior. Critters belong outside a building. A building deteriorates very quickly once neglect begins, as we have all been witness to in the past decades.
City council must see that the gears are grinding too slowly. A rich patron will not magically appear with a proposal and offer to restore the building. It is now ours and we need to act as we wish other building owners would, setting an example of strong stewardship.I read in the paper that a grant has been obtained to offset restoration costs. An architect should now be hired and hammers could start swinging tomorrow. A paying tenant with a good idea could be setting up shop by fall. Let's do this.