GWNA History.
“Why GWNA?”
by Julie Beddoes
When I moved into 39 Parliament in February 2000,. Mill St. and the distillery site were dark and dreary. But we had the core of a community with neighbours at 70 Mill St.. 80 Mill St. was on the drawing board. Future owners had met monthly during construction and some good friendships were made that way. Our first newsletter, Vision, was put together every month by Archie McDonald and Ian Russell, whom I soon joined. Later on, GWNA took it over and Vision became District News.
70 Mill residents had already started work to get the City to put traffic signals at Mill and Parliament, to be told initially that “nobody lives on Mill St..” Some of us started going to public meetings to give input on the City’s bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. We learned that plans to put a media village on the West Don Lands and a stadium on the port lands didn’t include any thought for their effect on our little community, sandwiched in between. We also noticed that we were surrounded by neighbourhood activists in the Corktown and St. Lawrence neighbourhood associations and that those who spoke for a group had stronger voices than those who spoke as individuals. Early in 2001 I put a piece in Vision suggesting we start our own association. Soon after we had a well-attended meeting which strongly endorsed the idea, and the work of drawing up a constitution and working towards incorporation as a non-profit began.
The Olympic bid failed but soon after the three governments launched waterfront revitalization. We are the neighbourhood most affected by this as we border on the West Don Lands, the port lands and East Bay Front. At an early planning meeting, we asked members to sign in as GWNA rather than with their address; thirty-five people did so and it was never said again that nobody lives on Mill St. GWNA members have ever since had major input into all the plans as they went forward.
Many years of construction on the West Don Lands and other waterfront sites could have made our lives very uncomfortable if we hadn’t had a well-respected voice on the various construction liaison committees. When several hundred trucks a day were dumping earth on the future Corktown Common, not one of them travelled along Mill St.
Mill St. was a drab place in those early days and the GWNA greening committee set about getting at least the strip along the fence on the north sidewalk from Trinity to Parliament naturalised and beautified. The story of the political maneouvring, arm twisting, lobbying and general outsmarting of what was then the Ontario Realty Corp. could fill a book with chapters on the enterprise and creativeness of the first committee. We had a good ally in the Wet Don Lands Committee, the coalition of area organisations with whom we have always worked closely.
As our population increased and tourists started arriving, the need to have a safer crossing at Front-Trinity-Eastern led to another epic battle with City officials. With, as always, support from Cllr. McConnell’s office, and many volunteers who took a count of pedestrians at the crossing all one weekend, the signal was finally put in.
It was a tremendous advance for us when the UK-based pension fund that owned the distillery sold to Cityscape. Not only did it spare us the all-night noise and lights of almost constant filming, we gained neighbours who have been supportive of our association and who have brought us much-valued new neighbours. It has been a joy to see how many in the new towers have joined and supported our association. Their energy and good ideas are making our community ever more welcoming and adaptable to changing situations.
The association and Cityscape soon formed a round table group which meets monthly to sort out issues of mutual concern. Association representatives continue to play a role in developments around us and report every month to GWNA meetings. Among the list of issues for the next little while are the improvements to Mill St. west of Trinity, the rehabilitation of the First Parliament site and planned and possible developments on surrounding sites. The as-yet unresolved issues of the Gardiner East and island airport expansion are of great concern to us all. Soon we will have a whole new neighbourhood to the east of us on the West Don Lands and to the south on the East Bay Front. In the fullness of time flood protection will be in place on the port lands and construction of a thousand acres of park land and new communities will greatly affect the lives of our residents. We must continue to have a strong voice in all consultative bodies if our interests and quality of life are to the protected.
Perhaps this has made the GWNA sound like all work and no play. But you probably already know that GWNA has always been a social hub, a place to make friends for newcomers. As well as getting to know each other at GWNA monthly meetings with their interesting speakers, we have barbecues, holiday parties, garage sales. Please bring your ideas for future events to our monthly meetings. If you only joined to get a discount in the Distillery businesses, you will find that GWNA has much more to offer than just that. Come to our next meeting and join in the community building, friendship making and protection of our neighbourhood interests.