By John Bacher
It is unfortunate that the Project Niagara proposal is a great scheme, in the wrong place.
Looking northeast across a stretch of the old canal in Welland where the author of this post argues would be a better site than Niagara-on-the-Lake for a summer music festival.
Having a Niagara summer music festival, with the backing of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, is a good way to promote green, environmentally friendly tourism. To achieve such an end, it is wrong to build it on lands owned by Canada’s National Parks service.
The proposed site should be developed into a constructed wetland to have Niagara on the Lake’s outdated sewage lagoons work better. This goal would be complimented by the reforestation of the former Department of National Defense rifle range, a move that would enhance the protection of Lake Ontario’s shoreline from predicted more fierce storms from climate change. The entire area should become Tecumseh National Park. It could be up and running in its vision of ecological restoration based on the zeal for protecting forests of this prophetic native Canadian statesman, in time for the War of 1812 bicentennial.
While not appropriate for National Park lands there are other properties in Niagara that are literally crying out for Project Niagara to come to them. These are lands that are abandoned industrial properties, commonly known by the term “brownfield.” Such brownfield sites threaten to become derelict eyesores, making it more difficult to attract new private capital for business rejuvenation. What is most tragic about this situation is that many of these properties, are located in what would be otherwise, very scenic locations. The best example of this are the abandoned factories that line the west side of Canal Bank Road in Welland.
In essence, Project Niagara should go to Welland. There is a strange kind of snobbery, which is driving the Project Niagara scheme to Niagara-on-the-Lake- a put down of a predominately, working class, blue collar, industrial communities. Despite this reality, Welland has a beautiful parks system which is unrivalled in Canada. These parks can provide a magnificent backdrop for a concert venue developed on adjacent brownfield lands.
For 50 years Welland also benefited from a parks commission, blessedly in place when part of the 4th Welland Canal was abandoned and turned into a Recreational Canal, which was unfortunately abolished by the province in 1970.
One of the greatest concentrations of brownfields in Welland is along Canal Bank Road. One of the most pleasant cycling experiences in Niagara is to go along this road, and view the parkland on the east of the road, along the Recreational Canal. When one looks to other side, the view is a bleak vision of a rust belt.
Welland’s rust belt provides a perfect place for concert goers, to see the beauty of its adjacent green belt. This is the same sense of beauty that the backers of Project Niagara seek in the wrong place. It is seen as a great opportunity to have concerts where people can look out onto the waters of Lake Ontario. Such impacts can be achieved in a more environmentally appropriate fashion, by having cleaned up factory lands provide the site for enjoyment of the vistas of the green lined and magnificently historical Recreational Canal.
A Welland site would also be of benefit since it would be better served by public transit. Public transit to Niagara on the Lake is a long way off. Canal Bank Road is right in the path proposed by the three municipalities that are suggesting their own version of a regional transit system, based on linking existing terminals. Such a transit corridor is also a good way to plan for future urban growth to be concentrated along Welland Canal corridor, to protect our Greenbelt from urban sprawl.
The backers of Project Niagara seek millions of dollars in support from three levels of government. In exchange for such assistance, important public ends should be served- not just the snobbery of those who love the atmosphere of Niagara on the Lake. Such public benefits should include brownfield redvelopement,utlitizing public transit, fostering good planning and co-operation with local music organizations in Niagara.
(John Bacher is a longtime resident of Niagara and a conservationist in the region.)
Click on Niagara At Large for www.niagaraatlarge.com and more news and commenatary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
Wonderful idea to use the Welland canal area for tourists (and locals)
to enjoy music and explore the canal locks and hiking trails and history.
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Why not put Project Niagara on the moon…or in New Mexico…or any other location Bacher can think up?
Again lack of research showing ahead of posting another opinion – completely unsubstantiated, of course.
If you really had any interest at all in why the site in NOTL was chosen, you would start by
reading the Project Feasibility Study – pages 14 through 23 !
Click to access niagara_study_e.pdf
And your ridiculous comment about “snobbery” at work is close to being the most absurd, and inflammatory, I have read!
Where did you pull that comment from? Run out of rational arguments..so you resort to nonsensical, and divisive, remarks like that?
And lastly, why not ask the Region and the MOEE on the status of Constructed Wetlands for wastewater treatment?
Wait, Ill save you the trouble! Sub-surface, vertical drainage flow wetlands are still “experimental” – according to the MOEE. The Region will not undertake a treatment method that requires a redundant backup system – nor will they set up the monitoring regime that would be required – it is simply too expensive. A quick call to the Region or the MOEE will confirm this.
Pilot projects are in place throughout Ontario – but the Region could not even see fit to install a CW to treat the LINE 5 Landfill leachate in NOTL – preferring instead to pump leachate for miles and then uphill to Niagara Falls. What makes Bacher think the Region will even consider a treatment wetland on this site – given their history – is beyond me.
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Tecumseh National Park has a nice ring to it. My wife,s Great Grand mother was a Shawnee from Western Maryland. I think Tecumseh more than did his share to save Canada from the American invasion. We cannot thank his contribution enough. He paid for it with his life. Welland sounds good to me – a very central location. Come on folks, lead the charge.
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Fred Williams writes: “your ridiculous comment about “snobbery” at work is close to being the most absurd, and inflammatory, I have read!”
Wow! What a sheltered life he must have led! I been called a communist and a Nazi (a little contradictory!) so far. Being accused of “snobbery” is pretty fluffy in comparison.
Locating Project Niagara in Welland would be creative and a much needed lift to Welland. NOTL is already over-exploited and over-crowded.
One problem – Tecumseh, as much as I admire him, was never in the Niagara area and would have objected to being described as Canadian.
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I somehow doubt you were called a Communist and a Nazi simultaneously – most probably you simply exhibit traits of each at different times.
It’s a schizophrenic thing!
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I confess the Project Niagara business has me totally mystified. Who, exactly, wants it? If a petition demanding access to open-air symphony concerts in the Niagara region has been going around this peninsula, I certainly haven’t seen it.
How about a referendum? I’d really like to know how other residents of my city feel about the suggestion. Who knows? They might think it a swell idea.
But I wouldn’t bet on it.
It’s not a “lift” we need, here in Welland—it’s a vision. A vision that recognizes that Welland is not a substitute Niagara-on-the-Lake, or St. Catharines, for that matter.
So thanks all the same, but I, for one, say keep your argument about Project Niagara in the north end. We have an open-air amphitheatre. We have a concert series in the winter. We’re fine.
But symphony concerts al fresco? Why?
You go to a classical concert for one reason: the music. Since when did Mozart or Brahms or Berlioz need a visual backdrop? Please, have some respect for the musicians and the music—and the music-lovers.
If the TSO wants to give concerts in the summer in Niagara, and if the idea is to attract music-loving tourists as well as local residents, then do both the courtesy of providing them the right setting: a hall with proper acoustics. Like (we hope) the new Arts and Culture Centre in St. Catharines.
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Joe Stalin – communist and fascist some say (totalitarian at least)!
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To Our Readers – This is only the second or third time the publisher of Niagara At Large has submitted a comment after specific post since this online site for news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our region was launched six months ago.
The reason I am doing so now is that I am disturbed by the temper of some of the commentary that has appeared below this post by John Bacher.
Some of it makes references to Nazis and Stalin – two infamous forces responsible for the deaths of tens-of-millions of people in the last century.
How we go from what should be a thoughtful debate on where a major cultural venue should go in Niagara – in this case the Project Niagara plan for a summer music festival facility in Niagara-on-the-Lake – to Nazis and Stalin defies all reason and falls outside the boundaries of thoughtful, civil debate.
One of the commentors participating in this manner of dialogue is one who calls himself Fred Williams. I say he calls himself that, because there is no evidence he exists in Niagara under that name. I have attempted to phone him and have made a number of attempts to contact him through the email address he uses for his comments on this site my messages are continuously returned with word to the effect that this email address cannot be accessed.
By contrast, I have had no trouble getting through to other people who share their full names and share email addresses with this site.
If Fred Williams does exist, I invite him to contact the publisher, Doug Draper, at drapers@vaxxine.com with a phone number so that we may engage in what I hope would be a civil and thoughtful discussion via those mediums.
Further to that, Niagara At Large will soon be updating its policies on comments to this site and publishing them in the form of a post to you. In the meantime, please click on the top of our home page at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for our policies on comments.
It was the hope from the start that this site would be open to people and groups on all sides of an issue, so that we may learn from each other. I would suggest that involving Nazis and Stalin into a conversation about where a new cultural venue should go in our region falls short of that.
Doug Draper, Publisher, Niagara At Large
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Fiona McMurran – as to why host an outdoor music festival – this article in Symphony magazine lists a wide array of summer festivals and the why part as well!
Click to access Summer001.pdf
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Sheridan started it, just look at the chronology of postings…..but, whatever!
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That’s right…scroll up the page and you will find first, your friend Bacher insulting everyone in NOTL by calling them snobs, while at the same time lumping the entire citizenry of Welland together as blue collar”!
Your fellow traveler Sheridan then brings up the whole – “I been called a communist and a Nazi (a little contradictory!)” – business. I simply responded and clarified.
But your buddies can say whatever they want, obviously!
But really, isn’t it just that I don’t share the opinions of your little commenter club! Isn’t that the real reason for this witch-hunt.
Your site has quickly degenerated into a groaning board for every minority cause in the Region – with plaintive rantings by those with neither the political skills or talent to actually have any real effect on things!
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Hey Fred,
With regard to your blog projectniagara.org:
Rather than use successful concert series in Texas or Alaska as justification for PN I suggest we look at the state of affairs at Art Park just kilometers away. Nothing could be a more accurate indicator of the results to be expected if Project Niagara goes ahead.
The Buffalo Philharmonic has been forced to reduce the number of symphonic concerts from ten to four in 2010. To quote the BPO’s executive director Daniel Hart
they “struggled to get an audience there”
I suggest you would have the same result in Niagara on the Lake.
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Mr. Williams, the link you proposed did not address any of my comments. And I read the Project Niagara plan when it first came out. It reads like a thousand other proposals.
It all comes down to a question of faith. Faith in the old adage of “build it and they will come.” Faith that tourism will pick up, that we have seen the end of the recession, that we’ll always have a burgeoning upper middle class with lots of cash to spend in our Niagara towns and cities. In other words, faith that the future is going to look like the recent past.
I can’t argue with your faith; I just don’t share it.
I sympathize with the TSO and its on-going revenue problems. My personal belief is that I’d rather see the two upper levels of government giving the orchestra the money directly, rather than supporting this project. Let them give Niagara money for a good regional transit system, connected to an expanded MetroLinx, so that it will be easier to attend concerts in the TSO’s own concert hall.
I cannot fathom the rationale that insists on the one hand that residents of small and rural Niagara communities should not expect accessible emergency hospital services, but, on the other, maintains that we’ll be culturally bereft without Canada’s foremost orchestra in our own back garden.
Let’s face it, this project isn’t about the residents. It’s about getting that government money for the pet project of the little group of Niagara wannabes who want to control the destiny of this region through exercising their “political skills” and “talent” — euphemisms for the ability to sucker tax dollars out of corrupt and cynical governments.
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I thank Doug Draper for his call for reasoned dialogue on the Project Niagara issue.
As to an addtional point in response to ghe comments generated so far, I would point out that constructed wetlands are in use in Niagara. They are a great blessing to winery restaurants in the Greenbelt. With this technology, the restaurants do not become alightining rod for land use planning controversies. Without it, the restaurants would have had to extend sewer lines, which would have resulted in complaints that they were encouraging urban sprawl through possible tie in to these services.
No one has disputed the basic fact that the Recreational Canal would be a beautiful place for the type of concerts that Project Niagara seeks to bring-which is the basic point of my article.
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Escalations of vicious verbal violence may occur in internet exchanges (of comments), as when polar extremists get ‘too heated and carried away.’ They may defy “all reason,” but science can now evaluate their vicious exchanges. Barroom brawls, marital disputes and ‘internet intemperance’ may stem from widely different sources, but they all share a similar ‘sick’ generating mechanism. So, Doug, a worried editor with the responsibility for moderating input-commentary might also benefit (a bit) from reading this article, recently published in the American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, now posted on Google’s Knol:
http://knol.google.com/k/william-f-hogg-md/what-barroom-brawls-and-marital/3ga0u5203tyhc/57#
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I object to any project funded by taxpayers to be inaccessible to many of the same taxpayers that cannot access such venues due to not being able to drive, or have access to a vehicle. I am sorry, make the user pay.
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