The promise of urban renewal

Rich past. Hopeful future.
London, ON
December 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

88 York Street has seen better days. This rambling yellow-brick building looms over a gritty block on the edge of #LdnONT's downtown, a nearly forgotten fixture in a nearly forgotten neighborhood.

The view across the street from this forlorn structure is a dismal one. Between the Greyhound bus station to the left and a liquor store to the right sits an abandoned lot, the rusting, empty sign hovering over the sidewalk echoing back to a time when some people lived and worked here, and others came here for a legitimate reason.

Today, everyone just passes through. Or sets up camp in the brush beside the tracks. Or buys booze before disappearing for good.

I can never tell if 88 York is alive or not. An optometrist has set up shop just out of frame to the right, but the rest of the building seems abandoned in place. Like so many other heritage properties in the core, the clock is ticking here, as well.

New residential towers already cast fresh shadows from the west, and cranes have popped up all over the place, signals of a new chapter, perhaps.

History paints a troubling story for the future. This isn't a city that values its heritage. Developers wield the balance of power over a city too afraid to challenge them. Heritage designations mean little, and enforcement cycles endlessly between non-existent and laughably inept.

We've learned to record buildings like this while we have them. Because on York Street, like everywhere else, nothing is ever guaranteed.

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