Things that impressed me when I attended the special City Council meeting last night, which dealt with the Gathercole Building and lasted over five hours:

- There were many creative ideas by articulate citizens who made presentations to council. Of the 34 people who spoke, all but a few expressed a strong desire to not tear down the Gathercole Building.

- Most city councillors listened more to city bureaucrats than to citizens.

- Owen Fortosky is the only truly progressive voice on City Council, although some of the others weren't as bad as I expected.

- Tiffany Paulsen is very clever and asks excellent questions.

- Myles Heidt pronounces the word "theatre" as "the- ATE- er".

- Mayor Don Atchison has a sense of humour.

As you may have already heard, council voted to tear down the smaller west wing of the Gathercole Building to allow for an extension of 2nd Ave. to the river, thereby connecting it with Spadina Cres. They say this will provide needed access for servicing (sewer and power) and then public attendance at the site. They also voted to offer the remaining east wing (which will have one wall covered temporarily with wood after the west wing is removed, and which will not have heat because the boiler is in the wing that will be demolished) for sale or lease (the buyer would own the building but lease the land if that's approved).

If a suitable buyer is not found in a rather short time, the rest of the building would be demolished. It seems like council is taking this "compromise" position in the knowledge that many buyers wouldn't want the three-walled smaller building, which means the city would go ahead and finish the demolition job. They also voted to look into saving any historical artifacts, including the facade of the building. This is fitting because most city council members' concern about preserving Saskatoon's history seems to be only a facade.

It was a long and often infuriating evening!