WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 1986, PAGES "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."• Thomas Jefferson Advise and Dissent "Whitby was a major commercial and governmental centre in the latter half of the 19th century and the large Victorian mansions and fine commercial buildings of that boom period are what sets Whitby apart from its immediate neighbours." Those are some words I wrote four years ago as an introduction to a seminar - "Whitby Downtown Revitalization" - which I organized as President of the Whitby Historical Society. Held in the Centennial Building, the seminar was largely ignored by Whitby's business community and pooh-poohed by the politicians, yet today, the topics discussed - Mainstreet, architectural rehabilitation, business improvement and promotion - would appear to have had a prophetic ring. Mainstreet has arrived in Whitby and the rest will follow. Mainstreet is a program started in the late '70s by Heritage Canada to assist older communities in bringing business and customers back downtown from the suburban mails without spending a bundle. Heritage Canada's ultimate pur- pose was to ensure that the historic character of these Towns was preserved and cherished, but it realized that the program would only succeed if somehow revitalization could be achieved with only limited monetary investment. The plan from the outset was to stress good business practise as a means of generating the resources to finance the downtown's own revitalization. The initial pilot project was in Perth, Ontario near Ottawa, where Heritage Canada provided only the project manager, some design studies, enthusiasm and ideas. It workedl - and Heritage Canada expanded its pilot program to in- clude a diverse range of communities across Canada. In each, a trained co- ordinator acted as a catalyst to develop within these towns the self assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. This led in turn to a grass-roots self-help ap- proach to revitalization. In all cases there was a realization that preservation and enhancement of the existing structures was both the most feasible and the most sensible approach. Mainstreet has now been expanded to hundreds of communities across Canada. Now that the program is a proven success, Heritage Canada's in- volvement is limited to staff training and support services. Whitby was accep- ted into the program this spring along with Seaforth, Aurora and Orangeville in Ontario and many others right across Canada. Georgina Phillips, the manager of the Downtown BIA (Business Improvement Area) has just returned from the Mainstreet coordinator training prograi. Whitby's business community has come a long way since that seminar four years ago. Having just joined that business community myself, I sought out Georgina on her return from Ottawa to offer my wholehearted support for her endeavours. I discovered that one of the speakers at her training program had been Jon Linton of the Woods Gordon Consultanting firm, who had also addressed the Whitby seminar on "economic aspects of downtown revitalization". If more people had heard Jon's addi'ess four years ago (which I felt was the best of the five speakers) perhaps we wouldn't have waited so long to get the bal] rolling. The first step to bringing business back downtown is to develop awareness - awareness on the public's part that there can be more to shopping than driving to the local mall; and awareness on the business community's part that only by working together as a cohesive group can they bring the customers back. Heritage Day on Saturday will be an awareness day. By planning a series of fun events, the BIA will have thousands of potential shoppers wandering around the core area looking into the shop windows and discovering a new vitality in- tertwined with the ambiance of the old buildings. The BIA is holding a contest to select Whitby's first Town Crier. Georgina bubbles with enthusiasm about this event. Although some will enter for a lark, she tells me that there is at least one contestant that is taking the contest very seriously. The Town Crier will fill the ongoing role of announcing future com- munity events. Other events will include a pancake breakfast, buggy rides, craft demon- strations, the Labatt's hot air balloon, music, an art display by Walter Cam- pbell, the Heritage Trail house tour and other general fun and high jinks. More than enough to keep everybody going all day. Downtown Whitby - you're on the right track! Let's pray for a sunny day! WITH OUR FEET UP By Bill Swan The story of the roof started in a conversation with the next door neighbor. "Do you realize," he said, "that our roof is flat?" When you live in a semi-detached house, and a neighbor says, "Our roof is flat," he means it: our roof. "Yes," we replied. "And you know those water spots on the ceiling upstairs?" queried the neighbor. An affirmative nod. "They are caused by moisture." An eyebrow. "And unless we stop the moisture, the spots will get worse," he said. Little did we know. "So," he continued, "we create a little ventilation up there to let that trapped air breath." It sounded easy, It would not be right to say the theory was without detractors. Distaff dissent was voiced. "If it works," said one detractor, "don't fix it." My natural tendency is to not fix things, even when they don't work. But logic is not a female strength., Back to the roof. Standing on a flat roof exhilarates. Footing is firm. One can relax and not slide ingloriously into the eavestrough. We stood there in the October sun, six brand new ventilators lined up shiny in a row, a can of seal-up gunk by our side. The idea - working now on practical application of theory - is to cut holes in the roof, seal in the ven- tilators, and let the cooling breezes siphon off the moisture from below. Sounds good, huh? The first cut was the worst. The saw snarled into four inches of gravel, tar and plywood. Once the roof had been surgically opened up, we could see that the roof joists had begun to decay; the fetid smell mildew, rotting spruce and sopping in- sulation leaked out. "If we hadn't got at this," said the next door neighbor, "no telling what would have happened." We installed the ventilators, three on his side of the roof and three on ours, sealing them with plenty of gunk, layer upon layer. As the sun set that Oc- tober Saturday, we took one last look at a job well done. For days and days and days, the roof worked per- fectly. Every time the sun shone, the ventilators ventilated as they should. Every time a cloud came over, the ventilators still ventilated. I even suppose they would have done an admirable job had it snowed. At least until Spring. The trouble began two Weeks after the surgery. Rain had begun that afternoon. It rained steadily. At eight o'clock that night the phone rang. "We've got trouble," said the guy next door. "Water," he said, "is running down the walls and into along the floors and..." He sobbed. When you live in a semi-detached home, and your next door neighbor's roof leaks and you shared the surgery... It rained for days. In dry spells - well, let me tell you about the mechanics of a leaking flat roof. When it stops raining, flat roofs do not stop leaking. They stop leaking when the water has all drained away. Water will sit four inches deep on a flat roof, and unless you get up there and sweep it away with a broom or a mop, your roof will leak for days and days and days after the rain has stopped. At which time, the odds are that it will rain again. Nightly until the contractors came, my neighbor and I would meet on the roof and make like the walrus and the carpenter and sweep for 40 days and 40 nights. Or whatever. The reaction from the distaff side, in both our houses, was a trifle to the left of admiration. Let us skip over some of the more boring details. Let us not even mention that contractors aren't per- fect, either. I don't have room here to tell you about how even the roofer's work also leaked the next Spring, and how when we phoned to have him make good on his ten-year warranty, the voice on the other end said, "The number you have just dialed is not in service. Please check the number and caîl again. The number..." For more household hints, you can wait for the forthcoming book "Home Ownership: The Thumb- Smasher's Guide to Bankruptcy".