Councillor Donna Reardon is extremely disappointed over the Jellybean buildings being torn down.
Reardon questions why we would tear down buildings that witnessed the presidency of Abraham Lincoln when heritage is the city’s brand and one of the biggest reasons people come to visit.
She says another slap in the face was the fact that the city arranged to sell the buildings for $1-dollar for demolition, instead of selling it to someone who planned to rehabilitate the buildings.
Reardon says her beef is not with Saint John Not Profit Housing but says her problem is the fact that we undervalue heritage in Saint John when we should be looking to preserve it.
The city put out a request for proposal for the site and Reardon wonders if the process is intimidating for people and also questions whether or not the fact the city was selling the buildings for $1-dollar was communicated well enough.
Reardon says her goal is to make sure this does not happen again and to also find out if there’s a communication issue surrounding requests for proposals.
She says she was not impressed with how the demolition started at 6 am, there was no salvage, people could not go in and no one really knew it was going to be happening.
Reardon says it was not a community event at all.
She says crews snuck in while it was still dark and started ripping and tearing.
