Community association gets the boot from Boyle Street hall
The Boyle Street Community League isn’t your typical Edmonton suburban community league.
It serves a small, diverse, resilient, low-income neighbourhood in the heart of the inner city.
Once, the league had its own aging hall.
Then, the city came up with a plan to revitalize the neighbourhood with new social housing. They called it the Boyle Renaissance. And they wanted to build part of the project right where the Boyle Street Community Hall stood.
The community league and the city made an agreement. The league would surrender its hall. In exchange the city would build a new hall as part of the Boyle Street Plaza, a space the community league would share with the YMCA. The league wouldn’t have to raise funds — but it would get a fabulous new building, with a full-sized gym, meeting rooms, a kitchen, even a small theatre, which the city would lease to them for 25 years.
At first, it worked. The community league paid the city $27,000 a year to lease the space. It paid more to hire staff and run the hall and put on programs. It made money back by renting out the gym, kitchen and meeting space. And it ran programs, from tai chi to badminton to Aboriginal drumming to martial arts.
But it’s a very poor neighbourhood. It started giving away memberships for free. It didn’t charge cost-recovery prices to local community groups. Last year, it found itself in financial trouble. The league asked the city for some rent forgiveness or other financial aid.
Instead, in December the city sent the league a registered letter breaking that 25-year lease — albeit with six-months notice. As for Aug. 31, the city is handing the entire space to the YMCA to run.
The league will have the opportunity rent space from the Y for its own programs. But it won’t have the revenues it received from renting the hall to others.
“We’re really angry,” says league vice-president Candas Jane Dorsey.
“There was no consent, no consultation. We went to them for help. We expected an ongoing, collegial response. But there was no back-and-forth. Instead, they took this really bullying tone. We were given no opportunity to fix things.”
Dorsey concedes the league was in a bit of turmoil. There was a lot of staff turnover.
There was turnover on the board, too. But now, she says, they have a strong new manager and a united board, and they want the chance to run their own facility.
Treena Schmidt, the city’s managing supervisor of neighbourhood services, says the league was headed straight for bankruptcy, and the city had no choice but to step in.
“Given that the league is struggling, and the city sees the importance of community leagues, we thought it was really important not to see them struggle under operating the facility,” says Schmidt.
“The city has taken this step in support of the league, so they can work on their governance and grow their membership.”
Schmidt says the league may be able to regain control of the hall in three to five years, if they improve their management.
“Community leagues can operate successfully without halls,” she says.
“This will allow them to focus on their programming.”
I take the city’s point.
The league, which faces huge and unique challenges, was struggling. And it’s not unprecedented for a league to lose control of its hall.
In recent years, the Londonderry and Cromdale/Parkdale community leagues went through somewhat similar situations.
It may be more important for the Boyle Street league to concentrate on programming specifically for its community than to serving as a booking agent for a building.
But I don’t blame the league for feeling betrayed.
They surrendered their old hall in good faith.
They were promised a 25-year lease.
When they admitted they needed help, the city simply took their hall away.
That seems pre-emptively punitive.
The board faced real challenges.
But if they’d been given support, they might have been surmountable.
The city says the league refused to meet.
The league board insists it was the city that refused to meet.
There’s been a complete breakdown in communication, which serves no one, least of all the residents of Boyle Street, well.
Is it not possible for the community league, the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, the city and the YMCA to have a real conversation, one that puts the best interests of the community ahead of a power struggle over a building ?
Given that the league is struggling, and the city sees the importance of community leagues, we thought it was really important not to see them struggle under operating the facility.