Junction Triangle

I apologize - the first sentence should have read on "here" rather than on "her. Kind regards.

It is good to start hearing something from an organization that spends our money and I commend them for that. I do think though that there are many unanswered questions about the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club process and governance that this letter does not answer and I am pretty sure that residents will want to see minutes from meetings and documentation.

Justin’s response has a lot of "I" and a lot of "we" but not a lot of Junction Triangle having any input, say, or access to information about how decisions affecting our children and donations that were or are made on our behalf. And in some ways this document is at odds with a letter circulated yesterday by the Board Chair Vivian Payne. Here are some of my thoughts.

--For an issue as serious as this I am surprised a release was not put forth by the entire Board and the Chair. Yesterday the Chair said she felt uncomfortable speaking without the rest of the Board and today we have an operations manager speaking on matters that were ultimately voted on by the Board in a press release issued at 7pm at night. Does the Board know about this release, does it have their stamp of approval? Who exactly is making decisions at DBGC? I am not exactly sure. This is a serious situation affecting hundreds of children and the health of a community, why has the entire Board not issued a statement? Or made a pledge to clear the air soon?

--In her letter of yesterday Board Chair Vivian Payne writes "One of our goals is more community decision-making involvement. " This seems at odds with Justin's letter where he states "In the next few weeks, senior staff will be meeting to form a working group tasked with compiling an Executive Plan written, designed and published specifically for the Junction Triangle Community." This doesn't sound like "community decision-making involvement" to me at all. A top down approach to making decisions about programs that we in part fund is not going to fly in Junction Triangle any more.

--There are a lot of vague comments in the letters like "We received new information during the summer which, frankly, doomed the project, and put the entire operation of the Dovercourt B & G Club at risk of bankruptcy. " This may be very true but so far no member of the public has seen one piece of documentation that shows this or explains the circumstances that led to this. There was ZERO opportunity for the community to get involved and possibly save the situation or at least brace themselves for this terrible blow to community pride. A screw up of this magnitude deserves far greater detail.

-- Payne states in her letter "I can say that services for the children in the Junction Triangle neighbourhood are now the top priority (other crises having been dealt with)". Exactly how many crisis situations are there at the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club? Is the closing of the Junction Triangle in any way related to issues elsewhere? How could the Junction Triangle site as you say "put the entire operation of the Dovercourt B & G Club at risk of bankruptcy."? Is there a larger issue that possibly needs addressing? What exactly is the larger story? Is Junction Triangle the sacrificial lamb for other issues or locations? Explain.

-- I am alarmed by Payne's statement about staff that "I think they have some really good and practicable ideas about how to move forward in an even more inclusive way than running a single-site operation." This statement would seem to suggest that the issue is not with the governance of the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club but in the actual structure of the outreach and it reaches the conclusion, once again with ZERO community input, that Junction Triangle doesn't need a single site option. Junction Triangle residents will be the judge of those kinds of assumptions from now on.

Frankly this statement reeks of pandering and condescension. It seems absurd to me that an organization that is involved with communities would see little value in a single site option that could provide many different things for an even greater amount of the community. It would seem obvious to most that a community that has no community center or central meeting place or medium sized meeting hall would benefit in many ways from a central single location operation. An operation that could be rented out to the community and others for all sorts of events that would PAY THE RENT on the location. And maybe too some others like literacy or kids playgroups could use the space for free because it would be the right thing to do. And how lovely to be only a few feet from Railpath, the single most important new public infrastructure in the community in 20 years? And what about the role of the community rallying around a central site of pride where children are celebrated? What could be more inclusive than having children see their club a respected and valuable part of the larger community?

I guess not for the children of Junction Triangle. They get second best. All they will get will be the same overcrowded pokey rooms spread out all over the place with no sense of cohesion. There will be no "here" here but apparently single site solutions work very well on the other side of Lansdowne.

--Probably most troubling is this statement "I am looking at Ernest as a "wrong turn". We have corrected our direction in canceling the project, that's all." The wasting of a few hundred thousand dollars of our (public) money and many donations is just a "wrong turn" that Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club Board and Operations Manager can back up, turn around , and drive away from? Dash the hopes of a community and its children and walk away "thats all". Waste a very large amount of money and hold nobody accountable, it was just a "wrong turn". How disgraceful and maddening to dismiss the loss of what could have been a massive game changer and soul creator so easily.

These late night letters from Justin and Vivian do not clear any air for residents of Junction Triangle; they only beg more questions. How much money exactly is walking away from this site going to cost including legal fees to break a lease? Who exactly is responsible for this colossal screw up? What attempts were made to raise new money or get a rent reduction or find additional rent payers to share the cost? Why wasn’t the community alerted to the issue in a timely fashion considering they are stakeholders? How many Board Members are from Junction Triangle compared to the breakdown of donated income and children served of DBGC? Why did one of the Board Members from Junction Triangle feel they had to resign? This situation deserves a full response and accounting from the Board of DBGC before one more cent of public money or donated services is spent.