Niagara-on-the-Lake has been here before.

Not exactly here, of course. Not with the Royal George Theatre, not with this building and not with this particular round of heritage objections, court challenges, public anger and neighbourhood anxiety.

But the pattern is familiar.

In 1981, a story in the St. Catharines Standard carried the headline: “Shaw festival battles public for rights to new theatre site.”

The issue then was a proposed 650-seat tent theatre on The Commons, next to the existing Festival Theatre. Some residents were furious. One critic called it a land grab. Another dismissed the proposal as nothing more than a monument to then-artistic director Christopher Newton.

Sound familiar?

At the time, assistant artistic director Paul Reynolds said the Shaw needed the new theatre to bring in revenue and meet summer demand. He also pointed out something that could have been said almost word for word today: the festival was being criticized for trying to grow in a town that already depended heavily on what it brought here.

More than 40 years later, it is almost hard to imagine the town without the Shaw as we now know it. People moved here because of what this place became. Businesses grew around it. The restaurants, shops, inns, galleries and sidewalks of Old Town have all benefited from the cultural life the Shaw helped build.

And yet here we are again, acting as if the next step forward is some shocking attack on the town’s soul.

That does not mean every concern about the Royal George was wrong.

The old theatre mattered. It was a 111-year-old building in the heart of the town’s heritage district. It was fair for residents to ask questions about demolition, scale, design, parking, construction disruption and the impact on Queen Street. People are not wrong to care deeply about this town. We would be worse off if they did not.

But caring about a place is not the same as trying to preserve every piece of it exactly as it was.

The Royal George was beloved, but it was not built to last forever as a modern theatre. The Shaw has said for years the building had serious structural problems and no longer met the needs of audiences, performers or the company. The new theatre is expected to be larger, more accessible and better equipped for the future.

After all the criticism, all the public meetings, all the legal wrangling and all the predictable Niagara-on-the-Lake drama, the work is now moving ahead.

So congratulations to Tim Jennings and the Shaw Festival.

That should not be difficult to say.

The Shaw is not some out-of-town developer trying to squeeze what it can from Niagara-on-the-Lake and leave. It is one of the reasons this town has the international reputation it does. It brings people here. It supports jobs. It gives local businesses customers. It provides residents with something many communities would love to have: world-class theatre within walking distance of home.

And yes, sometimes that comes with inconvenience.

Construction downtown is going to be irritating. There will be noise, trucks, fences, dust, blocked views, parking frustration and people who suddenly become constitutional scholars because someone’s tire touched the edge of their lawn.

We hope residents can take a breath.

Support the local businesses that will have to live with the disruption every day. Buy a coffee. Have lunch. Visit a shop you normally walk past. Make the extra effort to keep Queen Street moving while part of it is behind construction fencing.

And maybe be a little kinder about the small stuff.

Let someone park in front of your house. Walk an extra block. Stop treating grass like it is a UNESCO heritage feature. It will grow back. Life will continue. The town will survive the sound of hammers and machinery.

It might even be better for it, especially if we learn from history.

The Royal George debate has been emotional and, at times, ugly. But now that the work is beginning, the town has a choice. It can make the next few years miserable for everyone, or it can accept that a living town sometimes has to endure disruption to build something worthwhile.

The old crusty buns who fought Shaw expansion in the past did not stop the town from becoming a better, more interesting place. They just made the process louder than it needed to be.

We do not need to repeat that part.

One day, when the new Royal George is open, people will walk through its doors, take their seats and enjoy a performance in a theatre built for the next generation of Shaw audiences.

Some of them will probably be the same people complaining today.

That is fine. They should come anyway.

The old theatre had a long life. The new one deserves a fair chance.

editor@niagaranow.com