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Parks - new & revitalized

In honour of Love Park opening this month, I thought I'd share a few photos of a new small park opening in my North York neighbourhood. Carney Park opened only a few weeks ago and so far has had few visitors. Maybe it's because there are no sidewalks, paths, benches or lights. It does have two new trees (one already dead) and a few metal construction sign tripping hazards buried in the high weeds though. A five foot drop in elevation on the west side of the park is probably not ideal for kids, although there is a small fence to ward off liability issues. Kudos to the Parks Department.

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evandyk said:
I don't really understand how a playground can cost $50M. But I also don't really understand how if the government can find $1.2B to build these parks, they can't also find another 4% of that to build its "marquee attraction".
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I agree. I wasn't thinking about that particular project when making my comment, but rather grand public space projects in general. $50 million could build a beautiful standalone park or allow for the construction of a monumental multi-storey work of public art in a park like an arch, obelisk, fountain, or something more contemporary.
 
tiffer24 said:
In honour of Love Park opening this month, I thought I'd share a few photos of a new small park opening in my North York neighbourhood. Carney Park opened only a few weeks ago and so far has had few visitors. Maybe it's because there are no sidewalks, paths, benches or lights. It does have two new trees (one already dead) and a few metal construction sign tripping hazards buried in the high weeds though. A five foot drop in elevation on the west side of the park is probably not ideal for kids, although there is a small fence to ward off liability issues. Kudos to the Parks Department.

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I've never seen Parks 'open' a park in such circumstances.

More peculiar still, I just looked at the capital budget and I can't find any entry for this park in the 10-year capital plan.

I assume this was a parkland dedication (development) that they accepted? Very, very odd:

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I know PF&R wants all the remaining home on Holcolm fro Edithvale park. And a couple more of those to the south for those park blocks, very strange in that context to accept a random fragment of park further north.

Have you asked your Councillor's office what's going on with that? Please do, because I'd like to hear the answer!
 
junctionist said:
I agree. I wasn't thinking about that particular project when making my comment, but rather grand public space projects in general. $50 million could build a beautiful standalone park or allow for the construction of a monumental multi-storey work of public art in a park like an arch, obelisk, fountain, or something more contemporary.
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I agree w/the gist of what you're saying here; but do let me add, 50M buys you remarkably little land in most parts of the City.

In downtown it would get 0.5 acres in most spots. Maybe 1 acre if it were super protected from upzoning.

That's with no construction budget.

Love Park is a good baseline for constructions costs for an elegant park. Using its numbers, but allowing for inflating construction costs since it was first tendered 22-25M will give you a very nice 2 acre park, if you don't have to buy the land.
 
Northern Light said:
I agree w/the gist of what you're saying here; but do let me add, 50M buys you remarkably little land in most parts of the City.

In downtown it would get 0.5 acres in most spots. Maybe 1 acre if it were super protected from upzoning.

That's with no construction budget.

Love Park is a good baseline for constructions costs for an elegant park. Using its numbers, but allowing for inflating construction costs since it was first tendered 22-25M will give you a very nice 2 acre park, if you don't have to buy the land.
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Land value taxation would do a lot to make land acquisition for park land more affordable (though at the cost of foregone revenue), and incentivize addition of parkland insofar as it increases value (and thus tax revenue) for surrounding property.
 
Hi: I read on Instagram today that the five finalists for the 229 Richmond park have been announced but I can’t find the post now! 😩 But I do remember that Omar Ghandi and West8 are among them.
 
Northern Light said:
I think I neglected to post this from my most recent walk w/the camera.........

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Shawn Micallef has a new piece out on Linear Parks in Toronto, including this one {Relic Park) along with the Yonge Street Linear Parks, The Bentway and University Park.

www.thestar.com

Shawn Micallef: Toronto’s new linear parks stretch the idea of what — and where — a public space can be

Linear parks are intimate, thin spaces that weave their way through the city, giving people a place to sit or get from one place to another.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

Currently the above is not behind a paywall.

While I'm pleased to see coverage for the subject, I will forever take issue w/Shawn's tendency to write on things w/o a clear grasp of what he's writing about....

Its not that anything he says in this piece is wrong.........its that unfortunately it lacks utility.

He neither explains the value of the specific proposals he discusses, nor does he discuss how to achieve those that are far from complete.

To be clear, there is value in the proposals. I'm just marginally offended by the waste of an opportunity to better explain that.
 
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That pretty much sums up newspaper (I’m dating myself, I guess) opinion columns, though. They’re written by people paid to have an opinion, not to have knowledge.
 
DSC said:
My head is already sore from banging it on the Union Station wall; maybe @Northern Light our Parks Person, may want to ask his contacts?
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Not sure who I would ask about that........hmmm.

Flipping through the 2023 Capital Budget; I see Cloud Gardens has a 2024 line item simply titled 'improvements' at $373,000

That appears to match up to this:

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That comes from here:

Agenda Item History 2022.MM45.50

Agenda Item History 2022.MM45.50
secure.toronto.ca

Which was originally posted by Forum Member @DSC (because of course it was) :)

That link, by the way is the only reference to this project in the record of Agendas/Minutes for the City. (because, of course, I looked)
 
Northern Light said:
Not sure who I would ask about that........hmmm.

Flipping through the 2023 Capital Budget; I see Cloud Gardens has a 2024 line item simply titled 'improvements' at $373,000

That appears to match up to this:

View attachment 514178

That comes from here:

Agenda Item History 2022.MM45.50

Agenda Item History 2022.MM45.50
secure.toronto.ca

Which was originally posted by Forum Member @DSC (because of course it was) :)

That link, by the way is the only reference to this project in the record of Agendas/Minutes for the City. (because, of course, I looked)
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I think this is for the PARK not the Conservatory but I guess we will see.
 
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