An interesting workshop done by U of T students and resident groups in Thornecliffe Park to make grassroots changes to this fascinating neighbourhood.
https://thorncliffedesign.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/workshop_booklet.pdf
Good find.
Though I hate to be a downer on what I'm sure was a substantial and community minded effort, I find it mostly peculiar and underwhelming.
The one clear, salient and must-do idea is the narrrowing of Thorncliffe drive to accomodate cyclists and an enriched pedestrian streetscape!
Its not that the other ideas are poor, but I think they left too much on the table in favour of some utopian ideals that I don't see coming to pass.
For me, the signature to improvement in this area is full-out redevelopment of the East York Town Centre site.
While I'd love a medium-density, mixed-income, utopian hood, I'd settle for re-conceived retail that addressed other community needs and set-up future redevelopment.
Clearly RV Burgess park must grow. It doesn't make sense to tack-on an extra .4 acres here or there.
But to reorganized things to allow growth of up to 2ha or 5 acres in what is the 'central park' for the area.
Very important is quality connections, which they note..............but my solution
An east-west road, connecting Thorncliffe to Thorncliffe, roughly at the rear of the existing mall, ceding just a bit of space that can be used to enlarge the school yard and park.
The north-south connection should be a narrow road, roughly aligning with a pedestrian/bike path across the middle of the park, which would also subdivide the current mall property into 2, and lead to Overlea Blvd.
Ultimately I'd like to see a much finer-grained street grid on that site, but that would be a huge improvement for now.
Most of the retail on the site could be redone as free-standing 'pods' of stores, ideally facing the surrounding streets or the new streets, pending future redevelopment, with surface parking on the balance.
Said parking to be undergrounded, as intensification occurs.
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The community centre is grossly undersized for the area, the library somewhat.
I'd love to see them moved to the mall property, facing the new street and the park.
This would allow for upsizing the facilities to meet community needs, but would also free up the existing site to become a new, large, much more visible and safe access to RV Burgess Park.
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Finally, I think the ravine access is noted for its deficiencies.........but there are some other changes needed. Some of the adjacent open space needs to be added so that a dedicated ped/bike trail can be added adjacent to the driveway. The current access does not leave one feeling safe on foot or 2 wheels and has serious visibility issues as well.
Finally, I would add one or two new park accesses beside the Overlea bridge over the West Don/ET Seton Park.
The east side, beside Valley Park school is already used as an entrance by local students.......but there are no stairs or path and the hill is quite steep. I'm sure injuries are too regular an occurrence.
A formal staircase w/bike channel would be ideal.
An entrance on west side would mean a bridge across the river as well, and would cut through some not 1/2 bad forest...............but I think its worth considering............there is ample open space beside the Leaside Towers.....
There is an opportunity to formalize existing informal access and reduce erosion, while removing some non-native and invasive species.
That's must my 5c.......
