Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza

Torontovibe said:
That park has been terribly neglected for years. Take a close look at the skating pavilion. It's dirty, the paint is chipping and the building is left to rot. Bird shit is all over it. There are bald spots in the grass, all over the park. It's a pretty drab place to be. Even the benches have peeling paint. No park in this city should be allowed to deteriorate to this extent. That park needs a whole new design and a complete overhaul.
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that describes pretty well every park in Toronto
 
corridor_dweller said:
Last weekend:

DSC_0631.jpg
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what blows my mind is how unobstructed Aura will be from this angle... the entire facade of the building, 250m up in the air of skyscraper... when was the last time that happened!?!!
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
That's simply not true.
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I would say it's mostly true: the lawns are let to grow out of control, the gardens are completely lame, we have mostly hideous concrete and wood benches, those horrendous signs at the entrances to parks look like the work of someone who just bought photoshop. Go to most other cities and people genuinely want to be in the parks because they're grand, and charming, and well manicured, and idyllic. Look at the south-east entrance corner to Queens Park; its atrocious- the interlock is buckling and those arbitrary patches of dirt were devoid of any vegetation until only a couple weeks ago, and even now they're uninspiring. The most pathetic though is Budd Sugarman Park at Yonge and Aylmer- no park in any city should look like that, especially in a location like Rosedale. And Stollery Parkette, a new park no less, is simply a sterile, suburban-looking waste of a fantastic opportunity for something special.

Our parks should look more like Osgoode hall.
 
Speaking of parks, I was in NYC a few weeks ago and I really liked some of the squares and parks I saw. I noticed that NYC parks group seating together in clusters, so people can talk and interact. I also like how they have decorative fences around parks, with only a few entrances, so when someone enters the park, you really notice them. It's like a grand entrance where everybody gets their introduction. The fact that the seating is intimately grouped in clusters just seems to force people to communicate with each other. New Yorkers seem to talk much more than we do. Their parks are more like their living rooms while in Toronto, many of us pass through our parks quickly or we use them as toilets for fido. I didn't see much of that in Manhattan.

I don't think all of our parks should be like that but a few lovely fences bordering some parks would be quite nice.
 
MatthewK said:
I would say it's mostly true: the lawns are let to grow out of control, the gardens are completely lame, we have mostly hideous concrete and wood benches, those horrendous signs at the entrances to parks look like the work of someone who just bought photoshop. Go to most other cities and people genuinely want to be in the parks because they're grand, and charming, and well manicured, and idyllic. Look at the south-east entrance corner to Queens Park; its atrocious- the interlock is buckling and those arbitrary patches of dirt were devoid of any vegetation until only a couple weeks ago, and even now they're uninspiring. The most pathetic though is Budd Sugarman Park at Yonge and Aylmer- no park in any city should look like that, especially in a location like Rosedale. And Stollery Parkette, a new park no less, is simply a sterile, suburban-looking waste of a fantastic opportunity for something special.

Our parks should look more like Osgoode hall.
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You make some valid points, there are some parks that could and should be better but we have some great park spaces - and some not so great spaces. Also consider the huge amount of parks/parkettes/green spaces that have to be maintained in the City, it's truly staggering.
 
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dt_toronto_geek said:
You make some valid points, there are some parks that could and should be better but we have some great park spaces - and some not so great spaces. Also consider the huge amount of parks/parkettes/green spaces that have to maintained in the City, it's truly staggering.
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If you exclude high park, centre island and Tom Thompson park, is it really that staggering? There is light maintenance if any.
 
ponyboy said:
If you exclude high park, centre island and Tom Thompson park, is it really that staggering? There is light maintenance if any.
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Absolutely wrong. There are hundreds of parks throughout the city, small and large. Grass has to be cut and maintained, hedges trimmed, perennials maintained each season, trees pruned, annuals planted, gardens weeded and fertilized, garbage picked out of gardens, light standards kept working, water features kept in good repair - it's a big job. One morning a few summers ago I watched two workers from the City work in the gardens as I sipped my coffee and read NOW on a bench in James Canning Gardens. They even swept up the cigarette butts on the stone walkway before they moved onto another section. There is maintenance, and it isn't light.

I sat on the bench closest to the stairs in the foreground on the right.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee140/laserboy_TO/JamesCanning4_April25-09.jpg
 
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