friends of dufferin grove park
April 2005 Newsletter
posted April 11, 2005

Vol. 6, Nr. 4 — In this issue:

EVENTS AT THE PARK:

RINK MEETING AT THE RINK CLUBHOUSE TUESDAY APRIL 12, 7 P.M.

It’s a stretch to have a rink meeting now for next rink season, as the park greens up and the last zamboni-snow pile finally disappears. But this is the time of year when the big decisions are made — particularly about the length of the next rink season. Our rink has been getting steadily busier every year, and that’s why we opened a week earlier than most other double ice pads last season. But so many people wanted to play shinny hockey that we got in trouble — skaters got frustrated because it was really crowded, since we were the only rink open. One evening we almost had a riot. We’re suggesting that some other rinks could open earlier next season, but the City is resisting, saying they’ll just open Dufferin Rink later.

Maybe it’s time to give a little resistance back. The City spends $3000 to pay one consultant for a one-day performance-evaluation seminar for its staff. That same amount would run two additional rinks for an extra week, with a little ingenuity. Time to make some tough decisions about consultant spending? If you want to know more about these kinds of numbers, click on research Or, if you’re a shinny hockey player, come to the rink house meeting on April 12.

EIGHTH ANNUAL MATZO MAKING, SUNDAY APRIL 17: at the park oven. Run by Annie Hurwitz and Ron Paley as always (with park staff support), beginning at one p.m. and ending at 4p.m.. The big oven will be kosher and all the materials and tools for making kosher Passover matzo will be available. This has become a wonderful get-together for families to make unleavened bread and exchange lore about the Passover traditions. (Riddle: how many minutes can elapse between the rolling of the dough and the baking, until the matzo is no longer considered unleavened? Ask Ron.) For more information about April 17, e-mail Annie at annricki@sympatico.ca.

EARTH DAY/ COB WALL CELEBRATION — FRIDAY APRIL 22

From Georgie Donais:

Come and join us by the playground on Friday, April 22, for an Earth Day celebration (weather permitting). We'll be building a mock-up of the upcoming courtyard wall project with fabric and poles at around 11:00am, and then we can enjoy lunch together. Bring your own food or buy something tasty from the park food cart, which will also be there to help with the party. That evening, rain or shine, join us for an Earth Day movie night in the Rink House.

Showing: 7:00pm Natural Building (30 min) — Follows an earthen courtyard project in Wisconsin. 7:30pm The End of Suburbia (2 hours) — Speculates on North America's future in the face of diminishing oil supplies. Children are welcome. We will have some supervision on hand to help out, and will bring out the toys and books.

APRIL ART WORKSHOPS FOR KIDS, APRIL 23 AND 24

tile workshop

Artists Jeannie Soley and Gillian Tremain did some children’s art workshops on two beautiful days last spring, outside on the grass. During March Break they did a mosaic tile-making workshop inside the rink house, and they say the park location just fits their style. It certainly seemed like it to us. Pictures of those sessions are posted on the park web site: click on arts to see some of the astonishing work the children did. Now Jeannie and Gillian are offering two new classes: one on Saturday, April 23 and one on Sunday April 24. They’re from 2- 5p.m. at the rink house, for kids aged 8-12. The children will be making monoprints on paper and fabric. Gillian writes:

Come and explore this beautiful printmaking technique, performed on a sheet of plexiglass. Glass-plate printing is a wonderful method of producing a unique and spontaneous image, for quick application to paper or fabric. The kids will first become familiar with the basic technique of inking the plate and the differing nature of the inks and metallic mediums.

During this process we will experiment with a variety of papers and effects, such as drawing into the colour, twisting 2 plates together before printing, creating a series of colour layers on one sheet of paper, etc. The children will then have the opportunity to try the same experiments on fabrics of various weights and colours.

We'll need a minimum of 10 kids for the class to go ahead, and will take a maximum of 12. Cost will be $30 plus a $10 materials fee, to be paid in full by cash or cheque the day of the class. Please wear appropriate art-making clothes ! Excellent snack included. To register, call Jeannie at 416-533-6430 or e-mail thomc@sympatico.ca

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE PLAYGROUND

A friend of the playground sent in a question: what can be done about high school students in the playground at lunchtime? (Associated problems: bad language, fights, marijuana, sex, just too many big bodies on the play structures, etc.)

The fact is, there is a by-law: playgrounds are reserved for children 12 and under and their caregivers.

Every year in spring we ask the principal at St.Mary's to make an announcement reminding the students of this (they can go anywhere else in this beautiful 14-acre park). One of the St.Mary's teachers told us that the playground rule has been announced at the school this year too.

Now for the follow-up. Please pass it on to other parents — the playground is off limits for high school students on their lunch hour. If any students still come to the playground, caregivers can ask them kindly to leave (remember, some of the younger teenagers haven't figured out yet that they're not little any more — it's a shock).

If the students don't leave, or they're rude, the phone number to call (if you have a cell phone) is 416 393-5528, press "0" and explain the problem. Or pick up your child and drop in at the school office (across from the north end of the park). The school has been very good about sending a teacher out to follow up, whenever anyone asks for assistance.

The park’s staffing budget is very limited at this time of year but a staff person will come in at 11.30 weekdays (the high school lunch time) for a couple of weeks and go down to the playground and reinforce the rules. E-mail the park at playground@dufferinpark.ca if there's still a problem (or call and leave a message — 416 392-0913.)

THE FIRST ANNUAL APRIL FOOLS’ DAY "ACTIVE PARK FRIENDS" SUPPER

From time to time, people ask: "how does one get involved with the friends of Dufferin Grove Park?" The fact is, the park friends are not an organization (no membership, no board, no annual meetings, no charitable status). That doesn’t mean the park’s friends don’t really exist, though. Year by year, there are more people who love the park and give their gifts to it (and to this neighborhood) in all sorts of ways.

Many of the gifts are secret — for example, nobody knows who brought all the toy trucks to the sand pit last summer, but this year they’ve shown up again, some of them with "property of Dufferin Grove Park" written on them in indelible marker. Nobody knows who planted the swamp willow down near the marsh garden, or who brought over the big ceramic turtle planter with herbs planted in it, for the rink house window sill.

Other times, the gifts people give to the park are widely known — from David Anderson’s Clay and Paper Theatre’s giant puppet performances and his grand annual Night of Dread Parade, to all the events and workshops listed in this newsletter, to Joe Adelaars' monthly newsletter posting, to Judy Simutis’ gifts of red-and-green Rice Crispy squares to the rink rats, for all holidays.

At the end of the rink season, after the cybernetic e-storm around the human rights complaint at the rink had finally eased up, it seemed like a good time to count these blessings. The idea was to have a little post-season April Fools’ Friday Night Supper, for the particularly active friends of the park who are currently planning something for this spring and summer. At first we thought there would be a table of fifteen or twenty people who could tell each other about their plans. But when the park staff actually sat down and made a list, the numbers grew — and grew — and grew. Once the families or collaborators were added in, we had a list of 78 people. There were more, but we stopped calling people because more wouldn’t fit in the rink house. (If you didn’t get invited and you should have been, we’ll make it up to you.)

The park cooks rummaged in the freezer for the winter’s farmers’ market leftovers and produced a spectacular meal. The talk at the various tables was lively and people swapped their stories, although there was of course no unified conversation, with so many people. But it was a chance for the very active park friends to meet and admire one another. Who knew there were so many of us? But it shouldn’t have been a surprise, really — that’s why the park is so lively.

HOW TO BECOME AN "ACTIVE PARK FRIEND"

From time to time, someone has suggested that the park friends should now become more formal, elect a board, get an executive, call meetings and have the board make important decisions. After the budget shortfall last summer, we looked into incorporating. What we learned made us decide, instead, to stay with our twelve-year experiment in growing park friendships organically.

The reasoning: it seems that the meeting-incorporation-constitution format often doesn’t work very well. It’s such a problem that there is a whole new industry growing up — folks who hang out their shingle as professional community builders. They take courses from other people who have taken courses, and then they do workshops to set up and help run community groups. They help people to write up vision statements, and to resolve board conflicts, to set targets and to schedule focus groups (maybe to find out what the community wants, with multiple choice questionnaires, patterned on product testing — !!?!) All this means lots of meetings, and funding applications to pay the professional community builders. This often takes up a lot of a group’s time.

Perhaps that Emperor has no clothes. So we’ll stick with what works here — a park with many friends, the Parks Department officially in charge, activities based on good will and an openness to surprise. It makes the park vulnerable to ambush from time to time, but it also brings considerable enjoyment from of the unexpected gifts of strangers — whom we can then get to know as our neighbours.

Here’s how becoming a more active park friend works: if you want to put something into the park that isn’t there now, or help out with some existing element you like — a new garden, an old garden, a concert, a cricket mat, a playground cob wall — find a park staff person and talk to them about your idea. (The spring-summer staff are Zio Hersh, Matt Leitold, Dan Malloy, Eroca Nicols, Caitlin Shea, Mayssan Shuja Uddin, Mary Sylwester, and Amy Withers). If you can’t find the staff around the park, you can leave them a message at 416 392-0913, and one of them will call you back. Or you can e-mail them at staff@dufferinpark.ca. The staff will try to remove any blocks you might encounter, and introduce you to other park friends. You can go ahead and try the project you’re inspired to do — just remember to start small. Then if your project doesn’t work — no problem. But if your talents bear fruit, you can keep growing what you’ve begun, maybe with other park friends who want to help you.

EMERGENCY PLANS

Remember the big BLACKOUT, when the power suddenly went out everywhere at 4.30 p.m. on Thursday August 14, 2003? Recall that in this area it didn’t come back on until 9.20 the following Saturday morning? Remember that the elevators didn’t work in most apartment buildings, and there was no running water above the 10th floor? Remember that car gas was hard to get and most stores ran out of batteries, and there began to be alarming bulletins about how low the water level was sinking in Toronto’s reservoirs?

The park was a water source for nearby apartment dwellers. They came here with buckets and bottles and then hauled their water back home and up many flights of stairs. We tried to find out whether there was any help available for old people, but there was no number to get information. (The City’s info-line did valiant service, but nobody told them anything either, and of course there was no web.) And once the power was back on, the City decided to close all libraries and community centres and turn off the lights on sports fields, to save power. With all the free stuff closed for three days after the blackout had ended, there was nothing to do during the heat wave except spend money at malls and buy cooling drinks at bars. That was dumb.

If there’s another emergency, it might be good to be better prepared. Park staff intern Mayssan Shuja Uddin is preparing for a career in public states of emergency overseas. We thought we should use her talents while she’s here. So in April and May, Mayssan will do some research. She’ll try to find out more about the City’s Emergency Preparedness Committee, she’ll research what other cities are doing, and she’ll talk to people in the park about their ideas. In case something ever goes wrong again, shall we set up phone trees, register block captains, stockpile some basic supplies at the park, submit a better plan to the City, run a few helpful discussion groups? Mayssan may ask your opinion, if she comes across you in the park. We have a lot of collective experience in this neighborhood — some people living here come from very heavy situations. If you want to share your experience, you can reach Mayssan at 416 392-0913, or by e-mail at Mayssan@dufferinpark.ca

NEIGHBORHOOD EVENTS

APRIL MUSIC AT OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD MUSIC CONSERVATORY

For the next two years, the Royal Conservatory of Music is a temporary guest in the neighbourhood (the school is doing renovations at their permanent building, which is next to the Royal Ontario Museum, at Bloor and University). So the music students are among us, at 90 Croatia Street (formerly Ursula Franklin Academy — it was Brockton School before that). Jeff Melanson, the Dean of the RCM Community School, says that the first Annual Community School Showcase will take place on Saturday, April 16, at 7:00 pm, at the RCM Concert hall at 90 Croatia Street (a block from the park, just north of the Dufferin Mall). Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students/seniors. You can reserve tickets in advance through the Box Office: 416-408-2824 ext. 321, or purchase them at the door on the night of the concert.

Jeff says:

Unlike our world music and jazz concerts, this concert is being presented entirely by students. The concert is special because it involves just under 200 students and it’s a fundraising concert that will support student bursaries and programs of The RCM Community School. The programs supported by this concert are directed to students for whom financial circumstance is a barrier to participation in music education.

The concert will feature Jazz Choir, Ghanaian Drumming, Suzuki Cello Group, Guitar Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, Celtic Fiddle Class, Clarinet Quintet, Piano Duo, Trumpet Trios, World Music Chorus, Recorder Duo, Junior Choir, and Vox Continental Choir, piano, voice, violin, and harp soloists, and an art exhibit of works by our young students. The Latin Jazz Ensemble will play during intermission.

That is some line-up! And then there are also frequent free recitals at the school all the time. In April, for example, there are recitals at five p.m. every Thursday. If your schedule has a bit of flexibility, you can start your farmers’ market shopping at the park at 4, park your groceries in the rink clubhouse lock-up, slip in to a fourth-year French horn recital across the street, and come back to finish your shopping — heartened by a young music-maker.

If there’s an unseasonably warm spell in May, we’ll do a special Friday Night Supper at the park to raise a bit of money for music school tuition. Katie, a piano student from the Conservatory who sometimes came to the winter rink suppers, told us that the music students really like this neighbourhood. We like them back.

For more information about the free recitals (on every weekday except Tuesday, and also on some Saturdays), you can click on neighbourhood You’ll find other arts announcements there too, either about events in this neighbourhood, or about performances put on elsewhere in the city by some of the many actors, musicians and dancers who live around here.

DOVER SQUARE DEVELOPMENT

On Wednesday March 30, the Dufferin Grove Residents’ Association held its first Annual General Meeting at Dewson Public School, following incorporation. The big issue at the meeting was, of course, the planned addition of another building containing 285 rental units — set to rent for considerably more money than the current apartments — at Dover Square, 730 Dovercourt. There was a big range of opinions at the well-attended meeting. One contingent felt that there should be picketers and a media campaign to stop the development altogether. Another opinion held that the residents’ association would need to collect at least $10,000 to hire a lawyer to represent neighborhood interests at the Ontario Municipal Board Hearings at the beginning of May. A third opinion felt that such an amount was too much and that since the City planners and Councillor Pantalone have now come out against the development, residents could put their faith in the City to resist the developer.

Former Toronto mayor and anti-amalgamation leader John Sewell had been invited to speak, and he suggested a fourth alternative. He said, find out what the people in the neighborhood, including the present Dover Square tenants, would like the developer to do, to improve his plans. Maybe the community would like a better green space plan between the buildings, rent control on existing units that become empty over the next five years (so the rents don’t all float upwards), a cap of 200 new rental units, and the free use of a party room, available for tenant meetings as well. And maybe the community would support direct planning discussions between the developer and the community. The talks would try to arrive at a building form that both can agree on, for the new building at the north end of the project — this process to be completed within two months.

If a solid core of residents can decide on what they want, Sewell said, they can agree to withdraw their objections, and ask others to withdraw theirs, and both sides can forget about going to the OMB.

Sewell’s approach says that the OMB is a big, expensive gamble and it’s better for both the community and the developer to talk directly. As of the printing of this newsletter, residents’ association founder Andrew Munger told us that the association’s approach had not been decided. For more information, click on neighbourhood. You can also e-mail the Dufferin Grove Residents’ Association at thedgra@canoemail.com.

SPRING RETURNS TO DUFFERIN GROVE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET

Finally, as the weather warms up, the market has a bit more space — the first stalls are moving outside again. The new "parking allowed on Thursdays" signs are up on Dufferin Park Avenue in front of St.Mary's High School — you'll never get a ticket now if you park there for the market. Market manager Anne Freeman says that many calls and emails have been coming in from new vendors interested in selling at the outdoor market. She says there are no official announcements yet, of new additions to the market, but "let's just say it looks like a wonderful season ahead." EVERY THURSDAY 3.30 TO 7 PM.


Newsletter prepared by: Jutta Mason; Illustrations: Jane LowBeer

Technical support: John Culbert

Webmasters:Henrik Bechmann, Joe Adelaars,

Park phone: 416 392-0913; street address: 875 Dufferin Street

E-mail: dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca

Park photographer: Wallie Seto

Printing: Quality Control Printing at Bloor and St. George