friends of dufferin grove park
July 2005 Newsletter
revision posted July 23, 2005

Vol. 6, Nr. 7 — In this issue:

ARTS EVENTS IN JULY

CLAY AND PAPER THEATRE: THE SPACE BETWEEN, JULY 7,8,and 13 TO 17
From artistic director David Anderson: “The Space Between is a multi-dimensional masque (a la Ben Jonson), a giant puppet/choral speech/dance piece which tells the tale of Erysichthon from Ovid's Metamorphosis. Driven by pride and greed, Erysichthon cuts down the sacred oak of the earth goddess Ceres. In a fitting payback, the goddess calls upon Hunger herself to possess Erysichthon until he finally devours himself. The Space Between places Ovid’s ancient tale most firmly in the here and now, surrounded by Toronto's five impressive new art buildings on stilts. The Space Between celebrates the art between as well as the art that inhabits these buildings. A double chorus of masquers invite us, the audience, to contemplate the role of art, the myths that shape us and the values we live by.” Presented afternoons at 4 and 5 p.m., and evenings at 7.30, in the center of the park, with some new, spectacular puppets. PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN.

DUSK DANCES RETURN July 19 to 24
This is the tenth year that there’s a week of dance performances, all over the park. Commissions this year are from Jenn Goodwin and Company Blonde, Heather Hammond, Malgorzata Nowacka, Lata Pada and Elena Quah. The opening band is called STOPP. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday there are post-show artist talk-backs, led by Nova Bhattacharya. This year there are also “Reel Dance” outdoor film screenings, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after the show. The projection screen is set up at the playground rain shelter pagoda.
Dusk Dances 2005 is hosted by Diana Tso. The band starts at 7:00pm, the dance starts at 7:30pm.  Admission is PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN. The Dusk Dances Info-line is 416 516 4025, or go to www.corpus.ca — click on Dusk Dances.

The park food cart will be there at the Thursday to Sunday performances, and of course Friday Night Supper will be more plentiful than usual.

These dances always show the park in a different way – the trees become a backdrop or a prop, the sky provides the lighting, the park landscape becomes part of the dance. The opening band, STOPP, sets up beside the basketball court. This year some of the basketball players played along with the band during rehearsals, just drumming on the picnic tables.

As in the case of Clay and Paper Theatre for many years, and other theatre groups, musicians, and dancers more recently, the rehearsals are almost more fun for park friends than the scheduled performances.  During rehearsals, people swing on tree branches, they cross the soccer field on giant stilts, they sing a capella on the hockey rink, they do their capoeira martial arts dances late at night, down in the Garrison Creek hollow, to the beat of a single drum. The park gets so many surprises from all these performers: a great gift to the neighborhood.

After the Dusk Dances are over, there will be little pause. Then at the beginning of August, the shinny hockey players will have their annual concert in the Garrison Creek hollow (near the marsh fountain). Near the end of the month, Clay and Paper will return for one more run of this year’s play The Space Between. There will be more details in the August newsletter, and on the web site — click on arts.

AUGUST ART CAMP
From Gabrielle Langlois: “Need a creative outlet for your kids this summer? Multi-media artist Erin Robertson (sister of Dewson St. resident Kate Robertson) will be holding an all day art camp at Dufferin Grove Park  from Aug 2 to Aug. 5. Focus is on papier mache sculptures. Ideal age kids 9 to 12. Camp will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with after care if needed. Cost $110 for four days. For more information, call Gabrielle Langlois at 416-534-5317 or email feligab@yahoo.ca.”

BUILDING THE COB COURTYARD

Toronto Public Health inspectors have told us to get proper sinks for food preparation by the wading pool this coming summer or stop having snacks at the playground food cart. Georgie Donais is directing the building of a little courtyard around the sinks, and continuing on from there, to create an outdoor gathering-place. The courtyard walls will be built with a sand-clay-straw mix known as "cob" or "monolithic adobe", which is mixed by foot and applied by hand. From Georgie:

The first stage of the project will provide a spot for the washing station required by Public Health. As the wall extends, it can be built to include arches, doorways, niches, shelves, benches, a puppet window, sculptures and mosaics, small roofs, and a lavatory. Native plantings will be incorporated around and within the courtyard. The project will be proceed in stages, starting with the washing station, and extending further as time and resources allow.

Adults and children of all ages are welcomed and encouraged to participate in building. The latest update from Georgie:

Our cob courtyard wall is steadily growing, thanks to the legion of volunteers who have heeded the call to ‘come get muddy.’ It's not too late to come on down and help us do some building with earth! You can experience the world of cobbing for yourself, for free, at our ongoing earthen building workshops. They happen Monday to Saturday, 10am to 3pm. Even half an hour is enough time to get cobbing!
— Some child-minding is available; more information is available at the site
— All are welcome to participate, including children young and old
— Potluck lunches have been a highlight of our cobbing days; please feel free to bring some food (and something to eat it off of) and join us. (If you can’t bring food from home, the park food cart sells snacks beside the wading pool.)

Photo updates go up on the website often: www.cobinthepark.ca. Also, a reminder to all those who wanted to donate materials to Cob in the Park – it's still not too late. Still needed: coloured bottles with flat bottoms (blues, greens, amber, purple); clear jars, mason jars; china and tile for mosaics; five gallon pails; cedar shakes; a few pieces of seasoned firewood (18" long, for embedding in the wall). These materials are for the mosaics embedded in the cob walls. There is a meeting on Monday, July 25, 7:30pm, at the cob site, for people interested in working with the mosaics, whether they have lots of experience with mosaics, or always wanted to try it and never have.

The Parks and Recreation Division’s contribution to this project has been solid and growing. The plumbing for the sinks was installed by the City’s plumbers, and the electricity for the water heater required by Public Health, as well as for the snack bar cooking facilities, was put in by the City’s electricians. Parks and Recreation supervisor Tino DeCastro and manager James Dann said they would help Georgie make it happen, and they’ve been as good as their word at every step.

FOOD IN THE PARK

Food cart – It’s at the playground, every day the wading pool is open. This year we have more varied kinds of brunch/lunch foods, using ingredients from the farmers’ market and the park gardens, cooked in the park ovens.

Saturday morning baking: from the park bakers: “the bread cart will be selling fresh park oven breads and breakfast pastries from 10 a.m. Saturdays.”

Friday Night Supper: Every Friday from 6 to 7:30p.m., at the bake oven. No need to make a reservation: there's usually lots of food. This is a community dinner cooked in the park bake ovens with farmers' market produce. Cost is $6 for the main plate unless you bring your own dishes ($1 off). The main plate is always a choice of meat or (usually) vegan. There's always park bread, a salad, soup, and dessert (they cost extra but it's hard to spend much more than $10 per meal). If it's raining hard, no supper (call 416-392-0913 if you're not sure). If it's a cool night, there's a campfire to linger at with your friends.

Pizza days – weekdays on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12 noon to 2 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.  For $2 a portion, you can buy a small lump of organic pizza dough, sauce, and cheese, and make your own pizza in the oven (staff help you bake it). You can pick toppings in the park gardens to put on as well, or bring extra toppings from home. It’s a very nice way to meet new neighbours or get together with friends.
If you want to include pizza at the oven in a birthday party, that’s possible on Sundays between 11.30 and 1 and from 3 to 4.  You can book it with park staff Mayssan Shuja Uddin at 416 392-0913. The staff cost is $36 extra on top of the pizza cost of $2 per pizza. If you have more than forty people, that will need an extra staff person for another $18. To find out more, call the park or click on bake ovens and food.

Picnics: In the warm weather, the park is sometimes full of picnics and family celebrations. There are plenty of picnic tables – feel free to move them to where you need them, but if you take them far from where they were, please move them back afterwards (especially tables taken from the oven and the wading pool area).

THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR HAVING A PICNIC AND NO NEED TO BOOK AHEAD.

Campfires: The friends of the park have a standing year-round campfire permit at three park locations. Park staff will train you in campfire safety, give you water, pails, and a shovel, and kindling if you need it. For July, you don’t have to bring your own wood because we have some extra. You can also borrow grills from us, and a cast-iron stand, if you want to cook more than marshmallows or hot dogs on a stick. For more information or to book a permit, call the park at 416 392-0913 and ask for Matt or Mayssan. You can also click on campfires.

WADING POOL HOURS, THE SANDPIT, AND OTHER PARK FUN

The wading pool is open every day from about 11.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (or until 7 if it’s over 28 degrees). Bring water toys but please leave the squirt guns at home. The sandpit is always open, but the staff puts the tap and shovels away at night. If you and your kids are frequent early-morning sandpit visitors, you can ask the staff for your own key to the lockup box, so you can take out the equipment when you arrive. No need to put it away when you leave, but please: last person to leave the sandpit in the evening, turn off the tap!

Crafts materials are set out most days beside the wading pool. Park staff also lend out balls (basketballs, volleyballs, footballs), but you have to leave collateral. Chess and checkers are set up most days and we’re hoping that there will be an active chess club this summer, with the help of some new volunteers.

STAFFING THE PARK
This year we had as many really hot days in June as in all of last summer. Park staff opened the wading pool when it was 28 degrees or hotter, and people came from all over the city to cool off in our shady park. Our park staff got very tired from being so busy, although they also got a lot of compliments from happy park users.

Our park has become like a very busy community centre without walls (which means there are a great many interesting things to watch). A community centre with  walls costs about $600,000 a year to run. Without walls it’s cheaper – we only need about $120,000 this year. But we only have $80,000 in our budget, and the park manager says they can’t find us any more. They’re right: even though the annual parks budget is over $200 million, it’s all committed.  (That’s why, for all those days in June when it was over 30 degrees, almost no other wading pools were open in the City – no money for staffing. )

We’ve been puzzled for years about where the money goes. One thing we wonder about is the cost of paying so many consultants and planners. An example: a simple fence installed last year around Dovercourt Park playground cost $50,000, of which almost $10,000 seems to have been just for designing and project management fees. On a larger scale, the City appears to have hired a very large American company to figure out how City rinks can save energy (something that City staff can perhaps figure out for themselves). Parks and Recreation is on the hook for paying $1.3 million for this project this coming year – using money from the operating budget. But how to find that money is a problem. A shorter rink season? No extended swimming hours? Close Rec centers during school holidays?

We think it’s time to examine some of these spending decisions as a community. For that, we need better information – always a tricky thing to get. We’ve begun to compile a list of consultant spending, with the help of many, many freedom of information applications and appeals. As the information comes in, it gets posted on the research page With this information, let the public conversation begin!

FIRST BATCH OF CITY PLAYGROUNDS SECRETS ARE SAFE WITH THEM

On Wednesday June 22, our little team of CELOS researchers went to the offices of the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner for an inquiry into a freedom of information request we submitted last year.  We were trying to find out how the City of Toronto spent the $4.3 - $5.2 million (estimates vary) that was earmarked for playground repairs to City park playgrounds after so much good playground equipment was pulled out of parks, resulting from the new CSA-prescribed playground safety standards. (The CSA is the Canadian Standards Association – an association of mainly manufacturers, barely over 50% Canadian.) City Council set aside those repair funds in 2000. But a group of playground advocates, Playground Lobby for Active Youth (P.L.A.Y.), led by Maya Litman, has been monitoring parks playgrounds, and has been asking the City: how come so many park playgrounds lost equipment that was not replaced, or replaced with cheap, dumbed-down equipment?  

Our park’s playground lost a slide, the fireman’s pole, a tire climber, and the jiggly bridge, with more listed for removal.  We asked the City to let us know where the money went to replace what they removed at our playground and at others across the city. The City responded: it would cost us $12,690 for them to find all the receipts of what was done with the playground repair money. We asked the City to waive the fee, in the public interest. The City responded that public interest is not relevant here. What’s relevant, they said at the freedom of information inquiry, is that the law says institutions don’t have to produce a record where none exists – if they didn’t make a list of where they spent the $4.3 million repair money, there’s no need to show us anything.

The inquiry was held in a fourteenth-floor boardroom at the government offices on 2 Bloor Street East. Our team was: Jane Price, Luke Cayley, Jutta Mason, and Maya Litman. The City sent two lawyers, plus Jamie Warren (playground construction supervisor), Julia Madden (assistant to Parks and Recreation General Manager Brenda Librecz), and City of Toronto Corporate Access acting manager Rob Candy. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. we went back and forth between the boardroom and little windowless conference rooms that lock electronically as soon as you’re in them (unsettling if you’re at all claustrophobic).  We talked all together and tried to work out compromises with a mediator, but in the end, no offer was close to what we wanted. So the government adjudicator, Ms.Beverly Caddigan, was left to decide. A week later she issued her decision: the City had successfully convinced her that their staff had looked as hard as was necessary to find the playground repair receipts.  They couldn’t find the records we asked for anywhere, so the information of how and where the $4.3 million was spent will not have to be revealed.

If you want to read more about this issue, click on research or city playgrounds. There is a lot of detail there, about this appeal and about other freedom of information appeals coming up.  (The City of Toronto also won’t tell us how many claims they have had to pay out for playground-related injuries, or even what their insurance premiums are – on the grounds that it would cause the city economic injury to give us that information. Both refusals are being appealed to the province.)

The appeal to find out where the $4.3 million (plus?!?) playground repair money went was sponsored by park friend Kate Robertson and her family through our “buy a City secret” program last Christmas. Our case to the province was put together by the CELOS team that went to the hearing plus two other hard-working sleuths: Belinda Cole and Eric Marsden. We lost this round, but we’re not finished with the issue (not even close). In fact, this experience has led us to get serious about incorporating our little park research group: CELOS, the CEntre for LOcal Research into Public Space. Local research done by ordinary people who get a bit mad: that has some potential. And there are some funny moments, such as when the City sends lawyers to an inquiry, to prove that they have no book-keeping.

PARKS AND RECREATION REVOLUTION

A few weeks before this latest municipal government was sworn in (a couple of years ago now), Parks and Recreation announced a radical change in how they would run their operation. From our point of view it meant that we would be dealing with a different supervisor for every element of the park – one for wading pools, another for skating rinks, another for park maintenance, another for children’s programs, another for special events, another for improvements to the park (if any), etc.  We protested against this new conception, and it was put on hold. There were some internal consultations to fix the problems. But now it seems that the same approach is back, as of this September.

The new operating model seems to spell the end of a park as first and foremost a neighbourhood meeting place. In its place, there is what is called a “functional approach,” taking apart all the elements of a park and managing each separate element centrally (and perhaps staffing the park centrally as well).

It’s hard to know how our park can continue to flourish under such a system, since Dufferin Grove Park is a very specific place that has grown organically out of the activities of its many friends, from the volleyball players to the picnickers to the playground kids to the rink rats. All the activities are intertwined, and the support we have got from the Parks Division has depended on the support of local (not central) staff who know what we’re doing, and who have a history with us.  

Adding to our concerns is the fact that the examples we’ve seen of a centralized “functional” approach have been pretty alarming. The Health and Safety Inspectors’ visit in 2003, resulting in a threat to shut down the rink, is one example. The C.S.A. playground replacement/ repair program (article on page 5) is another. The Policy and Development department’s approach to park improvements is another (see the web site research page). The list is long.

So we’re about to write to Brenda Librecz, the general manager of Parks and Recreation. We want her to declare our park an alternative site. If the City is bent on trying their “functional” experiment, let them keep us as an alternative laboratory, to see if what’s growing here is worth learning from as well. More about this in August.

ANATOMY OF A RINK HOUSE BREAK-IN

On Wednesday morning, July 20, the park staff arrived to find all the rink house doors propped open, stuff all over the floors, and the cash box missing from its cupboard. Ouch!

It turns out that during the night some people had smashed the lock on the front door with a brick, and the door opened. Then they tried smashing the inside locks on the change room with the brick too, but those doors didn’t let go. Then they jimmied open the metal gate on the office and – sigh – found the main staff key ring hanging on its hook. Game over. They went into every room, found our cash box (about $400 of change), and stopped to have a picnic. Park cookies, gatorade, cake, fruit – and when they had eaten as much as they wanted, they crumbled the rest of the cake on the floor. (Thieves with no manners).

And finally, the thieves took the staff keys and opened the Clay and Paper Theatre workshop in the field house in the centre of the park and took their computer. A blow for Clay and Paper. Thankfully, director David Anderson had just backed up all their files.

Now all the doors have been re-keyed and a security system has been installed. The alarm will ring in recreation supervisor Tino Decastro’s house, a block from the park.

These thieves seem to know the park well, and maybe at some point they’ll want to come back and enjoy the park amenities that brought them there is the first place.  The basketball guys are looking out for them; the dog owners are being watchful; Jutta is increasing her late-night bike rides through the park. If anyone sees some (perhaps fairly young) people messing around with the rink house doors, have a good look and give the park staff any clues to their appearance. We’d like to have a serious discussion with them.

GIRL GANGSTERS

One farmers’ market day near the beginning of June, some girls from the St. Clair area, several with their faces covered by bandanas, plus a cheering section, came to get revenge on an enemy girl at the park. They wanted to draw her into a fight so they could beat her up. The enemy girl and her many supporters (both male and female) did not want to fight. So there ensued lots yelling, cursing, attempts at provocation etc., among a group of about 20 young people, right beside the oven as the market was going on. Jutta’s attempt to get the visiting gangster girls to leave the park mainly led to them including her in their abuse. Eventually if became clear that the girls would continue to try to step up their nonsense. Park staff called police, knowing that such calls rarely bring timely results. After an interval, police were called again, still with no results.

However, the threat of police led parts of the group to move toward the main path, where they continued their cursing, mocking, and provocation. Eventually Jutta’s patience ran out and she took hold of sleeves and backpacks and pulled two of the girls toward the edge of the park. This led to increased threats and shouting and eventually, Jutta was shoved around.

The direct physical contact brought the problem to a head. Some of the regular basketball players intervened right away and made it clear to this rude group that they must leave instantly. The girls got out of the park, still shouting, and did not return.

Meantime the farmers’ market went on as usual, although a few people protested that the shouting made them feel unsafe. Later on, the police arrived, but by then there was nothing for them to do.

Jutta wished afterwards that she had pushed the girls out sooner, and not listened to their nonsense for so long. A park must have standards of behaviour or it won't be a good place to come to. Youth problems have a history in our park as elsewhere in Toronto and decisive action is needed when there is a threat of violence. In this case, as soon as the threats turned to real shoving, the situation became clear for what it was, and help arrived from the other youth. As for those farmers’ market users who saw the trouble but passed by on the other side and said nothing, they may need to think about everyone's role in how a park becomes safe.

THE POLICE NEED OUR REALITY CHECK

Attempts to engage the help of police at Fourteen Division to make the park safer have not been very successful over the years. So we’ve had to learn how to deal with disturbances ourselves, most times. (We’re still got lots to learn, but standards of behaviour in the park have improved as a result of our determination.)

It’s not that police don’t come to the park, they come often, driving all over the grass in their cruisers. Sometimes they park several cars in the middle of the park and chat, and then if they get a call on their radio, they drive through the park very fast on their way out. Occasionally there are bicycle police as well, which is safer. But these unscheduled visits to the park often seem to center on asking black park users for identification, for reasons that are not always clear. Recently there have been visits to the park by police on motorcycles, again cruising over the grass (but more slowly than the cars).

Fourteen Division officers recently told park staff that they drive through Dufferin Grove Park so much because this park is dangerous, there are robberies, and there are vicious youth gangs here dealing in crack cocaine. Since none of these things seem true about the park, we have a puzzle: what makes the officers think this way?

One thing is that many of the police constables we see are very young and many may just be starting out in the force. There are no familiar faces among them, no one introduces themselves, and none of the police seem to be curious to find out more about the park or the neighbourhood from those of us who live here.  We have heard that up to 80 per cent of the Toronto police don’t live in the city. If they come in only to work, from Brampton or from Pickering, and have never experienced ordinary life in a downtown neighbourhood, how much does that affect their ability to understand where they are?

Police operating in a bubble are not a good thing. They need our help. Park users who encounter the police driving through the park may want to stop them and say a friendly hello, introduce themselves, and tell the young officers a bit about the park and the neighborhood. Community policing won’t work without a genuine connection, built one conversation at a time, and we park users may have to take the initiative.

FARMERS’ MARKET: EVERY THURSDAY 3.00 TO 7 P.M.

in the northwest corner of the park. All the farmers are now bringing their own harvests. There’s lots of prepared food too, tasty park bread, snacks. Leave yourself extra time when you go there because it’s also a place where neighbours run into each other and the all the news is exchanged (face to face instead of electronically!). To get on the weekly market news e-list, contact market manager Anne Freeman (leave her a message at the park or e-mail her at market@dufferinpark.ca).

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