Graham Stagger is photographed walking up an icy hill at the entrance of Cedarvale Ravine in Toronto on Jan. 13, 2021.Jim O’Leary was walking with family in late December, enjoying a beautiful winter day in Toronto’s High Park, when they approached an iced-over bridge deep in the dog-park area. In an instant, his feet went out from under him and he went down with “a loud pop.”
Unlike some North American cities that clear hundreds of kilometres of park paths when it snows, Toronto has historically made only modest efforts to keep its green spaces walkable in the colder months. Jim O’Leary was walking with family Toronto’s High Park in late December when he slipped and injured himself.“The number-one activity in any parks, anywhere, is to walk,” said Gil Penalosa, past chair of World Urban Parks and founder of the non-profit 8 80 Cities, which argues that a municipality meeting the needs of the very young and old alike will work for all residents.“Having walking paths has the highest cost-benefit of any infrastructure,” he said.
“Parks that facilitate the city’s winter programming plan, featuring outdoor amenities like ice rinks and park washrooms, were prioritized for snow clearing to increase ease of access throughout the winter.”According to the statement, Toronto had already been clearing snow in some parks based on various criteria, including connections to schools or the presence of recreational facilities.
“There’s a social equity issue. People [who don’t] go south, or go skiing or whatever at resorts, do still want to get out in the winter. It’s particularly for their use that the city should be maintaining its green space. And if they don’t, what do people do?” Some North American cities have long recognized the importance of year-round activity and make significant efforts to clear their outdoor public spaces.
“Because of COVID [and] a lot of things being shut down, we’ve seen a higher use of our parks system this year than we have in a long time,” said Dave Bergstrom, operations manager at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. “So [clearing] makes it crucial for that.”
CC: JohnTory cityoftoronto
Forget the snow.!! Doug is up to a new challenge Toronto.
yes, all of this “no winter maintenance” is just a total and utter cop-out on the part of the city.
Buy better boots.
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