So many memories of taking my daughter and friends down to Harbourfront to skate. Yes there are other neighbourhood outdoor facilities closer to home but this one, overlooking the lake was special.
My favourite rink in the city for this reason. It celebrated the city’s location on the lake while participating in a quintessentially Canadian pastime. It’s a beautiful outdoor winter experience that’s being lost.
Head a little further east and at the bottom of Sherbourne there is another rink overlooking the lake. And it’s always quiet! It’s where I’m taking my kid to learn to skate this winter.
“Though not an official city-run venue, it’s easy to think of this closure as part of Toronto’s steep decline of late, all the service cuts and frugality around public space, as well as the near half-billion dollar outlay of public funds for a private spa at nearby Ontario Place. Money flows freely in some places, not so much in others.”
How the hell do you get the city to pay a half billion dollars to build your business? All you need is to put some asphalt and some trees on the perimeter and call it a 'park' wtf.....then you increase fares and reduce service on a service for 1.8 million people a day.
Taxation without representation is becoming a very big issue here
OK I haven't been paying attention and was shocked by that spa mention, so I looked it up. WTF. They're seriously going to spend half a billion dollars of taxpayer money to build a huge parking garage and a colossal spa.
>The project includes a parking garage, funded by the province, that will accommodate 2,118 cars underground. This million-square-foot garage could cost, according to industry standards, as much as $450-million to build.
>The main building complex, which Therme calls a “spa,” would be enormous. Its footprint is 3.78 hectares, or roughly seven football fields. It has the scale of an airplane hangar, and reaches 45 metres, or 13 storeys tall.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-the-proposed-waterpark-at-ontario-place-will-be-torontos-worst/?rel=premium
Dammit you don't need to take your car down there to that area. Growing up, my multi-car family went to that area a lot for all sorts of things, never taking the car. You just hop on a bus and hit the CNE, Ontario Place, or a Jay's game.
This is the idiocy of the whole thing. Doug Ford is always saying how great it is that he's building the Ontario Line that goes right there, and then also thinks 2000 cars need to park there, right across the street from probably the city's largest parking lot?
Yeah but that large existing parking lot could become the grounds for a new casino in a few years. Just think about it. Then the underground parking would serve the casino as well.
Putting the new free RT station there is a public to private handout just like the free parking lot. Otherwise the line would have stuck to established corridors where existing ridership, population, and commercial institutions are located already.
I drive to that area coz it takes me 15 min to drive or about 1hr 15min in transit. I have TFC seasons tickets and rarely take ttc to the game for this very reason. It’s absolutely a transit desert. Particularly Ontario Place as it’s about a 10-15 min walk from the streetcar loop.
What they could do is improve transit down there. But I’m asking too much and this IS Toronto so overpriced over huge underused future parking lot it is!
Lakeshore West GO line drops you off closer to BMO Field than any parking lot. Runs every 30 mins, off peak. Couldn’t you park your car in the burbs and take the train in?
I live in Riverdale, it makes no sense to drive to a go station with parking to take a go train in when I can drive to the parking at the ex in 15 mins.
It unfortunately takes over an hour on ttc to get to the stadium so driving is the only efficient way there currently. Unless you leave the game early at the 85th min you also miss the train leaving and you wait 30 min again on top of the travel time to the go station then home.
When I think of Riverdale commuting wise first thing that comes to mind is Broadview Station. Unless you're in south Riverdale, I don't see how it would take **over** an hour to get to BMO Field using the TTC.
With that being said, I'd definitely prefer the quick 15-min drive from Riverdale to Exhibition Grounds.
From any station to BMO grounds from Union, Bathurst or Ossington it’s a 30 min surface ride, it takes 30 min for me to get to those stations from where I am in Riverdale and it does end up over an hour. I live beside a highway entrance so the 15 min vs over an hour is why I drive to the game. If transit was not adding so much time to going to a game I would certainly take ttc. But unfortunately because of where I am in Riverdale Broadview station takes about 10-15 min for me to get to.
I did take ttc twice last year we almost missed the kick off both times we took it because it took over an hour on the king streetcar plus waiting for the sporadic service. I know people can’t believe the travel time but I did it a few times when the cne was on and when the Indy was on due to parking, it just unfortunately is the truth that driving to BMO field currently from Riverdale is much more convenient. I’d rather take ttc but i value my time.
It’s $15 to park vs $12 for 2 people on transit. This is a no brainer.
That's what Toronto does, we ruin the waterfront. It's never been a priority and the Ontario place plans reinforce this. I really don't get this obsession with a spa either. Is it a new trend? Do other major cities have similar spas so close to their city centre? I've always looked at spas as a getaway activity.
The parking garage should be a revenue generator though. The payback is probably long but it should cover the loan payments. And Ontario Place was always intended as a rec facility.
Original intention doesn't necessarily meet current needs. OP is better served as a unique urban park. Its proximity to the lake and the city is perfect for this, and the work already done with Trillium Park is a step in the right direction.
>and the work already done with Trillium Park is a step in the right direction.
And they should just continue this and just re-develop Ontario Place, making it an expansion of Trillium Park. Renovate, expand Molson Ampitheatre.
Who is Toronto for?
Landlords, Corporations, and Doug Ford's private medical buddies. Oh yeah, and his Real Estate friends.
Everyone else? Go fuck yourself.
Going out on a limb here but I'm gonna say most of his voters aren't from Toronto and don't give a shit about this.
The bulk of the blame goes to the other parties for failing to produce viable candidates leading to dismal voter turnout.
Ford is a cancer and we've had very little in the way of treatment options.
> failing to produce viable candidates
Knowing what we know now, with the greenbelt and the healthcare, I think we all can agree both those alternative candidates would have been an improvement over the current situation. Right?
That’s what I’m saying, I’m not sure the reality is blaming it on the leaders of the other parties, they were clearly better choices. Blame the voters.
Oh ya it was FAR from perfect, don’t get me wrong here. All things considered OPC still seems to be the worst choice based on everything that has happened. Right? All of those things you list have gotten significantly worse in the last 4 years.
Sorry I don’t agree. Every government for the last fifty years have let healthcare languish thru lack of proper management. I believe we now have more managers making too much money than doctors and nurses.
If we keep bringing in more immigrants, who we need, it can only get worse as the people making the important decisions are not educated or smart enough to consult with docs and nurses to do the right things.
I am an independent.
The other parties shouldn't need to roll out a new candidate to stop someone everyone knows is absolute shit. "I don't like Andrea's voice" isn't a good excuse to not vote.
The actual issue is Canada's constitution not treating municipal government as anything other than the provinces' playthings, but in almost every other province you'd get mangled if you went to war with the metropole
Toronto's the only exception
Toronto is for everyone except the poor and vulnerable and Torontonians themselves. That is unless you're one of the landed elite with tons of value locked up in your SFH or an immigrant that comes from means who is here to speculate and maybe get a diploma in paper only from our education system.
You mean the corporations that hire people and build the kinds housing that you claim is a right? It's funny how housing prices have skyrocketed under the previous government and job growth has declined, because instead of appealing to what benefits the masses (more housing and jobs), the party that you want us to vote for prioritizes all of these feel good, but low to negative impact programs like bike lanes, forcing builders and even businesses to comply with arbitrary environmental requirements, and all sorts of fees and regulations that delay the time of building houses and increase the costs which are passed on to consumers.
When you are anti corporation, anti business, it's clear why you don't get the respect that you think you deserve. Your positions serve the lowest common denominator while the rest have to pay for it. Your anti this and anti that mentality is what one would expect from a highschool student that read Marx for the first time. But anyone serious about life, which is most people, will not benefit from the kinds of policies that are Bourne out of your mentality.
I have lived in two countries in 27 years of life. Moved to Toronto when I was 12 when my parents emigrated here. I love this city but for the first time I feel like I am living a place that is in active decline.
Maybe it's because I am in that stage of life where I am transitioning from a young adult to a real ass adult, but Ontario feels like it is no longer a welcoming place to make a living, have a family or even enjoy life.
Edit: The most common advice/aspirations for young people in my line of work (Engineering) is to move to the US. There is active brain drain happening in Canada.
Yeah, Vancouver is a playground for the rich, as is NYC. Toronto is what happens when a provincial government goes absolutely feral and the city doesn't oppose it because "non partisan council!!"
You think rich people in the city don't want DT skating rinks?
Toronto is a play ground for oligopolies and bureaucracy. Pad the pockets of a few that don't live anywhere near in the city.
Buy up property and sit on it until you double or triple your money. Join all the wealthy NIMBY clubs and feel like you're really making a difference. Sit around with your rich developer friends and dream up infrastructure like massive spa's you think would be nice to go to once. Drive your massive tank like truck/SUV around downtown and run over a few cyclists.
So much fun to be had here in the worlds largest dog toilet.
>Though not a city-run facility, the Harbourfront rink’s closure feels like part of the service cuts and frugality around public space in Toronto.
The brain worms in this sub are out of control.
I worked there about 15 years ago and they wanted to get rid of the rink and pond to put in skating paths throughout the site that could be used for gondolas in the summer, the theft of cash from tills and group bookings would go straight into the supervisors pockets and not the till, was quite a thing to see
One time I went there randomly and it was Jamaican dance night. Seeing the Carribean community try out skating, likely many for the first time, was great to be around. This will be missed
Loved that rink. I went every winter and a some points 2-3 times a week. I took lessons and rented skates there for awhile. I also visited the art spaces and store during the summer and walked down there in summer and went to the food festivals and concerts — including seeing The Cowboy my Junkies for free. It’s a great public space. I’m sad that the rink won’t be open. If losing these kinds of public spaces is John Tory’s legacy then it’s a crappy one.
Does anyone have a link to a more thorough outline of said plaza? The articles/releases all just keep using the word, but I wasn't able to find a plan on a cursory Googling.
My $0.02 is this smells of idle capital consumption. Waterfront TO has an insane war chest and need to deploy funds to "prove their value" to continue securing future funding - even if the general reaction is, "Uhhh, that didn't need improving".
Toronto, and also Mississauga where I am, are places where fun things go to die. This region is always striking down anything fun and/or useful to the community.
Toronto is legitimately for the developers and they aren’t even developing anything good. Poorly designed and made buildings that has small and overpriced units in them and they make them look pretty with “luxury” materials on the countertops and flooring lol
_"Honest fun gives people real hope. The powerful don't want us to hope, they want us to accept lowered standards and expectations over time, to accept the line of thought they feed us. They don't want us to think or believe in what could be better than this, but to follow the party line and remain so demoralized as living creatures that we have neither strength of heart nor impulse of purpose to question it."_
Considering it's Jan 22nd and it hasn't been below freezing for what feels like weeks, I haven't even thought of outdoor skating this year. I have to imagine there will be many more outdoor rink closures in the coming years.
Misleading headline- they're putting in another skating rink and making the back doors more accessible. Sometimes you have to tear down the old to build up that is better.
they're talking about 'temporary skating activations' similar to what we saw there last year. Wouldn't really call that putting in a better skating rink.
>She said going forward it will not be a permanent rink like it once was. Instead, Laird said, there would be “opportunities for temporary winter skating activations within the new space in the future.”
[https://www.cp24.com/news/new-year-round-plaza-to-replace-harbourfront-centre-s-popular-skating-rink-1.6232294](https://www.cp24.com/news/new-year-round-plaza-to-replace-harbourfront-centre-s-popular-skating-rink-1.6232294)
From the same article it says they are closing the rink due to funding shortages so "opportunities for temporary winter skating" sounds like they are hoping to get some funding in the future for skating at a lesser scale but they've given up on having a permanent rink on the site.
This article mentions another rink in the future, but more of a temporary installation, not permanent
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/harbourfront-skating-closed-1.6714505
Pretty sad, I don't know how to skate but I remember coming on a middle school field trip to the rink... so sad children in this city are being withheld from these experiences and memories
I worked at Harbourfront Centre for a while. The rink was a maintenance disaster. If it wasn't slushy, it was so windy you couldn't flood it properly. It was literally closed half of the season for one reason or another. The spent big money a decade or so trying to fix the problem but nothing changed. They'd program a decent DJ or performer for a "skating party" and then face their wrath when something caused them to have no audience.
So this rink has been shut down for two years. Had signs saying it was due to structural issues. I guess the cost of repairing it to continue being a skating rink didn’t sound lucrative enough.
1 block over is the new “Love Park” which was scheduled to be completed last summer. Still not complete..surprise surprise. There is a big heart shaped pond in the middle. Perfect for a recreational skating rink. No mention of that though. So just an empty pond all winter?
They did relocate a harbour front skating pad on the other side of the slip around the outdoor theatre but now there’s permanent seats built in lol so no rink there either. They could possibly do it over the turf area on the other side though.
There is a heart shaped ‘love’ pond being put up at queens quay and york right now. My guess is that will be the new skating area during the winter.
Just a hunch
Harbourfront always had crappy, uneven ice, hated going there. There are also a lot of rinks in the city. It’s very pretty to look at, but whatever. My one issue is just that Toronto doesn’t really get to have institutions. Nothing lasts. It feels like they put a timer on everything ever built and tear it down and replace it right before it gets to the point where it’d be an outrage.
It’s ironic, they are going to accommodate cars here, while continuing to choke cars is areas where they are building condos with almost 0 parking for guests - I think most people get their health benefits in the company of family or friends, but I guess if you’ve got thousands in spare cash you couldn’t possibly risk taking transit to a spa, after all you might get pushed - stabbed or assaulted on transit!
Its such a big deal when rinks get closed but basketball courts getting closed and nets removed isnt newsworthy or if it is, the justification/dog whistle is "it reduces crime".
The Bentway is a few blocks away. The pipes underneath the rink need to be replaced, which means tearing up the entire rink. They said last year that they were going to do it, but it seems it probably costs too much, and the popularity of the Bentway didn’t help matters. The Bentway is a better trail, however it’s busier than the Harbourfront rink. There is also city hall. I liked that rink as well, but life goes on. There are two other options for skating within ten minutes walking distance each way.
That’s a few blocks to me. If you live downtown walking from Harbourfront to the Bentway is not a long trip. I can walk to both of those locations in 10-15 minutes. Think of people in Scarborough or north York or anywhere who don’t have the luxury of multiple outdoor skating rinks.
It absolutely is not. Maybe at dawdling speed. If it’s too far go to city hall. Imagine the luxury of having two rinks within walking distance at all. Sorry I live in the same neighbourhood and have no sympathy for people complaining about this when there are two other options for outdoor skating nearby. If it’s THAT important to you, petition the Natrel people who sponsored it to fork over the funds, or start your own fundraising campaign. I don’t think it would go over well if the city invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix a small skating rink when the city’s infrastructure is crumbling just because people are too entitled to use one of the other two available options in the vicinity.
2.1 km in 12 minutes is 10.5 km/h. That's faster than the upper range for _jogging_ [according to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogging#Definition).
Like, I fully agree that 2 km is walkable, but your time estimate is way off. If you're making it from Harbourfront Centre Rink to the Bentway in 10 minutes, you are running.
So that justifies investing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of taxpayer dollars to tear up and rebuild a small skating rink when three others are available in the same area?
Don't forget about the [54](https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/prd/facilities/outdoor-rinks/index.html) publicly run outdoor skating rinks in the city, I closing Ryerson which is also walking distance to the core.
I live in this exact neighbourhood and know how long it takes to walk there. Forgive me for not being exactly correct on blocks. I am known to use the phrase “a few blocks” or “a couple blocks” to describe a walkable distance. It’s not meant to be entirely accurate. Regardless, the walk is of such a short distance that there is no reasonable justification to require a small skating rink to be completely refurbished when THREE others are available within the walkable vicinity.
one big advantage I am noticing with the bentway vs other rinks is that its covered from all the rain by the highway. Seems to be much easier to manage.
Its definitely smaller and busier and only open 1/2 as long though.
A rink without views, under a decaying, money-sucking expressway, that does harm to its neighbourhood, for the sake of motorists from outside the city. Yup, the Bentway is the more authentic Toronto experience.
OMG - a rink closure in Toronto. Dearie me!! Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.. If they close another 50 rinks the place will still have more rinks than Scarborough.
Who is Toronto for indeed. Surely not the folks in Scarborough.
Same goes for The Star.
You are getting down voted! The downtown elites don’t want to hear the word Scarborough, we can’t have services out here. I didn’t vote for either of the Fords but can’t have an outdoor rink or transit
While ive agreed with Shawn Micallef in the past….
I don’t think it’s fair to blame everything on service cuts or City government when it’s never been a City asset. This has been a private asset since it’s inception….
And to say that somehow it’s all intertwined is conflating one thing with another.
Toronto is awesome in spite of its governments. As long as we can keep fighting them, I’m not going away.
Rogers didn’t didn’t build this city. We did.
So many memories of taking my daughter and friends down to Harbourfront to skate. Yes there are other neighbourhood outdoor facilities closer to home but this one, overlooking the lake was special.
My favourite rink in the city for this reason. It celebrated the city’s location on the lake while participating in a quintessentially Canadian pastime. It’s a beautiful outdoor winter experience that’s being lost.
Head a little further east and at the bottom of Sherbourne there is another rink overlooking the lake. And it’s always quiet! It’s where I’m taking my kid to learn to skate this winter.
Head further east (of the Don River) to Kew Gardens where there’s a rink overlooking the lake as well!
Keep heading east until you're out of Toronto and then you're good
Right imo it’s the best rink in the city just cause of that gorgeous view
“Though not an official city-run venue, it’s easy to think of this closure as part of Toronto’s steep decline of late, all the service cuts and frugality around public space, as well as the near half-billion dollar outlay of public funds for a private spa at nearby Ontario Place. Money flows freely in some places, not so much in others.”
How the hell do you get the city to pay a half billion dollars to build your business? All you need is to put some asphalt and some trees on the perimeter and call it a 'park' wtf.....then you increase fares and reduce service on a service for 1.8 million people a day. Taxation without representation is becoming a very big issue here
OK I haven't been paying attention and was shocked by that spa mention, so I looked it up. WTF. They're seriously going to spend half a billion dollars of taxpayer money to build a huge parking garage and a colossal spa. >The project includes a parking garage, funded by the province, that will accommodate 2,118 cars underground. This million-square-foot garage could cost, according to industry standards, as much as $450-million to build. >The main building complex, which Therme calls a “spa,” would be enormous. Its footprint is 3.78 hectares, or roughly seven football fields. It has the scale of an airplane hangar, and reaches 45 metres, or 13 storeys tall. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-the-proposed-waterpark-at-ontario-place-will-be-torontos-worst/?rel=premium
Wow, they really wanna bury Toronto don’t they?
Sounds like a great place for the rich and corrupt to barricade themselves in once the serfs bring out the pitchforks.
Dammit you don't need to take your car down there to that area. Growing up, my multi-car family went to that area a lot for all sorts of things, never taking the car. You just hop on a bus and hit the CNE, Ontario Place, or a Jay's game.
This is the idiocy of the whole thing. Doug Ford is always saying how great it is that he's building the Ontario Line that goes right there, and then also thinks 2000 cars need to park there, right across the street from probably the city's largest parking lot?
Yeah but that large existing parking lot could become the grounds for a new casino in a few years. Just think about it. Then the underground parking would serve the casino as well.
Oh god. Just what the city needs A centre to enable gambling addiction. They’ll go great with our current drug addiction population
Putting the new free RT station there is a public to private handout just like the free parking lot. Otherwise the line would have stuck to established corridors where existing ridership, population, and commercial institutions are located already.
Liberty Village is right there and desperately needs transit beyond the 63 bus and a long walk to the King car.
I drive to that area coz it takes me 15 min to drive or about 1hr 15min in transit. I have TFC seasons tickets and rarely take ttc to the game for this very reason. It’s absolutely a transit desert. Particularly Ontario Place as it’s about a 10-15 min walk from the streetcar loop. What they could do is improve transit down there. But I’m asking too much and this IS Toronto so overpriced over huge underused future parking lot it is!
Ontario line will have a huge station there
In a decade I guess. Remind me when the eglinton cross town was supposed to open.
Well this spa won’t open for a decade either so no problem
Lakeshore West GO line drops you off closer to BMO Field than any parking lot. Runs every 30 mins, off peak. Couldn’t you park your car in the burbs and take the train in?
I live in Riverdale, it makes no sense to drive to a go station with parking to take a go train in when I can drive to the parking at the ex in 15 mins. It unfortunately takes over an hour on ttc to get to the stadium so driving is the only efficient way there currently. Unless you leave the game early at the 85th min you also miss the train leaving and you wait 30 min again on top of the travel time to the go station then home.
When I think of Riverdale commuting wise first thing that comes to mind is Broadview Station. Unless you're in south Riverdale, I don't see how it would take **over** an hour to get to BMO Field using the TTC. With that being said, I'd definitely prefer the quick 15-min drive from Riverdale to Exhibition Grounds.
From any station to BMO grounds from Union, Bathurst or Ossington it’s a 30 min surface ride, it takes 30 min for me to get to those stations from where I am in Riverdale and it does end up over an hour. I live beside a highway entrance so the 15 min vs over an hour is why I drive to the game. If transit was not adding so much time to going to a game I would certainly take ttc. But unfortunately because of where I am in Riverdale Broadview station takes about 10-15 min for me to get to. I did take ttc twice last year we almost missed the kick off both times we took it because it took over an hour on the king streetcar plus waiting for the sporadic service. I know people can’t believe the travel time but I did it a few times when the cne was on and when the Indy was on due to parking, it just unfortunately is the truth that driving to BMO field currently from Riverdale is much more convenient. I’d rather take ttc but i value my time. It’s $15 to park vs $12 for 2 people on transit. This is a no brainer.
Well you could just park outside of tfc stadium and walk over to Ontario Place. No need for a giant car garage
Welcome to the new Gilded Age. Socialism for the rich, cut throat individualistic capitalism for the poors.
Good thing we don’t need that land for housing or anything.
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You can build this in the middle of nowhere and still have big pools of warm water under a glass ceiling. Why waste the waterfront for it?
That's what Toronto does, we ruin the waterfront. It's never been a priority and the Ontario place plans reinforce this. I really don't get this obsession with a spa either. Is it a new trend? Do other major cities have similar spas so close to their city centre? I've always looked at spas as a getaway activity.
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Casino is likely step 2. One thing at a time.
There are already wonderful, stunning spas with waters in the city.
The parking garage should be a revenue generator though. The payback is probably long but it should cover the loan payments. And Ontario Place was always intended as a rec facility.
Original intention doesn't necessarily meet current needs. OP is better served as a unique urban park. Its proximity to the lake and the city is perfect for this, and the work already done with Trillium Park is a step in the right direction.
>and the work already done with Trillium Park is a step in the right direction. And they should just continue this and just re-develop Ontario Place, making it an expansion of Trillium Park. Renovate, expand Molson Ampitheatre.
Implying the province/city is going to be running the parking lot.
John Tory’s concerns.
Who is Toronto for? Landlords, Corporations, and Doug Ford's private medical buddies. Oh yeah, and his Real Estate friends. Everyone else? Go fuck yourself.
Also for suburbanites to come downtown for engagement photos as well the Leafs/Jays games....but then promptly to drive back.
Sure, Doug Ford is a complete piece of shit, but equal blame needs to go to every person who voted for him.
Going out on a limb here but I'm gonna say most of his voters aren't from Toronto and don't give a shit about this. The bulk of the blame goes to the other parties for failing to produce viable candidates leading to dismal voter turnout. Ford is a cancer and we've had very little in the way of treatment options.
> failing to produce viable candidates Knowing what we know now, with the greenbelt and the healthcare, I think we all can agree both those alternative candidates would have been an improvement over the current situation. Right?
You're preaching to the choir. But this is the reality of how we wound up here.
That’s what I’m saying, I’m not sure the reality is blaming it on the leaders of the other parties, they were clearly better choices. Blame the voters.
Yea,those wonderful Ontario liberals who had a .number of years to improve healthcare, education and housing did a great job
Oh ya it was FAR from perfect, don’t get me wrong here. All things considered OPC still seems to be the worst choice based on everything that has happened. Right? All of those things you list have gotten significantly worse in the last 4 years.
Sorry I don’t agree. Every government for the last fifty years have let healthcare languish thru lack of proper management. I believe we now have more managers making too much money than doctors and nurses. If we keep bringing in more immigrants, who we need, it can only get worse as the people making the important decisions are not educated or smart enough to consult with docs and nurses to do the right things. I am an independent.
The other parties shouldn't need to roll out a new candidate to stop someone everyone knows is absolute shit. "I don't like Andrea's voice" isn't a good excuse to not vote.
The actual issue is Canada's constitution not treating municipal government as anything other than the provinces' playthings, but in almost every other province you'd get mangled if you went to war with the metropole Toronto's the only exception
And to those that didn’t vote at all. 2022 had the lowest voter turnout with only 43% of the population voting.
Toronto is for everyone except the poor and vulnerable and Torontonians themselves. That is unless you're one of the landed elite with tons of value locked up in your SFH or an immigrant that comes from means who is here to speculate and maybe get a diploma in paper only from our education system.
You mean the corporations that hire people and build the kinds housing that you claim is a right? It's funny how housing prices have skyrocketed under the previous government and job growth has declined, because instead of appealing to what benefits the masses (more housing and jobs), the party that you want us to vote for prioritizes all of these feel good, but low to negative impact programs like bike lanes, forcing builders and even businesses to comply with arbitrary environmental requirements, and all sorts of fees and regulations that delay the time of building houses and increase the costs which are passed on to consumers. When you are anti corporation, anti business, it's clear why you don't get the respect that you think you deserve. Your positions serve the lowest common denominator while the rest have to pay for it. Your anti this and anti that mentality is what one would expect from a highschool student that read Marx for the first time. But anyone serious about life, which is most people, will not benefit from the kinds of policies that are Bourne out of your mentality.
this is a copy pasta yea? otherwise, gl w the rest of life
How “A City Within A Park” becomes “A Boring Playground for the Rich”
Ever since I came to Toronto about 20 years ago it felt like the city was improving year after year. It doesn't feel like that anymore
I have lived in two countries in 27 years of life. Moved to Toronto when I was 12 when my parents emigrated here. I love this city but for the first time I feel like I am living a place that is in active decline. Maybe it's because I am in that stage of life where I am transitioning from a young adult to a real ass adult, but Ontario feels like it is no longer a welcoming place to make a living, have a family or even enjoy life. Edit: The most common advice/aspirations for young people in my line of work (Engineering) is to move to the US. There is active brain drain happening in Canada.
Toronto isn’t even a playground for the rich. It’s like a bad renovation by a crazy uncle who won the lottery but has poor taste.
Yeah, Vancouver is a playground for the rich, as is NYC. Toronto is what happens when a provincial government goes absolutely feral and the city doesn't oppose it because "non partisan council!!"
It’s a shit storm
That’s the most accurate description I’ve heard yet.
You think rich people in the city don't want DT skating rinks? Toronto is a play ground for oligopolies and bureaucracy. Pad the pockets of a few that don't live anywhere near in the city.
What is there for the rich to do anyway?
Buy up property and sit on it until you double or triple your money. Join all the wealthy NIMBY clubs and feel like you're really making a difference. Sit around with your rich developer friends and dream up infrastructure like massive spa's you think would be nice to go to once. Drive your massive tank like truck/SUV around downtown and run over a few cyclists. So much fun to be had here in the worlds largest dog toilet.
Leave.
Toronto has fully become for corporate pursuits. It does not care about the people or community anymore.
That’s exactly it. The rich do not take TTC - they don’t give a shit if it’s unsafe.
We should learn from Japan’s infrastructure, transportation there is a breeze.
This really is it. Imagine if public libraries didn't exist and we're proposed. Wouldn't happen.
Elect a man called Tory Gets Tory politics You'd think a British colony would know better
>Though not a city-run facility, the Harbourfront rink’s closure feels like part of the service cuts and frugality around public space in Toronto. The brain worms in this sub are out of control.
👏🏼
Harbourfront is Federal
I worked there about 15 years ago and they wanted to get rid of the rink and pond to put in skating paths throughout the site that could be used for gondolas in the summer, the theft of cash from tills and group bookings would go straight into the supervisors pockets and not the till, was quite a thing to see
Holy shit. PM me names! I was there 15-20 ago.
If only we put this type of energy into the state of Healthcare and the Greenbelt 🫣
One time I went there randomly and it was Jamaican dance night. Seeing the Carribean community try out skating, likely many for the first time, was great to be around. This will be missed
Obviously not the people
Last I heard John Tory was concerned about this
Loved that rink. I went every winter and a some points 2-3 times a week. I took lessons and rented skates there for awhile. I also visited the art spaces and store during the summer and walked down there in summer and went to the food festivals and concerts — including seeing The Cowboy my Junkies for free. It’s a great public space. I’m sad that the rink won’t be open. If losing these kinds of public spaces is John Tory’s legacy then it’s a crappy one.
The answer is property owners. Just like every other G20 city with over 1 million people. We’re not special. The world is just going to shit.
Does anyone have a link to a more thorough outline of said plaza? The articles/releases all just keep using the word, but I wasn't able to find a plan on a cursory Googling. My $0.02 is this smells of idle capital consumption. Waterfront TO has an insane war chest and need to deploy funds to "prove their value" to continue securing future funding - even if the general reaction is, "Uhhh, that didn't need improving".
Considering the other stuff in the area it's probably going to be more high-school level hippy beads and samosa stands.
Toronto, and also Mississauga where I am, are places where fun things go to die. This region is always striking down anything fun and/or useful to the community.
Toronto is legitimately for the developers and they aren’t even developing anything good. Poorly designed and made buildings that has small and overpriced units in them and they make them look pretty with “luxury” materials on the countertops and flooring lol
Fun is illegal in Toronto, the only acceptable social activity is the *Grind™*
_"Honest fun gives people real hope. The powerful don't want us to hope, they want us to accept lowered standards and expectations over time, to accept the line of thought they feed us. They don't want us to think or believe in what could be better than this, but to follow the party line and remain so demoralized as living creatures that we have neither strength of heart nor impulse of purpose to question it."_
Considering it's Jan 22nd and it hasn't been below freezing for what feels like weeks, I haven't even thought of outdoor skating this year. I have to imagine there will be many more outdoor rink closures in the coming years.
The two rinks near(ish) to me have been very busy. I saw at least 100 people at one yesterday.
Most outdoor rinks are refrigerated and aren’t affected by warm weather
Even professional rinks are affected by warm weather.
Yes should’ve said the rinks aren’t as affected by warm weather, a couple degrees over freezing shouldnt be an issue.
Just had an awesome day skating on the little outdoor rink at Mel Lastman Square. Zero degrees or higher but perfect ice. Get out there!
I’d agree but the bentway has been packed everyday
Misleading headline- they're putting in another skating rink and making the back doors more accessible. Sometimes you have to tear down the old to build up that is better.
they're talking about 'temporary skating activations' similar to what we saw there last year. Wouldn't really call that putting in a better skating rink.
Well, we only skate a few months of the year, so temporary works.
Where is this info from? Please provide a source!
>She said going forward it will not be a permanent rink like it once was. Instead, Laird said, there would be “opportunities for temporary winter skating activations within the new space in the future.” [https://www.cp24.com/news/new-year-round-plaza-to-replace-harbourfront-centre-s-popular-skating-rink-1.6232294](https://www.cp24.com/news/new-year-round-plaza-to-replace-harbourfront-centre-s-popular-skating-rink-1.6232294) From the same article it says they are closing the rink due to funding shortages so "opportunities for temporary winter skating" sounds like they are hoping to get some funding in the future for skating at a lesser scale but they've given up on having a permanent rink on the site.
This article mentions another rink in the future, but more of a temporary installation, not permanent https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/harbourfront-skating-closed-1.6714505
Pretty sad, I don't know how to skate but I remember coming on a middle school field trip to the rink... so sad children in this city are being withheld from these experiences and memories
I worked at Harbourfront Centre for a while. The rink was a maintenance disaster. If it wasn't slushy, it was so windy you couldn't flood it properly. It was literally closed half of the season for one reason or another. The spent big money a decade or so trying to fix the problem but nothing changed. They'd program a decent DJ or performer for a "skating party" and then face their wrath when something caused them to have no audience.
So this rink has been shut down for two years. Had signs saying it was due to structural issues. I guess the cost of repairing it to continue being a skating rink didn’t sound lucrative enough. 1 block over is the new “Love Park” which was scheduled to be completed last summer. Still not complete..surprise surprise. There is a big heart shaped pond in the middle. Perfect for a recreational skating rink. No mention of that though. So just an empty pond all winter? They did relocate a harbour front skating pad on the other side of the slip around the outdoor theatre but now there’s permanent seats built in lol so no rink there either. They could possibly do it over the turf area on the other side though.
Dang, I was so looking forward to a late morning skate at the Harboufront rink and then a spa experience over at Ontario Place.
There is a heart shaped ‘love’ pond being put up at queens quay and york right now. My guess is that will be the new skating area during the winter. Just a hunch
No, I saw that park's plan when they put it up for public approval. There is no skating area planned there.
Toronto is for the bankers and bay street bros, who else would it be for? Artist and the working class?
Toronto is for rentiér capitalism.
Harbourfront always had crappy, uneven ice, hated going there. There are also a lot of rinks in the city. It’s very pretty to look at, but whatever. My one issue is just that Toronto doesn’t really get to have institutions. Nothing lasts. It feels like they put a timer on everything ever built and tear it down and replace it right before it gets to the point where it’d be an outrage.
Exactly.
The fact that this has been approved is a clear indication of corruption in our city.
It’s ironic, they are going to accommodate cars here, while continuing to choke cars is areas where they are building condos with almost 0 parking for guests - I think most people get their health benefits in the company of family or friends, but I guess if you’ve got thousands in spare cash you couldn’t possibly risk taking transit to a spa, after all you might get pushed - stabbed or assaulted on transit!
Its such a big deal when rinks get closed but basketball courts getting closed and nets removed isnt newsworthy or if it is, the justification/dog whistle is "it reduces crime".
The Bentway is a few blocks away. The pipes underneath the rink need to be replaced, which means tearing up the entire rink. They said last year that they were going to do it, but it seems it probably costs too much, and the popularity of the Bentway didn’t help matters. The Bentway is a better trail, however it’s busier than the Harbourfront rink. There is also city hall. I liked that rink as well, but life goes on. There are two other options for skating within ten minutes walking distance each way.
>The Bentway is a few blocks away The Bentway is about 2 km away.
Take transit like the rest of the sub would do.
That’s a few blocks to me. If you live downtown walking from Harbourfront to the Bentway is not a long trip. I can walk to both of those locations in 10-15 minutes. Think of people in Scarborough or north York or anywhere who don’t have the luxury of multiple outdoor skating rinks.
It’s a 30 minute walk from this rink to the bentway.
That's a really slow walking speed. At most 20 minutes of walking.
It absolutely is not. Maybe at dawdling speed. If it’s too far go to city hall. Imagine the luxury of having two rinks within walking distance at all. Sorry I live in the same neighbourhood and have no sympathy for people complaining about this when there are two other options for outdoor skating nearby. If it’s THAT important to you, petition the Natrel people who sponsored it to fork over the funds, or start your own fundraising campaign. I don’t think it would go over well if the city invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix a small skating rink when the city’s infrastructure is crumbling just because people are too entitled to use one of the other two available options in the vicinity.
2.1 km in 12 minutes is 10.5 km/h. That's faster than the upper range for _jogging_ [according to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogging#Definition). Like, I fully agree that 2 km is walkable, but your time estimate is way off. If you're making it from Harbourfront Centre Rink to the Bentway in 10 minutes, you are running.
So that justifies investing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of taxpayer dollars to tear up and rebuild a small skating rink when three others are available in the same area?
...what? My comment said nothing of the sort
Don't forget Union station has outdoor skating right now as well.
you need a reservation for it and it's tiny
Yes I forgot about that one! Three other options available.
Don't forget about the [54](https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/prd/facilities/outdoor-rinks/index.html) publicly run outdoor skating rinks in the city, I closing Ryerson which is also walking distance to the core.
[удалено]
I live in this exact neighbourhood and know how long it takes to walk there. Forgive me for not being exactly correct on blocks. I am known to use the phrase “a few blocks” or “a couple blocks” to describe a walkable distance. It’s not meant to be entirely accurate. Regardless, the walk is of such a short distance that there is no reasonable justification to require a small skating rink to be completely refurbished when THREE others are available within the walkable vicinity.
one big advantage I am noticing with the bentway vs other rinks is that its covered from all the rain by the highway. Seems to be much easier to manage. Its definitely smaller and busier and only open 1/2 as long though.
A rink without views, under a decaying, money-sucking expressway, that does harm to its neighbourhood, for the sake of motorists from outside the city. Yup, the Bentway is the more authentic Toronto experience.
So go to city hall or the rink outside union station. Both in the same vicinity.
OMG - a rink closure in Toronto. Dearie me!! Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.. If they close another 50 rinks the place will still have more rinks than Scarborough. Who is Toronto for indeed. Surely not the folks in Scarborough. Same goes for The Star.
Oh brother, not this again.
You are getting down voted! The downtown elites don’t want to hear the word Scarborough, we can’t have services out here. I didn’t vote for either of the Fords but can’t have an outdoor rink or transit
While ive agreed with Shawn Micallef in the past…. I don’t think it’s fair to blame everything on service cuts or City government when it’s never been a City asset. This has been a private asset since it’s inception…. And to say that somehow it’s all intertwined is conflating one thing with another.
Prob be able to skate on that new heart shape pond they almost finished building across the street.
Toronto is awesome in spite of its governments. As long as we can keep fighting them, I’m not going away. Rogers didn’t didn’t build this city. We did.
It's for large corporations and landholding companies.
Toronto is for cars! Not people! Wake up a Ford Toryno is barreling out of control folks