Category: Latest Issues

The City of Toronto is reviewing how it uses its city-owned golf courses. Three of those golf courses interrupt multi-use trails through parks and ravines. Walk Toronto has written to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to support converting parts of those courses to parkland to remove these interruptions to the trail network, while maintaining some municipal golf facilities in the remaining areas.

In particular, the staff report recommends converting some of the Dentonia Park golf course to parkland, which would enable connecting the Taylor-Massey Creek and Warden Woods trails. However, the local city councillors came out against this plan. As a result, Walk Toronto’s Dylan Reid gave a deputation at the committee meeting in support of the Dentonia Park plan.

• Read Walk Toronto’s communication to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee (PDF)
• See the agenda item
• Read Dylan Reid’s deputation, below.

Deputation to IEC on item IE27.6, January 11, 2022

My name is Dylan Reid, and I am here representing Walk Toronto. Walk Toronto is a volunteer advocacy group dedicated to making Toronto a great city for walking.

Walk Toronto strongly supports the proposal to turn part of the Dentonia Park golf course into a public park, while maintaining a smaller golf course. The Dentonia Park golf course currently interrupts the city’s ravine trail network, separating the Taylor-Massey Creek trail from the Warden Woods trail.

Bringing part of the golf course into the public park network will enable the city to extend the Taylor-Massey Creek trail and link it up with the Warden Woods trail, creating a continuous trail from inside Scarborough all the way to the downtown waterfront that provides a free space for recreation for the nearby communities and for all Torontonians.

We certainly support the value of golf, which encourages walking, but the proposal would maintain an affordable golf course suited to learners and casual players, and suited to an urban environment.

The pandemic has shown the value of free, accessible park land, and spaces for walking in nature, for Torontonians, especially those who live in multi-unit residences and do not have access to private yards. The proposal to convert part of Dentonia Park golf course into parkland would create more space that can be accessed for free, for a variety of recreational purposes. It would create a safe, off-road route for such recreation that links Scarborough and East York. It is particularly appropriate because the immediate community around it is identified as high on the Equity-Deserving Index and in need of additional free public facilities.

The proposal would also support the City’s new ravine strategy. The City is investing considerable time and money to establish ravine trail connections where they are missing, such as the new East Don trail. It would be a tragedy to overlook this unique opportunity to continue the work of connecting up Toronto’s ravine trails, with a much simpler project.

The proposal for turning part of Dentonia Park into public parkland is a compromise that maintains access to a City golf course while providing new free public parkland and connecting up a gap in Toronto’s ravine trail network. We urge the committee to support it.

Thank you.

Walk Toronto has written to City Council to support a motion by Councillor Anthony Perruzza looking for better maintenance of public walkways.

Councillor Peruzza writes that “Residents have come to find that our public walkways are deteriorating; overgrown with vegetation, and with cracks that present serious safety and accessibility concerns.”

In Walk Toronto’s communication, Michael Black notes that “The suburban street network inside of the arterial road grid tends to be discontinuous and maze-like” and that “In order to provide people on foot with direct routes to destinations such as local schools and parks, public walkways were strategically installed.” As a result, “maintenance of public walkways is essential for active transportation to work properly. Bringing walkway levels of service to higher standards may not be glamorous — but it is a task that is much, much cheaper than maintaining expressways or subway lines.”

• Read Walk Toronto’s communication (PDF)
• See the Infrastructure and Environment Committee agenda item
• Read Councillor Perruzza’s letter (PDF)

Walk Toronto has written to the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee to recommend against adopting a pilot framework to test automated micro-utility devices on sidewalks, in order to avoid creating new barriers for Ontarians with disabilities.

“We are extremely concerned about the implications for pedestrians, and particularly for those with disabilities, of deploying automated or remote-controlled MUD technology, including automated personal delivery devices, on our sidewalks. Accessibility should be the baseline in any pilot, and not an afterthought for prospective commercial partners.”

• Read the full submission (PDF)
• See the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee agenda item

Walk Toronto has long been advocating for improving access to Toronto’s parks during winter, through more clearing of snow on park trails and through more all-season washrooms.

Walk Toronto is therefore pleased that the City of Toronto is proposing to make some modest improvements along these lines this winter. Walk Toronto has written to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to support the “Improving Winter Access to Toronto’s Parks for 2021-22” proposal, which includes plowing more park trails and winterizing 5 additional park washrooms.

As Walk Toronto’s letter states, “these measures will have the potential to play a substantial role in improving the physical and psychological health and safety of Toronto’s residents, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is entering a second stressful winter period.”

However, Walk Toronto is concerned that, at the moment, these measures are only supported in the short term. Walk Toronto recommends that the City work to establish these improvements permanently.

• See Walk Toronto’s communication (PDF)
• See the agenda item, IE25.11, “Improving Winter Access to Toronto’s Parks for 2021-22”

Walk Toronto has written to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to support a motion by Councillor Paul Ainslie (Ward 24, Scarborough-Guildwood) calling on staff to “develop a long-term plan for [a] comprehensive pedestrian cycling network for Scarborough.”

While “Scarborough currently has the worst rate of pedestrian fatalities among Toronto’s four districts,” says the letter, ” the district “also provides opportunities for a much safer and more attractive pedestrian realm.” However,  “no change will be possible without a conscious and determined strategy to transform Scarborough into a community where walking is safe, convenient, accessible, and appealing.”

The motion was inspired by the report “The Scarborough Opportunity: A Comprehensive Walking and Cycling Network,” prepared by Prof. Andre Sorensen and five of his students at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. Walk Toronto’s Dylan Reid served as an advisor and editor for the report.

• Read Walk Toronto’s communication regarding the motion (PDF)
• See the agenda item

“Vehicles for hire managed by private transportation companies like Uber have become a significant presence on Toronto’s streets. Drivers of such vehicles often work long hours and are under considerable time pressure, which can lead to dangerous situations. Given their outsized presence on Toronto’s streets, it is important that they receive additional, targeted training to contribute to the safety of Toronto’s streets, among other goals.”

Walk Toronto has written to the General Government and Licensing Committee to support a motion to ensure vehicle-for-hire driver training.

• See the agenda item, “Back-to-School – Vehicle-for-Hire Driver Training”
• Read Walk Toronto’s communication (PDF)

Walk Toronto is pleased to endorse a new report, The Scarborough Opportunity: A Comprehensive Walking and Cycling Network. The report provides a roadmap for developing a comprehensive active transportation network for Scarborough at the scale necessary to achieve existing City of Toronto policy targets, including having 75% of trips less than 5 km made by walking or cycling.

The report was prepared by Prof. Andre Sorensen and five students from his class “Planning and Building Public Spaces in Toronto” at the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. Walk Toronto’s Dylan Reid was a member of the advisory committee for the project.

• Find out more about the report
• Read the report (PDF)

Last week, without any kind of significant notification, the southern stretch of Bayview Avenue was removed from the ActiveTO program, which closes streets to motor vehicles on the weekend so that it can be used by walkers, runners, wheelchair users, and cyclists. The excuse is that part of the street has now become a separated multi-use trail.

Walk Toronto’s Adam Cohoon, who moves in a motorized wheelchair and lives near the south end of Bayview, has written to Transportation Services and councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam about the impact of this decision on him.

ACTIVETO Bayview Closure

I am a wheelchair user that lives near Corktown Common and use the Bayview Avenue weekend activity closure to get some fresh air. So I’m disappointed to hear that those closures won’t be happening. With the new temporary multi-use tracks along Bayview, the city believes that the weekend closure is no longer needed.

Well, I’m here to tell you that it will be very disappointing for families and other people when they realize the joy of a wide-open Bayview  extension is taken away. The only people who will have any freedom are the cyclists, and expert joggers who will put up with the cyclists on the weekend. Maybe I can use the multi-use trail on Monday or Tuesday, but I know I will not feel safe using them any weekend with cyclists and other high-speed users using those trails.

I was looking for a gentle ride I have become accustomed to on my weekends during this pandemic. They were a highlight of my pandemic summer last year. I was hoping to get that same enjoyment this year, but I will be having that same enjoyment to no avail. I am asking city staff to reconsider and reenact the closure of Bayview on the weekends until the pandemic lifts.

I would appreciate a conversation on why, even with the new multi-use tracks, with ActiveTO why the opportunity to close the Bayview extension to give the community the extra pavement and extra activity space was abandoned. At least south of the River street ramp it was not utilized on weekends.

Thank you.

 

Thank you.

Adam Cohoon