AlbertC
Superstar
Straggling along here with the park pavilion and landscaping
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- Thread starter toast_and_tea
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AlbertC
Superstar
Residents spar over city’s new approach to Dufferin Grove homeless encampment
Beginning Feb. 1, the city will roll out new a strategy that aims to eliminate the Dufferin Grove Park homeless encampment — currently, one of the largest in Toronto
www.torontotoday.ca
evandyk
Senior Member
I was at that meeting. It was pretty much as I expected. There were a couple of city staff who gave a good presentation about their plans for "resolving" the situation at the park. The plan sounds like the best possible approach, but it's frustrating that despite this being a pretty major situation since the summer (the Star wrote an article about Dufferin Grove in August) the "plan" is not actually being implemented yet, and won't be until February. So they pretty much sat on the situation for half a year, including two of the coldest months of the winter.
The person referred to here was extremely obnoxious, constantly shouted people down, and was offered the opportunity to ask a question but just made a lengthy statement. He was part of a small group that had obviously come for the purpose of being disruptive.
Ultimately, I think the people who came to hear from city staff left satisfied (they might not love the plan, but they're at least informed), the people who came to shout at other people left satisfied (the large crowd size made it a bit hard for Councillor Bravo to control), but anybody who came for an opportunity to have a Q&A with the councillor and staff was not well-served.
I did speak to both Bravo and the guy from the city's encampment team (he is quoted in the article) after the meeting. I was disappointed that when asked if they had any plans for priority areas of the park to clear up for neighbourhood use, like the sledding hill area, I was told that the people camping around the sledding hill were particularly challenging to house, so we shouldn't' expect to be able to use that area for sledding this winter. I am totally against the police busting up encampments, but feel it's pretty reasonable to tell people they should camp in areas that aren't highly desired for specific uses by the public.
Quite laughably, a few of the shouters insisted there was no reason people should feel unsafe being in the park, and that there are no drugs in the park.
The person referred to here was extremely obnoxious, constantly shouted people down, and was offered the opportunity to ask a question but just made a lengthy statement. He was part of a small group that had obviously come for the purpose of being disruptive.
Ultimately, I think the people who came to hear from city staff left satisfied (they might not love the plan, but they're at least informed), the people who came to shout at other people left satisfied (the large crowd size made it a bit hard for Councillor Bravo to control), but anybody who came for an opportunity to have a Q&A with the councillor and staff was not well-served.
I did speak to both Bravo and the guy from the city's encampment team (he is quoted in the article) after the meeting. I was disappointed that when asked if they had any plans for priority areas of the park to clear up for neighbourhood use, like the sledding hill area, I was told that the people camping around the sledding hill were particularly challenging to house, so we shouldn't' expect to be able to use that area for sledding this winter. I am totally against the police busting up encampments, but feel it's pretty reasonable to tell people they should camp in areas that aren't highly desired for specific uses by the public.
Quite laughably, a few of the shouters insisted there was no reason people should feel unsafe being in the park, and that there are no drugs in the park.
Towered
Superstar
And then they can turn to Alexandra Park again - it was cleared a while ago, but tents are once again sprouting like mushrooms.
evandyk
Senior Member
I understand that until the province and city are willing to actually house people, park encampments are going to be a bit of a whack-a-mole. What I find frustrating is that the city seems to feel it's not appropriate to impose any conditions on people who are living in parks. It doesn't seem unreasonable for the city to say "you can stay in this park, and we're going to try to help you find sustainable housing, but in the meantime, don't leave trash around, don't shit in the flower beds, don't cause fires, don't hang around in kid's play areas, etc.? If you do those things, you'll be moved out of the park."
"Moved out of the park" for people in this situation is obviously not a lot of (any?) good options, but the current status quo is not a good option either.
"Moved out of the park" for people in this situation is obviously not a lot of (any?) good options, but the current status quo is not a good option either.
Towered
Superstar
No drugs? Laughable idiocy. The one time last spring that I took my son to the park, there were a bunch of needles inside the porta-potty. I was so angry. Haven't taken him there since, despite his requests. The needs and happiness of kids should always be the number one priority when it comes to usability of parks. This is something I don't compromise on whatsoever.
evandyk
Senior Member
The skating rink is open. You should come back! But sadly it sounds like there will be no sledding this winter, if it ever snows.
Northern Light
Superstar
I'm only 1/2 joking when I say, move the encampment to Chorley Park and see what happens.
I have a funny feeling the Rosedale set would find a way to house everyone in the space of a week.
I mean, hey, there are 4 houses........err mansions.......completely vacant on a nearby street.........they aren't awaiting redevelopment either, they were bought so the billionaires in question didn't have to have neighbours. I'm betting those 4 homes are large enough to house more than 100 people comfortably between them.
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No, I don't expect the billionaires in question would loan out the houses in question for said purpose, LOL........ but if you have that kind of money burning a hole in your pocket, what's buying a hotel to get folks out of your local park?
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evandyk
Senior Member
The activists there did shout at city staff that they were only called on the carpet at this meeting because Dufferin Grove is full of wealthy white people who love to complain.
picard102
Senior Member
Are they wrong?
evandyk
Senior Member
To some extent. Dufferin Grove is overall a little lower-income than most of the inner suburb neighbourhoods, but obviously people who own houses there are pretty rich. I think the city staff were at a Dufferin Grove meeting specifically mostly because Alejandra Bravo is a good city councillor and wants to provide information to her constituents, so she arranged it.
www.datalabto.ca
The Most Detailed Income Map of Toronto You’ve Ever Seen!
Click here to view the map on a full screen. Note: Some census tracts show 0 median household incomes. This means the data is not applicable based on census data. Each polygon represents a census tract, a small, relatively stable area with between 2,500 and 8,000 people, according to the...
www.datalabto.ca
AlbertC
Superstar
To say "Dufferin Grove is full of wealthy white people" is rather generalized. This isn't Forest Hill, Lawrence Park or Leaside here. Majority of households here and in the surrounding Wallace Emerson and Dovercourt Village are still first or second generation Portuguese, who started out with working class origins. Afterwards there's a fairly even distribution of Asian, South Asian, Caribbean, African, and Latin American population.
Separately and albeit anecdotally, one only has to make a visit to Dufferin Mall to acknowledge the diverse and working class demographics that frequent the shopping centre and area.
Some dated info from a couple websites but still gives a good sense of the neighbourhood make up:
www.areavibes.com
storymaps.arcgis.com
Separately and albeit anecdotally, one only has to make a visit to Dufferin Mall to acknowledge the diverse and working class demographics that frequent the shopping centre and area.
Some dated info from a couple websites but still gives a good sense of the neighbourhood make up:
Dufferin Grove, Ontario Population & Demographics
View the Dufferin Grove, Toronto, ON population and other interesting demographics including: median age, male to female ratio, marital status, source of income, languages spoken and race breakdown.
www.areavibes.com
Dufferin Grove
Harness the power of maps to tell stories that matter. ArcGIS StoryMaps has everything you need to create remarkable stories that give your maps meaning.
storymaps.arcgis.com
evandyk
Senior Member
Stand at the corner of Dufferin and Bloor today, and probably less than 50% of the spoken words you hear will be in English (Spanish is probably as common as English, but you'll hear lots of Portuguese too, a lot of which is Brazilian, I think). But I would say that the crowd at the meeting was mostly white.
Example:
www.westendphoenix.com
Their tacos are very good, BTW, especially the tongue. And a 5-year-old-friendly quesadilla on the menu.
Example:
Today's Special: Tacos el Pastor — West End Phoenix
At Taqueria el Pastorcito, Irapuato-style tacos are served alongside music from Los Aventureros, a four-piece mariachi band, if you stop in on the right night.
www.westendphoenix.com
Their tacos are very good, BTW, especially the tongue. And a 5-year-old-friendly quesadilla on the menu.
AlbertC
Superstar
Stand at the corner of Dufferin and Bloor today, and probably less than 50% of the spoken words you hear will be in English (Spanish is probably as common as English, but you'll hear lots of Portuguese too, a lot of which is Brazilian, I think). But I would say that the crowd at the meeting was mostly white.
Example:
Today's Special: Tacos el Pastor — West End Phoenix
At Taqueria el Pastorcito, Irapuato-style tacos are served alongside music from Los Aventureros, a four-piece mariachi band, if you stop in on the right night.
Their tacos are very good, BTW, especially the tongue. And a 5-year-old-friendly quesadilla on the menu.
I do agree that Latin American businesses have become one of the highest growing in the Bloor and Dufferin area in the past decade or two, along with the Corso Italia part of St. Clair.
For St. Clair it's also become a centre where people are culturally identifying with. Such as when Argentina won in the Copa America, it was a place where people came to celebrate on. Same with the Salsa on St. Clair, where Latin Americans from all nations hung out further west in the Corso Italia part for a lot of the after party festivities.
christiesplits
Senior Member
Agreed! St. Clair West is very Spanish. They should call it the Spanish Quarter.