Rascacielo
Senior Member
Today
- Thread starter androiduk
- Start date
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
Visited the new ONE YONGE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE in the base of the new residential tower at 24 FREELAND today...
www.toronto.ca
Parks & Community Centre Locations
www.toronto.ca
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
More photos of the new ONE YONGE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE ...
Northern Light
Superstar
Visited the new ONE YONGE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE in the base of the new residential tower at 24 FREELAND today...
Parks & Community Centre Locations
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Better hours than many Toronto facilities but worse than most suburban ones........
Wanna keep kids out of trouble on a Saturday night, the key is closing at 8pm...................uhhhh.......
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Also..... @AlexBozikovic or @smably may have something to say about the architectural seating there............and they'd be right...........
I'll defend it the odd time, its shortcomings notwithstanding.
But this, is not that time. What an absurd inclusion.
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
For comparison, looked at the hours for the Canoe Landing Community Recreation Centre in City Place - https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/prd/facilities/complex/3643/index.html
Monday: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Tuesday: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Wednesday: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Thursday: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Friday: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Sunday: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
...and the Regent Park Community Centre - https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/prd/facilities/complex/3502/index.html
Monday: 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Tuesday: 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Wednesday: 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m..
Thursday: 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Friday: 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
My unconfirmed assumption is that based on the age & demographics of most PFR staff, those weekend evenings might be very hard PFR shifts to fill -- and there may even be higher-costs for staffing that late under the CUPE 79 (Recreation Workers) agreements - https://cupelocal79.org/recreation/
Northern Light
Superstar
Its a systemic problem with PF&R in Toronto that they do what is convenient for them, not for the residents/citizen of Toronto.
By contrast, lets look at these:
Brampton:
Mississauga:
Markham:
Ajax:
AlexBozikovic
Active Member
Agreed about the stairs. And this project is underwhelming. Spatially awkward, poorly furnished, poorly lit.
The mosaics are great, though.
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Parkdalian
Senior Member
Looking forward to One Yonge being visible from the Harbour Street pedestrian bridge:
HousingNowTO
Senior Member
Those suburban (non-Toronto) locations all run their community recreation programs on a full cost-recovery model... which enables them to have more capacity -- and longer hours.
Toronto PFR is mandated by Council to run on a subsidy-for-all model, which means that the only way to manage cost(s) is to restrict the supply and service hours.
Toronto PFR cluster-fudge was the first civic-issue that I personally engaged at City Council on waaaaay back in 2011 (Yikes!), and nothing has substantially changed in their funding models and priorities over the last DOZEN years.
The system is almost perfectly-designed to constrain recreation capacity -
Charge more and save programs, dad tells budget committee
'You can't get a babysitter for $3.12 an hour'
www.theglobeandmail.com
Northern Light
Superstar
Those suburban (non-Toronto) locations all run their community recreation programs on a full cost-recovery model... which enables them to have more capacity -- and longer hours.
Toronto PFR is mandated by Council to run on a subsidy-for-all model, which means that the only way to manage cost(s) is to restrict the supply and service hours.
Toronto PFR cluster-fudge was the first civic-issue that I personally engaged at City Council on waaaaay back in 2011 (Yikes!), and nothing has substantially changed in their funding models and priorities over the last DOZEN years.
The system is almost perfectly-designed to constrain recreation capacity -
Charge more and save programs, dad tells budget committee
'You can't get a babysitter for $3.12 an hour'
While I don't like the City model, as is often the case, I go towards the Scandinavian models; and the old City of Toronto model, which was no fees for anyone.
A former City of Toronto Parks Commissioner once noted that the cost of collecting the money, and fees handling wiped out a good chunk of the fee revenue, and the rest disappeared the moment you offered targeted concessions by age or income.
No debit terminal, no credit terminal, no cash-handling, no discounts/concessions of most programs would be vastly more efficient.
It should be noted, gross Recreation User Fees in Toronto are a mere 73M + 46M (Community centres + parks) in the 2023 budget; out of 16B in spending or less than 0.9%
That said, if we retained fees, I would prefer that we ditch seniors discounts, make everything free for those 17 and under and then target to make select programs free for everyone, outdoor swimming, learn to swim, learn to skate, learn to bike, first aid/CPR.
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On the subject of hours, I don't think we even need more funding, let me explain.
1) I've been told by any number of private swim programs that is huge latent demand for more pool time on weekends if facilities were open later, that time would be fee-paid under the current model.
2) The City keeps building new Recreation Centres at 100M+ on the basis of meeting demand, while existing centres remain closed on Saturday and Sunday late afternoons and evenings for most part.
I know staff inside PF&R who have agreed that if even one recreation centre were cancelled it would fund expanded weekend hours at 1/2 the locations in the City for years.
We're talking about 1M per year per facility to add those hours, if life guards are required, and 1/2 that if they are not.
Edit to Add: I decide to take a quick look at the number of 'Community Centres' per capita an compare Toronto to the surrounding area.
Many areas, including Toronto group arenas, 'club houses' and seniors centres under this heading, I excluded those.
I included only City-owned pool, community centre, recreation centre in my calculations.
Brampton and Mississauga range from 1.75 to 2.3 community centres per 100,000 residents
Toronto is ~ 3.7, or no less than 60% higher.
Generally, each facility carries it own manager, and a bare minimum of 2 staff to operate at all times (manager on duty/janitor); though many would have program staff, and security.
Where I see this as a real issue is in an area similar to Stan Wadlow Park; where there is an Arena, a separate Clubhouse facility, a Separate outdoor pool (seasonal); and then an indoor pool w/limited hours in the nearby middle school, as well as the Curling Club.
If you cut the minimum number of managers on duty from 3 to 1 in the winter (4 on days the pool operates) that would strike me as enough to fund significant hours expansion.
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Johnny Au
Superstar
Source:
Jeff Morgan
Active Member
Working hard getting ready for a big pour!
Collingwoodbuildinglover
Senior Member
That is one monstrously huge slab. Thank you for posting updates
mburrrrr
Senior Member
A work of beauty.
Finally a closer look. Is this the end cap buried in the transfer slab? .
Looks like they couple the horizontal bars too. The forefront bars seem higher.
I’m so fascinated by the tension system. I still want to learn more…… maybe a UT inside story someday.
New green crane lighting. Occupancy approaching the top.
Finally a closer look. Is this the end cap buried in the transfer slab? .
Looks like they couple the horizontal bars too. The forefront bars seem higher.
I’m so fascinated by the tension system. I still want to learn more…… maybe a UT inside story someday.
New green crane lighting. Occupancy approaching the top.
ushahid
Senior Member
those white sheets look like Halloween decoration. LOL! they all over my neighborhood, so thats the first thing that came to mind.