I walk by Alan Gardens every day. It’s a beautiful park, despite the rubbies and homeless and cop cars that occupy this green oasis, just east of Jarvis. Last October, around the end of the month, a blue temporary fence was erected with a sign announcing a Dogs Off-Leash area was going to be constructed inside 6 weeks. Landscaping through November? Ain’t gonna happen, was the first thing that came to mind.
Of course the due date of “late December” flew by like a hawk chasing a park pigeon.
SharkBoy and I would walk by and speculate how much the city was spending to rent, lease or contract out the machines that sat idle for weeks at a time inside this blue fence over the winter months. Occasionally we’d see workers in there prepping cement or laying out a feature for the park, but the brunt of the work was done the first while in October, halted for the most part of November/December and sporadically over January to March.
While the workers did their light touches to the run, all this time we watched as dog owners “broke into” the area and let their beasties go free, long before the area was complete. If this action of premature puppy pooping added time to the project, I can’t say, but it comes as no surprise this was happening. The same sort of guerrilla dog walking took place all during Cawthra Square’s (in the Gayborhood) re-modelling. Puppies just can’t wait, people!
This project is 5 months over their posted deadline (according to the sign) and little by little, small things are getting done: cement water features were finalized in March; the surrounding fence was put into place; a couple weeks back the area was landscaped with plants and mulch. Stuff is getting done, but at a lets-extend-this-contract-as-long-as-we-can pace. Mike Holmes would weep openly at the time and money this project is taking. I estimate that they could have started work in March and still be where they are now if they had put in regular work hours.
At this point, I don’t care what the dog run looks like, I just want my park back sans ugly blue fence.
5 thoughts on “Toronto City Works Doesn’t”
Pingback: Dead Robot » Dead Robot
As if by magic, they removed the fence as we walked by this morning. I’d like to think it was because of my blog, but it’s just weird coincidental timing.
They were also laying sod with a small army of city workers. Cha-ching!
That is one ugly blue fence. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term “guerrilla dog walking” before. Makes sense though. Dogs love their off leash parks.
Pingback: The Phantom Zone - May 28, 2008 « The Fortress of Solitude
Hmmm…stupidly, I always thought the blue fence WAS the finished project. D’OH!
I walk by it (or rather ride through it) quite regularly and it is an under-appreciated park. Beats walking or biking down Church Street, that’s for sure.