August 14, 2003

From Dufferin grove Park newsletter (August 2003)

Thursday August 14 (4.30 p.m.) to Saturday August 16 (9.20 a.m.): 41 hours with no hydro!

The power went off an hour after the farmers' market began. By nightfall the park was totally dark except for small groups of people sitting around with guitars (or battery cassette players) and candles. The next morning Dan DeMatteis and Emma Cook came to the park and began cooking Friday night supper. They decided to stop taking reservations and just make as much food as possible. (Many people couldn't cook at home, but of course the park's bake-ovens are off the grid, so we can always cook as long as we have wood.) Down at the wading pool we were not permitted to open, at first, to conserve water. So we just set up some sprinklers, so that people who had no water at home (that means most apartment high rises near the park and all over the city) could come and cool off. By noon there was a municipal change of mind: in the interest of cooling people down, we were allowed to fill the wading pool. We served organic hot dogs, water melon, and cool drinks, and the whole playground was packed all day. By evening the scene moved to the ovens, where extra tables had been set up and the food was ready. Supper was delicious, as always. People also brought their own food to cook. Others borrowed our park gas barbecue. But during the evening we noticed more and more people coming in to the rink house to fill water containers, and we began to hear unsettling stories about the apartment next to the rink house. It had no water, no elevator, and not even light in the stairwell.

Many of the people living in that building are older, and we tried to find out if there was a city crisis number to call for help with getting water to the old, overheated apartment tenants. NO LUCK!!! Not the city councillor's office, not the ambulance headquarters, not Access Toronto at City Hall , not even a very nice-sounding dispatcher at 9-1-1 had an idea of who might be going around checking on apartment dwellers.

And no luck the next morning either. There was no crisis number. Thankfully, by 9.20 the power came back on, and within a few hours the apartment buildings had water again.

The next day we called around to find out how it was that so many apartment buildings had no back-up generators. Adam Giambrone, who's running for our ward councillor's seat in the November election, called us right back. He said he's found out that the legislation requiring access, water, and emergency lighting for apartment buildings only applies to the newer apartments. Giambrone said that in his opinion this must be fixed by a better law. We agree!

We asked Ben Figueiredo, the park's grape grower, who lives in the apartment next to the rink house, how he had got up to his fourteenth floor apartment during the blackout. Ben, who's 76, said, "I walked." Once on Thursday and twice on Friday. And then, when the elevators came back on, Ben walked up the stairs once more: just to prove he could do it even when he didn't have to.

Blackout Aftermath

Everything more or less returned to normal at the park when the power came back on. But on Monday, when the administrators returned to work, they decided that public facilities should be seen to be cutting back on hydro use, to inspire others. So the decision was made to close all community centres, all libraries, and shut down all evening sports lighting (youth basketball, park baseball tournaments, tennis, etc.). That meant that during the week following the blackout it was possible to have a drink at Hooters or shop for a new outfit at any air-conditioned mall, but it was not possible to go to the library or play basketball in the cool evening of the park. Attempts to reason with the city administrators (for example, about sports lighting being required only after the peak hours were over, or about libraries being allowed to open under the same 50% power rules as all commercial establishments), got no response. The unfortunate effect was that if you could pay for your pleasures, you had access to everything, whereas if you wanted to use libraries or community centres for free, you were right out of luck. We think this unseemly haste to shut down public space - wanting to be seen to take any action rather than picking sensible actions - shows a wrong-headed approach to civic resources especially in a crisis. No doubt the ways of handling the hydro crisis will become an issue in the fall municipal election - and so they should.

August 18, 2003

From: Jutta Mason
To: James Dann

Dear James,

I was very relieved to find out yesterday that the outdoor lights in city parks were NOT turned off last night. When you said on the phone that the morality lights would be turned off I thought you meant the parks would be plunged back into darkness. But in the event neither the "morality lights"' that prevent building vandalism nor those that ensure visibility in the park were turned off. I obviously misunderstood you on the phone.

However, I would like to ask your department to re-do the math on the issue of park activity lighting in the evenings, for these reasons:

1. if there are normal evening activities in the parks, the many people in Toronto who live in high rises can postpone their return to their apartments and the switching on of their window air conditioners. Outdoor public space use should be regarded as an important alternative to private energy use. Cool evenings breezes are a very important civic asset when it's this hot outside.

2. After-dark park activities take place AFTER the high-demand electrical period. Curtailing park activities such as basketball by disallowing night lighting of group areas, doesn't accomplish any important energy savings.

3. All activities that occupy young people at this time, especially those youth whose activities sometimes verge on the illegal, ought to be a seen as a public safety priority.

I hope that your department will take up these considerations in your decision-making today.

Jutta Mason