Centre For Local Research into Public Space (CELOS)
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March 28: The interview
There’s been a development. On Friday March 28, I did finally speak to parks and rec staff, and found out that the rink guards’ narrative had relocated my “assault” from outdoors beside my car to inside the building. I had supposedly gone over to the rink house skate room and shoved Jordan, and then followed up by hitting him with my cane.
Scary, if it were true, being shoved and hit by an old woman armed with a cane.
But I did no such thing.
I talked to the city workplace harassment officer on Friday because on Thursday evening at about 9.30 I got an email from the director of Parks and Rec management services, Aydin Sarrafzadeh. He wrote: “We are reaching out, in one final attempt to invite you to an interview” -- which could be done by phone.
My lawyer friend Jacqueline Peeters had written to me the day before: “You’re dealing with a bureaucracy. Their ‘workplace harassment’ investigation is going to end up being decided without your input,” and she urged me to set aside my refusal to fit into the parks and rec harassment narrative.
read more
Two urgent problems at Dufferin Grove: tents and staff behaviour
Councillor Bravo and me, Feb.9
photo: Carolyn Oie
Alejandra Bravo is in her first term as city councillor for Ward 9/Davenport. So she’s new in that role. She inherited problems in this ward that existed well before she was elected. Two of those problems --encampments, and Ward 9 parks and rec staff -- were waiting for Ms. Bravo on her first day as a councillor, along with a lot more.
Not her fault, and very far from easy.
Some context: for any first-term city councillor, the learning curve is steep. City staff are not always helpful, and sometimes obstructive. Many new councillors look for mentoring from the more experienced long-term councillors at the start, but that’s also not easy. The old hands are busy in their own wards, and sometimes they’re impatient with the inexperience and idealism of their new colleagues.
So back to City staff. Although they’re paid to help councillors fix problems, in the two recent urgent issues at Dufferin Grove, the staff appear to be doing the opposite. read more
March 21: Next steps
City staff and the city councillor seem to be unable to paint themselves out of the corner they've got into. Here are the next steps that will help:
how can the adventure playground be revived?
1. Parks and Rec management should immediately ask the police to remove their trespass order restricting my access to public space.
2. Councillor Bravo could then book a time to talk to me directly about the situation at the park. If she invited the (new?) recreation manager for this area to come too, even better.
3. Councillor Bravo and the recreation manager could then schedule an April public meeting at the rink building, to discuss the city's plans for reviving the former social programs of the park when spring comes.
March 14: "Where there's smoke there's fire"
The saying "where there's smoke there's fire" means that if something goes wrong, then there's usually more going wrong in behind. That seems to be the case at Dufferin Grove.
In my last posting I suggested that park friends who want to help could talk to rink staff directly. It now turns out that that may not be such a good idea. Stories have surfaced of bigger problems with some of the staff’s behavior, beyond their action against me.
The list includes:
- Unscheduled early closings so staff could go home two hours early, while still being paid - Aggressive behavior toward skaters who objected - Some staff declining to work alongside others for reasons of safety - Some minor criminal activity within the building, possibly including some of the St.Mary’s students who have been part of the indoor group scene all winter - This week the giant Clay and Paper puppet head, wall-mounted inside the building near the staff’s usual location, was seriously vandalized without staff intervening to stop it. The list is long, and seems to be getting longer.
To address these problems, rec management is now planning to install security cameras.
More correspondence, and notes
Downtown: Parks and Rec workplace harassment letters between Management Services Staff and celos
Park: flagging Dufferin Grove staff problems: notes and letters between recreation management and celos
Community: community letters after the Feb.12 "trespass notice" from police
Legal: Community comments on the legalities of P&R and police actions
March 1, 2025: people talking
the old rink clubhouse (Jane LowBeer)
I’m getting lots of letters (thank you!) and not a few of them worry about how this rink dustup is affecting me (i.e. distress level). And also there’s often a second question: “how can I help?”
I have a suggestion for the second question: one way to help fix things is to talk to the rink staff directly (read down for the suggested “celos approach”). But to the first question: I’m not distressed. I don’t like being insulted, but over the years I’ve sometimes had the other extreme – I have a basketful of medals and pins and a shopping bag of gold-print official thank you certificates. More to the point, all those recent notes of support have taken much of the edge off these surprising rink events -- not to mention the letters to Councillor Bravo that I was cc’d on.
Re how to help:
The question of whether city management will address the actions of their rink staff is still very much up in the air at the moment. read more
Feb.26, 2025: lifetime trespass order
Fourteen Division, Toronto Police, explained to us today that the police can verbally issue a trespass order if they have a reasonable grounds to believe an assault occurred.
In this case, they did issue a trespass order against me, even though city management wasn't told. It sounds like, since there were two of the rec staff guys who claimed that I had assaulted one of them, and only one of me, that means that the second rec guy counts as a neutral witness. The front desk staff person at Fourteen Division said that a verbal trespass order from police is lifetime if police choose.
And the only way I can find out what was reported against me is if I go in person to 40 College St and pay $67.50. I will not be sending money, so I won't find out. read more
Feb.18, 2025 Art in the park
A park friend sent this story, which starts badly but ends with a happier twist:
I was hanging an ice- shape; I make and hang many; from a tree in the park about a month ago; and a young fellow in a black outfit, that said Garda, came hustling over, with a cig in his hand, to reprimand me, and tell me that this object was a dangerous hazard in the wind; and had to be removed.
he did not say who he was; or that he had some authority
I asked him to put out his cigarette; which he threw into the grass
I was pissed at him, and after a few minutes of tough discussion, he cut down my piece and marched off to the rink house with it. I followed, demanding my "work of art" back
at the door to their office, he said
if you step in here, I will call the police
read more
Feb 16, 2025 parks and rec inquiry
Feb.12, 2025, 10.15 a.m. blocking me from leaving
Follow-up on the Trespass Order:
From Jutta, Feb.16, 2025: The behavior of the two rec staff on Feb.12 was so astonishingly bad that I was thrown off, I couldn't believe it was happening. Since Jordan blocked my car from leaving and Justin refused to move his car (until finally directed to do so by their supervisor Adam Tyzler), plus they both yelled at me and mocked me etc., it’s a wonder that I didn't shove them out of the way to get away from them. But I did no such thing. If I had, they wouldn't have had to lie to the police. read more
Feb.12, 2025 banishment
Excerpt: During the thirty years that I've been part of the colourful social fabric of Dufferin Grove Park, I've seen so many remarkable things, and I thought there were no more quirky surprises possible. But this one is new. What happens next is certainly going to be interesting, at least to me -- even more so when seen in the context of the many other troubles at Parks and Rec, citywide. read more
rink history around 1993 -- there is an overlap with today (history repeats itself), but with a twist. That time the rec director assigned a different supervisor, and all sorts of good things came after.
Feb.3, 2025 rink picnics
When the snack bar used to run 7 days a week during skating season, it was easy to set up a time to meet a friend for lunch for a bowl of soup or coffee and a cookie, and a skate before or after. Since that's not happening at this point, I'm trying a different way. I've been sending the following question to people I know or want to get to know: Can I invite you to a little picnic at the rink building?
The menu is based on the former basic snack bar menu. It's a little experiment. I'm bringing the food in a little tupperware from home, warming up the soup and the mini pizzas in the new public microwave at the rink.
Simple food and good conversation. And it's also been a chance to hang out sometimes, to see if I'm right to say: this renovated building can no longer be called a "clubhouse."
I was wrong. After about a month of "picnic" visits, I can see that it is most definitely a clubhouse.....
....but for city staff.
They socialize with each other a great deal, going between three offices plus the sealed-off kitchen. But they are almost never in the main room, talking to the skaters.
the new snack bar: it's still closed most of the time, all window shades down
minipizza and/or soup, park bread, cookie and/or apple, and a hot drink
Jan.26, 2026 the reno
Shovels went into the ground for the Dufferin Grove Park northwest corner reno in March 2021, right in the thick of the lockdowns. The rink, now oriented north/ south instead of east/west as before, opened Feb.4, 2023. The hallway of the building opened at the same time, but the main room and the kitchen not until Jan.12, 2024. So that's when the farmers' market was able to get in out of the cold. Skaters too.
There are still unresolved issues with the reno. Some can be resolved quickly, and hopefully soon. Here's a list, with photos, of what needs fixing. Oddly, just as I was about to publish this list, Parks and Rec Capital Projects staff sent out an invitation for the ribbon-cutting celebration, to officially open the rink. That's set for Sunday Feb.9, 2025. read more
the skate-lending room has no proper shelves with dividers, so it's often a mess
Jan.2, 2025 tents in the park
This is about the tents in the park -- 42 of them this morning. And about the food, the campfires, the security guards, the city councillor's meeting next week.
Dufferin Grove Park, Dec.22, 2024. Temperature is -15C
There's lots that's left out in my post, but this is a sketch....read more
Dec.12, 2014 accessibility
This is a meditation on accessibility. It starts with corner stores.
295 Brock (in the 1950s?): corner store
295 Brock today, multiple rental units
Which one do you prefer? I want the corner store. The attractiveness of small local stores, well-stocked with good and useful things, may increase now that the Big Bad Thing has begun: the aging-in of the "baby boom." I'm speaking as part of the thin edge of the wedge (born in 1947, with the baby boom not officially over until birth year 1964). read more
Dec.4, 2024 risk monitoring
A letter to City Council's Audit Committee on Dec.9, 2024:
watching out for risk
Dear Audit Committee,
This City staff report on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is concerning, since it could be read as a “how-to” manual of institutional overreach, when applied to municipal governance.
It may make sense for a bank to consider every person who actually or virtually enters a bank as a potential bank robber or criminal depositor, and therefore to keep the money actually or virtually locked up. But when a method devised for banking seeps out of its boundaries and starts to colour the approach City management takes to its entire way of operating, that should raise some alarms. read more
Nov.3, 2024 permits
pay-per-use
An email from Skylar, the Dufferin Grove garden co-op coordinator:
"There was a two-hour "Pickling Party" on October 30 from 5:30-7:30pm in Dufferin Grove Park....This FREE workshop should have been held in the brand-new high-end DGP Clubhouse kitchen. The St. Anne's Garden Group asked about using the kitchen, but they were told it would cost $75 an hour.....So about twenty people set up at the Dan’s Table area beside the (still unrepaired) wood oven and boiled water on a little camp stove to make the pickling brine. As it became darker and darker the group had to make do with lights from the basketball court.
"All the while, the new Clubhouse kitchen remained empty, with all the blinds down. There were two staff inside the building, one in the staff office working on a computer, but they said they couldn’t just open the kitchen. City policy is that there’s a set fee for any community kitchen use, no exceptions."
Oct.25, 2024 the local economy
On Wednesday Oct.23 there was the October meeting of City Council's Economic and Community Development Committee (ECDC). Recreation falls under that committee. I wrote the ECDC a letter from CELOS, re their “Action Plan for Toronto’s Economy.” Parks and Rec hires over 11,000 part-time workers every summer, and many also in winter, so the city has an economic role especially for youth. Their Action Plan promises 10,000 part-time youth jobs for next summer. CELOS has an ongoing campaign to improve how youth staff are hired by the city and what work they do. Something has to change!
My letter starts off with a quote from Jane Jacobs. Have a look.
Oct.25, 2024 Village in the City
Here's an older article I wrote about the former Thursday "indoor park" at the (soon-to-be-demolished) Wallace-Emerson Community Centre. That drop-in later led to the start of the Dufferin Grove activities (sandpit, ovens, market, suppers, etc.). The article is called "Finding the village in the city."
And here's a photo from the past: the 2011 "sleep-in" organized by some park friends as a neighbourhood protest, when city management removed longtime rec supervisor Tino DeCastro:
2011, the "sleep-in" neighbourhood protest. Breakfast at the fire circle.....
The protest didn't change anything but it was fun.
Correspondecne
Oct.28, 2024
Laura's mom reading the tetherball story.
A letter from park friend Laura Repo-Davis, now in Saskatchewan, with a photo of her mom reading the newsletter:I love the part about tetherball in your September Newsletter. Got my mom to read it too. She said, “it’s not even a maze, it’s a dead end!"
From the September Dufferin Grove newsletter: The tetherball story
Just north of the sand-volleyball court there’s a tetherball pole. Playing tetherball has been a popular activity for years, but this year the tetherball was never put up. Here’s why: the city Recreation staff mainly stay in or beside the North West building. The city Parks staff only work outside. The Recreation staff were told that putting up the tetherball is up to Parks staff, since it’s outside. The Parks staff said that since playing tetherball is recreation, Rec staff should put it up. But the hook for tying up the tetherball string is up high enough that the staff need to use a ladder. Rec staff are not allowed to use a ladder until they’ve had official ladder training and certification. None of the staff have had that training. So the tetherball stayed in the supplies cupboard all summer long.
the tetherball, back in the days when staff could put it up
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