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Dufferin Grove Is In Trouble

Brenda Patterson, General Manager Parks, Forestry and Recreation

February 17, 2010

G. T. wrote to Parks, Forestry and Recreation general manager Brenda Patterson:

Dear Ms Patterson, I never cease to be amazed at how wrong bureaucracies can be. If the lessons of Jane Jacobs and so many others since her have been forgotten let's start with one thing that she said in regards to making Toronto Island a park with no resident communitiy. "If something is unique and beautiful, don't destroy it. " I may be paraphrasing but what that means is if something like the Friends of Dufferin Grove Community is singular in its qualities, then don't risk destroying that. I have watched in Trinity Bellwoods as they have tried to duplicate what has grown at DGP and it's always "close but no cigar." The main reason that I can see is that DGP is resolutely bottom up in how it is run. Do you really think that your top down approach will improve anything? Do you think that not listening to people is the answer? How widely have you consulted? If Friends of Dufferin Grove are asking you to reconsider something then exactly what part of your job description tells you that you don't need to?

H. P. wrote:

Dear Toronto Ombuds and General Manager Brenda Patterson-

I am writing you today to ask you to please do what you can to ensure the survival of the community element of Dufferin Grove Park. I am a resident in the area and I chose to live in this neighbourhood because of all that Dufferin Grove Park has to offer.

My family does not have a car so our way of enjoying the seasons is by visiting the park. Whether it is skating, playing in the playground, jumping in leaves or watching the new flowers and plants bloom, we do this in Dufferin Grove. Many of those things we could do in other parks but Dufferin Grove is a special place. I can go with my child and stay all day because I know I can buy healthy food when I am there and we can take part in a variety of activities - most of which are provided by the community (books, playing checkers, watching outdoor plays or shows, dance/music lessons).

I feel that my son is safe when I am there as there is a strong community that looks out for each other and the park (keeping it clean and maintained).

My friends who live in other neighbourhoods and other cities are jealous of the park. Let's use it as an example on how we can improve our neighbourhoods, rather than take it away because it is unique. Let's use it to showcase how great Toronto is ... and build on the ideas!

Equitable access, quality, inclusion, and capacity building. These four pillars are found in Dufferin Grove like nowhere else that I know of.

Again, please do what you can to keep Dufferin Grove as the amazing center for our community that it is.

E. L. wrote:

Dear Fiona Crean, Ombudsman of Toronto, Councillor Davis, Brenda Patterson, and Sue Corke,

Why, and for what logical reason whatsoever, does the City of Toronto want to take away staff from a magical, inclusive, special place like Dufferin Grove Park, and stop them from supporting and engaging an officially 'at risk, priority and vulnerable community' in the Davenport Riding? Why, when a group of people, such as Jutta Mason, and Anna Galati, create such a creative, vibrant community hub, does the City of Toronto want to lessen community involvement in a park which is a bright light in the center of our city? This is one of the most active and beautiful inner city parks I have ever seen, and it is because of the work of its staff.

Dufferin Grove, and all its events, makes the City of Toronto great, and builds community in the most positive ways- through art, healthy food, and sport. Those who work at Dufferin Grove Park have done much to create outreach for the farmer's community, to encourage healthy and sustainable lifestyles, and to engage all kinds of children in Ward 18, for those who live Toronto to enjoy our city a little more each day.

Please allow Dufferin Grove to continue to thrive, grow, and support community members in the Davenport Riding and beyond. In the Davenport Riding, asthma and morbidity rates are among the highest in Canada due to air quality and poverty, and each day, when I see children skating on the rink, playing in the sandpit, or families attending farmer's markets, is a day that those statistics lessen because of Dufferin Grove providing an example of alternate, healthy lifestyles to affect change in our community.

Please don't break what is not broken, and what does many constituents a world of good to level the playing field for children and adults of all socioeconomic status to teach them how to build a sustainable, constructive community. Dufferin Grove has gone from a very dangerous place to become a beloved, overflowing, active park because of their hard work, and a place for many different cultures to meet and congregrate.

G. L. wrote to Parks, Forestry and Recreation general manager Brenda Patterson:

Brenda,

As a middle-aged woman and mother, who lives,works, pays taxes and volunteers in Davenport/Ward 18, I am shocked to hear that you would be in favour of centralizing Parks and Rec services even more. I can not think of an instance where citizens have benefited from this strategy - our schools, hospitals and city are worse for this approach.

Tino deCastro has served our community so well, he is helpful, committed and cares about the community. He works together to ensure we have safe, healthy and inclusive parks. I urge you to reconsider moving him from a job that he is doing well and where the community supports him. From the streets we have seen how working in partnership makes our services and lives better.

We all benefit from the continuity of leadership that Tino's experience and consultation with front line staff and community members/tax payers brings.

Why mess with success?

From: Malcolm Bromley, director of Recreation

Hi Ms. L.,

Brenda has referred your email to me for reply.

Please see attached letter.

J. B. wrote, Feb 18

Dear Madam,

My family and I have lived in the Dovercourt park neighbourhood for over 14 years and have been visiting Dufferin Grove Park since our first son was born more than eleven years ago. What we have experienced over the years is really quite phenomenal and can only be viewed as a successful experiment in public space management. My children have learned to skate here, they have made wood oven pizzas, had birthday parties, celebrated Halloween, eaten exotic foods, "worked" with staff to serve food, sat around fire pits drinking hot chocolate, had BBQs, watched plays, shopped and tasted at the organic market, played tether ball, taken dance classes, built cities in the enormous sand pit, made rivers with a running hose, played safely in the wading pool for hours, made cob ( a type of adobe) for the park structure, planted in the garden and made many many friends with kids, families, dog walkers, childless people and the elderly at Friday night suppers and innumerous other opportunities to interact with the community as a whole. Could this have happened at another park? I doubt it. Could it have happened in a comparable inner city park such as Dufferin Grove is? I highly doubt it.

What makes Dufferin Grove special as I see it is the ability for a community to come together and make things happen and for City staff to allow this to happen. For that I thank you.

For reasons that have not been explained to me I understand that the way the City approaches things is changing and not for the better. I ask that you consider the implications of breaking this model that, in my view works so well and ensure that not only Dufferin Grove continues to operate successfully but that you spread this knowledge so others in the city can put into practice what works so well in Dufferin Grove,

Brenda Patterson wrote, Feb 19:

Thank you for your correspondence with respect to staffing changes in the South District. We appreciate the important role that our staff members play in delivering services to the community.

From an organizational perspective, movement of staff is necessary to address a number of management issues, which include core competencies, training and skills development, performance, and succession management. Facilitating shifts in staff assignments can be mutually beneficial to all parties including the community, employees and the organization.

Parks, Forestry and Recreation prides itself on the high calibre of staff throughout our organization. I understand that these changes may cause some initial discomfort for the community; however, I would like to reassure you that you can expect to continue to receive excellent service, irrespective of staff moves. The first order of business for the new staff will be to meet with the various community groups and organizations in the neighbourhood. These new staff members will continue to foster the many connections and relationships that are integral to ensuring our services continue to be meaningful, responsive and reflective of community needs.

J. B. wrote, Feb 20:

Thank you for your reply, and I appreciate your pledge to maintain a high quality of service that is responsive to the community.

I remain concerned, however, about PFR's apparent belief that park supervisors can be easily interchanged without cost. You refer to succession management, suggesting that there is plan for a smooth transition from one supervisor to the next. And yet according to the Star, Tino DeCastro is to begin work Monday at City Hall, even though the new Dufferin Grove supervisor has yet to meet with members of the Dufferin Grove community. There will be no apparent opportunity for Mr. DeCastro to introduce the new supervisor to the community, and to share his knowledge and experience. This suggests there is no succession plan at all: one supervisor simply moves in as the other moves out, just like changing a light bulb.

The director of recreation's quoted remarks also suggest a lack of awareness of the uniqueness of Dufferin Grove's success. "Tino has done a great job there," he says. "But that's the case in every part of the city." I'm sorry to say that is not the case in every part of the city. Not every park can boast such a successful partnership between City staff and the community. In fact, the evidence is that such relationships are quite rare. Change is good, says the director. But surely the first rule of change management is to protect what is working, especially when the Parks department seems unable to easily replicate such success elsewhere.

Moreover, the supervisor is quoted as saying, "The community doesn't make staffing decisions. That's my decision. We don't staff by consultation." This may be careless wording, but these remarks seem to reveal a dismissive attitude towards the principle of community engagement that has been mandated by City Council. The community is not requesting a veto over staff decisions. But the park supervisor should be able to form a good partnership with the community he or she serves. I think it is overly optimistic of you to suggest that this can be achieved "irrespective of staff moves."

Perhaps there is a communication problem here, and I am misunderstanding PFR's motives. I hope so. I don't claim to understand the complexities of managing a Parks system as large as that of the City of Toronto. But I do know that the success of Dufferin Grove is rare and precious, and I am not yet convinced that PFR appreciates this. I would be grateful for stronger demonstrations that PFR intends to strengthen, and not weaken, the working relationships between park supervisors and their communities.

The Kingvissers wrote, 2/17/10

Dear Ms. Crean,

For the last fifteen years, we have had the privilege of working with various community members and City of Toronto staff committed to developing and sustaining meaningful urban relationships to build Dufferin Grove Park into a lively community commons. We raised our two young girls at this park, skating in the winter and playing in the wading pool in the summer. We taught our children how to make pizza at the pizza ovens and ate among our community at Friday night suppers. We shopped at the farmers market on Thursday afternoons and joined hundreds of participants at Dusk Dances. The programming at Dufferin Grove Park is well known - and has only been possible through the collaboration of City staff and local residents. Our children are the result of this remarkable community, and we remain so grateful to share in its success.

In the past year, this concerted effort to create real and meaningful community has come under sustained attack by Parks, Forestry and Recreation management. The front-line staff at the park have been warned that their community connections put them into a situation of conflict of interest, and last week we heard that the long-time Ward 18 recreation supervisor will be removed from this ward. We believe that his transfer to a back office at Metro Hall to work with building cleaners is a punishment for his support of our efforts, and is also meant to send a message to his colleagues.

The problem has a larger context. Recreation supervisors are an important point of connection between the city and its neighborhoods. Parks and Recreation management has a new policy of moving all these supervisors across the city to new locations, discarding existing working relationships with the community in favour of ever-tighter central control. We're concerned that this approach is causing lasting damage to what works well in our neighbourhood public spaces. Our concern extends to the waste of talents and taxes, as restrictive policies proliferate in the Parks and Recreation Department, and a culture of timidity takes over. Consultation with citizens (and, we are told, even their city councillors) is lacking, and direct appeals by citizens to management are rebuffed.

At Dufferin Grove Park we are now facing a crisis. There is no doubt but that a continuation of the administration's present approach will soon result in the collapse of what we have built, together with locally-responsive city staff, over many years. Can you help us?

Please contact us and let us know what can be done. And accept our thanks in advance for your consideration of this complex issue.

Lesley Price wrote, Feb 19:

The following email message has been sent on behalf of Brenda Patterson, General Manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation:

Dear Kingvissers,

Thank you for your correspondence with respect to staffing changes in the South District. We appreciate the important role that our staff members play in delivering services to the community.

From an organizational perspective, movement of staff is necessary to address a number of management issues, which include core competencies, training and skills development, performance, and succession management. Facilitating shifts in staff assignments can be mutually beneficial to all parties including the community, employees and the organization.

Parks, Forestry and Recreation prides itself on the high calibre of staff throughout our organization. I understand that these changes may cause some initial discomfort for the community; however, I would like to reassure you that you can expect to continue to receive excellent service, irrespective of staff moves. The first order of business for the new staff will be to meet with the various community groups and organizations in the neighbourhood. These new staff members will continue to foster the many connections and relationships that are integral to ensuring our services continue to be meaningful, responsive and reflective of community needs.

The Kingvisser Family wrote Feb 19:

Thanks for your email, Ms. Price.

I'm wondering if Ms. Patterson would confirm the position that engagement with local communities does not put staff in a conflict of interest. Word to that effect would go a long way in assuring us, and many community members, that Parks, Forestry and Recreation are working on the same side as the community.

Would Ms. Patterson email us back with this message?

We look forward to hearing back from her.

M. E. wrote, Feb 19:

To: Fiona Crean and Whomever Else it May Concern

Re: Dufferin Grove Park

I am sorry I don't have more time today to craft a more eloquent or detailed letter. But I felt I really must send something.

As a citizen, homeowner and teacher who can get to Dufferin Grove Park in a just a few minutes walk from my home or my school, I am deeply concerned about the current state of affairs. Dufferin Grove Park has become, for me, an example of the potential for our community to get off the computer and build a relationship with each other, we can move from isolation to cooperation. It has become a place where I send my students to find meaningful connections and volunteer opportunities and also a place I can just 'hang out' in with my own friends. It is welcoming and there is a 'vibe' that is hard to describe, though I think it has something to do with the goodwill and creative, collective thinking between residents and some city staff.

And now all that is built is threatened.

I urge you. Please. Listen carefully to the people in my community. Take action that restores and builds upon the positive energy, commitment, thoughtfulness and respect between us and the city staff. Our parks are not Walmarts. Our trees are not parts of a machine. Please do prioritize simplistic, centralized, efficient short term solutions over the long term, complex and ever-changing needs and dreams of people.

Assimilation will be the end of dreams.

And if we can't sit under a tree in a park and dream, dream of a better day, then what hope do our dreams for the rest of the City have?

I look forward to your response.

Brenda Patterson

The following email message has been sent on behalf of Brenda Patterson, General Manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation:

Dear Mr. E.,

Thank you for your correspondence with respect to staffing changes in the South District. We appreciate the important role that our staff members play in delivering services to the community.

From an organizational perspective, movement of staff is necessary to address a number of management issues, which include core competencies, training and skills development, performance, and succession management. Facilitating shifts in staff assignments can be mutually beneficial to all parties including the community, employees and the organization.

Parks, Forestry and Recreation prides itself on the high calibre of staff throughout our organization. I understand that these changes may cause some initial discomfort for the community; however, I would like to reassure you that you can expect to continue to receive excellent service, irrespective of staff moves. The first order of business for the new staff will be to meet with the various community groups and organizations in the neighbourhood. These new staff members will continue to foster the many connections and relationships that are integral to ensuring our services continue to be meaningful, responsive and reflective of community needs.

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