In this issue:
If you love trees:
Last winter the Parks Forestry department planted three new evergreens near the native-species area by Dufferin Street. The ground was already frozen but the department has a screw-thing that allows them to put the trees in anyway. One of the trees died and another one seemed to be in trouble, but its now looking much better.
In the past few years, many people have said they're worried about the age of the trees in the park, about whether there are enough new trees being planted, and whether the trees are getting good care in this time of extreme staff cut-backs. This past spring the Forestry staff spent weeks pruning the existing trees and cutting down some dangerous ones. Maybe this is a good time to set up some neighbourhood tree monitoring. Want to be a tree monitor? Choose a few favourite trees or an area of the park that you particularly like, and keep an eye out for the trees' well-being. Report damage, help water and mulch if necessary, and help decide what new trees should be planted. If this interests you, call Johanne at the park clubhouse: 416/392-0913. Leave your name and you'll get a call. We'd like to start off with a tree identification walkabout in the early fall.
Arie and the high school students: Arie Kamp, who does most of the flower gardens at the park, also puts flowers in front of St.Mary's High School. This summer the school has over a thousand summer students, from all over the city, and many of them have no previous connection to the park or to Arie. Some of the students, during their lunch hour, stomp on Arie's flowers, by accident or on purpose. This makes Arie very angry, and sometimes he shouts at the students. Usually the students stop, but a few of them just stomp on the flowers more, at the school and across the street at the park. Arie is so discouraged that he has considered painting some graffiti on the school: "school for wild animals." Although some in the neighbourhood might cheer at such a sign, we think it would be sad for Arie to spend his old age in jail for defacing school walls. The summer school principal has promised to station a staff person outside the school to monitor the kids' behaviour. Neighbours can help - if you see flower vandalism, ask the vandals to stop. Sooner or later, they'll grasp the concept.
Patience with the grapes, please: This is the third year weve had the grape vines that Ben Figueredo planted up by the rinks chain link fence. There are many, many grapes this year. They'll be ripe in the early fall. Ben wants to post a sign by the grapes, asking people to be patient and wait until the grapes are really ripe before sampling. He says if you eat them too soon, they're sour and nasty, but if you have patience, they are absolutely delicious.
Police issues:
Some of the summer school students have a friend with a car and a loud car radio. When summer school started at St.Mary's, they adopted the habit of parking the car outside the school at 2.30 and playing loud music until 4.30-5. They sit at a picnic table nearby. Their music can be heard, very well, all over the park and all over the neighbourhood. Although for many young people such music is more beautiful than birdsong, it is not so for the people living nearby. Residents have complained to the park staff. Since this car is parked in a no parking zone, if the music continues, the police can be called and can issue tickets for illegal parking.
However, sometimes calling the police can create other problems. In early June, for example, when an argument between two female high school students ended in one stabbing the other in the shoulder with her manicure scissors, there was a huge police presence in the park as well as the neighbourhood for a few weeks. This meant a lot of cruisers driving through the park, sometimes very quickly, sometimes after dark. There was also an occasion when police came to the park because a young woman was said to be suicidal. Two cruisers and an ambulance drove up beside the playground to investigate. Then one of the cruisers got a call for a bank robbery, and so it suddenly drove so fast up the Gladstone footpath that clouds of dust were raised. On that occasion there were some frightened park users, fearing that our park is becoming unsafe for pedestrians.
This run of traffic in the park culminated one day three weeks ago in the arrival of a plain white car driving slowly around the grassed area near the basketball courts. The park staff at first thought it was a tourist car that was lost, but when they pointed out to the driver that cars were not permitted in the park, the driver said he intended to continue driving around. This gentleman looked youthful and had braces on his teeth, and the park staff considered calling the police. But then they noticed that the car had safety glass dividing the inside and that it was evidently a police car. The driver said he and his colleague had to drive around in the park that way to protect citizens against crime.
Since then, police traffic in the park has been less. Soon, a call for police assistance to deal with the loud music may be necessary. But in the interests of not creating more cruiser traffic inside the park again, Jutta Mason sent a warning first. She asked one of the music lovers to communicate to his friends that the music was too loud and too long, and that if it doesn't stop, police will be called. The short-term result was that the car drove away. Sometime just a warning is enough. If the loud music returns and the all-afternoon party starts again, the person to call is Sgt.Bob Guglick of Fourteen Division Community Response, 416/808-1500.
Food in the park:
In the week of July 9, the community outdoor ovens were kept hot for the first two "cook your supper in the oven" nights, Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesday, Ann Freeman and a friend and their families cooked chicken and root vegetables (parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots). Ann borrowed a baking pan, some olive oil and some salt (from the park staff), picked some herbs from the park garden, and then had a delicious supper right by the oven. (Preparation time: 20 minutes, with keen help from the children, cutting up vegetables. Cooking time: 1 hour) These families shared some of their dinner with gardener Arie Kamp. On Friday, Judy Simutis brought a small Pacific salmon wrapped in foil, some okra, and some potatoes (preparation time: 10 minutes, cooking time: 45 minutes). Then Mary and Ziggy came with a ready-made pizza they bought at No Frills. They added some olives they got from a hot dog vendor, and some hot pepper flakes (preparation time: three minutes, including unwrapping the pizza; cooking time, 10 minutes). The pizza (they gave out tastes) was surprisingly good. Larry Lewis and Jane LowBeer brought some root vegetables and a hunk of feta cheese, plus some red wine, and made a supper of that (preparation time: 12 minutes, cooking time 35 minutes). Jutta Mason made lasagne with rapini from the park garden, roasted onions, and sliced bocconcini (preparation time: 15 minutes, cooking time 35 minutes). So the cooking is easy and its a friendly scene.
The ovens will be available from 4-8, Tuesdays and Fridays, for the rest of the summer. The temperature on Tuesday was 350 F, and on Friday 425 F. On Friday July 20 there will also be roasting and baking demonstrations and some samples.
Pizza days: "Open oven," Tuesday and Wednesdays, 11.30-1.30. People can buy a lump of dough for $2, the park has sauce and cheese, and other toppings can be brought from home. The pizza takes about 4 minutes to cook. It's a good place to meet neighbourhood mothers/ fathers/ caregivers and young children. Wednesdays are not as crowded. Note that there is a public pizza day at the Christie Pits park oven on Mondays. Riverdale Farms park oven is just being built and will be available by September.
Pizza oven bookings for day camps, ESL groups, family parties: not on weekends. Weekdays have two spaces left for the summer. Cost is $50-$80 for staff depending on the size of the group, plus materials. Christie Pits oven still has spaces for group bookings. For more information, call Johanne at 416/392-0913.
An unknown benefactor: A young woman with a little child, who did not tell us her name, said she was moving out of the area and could we use some clean, unpainted, untreated scrap wood for the oven, that she had been storing at her house? We said, sure. So she dropped off bags and bags of excellent small wood and kindling. Thank you, mystery woman. Your gift is a boon to all our pizza days and the "cook your own supper" nights as well.
Whatever happened to the pig on a spit? This is what happened: it turns out that little baby pigs are no longer available, not even at Portuguese stores. Bigger ones cost at least $125. So we had to cancel the pig on a spit. For now we have to content ourselves with everyday foods made in the oven (although they taste extraordinarily delicious).
The mystery of the mushrooms: solved. The mushrooms that Shirley the dog walker found in the park and the Italian card players said were edible have a name: Agarius bitorquis, a.k.a. "sidewalk mushroom." The authoritative guide to local mushrooms, Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada" by George Barron, says these mushrooms are very common, are edible, and favour hard-packed soil. Thats certainly true for the park - they were found near the wildflower sign, by Dufferin Street, where the ground seems far too hard to even allow mushrooms to come up. But there they were, for a couple of weeks in late Spring. Hopefully they'll come back in the fall - they were delicious.
Skating rink news: The Technical Standards and Safety Authority will be posting the Ontario governments new Technical Standards and Safety Act and its associated regulations on their web site: http://www.tssa.org. The act was finally proclaimed on June 27 (after five years' delay). Rumour has it that all the lobbying by the refrigeration industry, and in a minor way by our group, decided the government to remove the requirement for the redundant "rink compressor operator" position at modern guarded refrigeration plants under 200 horsepower. This means that it will cost the city less to run its outdoor artificial ice rinks, and they'll be able to be more flexible with their staffing. [However, Bob Crump, the Parks manager in charge of rink operations, has heard that it may take 2-3 more years just for the government to inspect these modern rinks and certify them as acceptable]. Even when we get the certification, that doesn't solve the union agreements (which prevent the rink tractor operator from using all the capacities of his tractor, here but not in Etobicoke), and it doesn't solve the city's history of equipment trouble and poor weather responsiveness. But it's a very important step. Now it's up to the citizens to guide the Parks Department on making the best use of our public rinks. For more information, call 416/392-0913.
Special events:
Sunday July 15: Cosmic Kids Rave and Fundraiser, noon to dusk. This is described vy the organizers as "a childrens rave, with DJs, drumming, recycled art space, face painting, kids yoga and juggling classes, storytellers, games, campfire and singalong, fairies and clowns." The group putting it on is called Arborvitae, and its raising money for an "eco-spiritual camp for inner-city kids."
Sunday July 22: City Councillor Mario Silva's annual Summerfest: 10-4. This involves a Giant Puppets performance by Clay and Paper, face painting, free hot dog and drink, and a very large community lawn sale. For information or to book a table, call 416/ 392-7012. Councillor Silva is also sponsoring the environmental day across the street at the Dufferin Mall.
Sunday July 22, Environment Day: 10-2, Dufferin Mall. Here you can get free leaf compost, drop off hazardous waste and rubber tires (maximum of five per household), and buy a composter ($15), yard waste bin ($6), rain barrel ($60), blue and grey boxes ($5), or an extra large blue box for $6.
Tuesday July 24 through Sunday July 29: Dusk Dances 2001. Starts at 7.30 and finishes at twilight. This event was very well-attended last year. This year there will be five groups again, including a group with wheelchair dancers, a woman who dances in a tree, a break-dancing group, and two others.
Early August (sometime between Aug.5-13): a one-night performance of the Norse fable, East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Stranger Theatre is part of the SummerWorks theatre festival being held in various downtown theatres this summer. They are rehearsing in the rink house, and this is a pay-what-you-can performance. Directed by Kate Cayley, who has also directed other park productions in the past: Twelfth Night, Antigone. Watch for the posters or check back for the exact date.
August 16, 17, 18: Clay and Paper Theatre mini-fest: on these three days there will be an installation gallery of all the Clay and Paper giant puppets, performances of The Green Man, puppet-making and stilt-walking workshops for this years Night of Dread parade, and a workshop performance of Larry Lewis new show, Gold. Watch the park for posters of exact times, or check our web site.
A warning from sources close to the Parks Permit Department: Don't call them and ask them for a picnic permit. City Council has instructed them to charge $53.30 for any picnic. If you just go to the park and find a picnic table, its free.
The proper use of our taxes: Since all citizens pay taxes to support our parks, it may be time now to give the city more guidance about how that money is spent. If you feel that you want your taxes directed to picnic tables and park maintenance so that you join your uncles and cousins on a Sunday afternoon for soccer and a barbecue without being charged extra, you may have to encourage the city to spend less on architects' fees, renovations or consultants' fees. The city auditor says consultants' spending is out of hand (Globe and Mail, July 4, John Barber).
More about parks division spending details in the next issue of this newsletter.
CELOS library recent acquisitions, available at the rink house:
1. A scrapbook of many different pizza recipes, for reference use. Squash pizza, rapini pizza, potato and pesto pizza, mussel pizza, covered pizzas, spinach and blue cheese pizza, and many more. With photographs of people at our park pizza ovens, over the years.
2. A new book by Andre Carrel, Citizens Hall: Making local democracy work. Mr.Carrel was the guest speaker for a lunch series called Ideas that Matter recently, and Jutta Mason went to hear him. She read the book on her vacation, and found it clear, ingenious, and totally engaging. Mr. Carrel persuaded city council in Rossland B.C. to write a unique constitution that permits detailed citizen referendums on important issues, on the Swiss model. In his talk at the Ideas that Matter lunch, he suggested that the time is ripe for citizens to make their wishes clear to their municipal governments (and this requires citizens to start doing their homework, so they begin to have a grasp of how things work around them - roads, sewage, water, parks - before they stop working). If you want to have a look at this book, maybe youd like to bring your dinner to cook in the oven next Tuesday or Friday, and borrow the book while youre waiting.
3. A 91-page booklet from a California school called The Edible Schoolyard. It came to us in trade for our CELOS booklet, Cooking with fire in public space. The California booklet describes a project started in Berkeley by famous chef Alice Waters. The young people grow and cook a large variety of organic foods, and they also have an adobe bread oven. With many illustrations.
Campfires:
Many this month so far. Weeknights are easier than weekends, but there are still spaces left. For more information, call Johanne at 416/392-0913. One problem has been the tendency of the park staff to close the park washrooms early on the weekends. If youre in the park and you find there are no washrooms, or the trash bins are overflowing, contact the city maintenance crew by calling 416/392-0041 and leaving a message.
For ongoing updates on Dufferin Grove Park, and to share your views on community issues, join our Friends of Dufferin Grove email listserve. Just click here to join.
Newsletter prepared by: Jutta Mason; Illustrations: Jane LowBeer
Technical support: John Culbert
Web site: Joe Adelaars, Henrik Bechmann, Caitlin Shea
Park phone: 416 392-0913; street address: 875 Dufferin Street
E-mail: dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca
List Serve: Emily Visser, Bernard King