In this issue:
- Nine September events
- Loud music - solutions
- Neighbourhood Fair
- Troubles at Cawthra Park
- Farmers' market news
Farmers' market:
The four young artists we described in last month's newsletter made a giant banner for us to put up on Thursdays, so that all the cars and passersby on Dufferin Street now know what all the hubbub is about. The farmers are gratified to finally have a sign. Also, the first 100 farmers' market posters have been put up and there are more to follow. Graphic artist and friend-of-the-park Paul Safarian made these posters as a gift to the park. If you want to put up a couple of posters where you work or live, ask the staff at the farmers' market and they'll give you some.
The market itself is doing well. In addition to the bountiful local vegetable harvest, there are: fruit, baked goods (including three different bread vendors!), rainbow trout, meats of all kinds, olive oil, Greek organic cheeses, coffee, plant products such as creams, and even organic dog food.
Dan DeMatteis, well-known from Friday Night Supper, is planning an event in mid-October to celebrate foods cooked with the seasonal harvest from the farmers' market. There will be some guest chefs, and the event will be co-hosted by the Slowfood Movement: more news on this in the October newsletter.
Farmer Ted Thorpe is bringing ten bushels of Roma tomatoes to the park so that we can dry them in the wood ovens. Others interested in drying a supply of organic tomatoes for home should call the park for the best times to use the ovens: 392-0913.
Farmers' market: Every Thursday, 3.30 to 7 p.m.
September events:
Annual Havelock-and-neighbourhood street festival: once again, the tried-and-true formula: a great lawn sale along the Havelock Street park border (bring your stuff and sell it, so you can buy other people's stuff and take it home) at 10 a.m.; free hot dog lunch at the lawn sale at 12 noon; Clay and Paper Theatre mask-making sessions for next months Night of Dread parade by the field house 1 to 4 p.m., "Three funny Hats" story tent near the bake oven at 2 p.m., sack races and other childish games at 3 p.m.; a puppet play, East of the Sun, West of the Moon south of the field house at 5.30 p.m., neighbourhood potluck supper and make-your-own pizza at 6 p.m. at the park bake-oven, cake walk at 7 p.m.; square dancing on Havelock St. at 8 p.m. A fine way to meet your neighbours from all the surrounding streets. And a busy day!
Last year David Craig introduced the street square dance. There was a band set up on his porch across from the park on Havelock St., a square dance caller on his porch stairs, and there were about 300 people dancing on the street. It was so much fun that David has arranged it again for this year. The neighbourhood street festival is on Saturday Sept.6 from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Absolutely everyone from the surrounding neighbourhood (and friends) are welcome. The hat will be passed at the street dance to cover the cost of the band. And you don't need to know how to square dance: the caller tells you what to do.
East of the Sun, West of the Moon: a play based on a Norse folktale about a woman who marries a bear. A workshop production (funded by the Toronto Arts Council and the Laidlaw Foundation) put on by Stranger Theatre. This is a Halifax-Toronto company that includes three part-time park staff known to many park users: children's summer camp staff Kate Cayley (director and co-writer) park baker/ Friday night supper cook Lea Ambros (designer and stage manager), and summer camp staff Noah Kenneally (as the bear). Noah is also a frequent participant in Clay and Paper Theatre productions.
Kate says: "East of the Sun, West of the Moon is for children and adults, and will include masks, puppetry, live music, singing and storytelling. It will hopefully get a longer run next year as part of The Cooking Fire Theatre Festival, a festival of outdoor performance that is being tentatively planned for next summer. Since this is a workshop production, it is very important to get feedback from the audience, especially small children. Please come and see and say what you think." Saturday September 6 and Sunday September 7m, 5.30 p.m. just south of the field house, by the native tree garden fence.
Story-tent for children, by Three Funny Hats: this group of storytellers has been doing bi-weekly shows for almost two years, at the Village Café near Bloor and Dovercourt, and in Dovercourt Park. Their story tent will be set up near the pizza oven on the first two Sundays in September, and they'll be ready to take kids (ages 4-10) for a story-and-song trip around the world. Pay what you can, Sunday Sept.7 and Sunday Sept.14, 2-3 p.m.
The first-ever hockey players' hootenanny: in the west part of the park, in the Dufferin Street hollow by the banks of the (buried) Garrison Creek.
Saturday September 13, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Tim Freeman and his friends play shinny hockey at our park rink on Monday nights after closing time, all through the winter, and they often play ball hockey the rest of the year. They call their group the Dufferin Groove, partly because a lot of the players also like to make music, and they have friends who like to make music. By now there are about ten bands connected with that hockey group. The group pays a permit fee to the city but we thought they ought to also give the park something back directly - and now they will. They are going to put on a day of music and sideshows and art displays at the park. We'll supply good food from the park ovens. The bands' amplification will be pointed into the old creek bank, to keep the sound down within the valley. And there will be many different kinds of music, to suit every taste. A wonderful way to enjoy being in the park in fall.
The Sixth Annual Native Child and Family Services "Honouring our Children" Pow Wow.
Saturday September 20, 12 noon to 5 p.m. This event is always on the soccer field, with giant tipis, drumming groups, dancers (adults and children), booths of souvenirs for sale, food (including free hamburgers), and a big give-away at the end. The costumes of some of the dancers are spectacular, and they are given a modern twist by the not-uncommon sight of a full-traditional-dress dancer talking on his cell phone during a break. There is also a sunrise ceremony of lighting the fire in our campfire circle, which for the duration of the pow wow, becomes a sacred fire (and the area around it becomes Indian land). Many of the participants come from a distance, since this pow wow is timed to coincide with other regional pow wows, so that the dancers can go to all of them.
Clay and Paper Theatre Night of Dread mask-making workshops: every weekend afternoon, there will be a work bee at the field house, to make this year's new masks and costumes for next month's annual Night of Dread Parade. If you want to try your hand at paper mache and clay molding, the Clay and Paper people will show you how it's done. You can be a part of the friendly hubbub that bubbles over at the field house all fall, until the day when the big parade is finally here. A wonderful way to meet talented people from all over the neighbourhood. Every Saturday and Sunday, 1 - 4 p.m. at the field house.
Sunday pizza days: make-your-own pizza days will continue through September (in good weather) between 1 and 3 p.m. $2 buys a piece of dough, some tomato sauce, and some cheese. We supply all the baking tools needed. You can pick any herbs you want from the park gardens, or bring additional ingredients from home. Birthday parties welcome if they're not too big - just warn us ahead of time (416 392-0913).
Friday Night supper: will continue! Anna Bekerman and Lea Ambros, both co-chefs with Dan DeMatteis at various points during the summer, will resume Friday Night Supper on September 12. They plan to invite neighborhood guest chefs from time to time. Courageous home chefs or professionals who want to do some slumming in the park - you are welcome to come and cook! (You have to make 90-110 meals, in our excellent new community kitchen.) While the weather is good the suppers will continue outside, lit by torches and candles, and then we'll move back inside. It's still a good idea to book ahead: call the park at 392-0913 and leave a message - name, phone number, number of meals, meat or vegetarian.
Outdoor films: we have an old 16mm film projector in the rink house, and park staff Matt Leitold is going through the 8000-title film catalogue that the Metro Reference Library gave us a few years ago. We'll try out the films right after Friday night supper: 8 p.m. against the field house wall (on a bedsheet). First films are still not all decided on but we do know one of them: Minnie the Moocher and Many Many More. The title sounds like a kids' film but it's actually a jazz documentary made in Harlem in the energetic fifties, and including wonderful old footage of the greats. So: dinner and a movie in the park.
A call from Police Supt.Glenn Paproski, about the racial profiling follow-up:
One evening this past May, Jutta Mason watched as three police officers questioned a young black man who was walking along the sidewalk, talking on a cell phone, beside the rink house. On the basis of what she observed, she sent a letter the next day to Chief Julian Fantino, of the Toronto Police Service. She wrote that it seemed to her the officers were "fishing" when they questioned this young man, and quoted one of the police officers, who had told her, as she stood there watching, to "go hug a tree". A number of difficult exchanges followed. But at the end of August, the new (since January) head of Fourteen Division, Superintendent Glenn Paproski, called after receiving a copy of our August newsletter from Chief Fantino's office. He said he liked the newsletter generally but was disturbed by its content relative to the police. He also said he wanted to come to the park, see it for himself, and talk about the whole matter. We look forward to his visit.
Pit bull attack - first trial date.
Monday September 9, 9 a.m. Two pit bulls attacked (at their owner's command) another dog and its owner in Dufferin Grove Park on June 29. The two pit bulls are still in custody. This trial is not the criminal case against the dogs' owner (it comes up later), but the city's case about animal control by-laws that were broken. The court's response will be important, both for dog owners and for people who are worried about pit bulls in parks. In case you want to attend, the case is called Trial: City of Toronto vs. Wahid Bayan. It's in Scarborough (this was the first available courtroom, to hurry - !?!! - the case along because of the problem of having the dogs in lengthy public custody). Address of the courtroom: 1530 Markham Road, Section E3. We'll report on the outcome in the October newsletter.
The noise of amplified music in the park:
On Monday Sept.1 the basketball youth had their first-ever barbecue at the park. There had been many requests over the years, to have such a barbecue, complete with music and basketball. More recently, these young men told us that they had the feeling every kind of event could happen in the park EXCEPT one that they liked. So we told them how to apply for a city permit and they were successful (with our backing).
We warned them about the restrictions on amplified sound (85 decibels at 200 feet) and they said they would make every effort to comply. They rented a large barbecue and a sound system, and arranged with us to borrow the tables and chairs they needed.
When the barbecue finally happened, we were surprised at how many families came to it - there were small children and older people and even a few grandparents. With such a mixed group, we were also surprised that some (quite a bit) of the music included curses and graphic sexual language. And both the organizers and the park staff were dismayed to find that even though the music could not be heard at all on the west side of the rink house, it was clearly audible all over the rest of the park. People who live next to the park had a very unhappy time, and there were calls of complaint.
But there were other park users who came by to say they loved the fact that the barbecue was happening at last. The organizers made a huge amount of delicious food and they turned off the music and ended the event at exactly 9 p.m., as their permit said.
The next day a young woman came by with her 4-year-old daughter, to say they had had a wonderful time at the barbecue, and now she was back to see more of the park. We asked her how she had felt about the music. She told us that although she is a Sunday School teacher, she doesn't mind the music and doesn't take the cursing seriously. She felt her little daughter was too young to really notice. But because of the large number of children, and because of older people just walking in the park, she strongly agreed it would be better to censor the music for next year. And the organizers also, when we spoke to them the next day, agreed that next year's music must be censored.
So live and learn. The event itself was very satisfying to the participants and to some other park users. We think it ought to be continued, with these two changes:
Next year, the event has to be in the Dufferin Street hollow, with the speakers pointing into the hill, to swallow the sound.
From now on, all outdoor music played in our park must be free of cursing or sexually graphic language.
A disturbing park meeting at Cawthra Square Park:
The Metcalf Foundation has funded us to write a book about parks and public space, with Dufferin Grove Park as its main (but not its only) story. For that reason, many of our young park staff did research on Toronto's park history last spring, at the Toronto Archives. In summer, we tried out some new things at our park, and now Jutta is writing the book. So when the Sept.2 Globe and Mail announced a "troubled park" meeting, called about a downtown park near Church and Wellesley, it seemed a good idea to go and expand our research.
There must have been well over 250 people at the meeting, and speaker after speaker told about the drunken or drugged or thieving behaviour of people in the tiny park, in the nearby lanes, in the stairwells of adjoining apartments buildings, and on the main streets of the area, after dark or even in broad daylight. The area is very densely populated, with many apartment buildings and also many hostels, and the sheer volume of anti-social behaviour was mind-boggling. The stories reminded Jutta of the grim days of our skating rink ten years ago, but multiplied by 100. And to cap it all, when Jutta left the meeting she found that her new bike was gone from its tie-up against the park's Church Street fence. All that was left was a twisted bike lock and a crowbar thrown on the ground. The helpful group of park users that gathered round (and the two police officers who came out of the park meeting to take a report) matter-of-factly compared notes about which crack user it might be - was it Rick? Was it Stan? - who might have expertly broken the lock and sold the bike to be able to buy their evening supply.
Such a meeting certainly puts some of our park's troubles in perspective.
THE BIG HYDRO BLACKOUT:
During the 41 hours in our area without hydro in the middle of August, people came to the park from nearby apartments to fill water containers at the rink house. 24 hours into the blackout we began to hear unsettling stories about the apartment building next to the rink house. It had no water, no elevator, and not even light in the stairwell.
We heard similar things about other high rises in the neighbourhoods with the longer power outages, and we tried to find out if there was a city crisis number to call for help with getting water to older people, or people with small children, or people who were ill. But during the blackout we found no one. Not in the city councillor's office, not at the ambulance headquarters, not at Access Toronto at City Hall. Not even the very nice-sounding dispatcher at 9-1-1 had an idea of who might be responsible for helping apartment dwellers. There was no central crisis number.
And in the week that followed the (initially slightly shaky) power restoration, 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 that week it was possible to buy a drink at any bar 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. 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 (the shutting down of those public spaces produced negligible power savings during peak-load times) rather than picking sensible actions - shows a wrong-headed approach to civic resources especially in a crisis.
One of the disturbing elements of this blackout crisis was the invisibility of many of Toronto's elected representatives and their staff during the time the power was out. Our own councillor's phone message wasn't even changed from the standard "our regular office hours are…" and no help could be found there. We would be very interested in hearing from newsletter readers who live in a different ward: was your city councillor or her/his staff available/ helpful during the blackout? And did they work to persuade city staff to re-open public spaces right after? If yes, please give us details and we'll publish them. It would be good to highlight those few councillors who responded to the crisis while it was happening. E-mail dufferinpark@dufferinpark.ca or call the newsletter editor at 416/ 533-0153.
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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