Post on HtO:
Promising new park Lifts Waterfront Hopes
$10M HtO park Occupies Two Former Quays
Peter Kuitenbrouwer, National Post
Published: Wednesday, December 20, 2006
There is a wonderful park taking shape on the shore of Lake Ontario, a block east of the foot of Spadina Avenue.
Yes, the park, Ht O, has an insufferably precious name.
Yes, it is a year late and cost city taxpayers $10-million. Still, it looks like it will be a cool place to sunbathe, picnic, and even build sand castles.
The other day workers chased me out of Ht O for arriving bareheaded, so I returned yesterday with my hard hat and steel-toed boots, and Ian Somerville, whose company Somerville Construction has 25 workers on the site, gave me the nickle tour.
The two parks west of here, Spadina Quay Wetland and the Music Garden, are a bit distancing, forbidding, for all their beauty. By contrast, Ht0 is a park for philistines: trees, benches, boardwalk.
Ht O occupies two former quays, separated by the Peter Street Slip.
The western quay, which is smaller, contains mainly mounds with weeping willows and red maples, surrounded by paths, going down to a walkway at the shore.
The eastern quay, former site of Maple Leaf Mills, has plenty of trees, too; closer to shore is a beach, perhaps 10 metres wide and 200 metres long.
A backhoe yesterday added special sand, imported from Huntsville, which drains well and doesn't compact.
On one end is an outdoor shower, and in the sand workers are erecting 39 permanent aluminum umbrellas, painted yellow, on stainless-steel poles. The effect is jovial.
The seating meanwhile, consists of giant slabs of cement, whose surface slopes a bit. Will the skateboarders come? You better believe it.
South of the beach, the boards have arrived to build the boardwalk, made of Ipe, a Brazilian hardwood.
"It's a rainforest wood," says Mr. Somerville.
Then he reassures: "It's apparently theoretically harvested under the Forest Stewardship agreement, so it comes with all kinds of certificates."
The contractors began a year ago and had planned to finish by Christmas.
"It's going fine, there are challenges as with every construction project," says Mr. Somerville, declining to be more specific.
"We are going to open in the spring."
Mayor David Miller gets the credit for this park, however, he may have trouble enjoying it,
since it is in fact a perfect place to watch planes land at the Island Airport.
We as a city are good at whining about how nothing gets done on our waterfront, so I am pleased to report that this area is really coming to life.
Yes, streetcar service on Queen's Quay remains pitifully infrequent. Still, a Shoppers Drug Mart just opened across from Ht O.
Even more exciting, I stopped into Coffee Time at 10 Lower Spadina Ave. (corner of Queen's Quay) for lunch yesterday, not expecting much, and, for $10, had a feast!
Tony Zhang, the owner, serves five specials for $4.99.
I ate shepherd's pie but even more divine was the soup, a flavourful, steaming porcelain bowl with onions, tomatoes, celery, zucchini, turnips, carrots, peas and corn.
Mr. Zhang at first only knew how to cook Chinese, he said.
"I hired some Greek and Italian cooks. They left, and I learned," he explains.
Today's specials, he promises, will include stir-fried noodles, lasagna, pepper steak, liver and onions, and curried chicken.
Later, strolling on the strip, I met Doug Patterson, who retired to a condo here six years ago. He says governments are wasting millions on consultations about the waterfront, rather than just getting things done.
"The mindset today is pay a consultant for a recommendation," he says.
"Pay for five opinions and then pay someone else to decide which is best. Then you've spent all the money and have none left."
Judging by its Web site, this is indeed the preferred technique of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp.
The TWRC blew $1-million this summer for a ridiculous project to temporarily plant thousands of geraniums here to show what Queen's Quay could be like with fewer cars and a permanent bike path.
Then they pulled them all out again.
Another source here notes that, while we spend millions on cosmetics, the actual seawall at the water's edge, built in the 1920s, is crumbling.
"The southwesternly corner of the National Yacht Club collapsed during a big storm two weeks ago," the source reports.
That said, the new beach is great; I look forward to lounging there next summer.
Pkuitenbrouwer@nationalpost.com
© National Post 2006
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