^^ Trillium Park was packed when I was there last summer. There's a real demand for (passive) park space downtown, which is the motivation behind the rail deck park afterall. I think this park will be well used.
Was that on just a normal day? Do you have video or pics? I do! I was there a number of times and I filmed it!
You are missing my point! Yes, there is demand for parkland downtown but in high density areas where people live, like The Entertainment District or Liberty Village. Do you know how long of a trek it is from Liberty Village to Ontario Place? You have to go under the rail tracks and through all of the CNE over the Gardiner and the parking lots just to get to Ontario Place and you have to walk past other parks to get to it. Who's going to do that, when they have parks in Liberty Village, close by? I can easily prove you wrong, just tell me when you want me to film the park and I will be there to prove my point! I'll scan that park with my camera and prove just how unused it is on almost all non-event days.
What's really happening here, is Ontario Place is being taken from a public major attraction and being turned into an exhibition ground, just like Exhibition Place, which is NOT what was promised. Ontario Place was originally an amusement park, much like Tivoli Gardens, which is more of a cultural and leisure park than a thrill ride park like Wonderland. It had a few smaller rides but the rides were not the main draw, it was the human-powered activities that provided the fun, like at Children's village. The water slides were also a good way to be active, yet still, have fun for kids. The museums, shows, movies, bars, restaurants also provided a reason for people to go for a fun day/night out. It was a place you could take your family or out-of-town guests for a good time any day or night of the week. You didn't have to wait for a special event.
Now what the Ontario government is turning it into is essentially a big exhibition space, where it can be rented out by businesses for food events, beer tasting events, sporting events or concerts much like Exhibition Place or Fort York Grounds are used today, when they have their beer festivals that charge 60 dollar admission. It now becomes all about corporate profits! So now you get the spicy food festival or some dance festival or some other paid event where the public is invited if they agree to fork over big bucks. Think Molson Amphitheatre.
This new park, the size of 14 football fields will be just a landscaped, open field where they can rent the space to businesses to make money. It's all about making money, it's not about giving people buildings to do it in. I understand, the government wants to spend as little money as possible and yet say, see, we did something, so please give us your vote. The thing is, what are we getting that we don't already have? Please, tell me what are we getting here that we can't already do at Trillium Park, Coronation Park, Marlyne Bell Park, Exhibition Place park or the convention facilities therein? Want to hold a beer event, great, put it in Beanfield Centre at Exhibition Place! You can hold a food festival at Ontario Place's West Island, which it did this summer. This is not what we were promised and it's not what is needed. It's the cheap, easy, neo-liberal thing to do! You spend as little money as you can and you offer corporations a new venue to make money, as well as getting money back.
What you are not doing is returning Ontario Place, the daily tourist attraction back to Ontarians, like they promised, when they closed the place down. They are not returning a fun place to take kids on any day of the week one chooses. So now we have a large, public space that will have nothing of interest on most days and on days they have events, families will have to pay. I wonder if kids will get a discount when they hold a Festival Of Beer?
This is not what I was expecting and it is not what I want. Please tell me how this will be a year-round attraction if they don't build any large, indoor facilities? I think very little thought and no effort at all went into this! The government just wanted a quick, easy way out of their original commitment and I think it STINKS! I really don't think the Liberals give a crap at all. Probably most people don't care either, so it probably won't affect them but it affects me because I care about Toronto and I especially hate being deceived! Just like with the Sam's sign, we again, are taken for a ride.
Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining!
