[Ervin]

This plan is a travesty, Ontario Place is one of my favorite places in the entire city, I bike there multiple times a week outside of winter. It's a very popular destination, it get's very crowded on summer evenings, and it's no surprise as it is a very nice park right next to a highly populated area, and is relatively easy to reach. The space is also very underutilized at the moment, if many of the old structures were torn down, and the western shore were extended a few meters with a new gravel beach, it could easily fit many more people. To build a spa here would be very disappointing.

 

[SuzeGrey]

This is public land that belongs to all Ontarians. Therme Canada should not be allowed to build on public land and then charge us for entering their space. On top of this Ontarians will have to pay $450 million to prepare this land to build a parking lot for the people that have paid to enter what was once public land. It makes no fiscal sense. And certainly no civic vision to build on this public land. Therme Canada should build its spa on private land. There are hundred of locations that are more suitable.

 

[wopchop]

This is public land that belongs to all Ontarians. Therme Canada should not be allowed to build on public land and then charge us for entering their space. On top of this Ontarians will have to pay $450 million to prepare this land to build a parking lot for the people that have paid to enter what was once public land. It makes no fiscal sense. And certainly no civic vision to build on this public land. Therme Canada should build its spa on private land. There are hundred of locations that are more suitable.

Totally agree.
But to Therme, there is only one location that is suitable because it comes with $450MM worth of government subsidies.

 

[jsjaker]

You have to know that this is going ahead with all the public funds subsidies because Fat Boy is getting a cut.

 

[Towered]

I mean this is quite funny. how can you feel sorry for rich people who own boats. "BUT WHERE DO WE GO?"

finding out how cheap 6 month storage fees are is hilarious.

only paying 2,000 to store your boat?

They interviewed some shrill, tone-deaf, bottle blonde Karen whining about where they were going to park their boat now. It was hilarious and came across as parody.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

They interviewed some shrill, tone-deaf, bottle blonde Karen whining about where they were going to park their boat now. It was hilarious and came across as parody.

While I can understand and appreciate the level of schadenfreude at the yacht owning clueless here...keep in mind it's all likely going to come back on us, where the face lift is coming with for-profit interests for the same bottle blonde audience in mind. And likely with little regards of what OP means for the rest of us or the public, to put it mildly. So /bleh.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

From the March WT DRP:

https://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/sites/default/files/2023-03/March%2022%2C%202023%20WDRP%20Review%202_Ontario%20Place%20Public%20Realm%20%2B%20West%20Island_Issues%20Identification.pdf

AoD

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

...when it comes to public lands, those glass "pavilions" proposed are there to remind us that some of the public will be more equal than others. /sigh

 

[Northern Light]

City Planning has put out a status report on the Ontario Place project, it addresses the entire site, though is mostly focused on the West Island/Therme component of the project. Nonetheless, I thought it belonged in the Master Project Thread.

The report noted above is headed to the next meeting of TEYCC, and can be read here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2023/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-235431.pdf

City staff are clearly taking a negative view towards the project, as I think they ought; though they are doing so in an appropriately professional tone.

From the above:

**

The Globe's Jeff Gray also has a piece out on this (paywalled) here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can...ritical-report-on-ontario-place-spa-proposal/

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

If I was The City I would refuse to grant them the parking lot for one...

 

[W. K. Lis]

Wonder if they'll use the dirt, soil, or earth from the Ontario Line TBM's for landfill at Ontario Place?

 

[Art Tsai]

955 Lake Shore Boulevard West (Ontario Place)

22 233864 STE 10 OZ

Colin Wolfe

2023-04-15

In-Person

12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Beanfield Centre, 105 Princes Boulevard

Public meeting is scheduled for this project!

 

[mistersg1]

I do wonder at times why people are so tied in knots over this whole thing. While I’d have to write a more detailed essay style rant on this subject, here is the main question.

Prior to 2011, how did all of you view Ontario Place?

I think most of us who visited at some point before it closed its doors understood that it wasn’t meant to be a park (like the Toronto Islands at least) but rather more of an amusement park of sorts. I know free admission was on and off to even walk across the skywalks or the main gate, but other than that, there was an entrance fee to even walk onto the islands.

The bottom line is, I think most of the general public saw Ontario Place as more of a public park, and along the lines of an entertainment area.

I wrote a piece over at KI Central about Ontario Place so I mean no harm to the place. Visiting the place in the 90s is of a great memory to me. (KI is Kings Island, a sister park, or mother park if you will to Canada’s Wonderland, as the builders of Kings Island built Wonderland with a very similar layout)

A recent stroll through Ontario Place

Ontario Place.....a government owned amusement park shut its doors out of the blue in February 2012. Since then, what to do with the land it sits on has been up for debate but it's been currently decided on a regular public park of sorts will be on the islands that make up Ontario Place. A portio...

kicentral.com

 

[AnnetteMeetsJane]

I do wonder at times why people are so tied in knots over this whole thing. While I’d have to write a more detailed essay style rant on this subject, here is the main question.

Prior to 2011, how did all of you view Ontario Place?

The population living the Spadina-Fork York area has increased immensely since 2011 - I am not sure of the exact figures but it has doubled(!) in the time between 2015 and 2021, so it is safe to say more than doubled. The population all along the lakeshore as also increased immensely. Much of this population are younger, active residents (runners, cyclists) with children, dogs etc. They live in small condo homes without backyards.

In that time, there has not been a proportional increase in any form of recreation space in the area. Across a wider catchment, Ontario Place serves as the closest parkland areas i.e. something other than flat, poorly maintained grass to walk in the area and one of the few points of access to the lake. The pressure on recreation space in this part of the City of Toronto has grown too great to accommodate suburbanites with backyards and cars who occasionally want to visit a spa or casino.

If you want an occasional thrill space, go use a location in a less densely populated location with less natural amenities to destroy - preferably a brownfield site. No one is building lakeshore any more and we don't have any spare to hand over to private companies for the benefit of grifters.
If you really want to build a spa on a lakeshore recreation area, try putting it in the Muskokas and then come back and tell me that the attitudes of DT residents is unreasonable.

 

[The Preservationist]

There are two things that make Central Park in New York City great. One, it's a park and two, it's central. I jest, but keeping Ontario Place in a park like setting in the downtown which is currently short on green space should be the priority. Ontario Place should be kept in line with it's original vision. Covering Ontario Place over with a commercial spa, and then supporting a multi billion dollar rail deck park sounds like one hand not knowing what the other is doing...