Friends Of Oriole Park
Welcome to the Friends of Oriole Park website.  Friends of Oriole Park (FOP) is a local community group committed to ensuring that Oriole Park will benefit all park users and retain the park’s green space; and that any proposed changes to the park only be done with extensive community consultation.  Our growing membership is diverse and includes members of different ages, lifestyles and backgrounds – young professionals, retirees, parents, grandparents, dog owners, home owners, and apartment residents.

Until recently our primary focus was to get a community-friendly new playground. After 6 long years we now finally have a playground that we can all be pround of.

Although our main focus continues to be Oriole Park, Friends of Oriole Park are also becoming involved in other neighborhood issues.  We have also begun the process of developing a vision and long-tern plan for the expansion and improvement of Oriole Park. In this regard, one of our projects is to free-up some TTC lands adjacent to the park so that Oriole Park can be expanded to meet increasind demands from a broad spectrum of users.

Update On Park Improvements:  On April 16 Councillor Matlow held a public meeting to discuss various matters related to Oriole Park. The Councillor wanted to try an experiment at "Participatory Budgeting" in that local residents could vote on what kind of improvements they would like to see.
And here are the results:
         - New pavement and light(s) in the laneway
         - More benches and picnic tables to be spread wider in the park
          - A Community Garden
          - Fixing potholes in the outfield of the baseball diamond
          - And maybe in the future:
                - Upgrading of the baseball diamond
                - A recreational skaing rink
If any of you are interested to volunteer for looking after the Community Garden please contact us. If there are also residents interested in a recreational skating rink please also contact us.

During the meeting there was also alot of discussion about off-leash dogs (see below). Many of those present felt that we have reached a crirtical point with too many dogs now on the loose all the time. And, much to our delight there was also discussion about the fact that residents do not want to turn our small park into an amusement destination, eg we want trees, green spaces and what we really need is more land from the TTC.

Final Cost Of The New Playground: (Note: Some residents sent us suggestions for improving the initial text which we have now incorporated) FOP has recently been given the final actual expenditures for our new playground. Here is the bottom line. Actual costs amounted to $1,349,960.01 which is only $8,260.01 over the final construction budget.

When this project first started the budget was $2,500,000 based on a promise of $1,000,000 from a group called "A Bunch Of Guys" and a matching amount of $1,000,000 from the City plus up $500,000 of Section 32 funds. Following several public meeting the Community finally signed off on a design for the new playground that met local aspirations.

As the public meetings to select the final design progressed it became evident that the actual construction budget would most like fall in the range of $1.7 to 1.4 million. As it turned out the final budget was around 1.35 miilion budget. After the public meetings the City came up  a redesigned playground that incorporated many of the basic ideas previously approved by the community. The City also had to throw in an additional $300,000 to meet the requirements of the final design.

After more than 6 years we now have our new playground which turned out to be a roaring success when it opened last summer. For more details on the costs go to Detailed Costs.


Opening Ceremony For Playground: FOP has learned that the City/ Paks Depatrment is planning a grand opening ceremony for our new playground. This ceremony seems to be primarily aimed at donors to A Bunch Of Guys. Despite on-going discussions no agreement has yet been reached with the City/Parks Department about what role, if any, the community will have in these planned festivities. This has once again brought up many of the lingering concerns that FOP has documented which are now part of the history of the new playground. FOP has written a letter to Mayor Ford to point out that there are many lesasons to be learned from our history and past experiences. If you would like to know more go  to"Background". As always we would love to hear from you.


So What Is The TTC Up To Along The BeltLIne? Late last year a number of FOP members noticed some strage goings on along the TTC Davisville fenceline which runs from the Kay Gardner Bridge over Yonge Street to Frobisher Ave. Specifically, we noticed that over 100 mature trees had each been given an aluminum strip/tag with a number on it. On top of this, many of the tagged trees had been given a bright orange spot, very similar to orange spots we see in the neighborhood on trees destined to be cut down.

FOP asked the TTC what was going on and all we were told is that they have hired an Arborist. We then asked the City Paks Department and all we were told is that the TTC has not applied to cut-down any trees along the Beltline. We then asked Josh Matlow's Office and all we were told is that they will make inquiries and that they will not allow the TTC to cut down any trees on the Beltline.

And then we have the testimony of one of our members who met a man and women measuring the trees and taking notes. When asked who they are with, they refused to answer; when asked what they were doing all they were told is that some trees needed to come down and they are taking measurements.

So, is the TTC planning to take down up to 100 mature marked trees along the Beltline without City permission? If you are as concerned as we are, contact Josh Matlow, contact the City and let the TTC know that they will not get away with any such plans!!


We Have A New Community Bulletin Board in the Park:  FOP now has a new Community Bulletin Board at the Frobisher entrance (near the TTC gate) to Oriole Park. This notice board was originally set-up by the City to advise residents of the progress on the new playground. FOP has recently made an arrangement whereby this notice board can now be used by us as a community bulletin board. Thank you Diane Tomlin from the Parks Department for facilitating this.

Check it out. We currently have pictures up from the recent Open House. Next we will post a draft guideline for off-leash dogs and dog owners created by and for local residents. Many of us think that the current "official policy" is too restrictive and that we, together, can do better job and making everybody happy.

If you have something that is of interest to the community please contact us via this web site and we will make an effort to post your contribution on the new notice board.


New Draft Guideline For Off-leash Dogs and Dog Owners: Often one of the more controversial issues in a park is the matter of off-leash dogs. There are strong feelings on all sides of this issue which all to often can boil-up and create unpleasant feelings among park users. At our recent Open House, FOP heard from several residents on this matter. We now think that the time has come to try a new approach.

Here is the official city policy."Official Policy". Simply stated it says that Oriole Park is officially a dogs on-leash park and that the closest dog off-leash area is located in Sir Winston Churchill Park at 301 St. Clair Ave W.

Looking around Oriole Park on any given day it is clear that most dog owners are in violation of the official city policy for our park. Digging a bit deeper, FOP is aware that not all park users, including dog owners, are very satistied with the current blatant violation of the official city policy.

Going back to the days of Kay Garndner (founder of the Belt Line) Oriole Park has had a tradition of co-operation and respect among all park users, and in particular, on the matter of off-leash dogs. FOP would like to bring back this spirit of co-operation and respect. We propose to draft a new guideline for off-leash dogs in Oriole Park. We will then post this draft guideline in our new Community Bulletin Board and widely distribute it in order to get public input and comments. At the end of this consultative period FOP will call a public meeting at which we hope to get final local approval before we submit it to the City.

Please stay tuned as we roll-out this new initiative.
















                
  Friends of Oriole Park
 
           New Improvements Coming           
          
   We Have the Actual Cost of the Playground

                Lingering Concerns

   What Is The TTC Doing Along The Beltline?

         
 
  

       
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