“If you want to do something that is making a meaningful difference in the parks deficit we have there are very few places you can do that”, said Tory.
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Invoking the image of Toronto as a “city of parks”, John Tory noted that in recent years the city’s downtown core has not seen adequate growth in parkland despite its rapid development. But questions around how the City will pay for the project and how long it will take to build went largely unanswered at the event Wednesday.
But he was confident the park can be built.
“I can only say is that the goal is to get it done”. “The Downtown core has far less parkland than other parts of the City”, said Tory, stressing the urgent need to provide social infrastructure-including transit, affordable housing, and public space-to keep up with explosive population growth.
Tory pitched the park as a way to link two parts of the downtown core which are now seperated by the rail corridor.
It’s estimated the population of the downtown area will almost double by 2041, to roughly 427, 000 people.
“I believe that creating a new downtown park is the best thing that we can do for future generations”, he said. A big park. A bold park that is going to take otherwise un-utilized area of the city and make sure that we now turn it into something that we need and that we should have. The Millenium Park in Chicago, a similar project, cost $33 million per acre. “So the cost is not inconsiderable”, Tory admitted. The report will outline the steps needed to secure-and then redevelop-the space, beginning with the City’s acquisition of air rights from Metrolinx.
“It can’t be outlined with precision because to some extent it’s uncharted territory”, said Tory. As Ward 20 Councillor Joe Cressy put it, parks and public spaces are particularly important for condominium residents, for whom space is at a premium.
“If you live in a condo tower, the park becomes your backyard”, he said. “Your community centre is your living room”. That’s what this is about.
In reclaiming scarce urban land, the plan follows global projects like Chicago’s Millennium Park and New York’s Hudson Yards-as well as the much smaller Mouth of the Creek Park planned beside and beneath the Bathurst Street Bridge.
A report on the proposed rail park will go to the mayor’s executive committee on September 22.
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The vision is to create a park by decking over the rail corridor, creating a green space that will serve the high-density surrounding neighbourhoods and help connect the city to its waterfront.
