Mayor John Tory acts to cut Pokemon Go crowd at ferry terminal

You can still catch a ferry at the Jack Layton terminal, but catching a monster there is harder after the mayor reached out to the popular game’s developer.

TheStar.com
Aug. 25, 2016
By Oliver Sachgau

Over half of the Pokestops at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal are no more, after some personal intervention by Mayor John Tory.

The area around the ferry has seen an influx of Pokemon Go players after the mobile game exploded in popularity during its release in June. What’s responsible? The area’s nine Pokestops - in-game beacons where players can congregate in real life - far more than any other location in the city.

Where players otherwise move from one stop to the next, at the terminal - where non-players depart for and arrive from the Toronto Islands - the sheer number of stops meant they could stay in one place and still catch Pokemon.

The number of players became such a problem that the city petitioned the game’s developer, Niantic, to reduce the number of stops.

But things weren’t moving fast enough, so Tory decided to take matters into his own hands and email Niantic’s CEO John Hanke personally last Friday.

“I wrote him a note and said ‘I’m really happy with your success with Pokemon Go, I’m really glad all the people are enjoying playing it ... However my job is to balance that against the fact that there is a degree of disruption,” Tory said.

Hanke replied almost immediately, and put Tory in touch with Niantic’s head of operations. By Monday, the two had agreed to pare down the number of stops from nine to four. Tory said the company was sympathetic with his concerns, though “there were many historic plaques and different things down there that constitute legitimate Pokemon stops.”

Pokemon Go has been losing players in the last weeks, according to one outside analysis, leading some to speculate its usage would taper off when summer ended. Tory said he didn’t want to wait to see if things died down on their own.

The reduction seems to have worked. On Wednesday afternoon, the ferry terminal park was deserted - a far cry from a week ago, when every square foot seemed covered in players who had come from far and wide for Pokemon.

Players who came down to catch Pokemon on Wednesday expressed surprise that the stops were gone. William Zhou, who plays occasionally at the ferry terminal, said he understood why Tory wanted the stops reduced, but he still lamented their loss.

“From the mayor’s perspective I think he did the right thing ... as a gamer, it’s kind of sad,” Zhou said.

Joseph Conflitti and Chloe Tomei, who have been coming down to the terminal for over a month, were less understanding. They said the game was not causing any trouble, even when there were large crowds.

“Everyone plants themselves on the hill. The congestion here is because of people coming down from the ferry,” Conflitti said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Both Tomei and Conflitti said the area isn’t worth travelling to now that the stops are gone. “I travel from Woodbridge ... I have to pay $20 to park here and now I can’t even play,” Tomei said.

Tory said he still supports players, and wants to partner with Niantic to do some Toronto-specific events with the game.

“I’m not emotionally involved with this. I’m neither playing the game nor living down there, but I represent all the people who do both of those things,” he said.