Legalized skating on Grenadier Pond a small win for Torontonians
Theglobeandmail.com
Jan. 13, 2016
By Marcus Gee
About a year back, breaking with custom, Toronto city council actually did something sensible: it ended a ban on skating on Grenadier Pond.
Skaters have been going out on the long pond in the southwest corner of High Park for a century and more. Archival photos show women in long skirts and overcoats lacing up their skates.
It is a wonderful Toronto experience. When I took to the ice on Monday morning, a middle-aged man with his shoes in a backpack was sailing around on long speed skates, his hands linked behind his back as he took big swaying strides. A couple of guys were playing shinny, using their bags as goalposts. A woman in a parka with the hood pulled up against the stiff breeze was skating alongside her dog.
One of the delights of pond skating is simply observing the ice, so different from the monochrome man-made stuff. Grenadier’s went from a cloudy white at the shallower end to an almost translucent black in deeper parts, marked here and there with circular white patches that looked like miniature galaxies in deep space. It is no wonder that Grenadier regulars wait with sharpened blades for a cold snap that will turn the pond into the city’s biggest outdoor rink.
In recent years, city officials concerned about safety and (more the point) liability issues tried to shut the party down. “No skating” signs went up. Those who ventured onto the pond sometimes found city bylaw officers hollering at them from the shore to cease and desist. They were, after all, violating Section 608-21 B of the Toronto Municipal Code, stating that, “No person shall access or skate on a natural ice surface in a park where it is posted to prohibit it.”
It is the same killjoy, father-knows-best impulse that led some Canadian cities to ban tobogganing in parks or tear down perfectly good playground climbers over fears some tot might twist an ankle.
The local city councillor, Sarah Doucette, thought it was all a little silly. She knew how much delight locals took in skating the pond. They could range from end to end instead of going in circles with the rest of the mob at an ordinary city ice rink.
They could breathe the fresh air coming off Lake Ontario just across the road. They could hear the blue jays and chickadees singing from the wooded hills of the park.
English by background, she had her own first shaky Canadian skate at Grenadier. So last December, she and her fellow councillors voted to try something different. Instead of outlawing skating, the city would test the ice and put up warning flags: red for unsafe, yellow for skate at your own risk. The yellow flag went up for the first time this week, before rain and warmer weather brought the red out again. Ice experts are testing the ice daily. When it gets to be 12 to 15 centimetres thick, they deem it strong enough to support skaters.
Some of city hall’s finger-wagging reflexes remain. An online notice advises skaters to dress warmly (thanks!) and wear helmets, knee pads and elbow guards. City officials say skaters should use only the designated area, near the flagpole, where the experts test the ice.
Other bad habits linger, too. City staff estimated the ice-monitoring program would cost $50,000 a year. It turns out the figure is about $160,000, the result, in part, of hiring a specialized contractor. That’s a lot of money for testing ice, something locals sometimes did with a drill and a stick.
But Ms. Doucette’s monitoring-and-flagging system is worth a go. Its virtue is that it gives skaters some guidance without resorting to hollering bylaw officers. People are left to make the final decision about whether to skate or not to skate. They are assumed to be responsible adults, not mewling infants. That is some kind of progress. Playground demolishers, tobogganing cancelers and wet blankets everywhere should take note.
