Junction Triangle

Electric Train Music Series

Every Sunday in July at 12:30 p.m. in the Junction Triangle

Acoustic Performances:

• Sunday, July 4
  Campbell Park, performer Adam Volpentesta
• Sunday, July 11
  Carlton Park, performer Andrew Cash
• Sunday, July 18
  Erwin Krickhahn Park, performer Mark Ripp

Judging from old photographs, the parks of this neighbourhood have been busy gathering places for many years. The image above of Carlton Park captures a festive day in 1914. And one of Perth Square shows a heated baseball game underway in 1920, played out in jackets and ties, with neighbours crowded at the fence.

It's hard to believe, but skating season is almost over at our local rink at Campbell Park. The rink closes after Sunday February 28th, and the final pleasure skating session is on Saturday February 27th from 4:00-6:00pm.

The Saturday afternoon pleasure skate has been a huge success this year. Many people from all over the neighbourhood are coming, not just for the skating but to hang out in the friendly outdoor atmosphere with other neighbours. Lots of kids, and people just learning how to skate too. Even if you don't really like skating, it's fun to just hang out at the park and chat with people, or warm up by the campfire with some freshly-made donuts and hot chocolate.

For pleasure skating and shinny schedules, please check the City Rinks website.

Hope to see you all there.

Saturday afternoon pleasure skate at Campbell Park.

Photo by Vic Gedris, 2010-02-06.

A poster advertising the Saturday afternoon pleasure skate at Campbell Park.

Photo by Vic Gedris, 2010-01-09.

Freshly-made donuts and hot chocolate at Campbell Park during the Saturday afternoon pleasure skate.

Photo by vic Gedris, 2010-01-09.

Campbell rink has certainly improved in the past 2 years and here is an opportunity to help make it better. As part of an initiative by CELOS to deal with ongoing issues at the City's outdoor rinks the public are invited to email their concerns which will be presented to the City Ombudsman. Read the blog story at this link.

http://bloorlansdowne.blogspot.com/2010/01/are-there-any-problems-at-tor...

The email address to send your concerns is: mail@cityrinks.ca

This Saturday, December 5th, the skating rink at Campbell Park is scheduled to open for the season.

Here is the schedule for Saturday's skating activities, courtesy of the City Rinks website:

Saturday

SATURDAY AUGUST 8 2009 Campbell Park

From 11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Join Adam and his staff in the park and say hello and ask questions you might have.

Free hotdogs and light refreshments plus a live appearance by the wonderful Clay and Paper Theatre's Puppet Squad.

As you probably already know and have even possibly experienced in one way or another, Campbell Park was used as a temporary garbage dump during the recent City of Toronto workers strike.

The "garbage strike", as it was often referred to, lasted for just over one month, and our local rink at Campbell Park was used as a temporary dump site for approximately two weeks starting around July 16th. A group of residents calling themselves Friends of Campbell Park protested the use of Campbell Park as a dump.

Over the August long weekend, City Staff finally hauled the garbage away and started to clean up the rink. However, people are reporting that the site is still contaminated with the sticky leftovers of two weeks worth of garbage runoff.

Since I was away and unable to truly experience the effects of this strike on Campbell Park myself, I will leave it up to these media / blog / photo links to tell the story. If you have any of your own stories or comments about how this strike affected our neighbourhood, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Media / Blog Links:

• Protests mark opening of new temporary dumps, CTV, July 16 2009
• Residents upset with three new dump sites, Toronto Star, July 16 2009
• Residents to protest Campbell Park dump site, The Villager / Inside Toronto, July 16 2009
• New Day, New Dump Sites, CityNews, July 16 2009 (With video)
• Campbell Park anti-dumping protest: it was a circus, Michael's Bloor-Lansdowne Blog, July 17 2009.
• Photos from Thursday's protest at Campbell Park, Michael's Bloor-Lansdowne Blog, July 19 2009
• Park fans trash dump-free CNE, Toronto Sun, July 21 2009
• Campbell Park garbage protesters chain selves, CTV, July 22 2009
• Clean up our park: Residents, Toronto Sun, July 28 2009
• Garbage pickup resumes as some steamed over dumps, CTV, August 4 2009
• Garbage gone but contamination fears remain, The Villager / Inside Toronto, August 6 2009

A few more photo links on Flickr:

• Campbell Park Garbage Park, by Martin Reis
• The Big Clean-up, by Martin Reis
• TOStrike - Human Chain, Friends of Campbell Park, by Himy Syed