"Toronto's accidental treasure" by Christopher Hume (Toronto Star) - The Diigo Meta page

• 14 Apr 08
  

  Yule Heibel

  A brief article by Christopher Hume on the Leslie Street Spit, which includes a fascinating video, "Celebrating the Leslie St. Spit," by Greg Smith and Catherine Farley. Before settlement, the area (a wetlands) had an abundance of wildlife. This was then basically obliterated as Toronto took it over for industrial and port-related uses. Ironically, those uses required a seawall, and while waiting for various bureaucratic wheels to turn to allow construction, the city started dumping rubble from construction/ excavation sites. This in turn created a new "Spit," and when economic conditions changed (no need for a seawall after all), the rubble-filled/ built-up area was eventually recolonized by nature. Today it's another wildlife preserve... Neat.

  toronto leslie_spit christopher_hume thestar video

  • By the 1970s, however, the Spit had become a five-kilometre-long peninsula, with no apparent purpose. Responsibility for the city's newest landform was then handed over to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, whose job was to find new uses for the place. The process took so long the Spit was left alone for another couple of decades.

  • In the meantime, the ownership of the land had evolved into a patchwork of civic, provincial and federal agencies that in addition to the TRCA includes the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Toronto Economic Development Corp (TEDCO) and the Toronto Port Authority. Its annual management budget is paltry, under $200,000.

    Perhaps because of this administrative confusion, and continuing neglect, the Spit was free of the kind of human intervention that has altered the landscape everywhere else. By the time the city started to get serious about reclaiming and revitalizing the waterfront, the Spit was an established part of life in Toronto. Though only open on weekends and holidays, it had become a magnet for birders, bikers, hikers and joggers. Indeed, it has achieved storied status, attracting 250,000 visitors annually. We see it now as a shining example, a desperately needed ray of hope in a world fast destroying itself.

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  • • Half a century after the Spit was begun, its problems are the result of this unexpected success. In 2006, the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., now Waterfront Toronto, announced plans to incorporate the Spit into a larger park, Lake Ontario Park.

      This isn't necessarily cause for alarm. But we shouldn't forget that the key to the Spit's transformation from dump to natural habitat has been the absence of man. True, hundreds of trucks show up most working days. But their impact is minimal. They drive down the road that forms the spine of the peninsula, drop their load, and return.

      The real threat may come from the people who go to the area for leisure. Though well-meaning and sympathetic, they represent the forces of gentrification. Despite their good intentions, their presence means planners feel pressure to ensure the park has all the amenities – toilets, interpretive centres, picnic benches, trails, lights, information kiosks and so on, the whole paraphernalia of civic green space – the public expects.

    • The underlying irony, of course, is that there's nothing natural about the Spit; it's entirely man-made.
    • Field Operations holds out high hopes for Lake Ontario Park: "As a branding opportunity," says project manager Richard Kennedy, "this could be even greater for Toronto than Central Park in New York."

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