WHEELS OFF THE DOGS
Community group urges skateboarders to roll away from the Berczy Park statues,
The cracked front paw on a golden pup sculpture at Berczy Park is just one of the apparent battle wounds from an ongoing clash between skateboarders and the downtown park’s frequent visitors.
The Friends of Berczy Park, a local community group, is calling on skateboarders to keep their wheels off park benches, ledges and sculptures after property was found damaged ahead of the park’s grand reopening on Wednesday.
While locals suspect the damage was caused by skateboarders, the city said it is not certain about how the sculpture was cracked.
“We want to make it clear that most skateboarders . . . They’re performing their sport and their art, there’s no issue there,” said Shaun Pearen, a representative from Friends of Berczy Park.
“But, there do seem to be a very small number of boarders who seem to be acting intentionally and destructively and aggressively.”
Pearen said members of the community have attempted to speak with the “small group of destructive and defiant skateboarders,” which often results in confrontations.
Skateboarding is not permitted at the park, located near St. Lawrence Market between Wellington, Front and Scott Sts.
At the park’s heart is a two-tiered fountain, with 27 cast-iron sculptures of dogs spraying water from their mouths, and one of a cat and a golden bone on top.
Matthew Cutler, a spokesperson for Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation department, said the fountain was “designed to discourage skate- boarding.” Skatestoppers, or metal knob-like fittings, have been installed to prevent riding on the fountain rim.
But this does not necessarily deter skaters from taking advantage of other elements of “urban furniture” in the park, said Migs Bartula, cochairperson of the Toronto Skateboarding Committee.
“You can put up as many signs and skatestoppers and defensive architecture as you want, but if people are doing something, maybe we can find a better way to co-operate and encourage it in different spaces.”
Bartula said he spoke with some members of Friends of Berczy Park at the Park People’s annual summit earlier this year, but the two groups have not met since to discuss the ongoing issue.
Skateboarders are attracted to the downtown core for its interesting features, but there is a lack of official concrete skating space in the city itself, Bartula said.
Dunbat Skate Park at Bathurst and Dundas Sts., is often crowded and Ashbridges Skate Park at Lake Shore Blvd. E. and Coxwell Ave., is a distance away for skaters who end up turning to other downtown spaces to ride.
One example is near City Hall, where Bartula’s committee is work- ing with the Parks department on exploring the installation of “skateable features” into the plaza or repurposing a vacant area for skaters.
“We found a lot of examples in other cities, and even in Toronto, (where) you either build skate parks or you can make these public spaces more resilient to this type of use,” he said.
As for Berczy Park, the city is planning to send the broken-pawed pup sculpture over to a foundry after Wednesday’s reopening ceremony. The cost of the damage has not been determined.
Berczy Park was designed by Montreal landscape architect Claude Cormier, also known for creating Toronto’s Sugar Beach.
The remake cost $7.2 million, and includes rows of trees, a garden and lots of benches as well as the fountain.
Pearen hopes that the community will work together to protect the park, named after William Berczy, a German architect who settled in Canada and helped found Toronto.
“We hope that everyone will sort of take a stewardship role, care for the park, speak up when they see destructive behaviour or damage . . . and share (the park) with others,” Pearen said. With files from Christopher Hume