Nasty mark left on King’s Mill Park
It takes a special kind of artist to use a car to carve dozens of large circles in the snow at King’s Mill Park.
And only by a fluke of weather did the knucklehead behind the wheel not succeed in tearing a wide swath of turf below the snow to shreds, which appears to have been the objective.
Among the consequences of the mild winter so far is a minimum of frost in the ground. This week we wrote about a sidewalk plow that mangled the grass next to a sidewalk, while plowing barely enough snow to bother.
With the ground not frozen, plows that veer even slightly off the sidewalk are sure to gouge the grass next to it. And it’s hard for plow drivers to keep to the straight and narrow when they can’t see the sidewalk for the snow.
So when a driver wheels a car into an area of a park where vehicles aren’t supposed to be and spins dozens of doughnuts, there’s a pretty good chance the grass will be chewed to shreds.
A reader sent us startling photos of circles in the snow in the park, near Bloor St. and the South Kingsway, along with a note explaining how they happened on Thursday night.
“We watched a white Volvo XC60 tear up the grass in Kings Mill Park last night, causing huge damage to the grassed area,” said the reader, who asked not to be named.
“This will cost the city next spring. He/ she was driving and spinning tires throughout the park.
“We called the police at the time, but of course, the culprits escaped before anyone could get there. Someone’s parents have a white Volvo that has grass coating the bottom and wheels; maybe this will be found out.”
We went there Friday and found the spot where the driver had spun the car. Most of the snow was melted, thanks to temperatures well above freezing, but we were surprised to find very little damage to the turf.
The weather was just cold enough over the previous several days to harden up the ground enough to prevent the wheels of the car from sinking into it.
If the driver had gone for the same spin just one night later, it would have turned the grass into a mud pit. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer, call us at 416-869-4823 or email jlakey@thestar.ca.