It must be Simcoe Day: Bluffer’s Park chock-a-block
It’s a long-weekend tradition as common as cold beers and barbecue: Bluffer’s Park Beach in Scarborough was closed to through traffic Monday as the parking lots of the popular waterfront site reached capacity, causing traffic jams and chaos.
Toronto police Sgt. Evan Drake told the Star that closures of this nature “frequently happen on the weekend” and that three squad cars and up to six officers were deployed from 41 Division around 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. to help circulate traffic.
“Once you get down there, there’s nowhere left to go,” Drake said. “It’s a holiday Monday, it’s a hot day and there’s only so much parking.”
Police officer Nick Czujko acted as the gatekeeper handling the traffic on Kingston Rd. and Brimley Rd. S. for the afternoon, responsible for verifying members of the sailing and yacht clubs that have reserved parking, as well as local residents. He turned other traffic away to park elsewhere.
“This is the only point of access,” Czujko said, as he waved in a car with two Seadoos on its trailer. “There’s no emergency, but a call was made (earlier) by patrons of the park. There was a parking dispute, I believe.”
After hauling a “road closed” sign to the right-hand lane of Brimley Rd. S., Sharif Asaduzzaman looked at the line of cars bottlenecking southwest along Kingston Rd. and smiled.
“This happens every year at this time,” he said, shaking his head and adding that he’s usually a gardener for the city’s parks, forestry and recreation division, but was called into work to help with the crowd control. “It’s a long weekend; they should really anticipate this (happening).”
As a result of the road closure, determined beachgoers were forced to walk down on the shoulder of the road — although it doesn’t boast much in terms of width and turns sharply into a ditch on each side.
In single file or pairs, carrying inflatable beach toys, chairs, barbecues and coolers, the crowds nonetheless walked the 2.4 kilometres down the hill, competing with cars to get to the lake.