50 Queens Quay East (Park) | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

[Northern Light]

A few pics from today, April 22nd, 2025 (then a comment or three....)

Comments:

1) Yeah, it's early, but the hydro seeding isn't performing particularly well. By contrast, my chives are now over 10cm tall, and harvestable. This should be greener.
Sod costs more, but you can see the performance difference. Too early to write off the hydro seed, but if it's not aggressively greening in two weeks, sod incoming.

2) The birch trees look, at first blush, like the multi-stem European variety (could also be River Birch). LA's love these as do nurseries. I'm less keen on them. Aside from not being native * (* there are native cultivars done like this sometimes)...
I find the multi-stem form more susceptible to major breaks/failures.

Also, White Birch varietals typically like soil mesic (medium moisture) to slightly moist. Putting them up on constructed mounds that look a bit compacted.............ummm....ok.

3) Why is the paved 'path' at least 5M, if not 6M wide? It's huge......... Just asking.

 

[Amare]

Some exciting updates! Looks like nature has grown interested in the site, let's have a look at Toronto's newest attraction, the Toronto canal:

 

[mburrrrr]

Today
A green hue.

This must be a downtown parking and storage area. New welder or generator on site.

Virgil - White water tower, NF US Seneca Resort casino tower

Skylon tower

Frontenac unloading salt from Goderich? Going back to the Welland Canal.

 

[dufferin1]

May 19th:

 

[Amare]

May 19th:

View attachment 652654

Can someone explain to me, how in the planet it takes 2 years to get community consultation for a park, and 5 YEARS total to build a park???

This city never ceases to amaze with how embarrassing things have gotten. Mega Infrastructure projects in Europe, Asia, South America, etc can start and finish faster than we can design and build a park??

Honestly this is one big giant joke, it's hard to take anything in this city seriously anymore. Is there not a single thing we can do that's not over-budget, delayed, or snailed paced? This is inexcusable, shameful, laughable non-sense, and frankly it's disgusting "planning".

And if it's the fact that it's a funding problem (and im sure that's part of it), that's another issue that needs to be addressed. If we're taking 5 years to trickle out funding, the city needs to start allocating funds so things can start and close out sooner. Not stretch out 1000 relatively simple projects over 5+ years.

Brief side note; here's more info on the embarrassing project (it may be time to make a new thread to separate it out of Phase 2 of this development):

New Park at 50 Queens Quay East

On November 10, 2025, the Park in Progress opens to the public. Features include a lawn, mounds, picnic grove with seating, pickleball courts, an off-leash area for dogs and entry plaza. A new 10,000 m2 park is coming to 50 Queens Quay E. near One Yonge Community Recreation Centre, as part of...

www.toronto.ca

 

[DSCToronto]

Can someone explain to me, how in the planet it takes 2 years to get community consultation for a park, and 5 YEARS total to build a park???

This city never ceases to amaze with how embarrassing things have gotten. Mega Infrastructure projects in Europe, Asia, South America, etc can start and finish faster than we can design and build a park??

Honestly this is one big giant joke, it's hard to take anything in this city seriously anymore. Is there not a single thing we can do that's not over-budget, delayed, or snailed paced? This is inexcusable, shameful, laughable non-sense, and frankly it's disgusting "planning".

And if it's the fact that it's a funding problem (and im sure that's part of it), that's another issue that needs to be addressed. If we're taking 5 years to trickle out funding, the city needs to start allocating funds so things can start and close out sooner. Not stretch out 1000 relatively simple projects over 5+ years.

Brief side note; here's more info on the embarrassing project (it may be time to make a new thread to separate it out of Phase 2 of this development):

New Park at 50 Queens Quay East

On November 10, 2025, the Park in Progress opens to the public. Features include a lawn, mounds, picnic grove with seating, pickleball courts, an off-leash area for dogs and entry plaza. A new 10,000 m2 park is coming to 50 Queens Quay E. near One Yonge Community Recreation Centre, as part of...

www.toronto.ca

My assumption was that the new park is planned to open shortly after the condo complex is complete and that explains the very drawn-out timeline. Of course, PFR does have a reputation of EXTREME sloth in planning and organising projects! The Market Lane Park work was finally agreed to about 2 years ago and should have started so that park and Market opened together but will not (we are told) start until this fall and the re-do of the near-by David Crombie Park has dragged on for about 5 years and will not start until late 2025 or early 2026. Neither of these are huge projects either!

 

[Amare]

My assumption was that the new park is planned to open shortly after the condo complex is complete and that explains the very drawn-out timeline.

Which is something that would've made sense before the market...well you know. But seeing as now there's no timeline for when Menkes will build the next phase(s) of this development, the city should get their heads out of their a***#* and build the damn park.

While I do believe it would've been prudent to hold off initially to wait for Phase 2 to be off the ground (especially with all the dust/dirt that would've been spread around), there's no point taking that approach anymore. Because if they do, they'll be waiting at least 8-10+ years. Then as we all know the costs will end up escalating, then the city will start crying out that they're too poor to build it and will put this project in deferral purgatory.

Of course, PFR does have a reputation of EXTREME sloth in planning and organising projects! The Market Lane Park work was finally agreed to about 2 years ago and should have started so that park and Market opened together but will not (we are told) start until this fall and the re-do of the near-by David Crombie Park has dragged on for about 5 years and will not start until late 2025 or early 2026. Neither of these are huge projects either!

Oh dont you even get me started on those projects.

 

[Richtea]

From today:

 

[Northern Light]

Can someone explain to me, how in the planet it takes 2 years to get community consultation for a park, and 5 YEARS total to build a park???

It doesn't.

It keeps the Consultant Enrichment program afloat, along with the box checking, butt-covering culture of this department.

This city never ceases to amaze with how embarrassing things have gotten. Mega Infrastructure projects in Europe, Asia, South America, etc can start and finish faster than we can design and build a park??

I'm not an L.A. by trade, but I know plenty.........I can do the high level design here......it wouldn't take me more than 2 weeks.

An L.A. would translate my stuff into schematic drawings.......4-6 weeks.

Then get stuff signed off.....order plants/materials...............tender to a GC...........w/o City process six months from my drawing to construction, 8 weeks of construction, landscape remains fenced for a few weeks to establish....open.

All-in 10 months.

The timeline here is a waste. So is the interim condition park.

If you were faced with blank soil you didn't want to blow away.........just seed native wild flower mix, let it establish, throw down 2 mulch paths, and some Muskoka chairs.....

Brief side note; here's more info on the embarrassing project (it may be time to make a new thread to separate it out of Phase 2 of this development):

New Park at 50 Queens Quay East

On November 10, 2025, the Park in Progress opens to the public. Features include a lawn, mounds, picnic grove with seating, pickleball courts, an off-leash area for dogs and entry plaza. A new 10,000 m2 park is coming to 50 Queens Quay E. near One Yonge Community Recreation Centre, as part of...

www.toronto.ca

This site is smack in the middle of two CCxA Parks. Love Park to the west, Sugar Beach to the east.

Don't consult here, sole-source, ask for 3 high level concepts that bridge the 2 parks.

Let people vote a preference, then CCxA can execute the design.

The Park has already been remediated, a budget of 10M here would be adequate, 15M could get you something very good, and 20M could give you wow.

There's enough uncommitted dollars sloshing around Parks for that.

 

[Amare]

It doesn't.

It keeps the Consultant Enrichment program afloat, along with the box checking, butt-covering culture of this department.



I'm not an L.A. by trade, but I know plenty.........I can do the high level design here......it wouldn't take me more than 2 weeks.

An L.A. would translate my stuff into schematic drawings.......4-6 weeks.

Then get stuff signed off.....order plants/materials...............tender to a GC...........w/o City process six months from my drawing to construction, 8 weeks of construction, landscape remains fenced for a few weeks to establish....open.

All-in 10 months.

The timeline here is a waste. So is the interim condition park.

If you were faced with blank soil you didn't want to blow away.........just seed native wild flower mix, let it establish, throw down 2 mulch paths, and some Muskoka chairs.....



This site is smack in the middle of two CCxA Parks. Love Park to the west, Sugar Beach to the east.

Don't consult here, sole-source, ask for 3 high level concepts that bridge the 2 parks.

Let people vote a preference, then CCxA can execute the design.

The Park has already been remediated, a budget of 10M here would be adequate, 15M could get you something very good, and 20M could give you wow.

There's enough uncommitted dollars sloshing around Parks for that.

Generally, I dont support sole-sourced contracts on a widespread basis.

But in this case i'm in full agreement, hand the work over to CCxA and let them work their magic. We dont need 2 years of diddling around, then another 2 years to build the park while the costs escalate leading the city to go and say "there's not enough money in the budget".

This city really loves shooting themselves in the foot by waiting around for absolutely no reason, then crying later saying "there's no money for X and Y". Well maybe there would be more money around, if they decided to get their collective heads out of their a*#& and build a damn park.

This is absolute lunacy.

 

[DSCToronto]

They planted trees and grass last fall, they look fairly healthy and asphalted most (but not all) the walkways. Since early this year they appear to have abandoned it again as they appear to have done no maintenance and the damned 'temporary park' is still not open. If it was worthwhile paying to establish a temporary park, it would seem a no brainer to actually open it but what do I know?

 

[Amare]

They planted trees and grass last fall, they look fairly healthy and asphalted most (but not all) the walkways. Since early this year they appear to have abandoned it again as they appear to have done no maintenance and the damned 'temporary park' is still not open. If it was worthwhile paying to establish a temporary park, it would seem a no brainer to actually open it but what do I know?

On the city's page, they say the opening of this sad and sorry "temporary park" will open Summer 2025. So it can be anywhere from now till September technically.

 

[Amare]

Opening a new thread for the City's new park at 50 Queens Quay E; bordered by Freeland St to the West, Cooper St to the East, Lake Shore Blvd E to the North, and Queens Quay to the South.

The current park built on site is a "temporary" one, until whenever the city decides to get serious and build it.

Here's the laughable timeline posted by the city, they really know how to drag the construction of parks and make the costs escalate as a result:

• Summer 2025: Park in Progress opens for public use
• Winter 2025 to Summer 2027: Community engagement and design development
• Spring 2027 to Fall 2028: Detailed design
• Winter 2028: Hire a construction team
• Spring 2029: Park in Progress closes; construction of the permanent park begins
• 2030: Construction complete; new park opens to the public

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Can we just give this to CCxA and call it a day? Call it Cormier Park or something.

AoD

 

[goodcitywhenfinished]

Me reading this thread, still waiting for the John Street Renewal to start: