Toronto Concord Park Place: Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Community Centre | 18.9m | 4s | City of Toronto | MJMA

Yeap,.... the new name (Ethennonnhawahstihnen [et-hen-nonn-ha-wah-stih-nen] ) for both the park and adjacent street was approved at North York Community Council and City Council.

Now, they’ll have to replace that “Woodsy Park” sign with a new one that says “Ethennonnhawahstihnen Park” - needless to say, the new sign will be much longer,..... it’ll start where the current one is (pictured) and,... block off all 16 lanes of the widest highway in North America and end up on the other side of Highway 401
At least Ethennonnhawahstihnen isn't a mouthful like this location in New Zealand.
 
This is so dumb. why give a park a name that nobody will every use. I would have been better to showcase native heritage with some traditional native artwork in the park, not a word that nobody can pronounce, especially not new Canadians.
 
This is so dumb. why give a park a name that nobody will every use. I would have been better to showcase native heritage with some traditional native artwork in the park, not a word that nobody can pronounce, especially not new Canadians.
When I used the same sentiment on the new street names in Etobicoke, I was labelled as a racist. Good luck buddy! Yay for free speech!
 
"People are unable to learn new words." You realize that's your argument and it's not a very good one, right?

EDIT: It looks like there are other arguments against it.
"It makes people think I'm racist"
"The sign will be too long"
"People will have to use a nickname"
"The immigrants won't be even able to pronounce it!"


I could see people coming to call it "Ethenno" park or something short like that. Nothing wrong with a nickname. The community will either learn the name or just call it by a shorter nickname.
 
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Not to mention that eventually there will be people who grow up in the area with that just being the park name and it won't seem strange to them at all. There's a lot of native words that have become place names across this country that local communities don't struggle with, as some here seem to think people will for all eternity. In the long term, it'll work out fine.
 
Do remember, portion of "McMahan Drive" adjacent to the park was renamed "Woodsy Park Lane" which facilitated the naming of the park to "Woodsy Park" (Block 14, 18, 19 in diagram); now that roadway “Woodsy Park Lane" have been renamed to "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Lane",... there’s a good possibility that other public facilities along that “Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Lane” will also be named after the street as well:
- Community Centre (Block 10 in diagram) will likely be named "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Community Centre" - yes, while we've been calling it "Bessarion Community Centre" it's not even on Bessarion Road - it's on "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Lane!
- Elementary School (Block 20 in diagram) will likely be named "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Elementary School"
B0468A13-5C6E-4DFF-964A-A8C4FD53B2D1.jpeg
 
Do remember, portion of "McMahan Drive" adjacent to the park was renamed "Woodsy Park Lane" which facilitated the naming of the park to "Woodsy Park" (Block 14, 18, 19 in diagram); now that roadway “Woodsy Park Lane" have been renamed to "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Lane",... there’s a good possibility that other public facilities along that “Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Lane” will also be named after the street as well:
- Community Centre (Block 10 in diagram) will likely be named "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Community Centre" - yes, while we've been calling it "Bessarion Community Centre" it's not even on Bessarion Road - it's on "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Lane!
- Elementary School (Block 20 in diagram) will likely be named "Ethennonnhawahstihnen' Elementary School"
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Good luck getting schoolchildren to pronounce "Ethennonnhawahstihnen" correctly without any prompting.
 
Good luck getting schoolchildren to pronounce "Ethennonnhawahstihnen" correctly without any prompting.
The school site:
Toronto Lands Corporation, "a wholly owned subsidiary and exclusive real estate services provider to the Toronto District School Board."
Minutes, p. 9, Board Meeting June 4, 2019:

"Former Canadian Tire Property, Block 20 [Plan 66M-2518]
50 Woodsy Park Lane (Ward 13)
The City of Toronto and TLC have agreed on terms and conditions and completed the transfer of the 1.8 acre site to the TDSB on May 21, 2019. This purchase and sale satisfies the conditions within the Options Agreement and now secures the site for a future new TDSB school. As the City will now be constructing a new community centre adjacent to the school board property, the City has requested a temporary easement for tiebacks and crane swing on the vacant land which is a reasonable request and will be granted subject to an agreement with satisfactory terms and conditions."

 
Can't wait to see the signs. Will the name break any (Canadian) street name length records?

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Can't wait to see the signs. Will the name break any (Canadian) street name length records?

View attachment 237318
I worked for years for MapArt maps, and while I cannot say "yes, for sure," I think there's a good chance. There are a ton of streets in Quebec that are named after people, and sometimes using all of their names, like Boulevard Jean-Baptiste-Deschamps in Montreal. No idea if that's the longest in Montreal or Quebec, but it's definitely one of the longest. That's actually 5 more letters than Ethennonnhawahstihnen Lane, but take out the generic and it's tied if you don't count the hyphens. How about we say this is the longest single word in a street name in Canada, and see if anyone can disprove it?

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