Toronto Sherbourne Common, Canada's Sugar Beach, and the Water's Edge Promenade | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto | Teeple Architects

The only thing I don't love is the concrete edge in some places right at the water edge.
 
Torontovibe said:
I also noticed that. I sat in a chair near the water feature and I counted 9 cigarette butts just around my chair and that was a week ago, when it just opened. I hope someone maintains that sand because it can get dirty real fast. Why the hell would people throw butts in nice clean sand, on a brand new beach? Some people in this city are real pigs. How long will it be until the nice walkways are covered with black gobs of gum? Yonge Street is the worst. I've never noticed that in other cities. Does NYC or Montreal have that problem too? (or is it mainly a Toronto thing?)
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I don't think I can recall ever seeing a smoker in public properly dispose of cigarette butts. They just toss them on the ground or wherever they happen to be.
 
Made my 3rd visit to Sugar Beach today and this time I took my kids. They loved it just like they love HTO on QQ West but the thing that really bothered me was the amount of cigarette butts. Beside some chairs there were a dozen butts sitting upright in the sand like people were using the park as a giant ashtray. I don't see the same thing at HTO so I'm assuming it's construction workers, Corus employees or clubgoers from the Guvernment across the street. Maybe the city has to copy what some other cities are doing and outlaw smoking in these parks.
 
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Smokers toss butts anywhere and everywhere. They simply refuse to entertain the idea that they are littering.

Sad to say, but maybe outlawing smoking in parks is the only way to go. Enforcement would be necessary in order to make such a law effective, though.
 
Outlawing smoking would actually be a great idea. The people at Parks and Rec I've spoken to have been predicting (and dreading) that sugar beach will become the ashtray for The Guvernment's patrons.
 
We should create some jobs-- have more bylaw inspectors for certain infringements. Littering (that includes cigarettes) is something that should NOT be tolerated.
 
This city spends millions of dollars to build parks but then lets them deteriorate. How many parks have drinking fountains that work? Our beaches are the worst maintained anywhere. Why spend money on new parks if we can't even maintain the ones we have? That needs to change. We need someone maintaining that sand on a regular basis.
 
just fyi - The beaches @ ash bridges bay are raked they also cleaned quite frequently - so I'm not really sure what your getting at.

Have you been to HTO at all? It's pretty darn clean - clearly they maintain the beach there as well - don't forget sugar beach isn't even open yet officially...
 
Ya, I'm not surprised to hear the cigarette butts. It's definitely gonna be from people at the Guvernment. Most of the people that go to that club are idiots who only care about getting their next fix. They probably go there and pretend they're in Ibiza.

When it's officially open, there will probably be more enforcement by police and/or security. At least I hope. Then again, the Guvernment isn't going to be around forever either.
 
taal said:
just fyi - The beaches @ ash bridges bay are raked they also cleaned quite frequently - so I'm not really sure what your getting at.

Have you been to HTO at all? It's pretty darn clean - clearly they maintain the beach there as well - don't forget sugar beach isn't even open yet officially...
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What am I getting at? Every time I go to a beach in Toronto, they are in crappy shape. The vegetation grows wild, the sand is full of all kinds of stuff, there are crumbling cement blocks and rusty piers everywhere. (not to mention a boardwalk that is falling apart) I have lots of pictures and video of dead fish, garbage, stones, branches, twigs, leaves, dog shit and even a shopping cart (on videos I made) of our messy beaches. I'm not talking about Centre Island here, I'm talking about Sunnyside, Cherry and The Beaches, all of which I saw last summer. I have never seen the sand clean. You know Toronto's "messy urbanism"? Well, Toronto treats our beaches like it does the light poles on Dundas Street, and by that, I mean they don't do a thing to properly maintain them. What other city in the world puts a dog run (toilet) right on a beach or has scruffy trees sitting right in the middle of the beach? (Cherry Beach) I was shocked the first time I saw that dog run, in the beaches. Anyway, I don't want to take this thread too far off topic, so I'll just say, I think our beaches are the most unkept, that I have ever seen. Wassagga beach is so much cleaner.

I'm not talking about the water, just the sandy beach and yes, I agree, H2O was looking good every time I've seen them, so I should say most of our beaches. (not all)
 
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Torontovibe said:
What am I getting at? Every time I go to a beach in Toronto, they are in crappy shape. The vegetation grows wild, the sand is full of all kinds of stuff, there are crumbling cement blocks and rusty piers everywhere. (not to mention a boardwalk that is falling apart) I have lots of pictures and video of dead fish, garbage, stones, branches, twigs, leaves, dog shit and even a shopping cart (on videos I made) of our messy beaches. I'm not talking about Centre Island here, I'm talking about Sunnyside, Cherry and The Beaches, all of which I saw last summer. I have never seen the sand clean. You know Toronto's "messy urbanism"? Well, Toronto treats our beaches like it does the light poles on Dundas Street, and by that, I mean they don't do a thing to properly maintain them. What other city in the world puts a dog run (toilet) right on a beach or has scruffy trees sitting right in the middle of the beach? (Cherry Beach) I was shocked the first time I saw that dog run, in the beaches. Anyway, I don't want to take this thread too far off topic, so I'll just say, I think our beaches are the most unkept, that I have ever seen. Wassagga beach is so much cleaner.

I'm not talking about the water, just the sandy beach and yes, I agree, H2O was looking good every time I've seen them, so I should say most of our beaches. (not all)
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By excluding the beaches I persume you're implying they're OK, as last time I was there (a few weeks ago) they looked in pretty good shape. Regarding other cities ? I can show you tons of other cities with similar areas - when you see all the pretty pictures of Chicago / New York / <insert NA city here> what you don't see is areas that look like the parts of Toronto you describe, and in many cases much much worse. If you're going to compare our *prime* areas to such in other cities - I agree with you, I think I've stated it a couple times - Toronto just doesn't have those pretty streetscapes like many other similar sized cities throughout the world - there are a few exceptions but you count them on a couple fingers (actually pre Bloor, I'd say just the board walk harbor front area) - but you know what, Toronto's ALWAYs been like that - it's not something new ... I'm all for you getting up and arms and trying to change that :) But I suggest you don't stress your self out too much because Toronto - in terms of prettyness (can't think of what other word to use) - won't compare to other cities for the foreseeable future. Does that mean Toronto is terrible, not at all! Once you come to accept that - you'll start to see what Toronto has in spades on many of these other cities.

I know said this before but I want to stress one point - you really don't see pictures (or likely visit) of the many rundown areas most NA cities have that really would put Toronto to shame ...
 
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