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

I'm very tempted to go into a diatribe about how much I detest smokers, but I won't.
 
Oh yes, I do mean "The Beaches" and that stupid dog run, which I think is just wrong. You haven't seen all those ugly, huge, cement blocks in the water? (not attractive) Sunnyside Beach, with the wonderful Sunnyside Pavillion, should be a fantastic beach but it's not. Woodbine Beach is a great area to walk around because the people make it interesting but the actual beach is kinda embarrassing, considering this is our number 1 beach. I don't think it's well maintained at all. Hell, I'd like a whole redesign. Big Maple trees do NOT belong on a beach sand! (though the trees work at Sugar Beach) Unfortunately, Toronto doesn't do much to design or upgrade our beaches. It's just my opinion but like I said, they are the worst beaches I've ever seen. And yes, I have been to a number of beaches in NYC, including Coney Island, which had pretty nice sand and the boardwalk was in great shape. The retail in The Beaches, is much better though. I like the Queen Street strip! It's just the actual beach that I find, not good enough for this city. Toronto deserves great beaches!


I just hope the city puts more effort into maintaining H2O and Sugar Beach, which I think are quite nice, right now. Keep those butts, out of the sand!
 
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At Sunnyside, the cement blocks enclose one of Toronto's only decent stretches for flat-water sports like rowing and kayaking--they're not super-attractive but they do serve an important purpose, given how surprisingly rough most of our lakefront water is. In the eastern beaches, many of the features like that exist because we have terrible problems with erosion--in their absence the beach would quickly disappear...
 
Torontovibe said:
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.
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Except that's more of a "naturalization zone". You might as well be one of those yokels knocking "natural" front yards/gardens because they're not clean, manicured, mowed, etc...
 
I don't mind smokers - what I do mind is the sense of entitlement some smokers have in terms of defiling public space - by dumping cigarette butts on the ground, spitting, etc. And yes, the umpteen garbage bins that caught fire due to their carelessness as well.

AoD
 
I just sent Parks & Rec an email complaining about the cigarette butts and asking if they had any plans to outlaw smoking in these types of parks and beaches in general. Will post their reply when I get it.
 
androiduk said:
I just sent Parks & Rec an email complaining about the cigarette butts and asking if they had any plans to outlaw smoking in these types of parks and beaches in general. Will post their reply when I get it.
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Portable ashtrays like many other beaches around the world..as far as i know smoking has not been banned in any parks and beaches in Toronto yet.
 
I love would for the City to start a program like this one in Edmonton. The costs to implement may be high, but if they City starts with a few heavily travelled pedestrian areas (Yonge, Queen's Quay, Queen W.) and a few parks and continue to expand my belief is that people will use them and develop a habit of using them in places that do not have ashtrays (after our puting out their smoke before tossing in a garbage can.) The City could also encourage private businesses and building owners to install wall-mounted ashtrays for their patrons and people walking by. There are dozens of designs to choose from. While I was in Reyjkavik, Iceland I rarely had to go over a minute before I found a wall-mounted ash tray to dispose of my butts. If I couldn't find one, their garbage cans had a spot to use to out the cigarette before tossing it in the bin.

EDIT: I can think of four places the City can implement such a program as they remake certain streets: Queen's Quay, Front Street (outside of Union Station), Dundas West, and John Street. All are heavily traveled streets and are undergoing various studies and/or preparing for a makeover.
 
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There's a small hole for cigarettes in the new garbage cans (on the grey strip to the left) but I don't think too many people are aware of it.

garbage.jpg
 
adma said:
Except that's more of a "naturalization zone". You might as well be one of those yokels knocking "natural" front yards/gardens because they're not clean, manicured, mowed, etc...
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I just don't think a dog run, with a long fence, belongs on a beach. Is our most popular beach a good place to put a naturalization zone? Our waterfront has miles and miles of natural zones. Ever been to The Leslie Street Spit? What it doesn't have, is one great beach.

The only time I'd knock natural front lawns, is if every single yard was a patch of natural weeds and vegetation but that's not the case. We do have a few nice parks and gardens. I'm all about diversity and options. We should have some scruffy natural areas/beaches but we should also have at least 1 well designed, manicured, clean, great beach. Why not give people that option? Is one too much to ask for? It doesn't even have to make the list of the world's top 10 beaches. (but it would be really cool if it did lol)

I think Sunnyside should become our one great, resort type beach. It has the resort history behind it and The Sunnyside Pavilion is a wonderful building, with so much untapped potential. The upstairs is only rented for private use and the public can't go up there. It belongs to us, we should be able to use it. It would make a great restaurant or night club. Dancing under the stars could be quite romantic.
 
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allabootmatt said:
At Sunnyside, the cement blocks enclose one of Toronto's only decent stretches for flat-water sports like rowing and kayaking--they're not super-attractive but they do serve an important purpose, given how surprisingly rough most of our lakefront water is. In the eastern beaches, many of the features like that exist because we have terrible problems with erosion--in their absence the beach would quickly disappear...
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No, I didn't mean Sunnyside. I realize it's needed there and it doesn't look too bad. It's well maintained. I meant the cement blocks and the ugly piers on the eastern part of The Beaches and the overall scruffiness of it's beaches. It works as a park but as a beach, it needs lots of work.
 
Just to add one thought to this discussion about bragged. Why is it that so few of Ontario's beaches have foot washing stations to wash off sand. None if Toronto's beaches have this except for one hidden one at Hanlans point. The big parks like Wasaga and Sandbanks don't even have these simple amenities that are standard throughout the world. All we seem to care about is calling our beaches Blue flag beaches, which means jack shit in real terms.
 
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