On weekends, the roads into High Park are closed to all vehicles.
CityNews interviewed people today at High Park. The Rally was well-attended AND there's another Rally scheduled for 2 November 2024!
Recently, it's gotten easier for me to get to my garden though. And I've been ever so grateful and thoroughly enjoying my time there once again.
After 2 years, the City of Toronto, finally allowed gardeners weekday parking on the Allotment Road again ... and provided 6 parking spots for the well over 100 gardens situated there.
I know, I am being decidedly facetious. But ... let me continue.
There’s an 'unofficially undedicated 'Accessible Spot which I use - if it's available. Believe me, it makes the world of difference to me when it is. I have an Accessible Parking Pass. My disability is invisible. I am not.
But here’s something not haha funny.
Others, without permits park in this Accessible Parking Spot, too.
Word of Mouth has it Park Officials approved its use for anyone and everyone ... when it's not in use.
When it is in use, nobody else can use it, though. So there's always thAt!
Seriously.
No vehicle access into High Park on Weekends ... and it's been that way since 2020.
AND a select few bikers seized the opportunity and made the park a racetrack.
Hit and runs occur rather regularly, and the injured are carried out by friends, family and/or other able-bodied volunteers rushing to the rescue as ambulances can no longer drive in.
Unrest's been brewing.
It's been building since post-covid improvements began. Each 'improvement' fixing something the previous one created.
Things were never broken.
And nobody was ever against improvements to bike access but things happened in such behind-the-scenes and slap-dash ways that it's boiled the blood of a lot of people.
A number of FaceBook groups detail the ongoing horror stories happening to posters, visitors, the disabled, the elderly, single parents, families and children as a result of post-covid changes.
January 2024, Moses Znaimer wrote, in Zoomer Magazine, about his near miss with a number of speeding bikes blowing through stop signs as he left Grenadier Restaurant which has all but gone under with working families no longer able to get there on weekends when everyone's extended families are off work and able to go - except now they can't because vehicles aren't allowed on weekends.
Access to parking along the allotment road was restricted for a few years and as a result, I had to ask a friend to help me with my garden in order to uphold my end of the Annual Contract I sign with City. Everyone began to traipse down the steep gravel hill carting gardening paraphernalia through the off-leash dog area. Many gardeners are retired. We garden gently to stay fit. We don't do steep gravelly hills carrying our weight on our backs with dogs nipping at our heels for our health.
It wasn’t a week before I wrenched my back dodging someone's frisky pet and was in bed recuperating when I got the call from my friend letting me know she'd just been treated for a dog bite gotten by a dog in the on-leash area walking up the Allotment Road at the end of a day tending my garden.
With cars no longer on the Allotment Road, some dog walkers feel less of a need to follow the rules. They're like the biker racers that way.
Even now driving down the Allotment Road to park near the Gate, you can feel the tension between groups.
I've been yelled at for driving down. There's a City sign at the top of the hill that says No Vehicles allowed. I've tried showing my garden pass and explaining it's a rinky-dink operation but ... and had the abuse just got louder.
I've had a dog walker with a dozen off-leash dogs bang on my window yelling that cars aren't allowed after we got word from the City that the Road would be accessible to us oldsters from noon until six one day a week. These were the years before the City put in the 6 visibly-marked spaces and allowed us Week Day Access again.
On a good day, now, being able to park right next to the garden gate, allows me to sit safely in my car while I watch and wait until there are no more rambunctious dogs running amok in their off-leash area. I quickly, hop out of my car and hobble to the passenger seat where I roll and drop my trolly-purse to the ground, wheel it to the gate where I wrestle with the lock and as quick as I can, get inside with my stuff.
It's an adrenaline rush.
About 50 feet away is the on-leash area.
It would make so much sense if the City would go the distance and extend the area.
Believe me, I’ve written multiple letters and only once received an acknowledgement that clearly was just a form letter letting me know my hadn’t been read by the cookie cutter platitude.
The parking patch become more of an off-leash free-for-all after dog walkers stopped obeying the signs. Cars were no longer being allowed to use the road became a sign in and of itself.
The reason given for the closure was because cars blocked the Port-A-Potty. Seriously. Not necessarily gardener's cars, either. Everyone had access to park on the Allotment Road before covid.
AND
Nobody even uses the Port-A-Potty. That is unless there's a real emergency.
Once there was a real emergency!
High Park was evacuated after someone saw an armed man near the Port-A-Potty and because we'd been able to park along the Allotment Road, and because gardeners don't really block the Port-A-Potty (we know better) ... other's do who don't (know better) ... we were all able to get in our cars get ourselves and others out safely that late afternoon in June 2019.
Here, I googled it for you.
I’ve written the City to let them know there’s a simple solution. Gardeners could be given the combination to the gate at the top of the Allotment Road, in the same way we are given the combination to the Garden Gates. This would ensure that only gardeners are parking along the Allotment Road and if they don't obey the rules, it's a breech of the contract and the contract is broken. There could be fines, too.
Should someone, inadvertantly, block the Port-A-Potty, a quick yell into the 100 or so gardens would surely see the offender surface to move their car. That's when they could be handed their ticket for the offence.
Or why not just close the Allotment Road for the few minutes it takes to empty a Potty. Better yet, put the Potty in an area where it can’t get blocked.
John George Howard donated the land to the people of Toronto. The bequest came with an agreement it remain public parkland with free use, benefit and enjoyment of the citizens of Toronto.
Heaviness hangs in the air. The City has said it will stop traffic in High Park by 2027.
The Park is no longer accessible by all let alone enjoyable when we can get in.
The decision was made based on a Movement Study that begun with a Survey few even knew was being conducted. I found out because I post information that comes in concerning the High Park Allotment to our blog. I know people who know people and I was able to take the survey. It was one of the singularly most frustratingly, one-sided questionnaires, I've ever answered. It ended with a shut and closed Thank You for your input where none was solicited before I knew what was happening. I sat frozen to my seat for a few minutes.
The High Park Access For All FaceBook Group has held peaceful rallies throughout the Summer.
They exist to educate Able-Bodied Weekend Visitors to High Park about the predicaments others have undergone as a result of changes made that have fallen short.
It's lead by Diane Buckell. Here's an interview about Diane and what's going on in High Park by The Toronto Star.
If you want to read the post about the Kits, CLICK HERE.