Let’s Have a PublicPark in our Community!!!
Letter Writing Campaign
for a PublicPark at 11 Wellesley Street West
1000 Letters Needed
Take Action Now!
4 minute action: COPY and PASTE the following letter and send it by e-mail to:
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario:
Copy to: , , , ,
Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing,
Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure,
Dwight Duncan, Minister of Finance,
Glen Murray, MPP,
Kristyn Wong-Tam, City Councillor,
Dear Premier McGuinty:
My community DESPERATELY needs 11 Wellesley Street West (the east of Bay lands) for a public park. This site is the only undeveloped piece of land in the heart of downtown Toronto that is sufficiently large for a park and represents the only opportunity to provide the densest urban center in Canada with a functional community park.
I am requesting that you (the Government of Ontario) enter negotiations with the City of Toronto. It is critical that the city have a fair opportunity to negotiate the purchase of the government owned lands at 11 Wellesley Street West for a public park. It is even more critical that the East of Bay Lands become a publicly owned park. If the site is sold to a developer, the chance for a public park will be lost FOREVER As a residential tower development can never be undone.
The downtown community under discussion is bounded by Davenport-Church-Queen-University , a community which has experienced unprecedented growth over the past five years. In every neighbourhood surrounding the East of Bay Lands, lack of parks and recreational space has been identified as a top priority. As stated already, this site is the only undeveloped piece of land in downtown Toronto that is sufficiently large for a park and represents the only opportunity to provide the densest urban center in Canada with a functional community park.
It is important for you to know that the City of Toronto has the lowest allocation of park space per person in Canada. Our downtown community has an even lower per person allocation of parkland than the average for the City of Toronto.
Under the Liberal generated legislation, Places to Grow, 2006, urban growth centres were to achieve minimum gross density targets of 400 residents and jobs combined per hectare by 2031. Current density in our community is 708 residents and jobs per hectare (source: City of Toronto) almost twice the prescribed density twenty years early. Current and approved developments will push this number even higher.
I understand the government is currently facing a large deficit., but I feel the government has failed to meet their obligations to the citizens of Toronto and my community in particular.
The community REALLY needs this park and YOU are the only person who can negotiate the health giving, environment cleaning, humane park that is so desperately needed in my downtown Toronto neighbourhood.
Sincerely,
* Your Name
*Your ADDRESS and/or * Your e-mail
If you are mailing your letter using Canada Post, here is the mailing address for PremierMcGuinty:
Premier Dalton McGuinty,
LegislativeBuilding
Queen's Park
TorontoONM7A 1A1
8 minute action: Write your own letter and email it to Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario. Please remember to include your name and address.
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario:
Copy to: , , , ,
Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing,
Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure,
Dwight Duncan, Minister of Finance,
Glen Murray, MPP,
Kristyn Wong-Tam, City Councillor,
If you need some help with an idea for your letter, here are some starters to get you writing:
NOTE: The tone of your letter does not need to be friendly if you would prefer to be upset, angry, frustrated, annoyed. This is Your letter!
- Every day, I need to walk my dog. There is almost NO park and very little suitable area to exercise my little dog. We really need this park for our animals.
- I have a child that is 2 years old. I really need a place close by where we can go to play ball or kick a ball around or just jump and run.
- I like to sit outside to read my book or newspaper. I like to sit in a green park environment to make me feel peaceful and relaxed when I read. A park bench in a park at 11 Wellesley would be such a great improvement in my life.
- My apartment is very small. So, I like to meet my friends in a park to sit and chat.
- I tend to be a depressed person. Looking out my window at a green park helps me to stay out of a depression.
- I want to take my grandchild to slide or swing in the park when he comes to visit. There is no community park any where near this neighbourhood with a swing for children or grandchildren.
- The environment is very important to me. I want a park to help keep the air in my community cleaner and to help keep the city cooler.
- I am an elderly person with a dog. I need a place close to my home to walk my dog.
- Premier, the realty contract given to CBRE Realty by Infrastructure Ontario to sell the land at 11 Wellesley Street Weston behalf of the Government of Ontario is little more than a crass cash grab in an inflated condo real estate market. The thousands of residents in the neighbourhood around the lot at 11 Wellesley Street West NEED a park. Do not pay down government deficits on the backs of the downtown residents whose community you have ordered to be part of downtown population intensification.
- Premier, your government has a huge obligation to the city of Toronto that is being ignored. You have legislated that downtowns in cities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe will be intensified. Downtown Toronto has been gloriously successful in the construction of residential condominiums over the past several years.
The Government of Ontario has an obligation to be part of that intensification by supporting the infrastructure needed in the downtown to serve the huge increase in population. Financial support by the government is critical for infrastructure in the areas of intense population growth. Financial help is needed for many infrastructure projects but especially important for parkland acquisition and transit expansion. These infrastructure improvements must take place in step with the fast moving development scene in Toronto. Premier, you are failing to fulfill these obligations.
Possible Closing paragraph:
Our community desperately needs a park at 11 Wellesley Street West where all citizens, both young and old, can discover the beauty and miracle of nature, meet friends to chat , just sit peacefully to listen to the birds, practice skate board tricks, or walk a dog. We need to have a place where we can enjoy nature and relax in the out-of-doors.
The province’s obligation and promise to balance and mitigate the effects of intensification cannot be ignored.
We need your help to get a much needed park for our neighbourhood at 11 Wellesley Street West.
Thank you!
* Your Name
*Your ADDRESS and/or * Your e-mail
If you are mailing your letter using Canada Post, here is the mailing address for PremierMcGuinty:
Premier Dalton McGuinty,
LegislativeBuilding
Queen's Park
TorontoONM7A 1A1
Information provided by:
Community Committee for a PublicPark at 11 Wellesley Street West