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Waterfront Trail and Greenway News
An Ezine Produced by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust
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COIP*The waterfront municipalities of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, conservation authorities and community groups* MapArt* Dun-Map*Regional Niagara Bicycling Committee* The MMM Group* Heart and Strok Foundation* Mountain Equipment Co-op* Toronto Cyclists Union
July 2008
In this issue:
- First Annual Great Waterfront Trail Adventure a Success!
- September 25th Partners Meeting
- Closing the Lakeshore Gap One Park at a Time – Mimico Waterfront Park Opening
- Signing Scarborough Waterfront Trail
- Toronto Star Series: Greater Toronto Coast Halton
Upcoming Conferences and Community Events
- Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
FIRST ANNUAL GREAT WATERFRONT TRAIL ADVENTURE A SUCCESS!
Well, after months of planning and organization, the First Annual Great
Waterfront Trail Adventure has come and gone… and what an experience
it was! Over 170 riders of all ages and backgrounds took part in the inaugural
ride. Political leaders from along the waterfront took time from their
schedules to meet the participants and offer words of welcome and more.
As Ken Forgeron, Niagara Region, noted, it was wonderful to hear the themes
of environmental regeneration, public access, active living and green
transportation reinforced very eloquently in these remarks.
Through the Adventure, we have gained a new group of waterfront champions
eager to help realize the vision of regeneration. We’ve received
emails from participants who have written the Ministry of Tourism and
municipal councillors congratulating them on their support of the Waterfront
Trail and Greenway and urging them to continue this support.
The Adventure is beginning to show that “as people come to know
the waterfront, they become committed to the potential of its regeneration”.
What better primer on waterfront issues, than a bike ride along the whole
Waterfront Trail and Greenway!
The Trust would like to send a huge thank you to all of the organizers,
community partners, sponsors, staff, volunteers and elected officials
who helped make the Adventure such an amazing experience for all involved.
We can’t thank you enough for all of your efforts and commitment
to the vision. All of the participants were blown away by the warm receptions
in community after community, the great meals and the thoughtful activities
organized as well as the helpfulness and dedication of the volunteers
and guides.
Here are some excerpts from emails we’ve received from riders:
“Congratulations are in order for organizing a fantastic 1st Annual
Great Waterfront Trail Adventure. The tour was one of the most memorable
vacations I have ever taken.... It was such a pleasure traveling through
small communities that I would otherwise not have seen from the 401 corridor.
The community members went out of their way to welcome us to their neighborhoods....
We are so lucky to live in a province with such a remarkable waterfront
trail stretching some 680 KM across Ontario. Thank you for a great week
of fun activity, new friendships and adventure.”
“...I think the common goal was to really promote community - community
as in our cycling community, community as in the communities that the
waterfront trail is in. And a sense of ownership into that community so
that if everybody has those kinds of ideas and if they come together with
those goals in mind it will have support, it will have momentum.”
“I signed up for a bike ride and found myself in the middle of an
event. I enjoyed the riding, the people and above all the communities
along the way, which until then were just points on a map. What a wonderful
part of our country.”
“In the car, you don't see it the way you do on a bike. It's beautiful.
There's so much character in these small towns that you don't see in cookie-cutter
towns. We've done all-inclusive group trips in Mexico and Puerto Rico
and this blows them out of the water. After four days there I'm bored
stiff and want to go home, but this is our fifth day and I'm still raring
to go.”
Press Coverage
Extensive media coverage of the Adventure has raised the profile of the
Waterfront Trail and the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure. As a result
of coverage, emails to our info account have more than doubled! People
are beginning to see that their local part of the Trail is part of something
much larger, and they’ve expressed an interest in visiting the communities
that are on the waterfront. As David Crombie said in his address at Fort
York, the Waterfront Trail is one of the province’s best-kept secrets.
That seems to be changing now.
Major newspapers from across the waterfront came out to cover the GWTA:
· Toronto Star
· National Post
· St Catharines Standard
· Windsor Star
· The Kingston Whig Standard (cover story)
· Standard-Freeholder (Cornwall)
· Ottawa Citizen
· Montreal Gazette
· The Intelligencer
· Northumberland Today
· Spacing Toronto (online article by Tammy Thorne, who rode the
tour on Day 3)
· L’Etoile (Quebec)
There were a number of radio interviews in Niagara, Toronto and Cornwall
and local television coverage in Niagara and Toronto (Global TV). During
the course of the tour, reporter Kate Harries, a GWTA end-to-ender, kept
an online blog of her trip. A link to her blog as well as some of the
articles listed above can be found on our website at http://www.waterfronttrail.org/gwta_web/.
Planning for 2009
With over 100 interested participants already on the waiting list for
2009, we want to start planning as soon as possible to make next year’s
tour even better! Discussing the lessons learned from this year and planning
for next year will be a priority item at this year’s conference.
Please make sure you attend so we can begin organizing and planning for
next year’s event. For more information, see below.
Thanks again to all involved for an amazing Great Waterfront Trail Adventure!
SEPTEMBER 25TH PARTNERS MEETING – PLEASE ADVISE US OF YOUR
PLANS TO REGISTER
Please make sure you save September 25th in your calendar to join us for
a day-long workshop in Ajax. The Program for the September Waterfront
Partners meeting and workshop includes:
results of the first annual Great Waterfront Trail Adventure
plans for Year two of the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure
infrastructure projects—closing the Gaps.
There will be a modest charge for the workshop to cover expenses. Please
email me at da@wrtrust.com, if you
plan on attending.
CLOSING THE LAKESHORE GAP ONE PARK AT A TIME – MIMICO WATERFRONT
PARK OPENING
We are now one step closer to seeing a completed Waterfront Trail through
the Mimico area in western Toronto. On Monday July 28th, Waterfront Toronto
and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) celebrated the
opening of Mimico Waterfront Park – Phase I. The completed phase
involved the creation of a new linear park amenity stretching from Superior
Avenue to Norris Crescent Parkette, including a brand new stretch of Waterfront
Trail and a boardwalk. Phase 2 will extend from Superior Avenue to Humber
Bay Park where it will connect with the existing Waterfront Trail. Once
complete, the park will eliminate half of the current Waterfront Trail
gap along Lakeshore Rd!
Congratulations to the TRCA and Waterfront Toronto for creating such an
outstanding new amenity. For more information please visit http://www.trca.on.ca/mimicowaterfront.
SIGNING SCARBOROUGH WATERFRONT TRAIL
One of the most significant gaps in the Waterfront Trail just got a whole
lot smaller. As you know the long-term goal for the Waterfront Trail is
to create a dedicated route as close to the water’s edge as is environmentally
feasible. In Scarborough, such an alignment is decades away, necessitating
the creation of a street-based interim route that connects Toronto and
Durham.
Thanks to Councillor Paul Ainslie and the City of Toronto’s Pedestrian
and Cycling Infrastructure Department, Waterfront Trail signs have been
installed from Bellamy Road to the Rouge River Park this June. The route
offers cyclists and walkers a lovely tour of residential streets, avoiding
Kingston Road, and links them to the wonderful Port Union Waterfront Trail-Phase
One, which was completed by Toronto Region Conservation in 2006. Phase
Two began earlier this year and once completed (2011) will establish a
waterfront trail from the Port Union GO station to the mouth of the Rouge
River.
There remains a 10 km gap from The Beach to Bellamy Road. The Trust has
developed an interim street-based route that uses residential streets
and short stretches of Kingston Road to go around private property such
as the Hunt Club and St. Augustine’s Seminary. This suggested route
can be found on our Waterfront Trail maps at http://www.waterfronttrail.org/trail.html.
The Trust will continue to consult with the City of Toronto on this proposal.
In addition and thinking more long-term, the Toronto Region Conservation
Authority is leading a public consultation process to create a plan for
the Scarborough waterfront. The Trust has participated in stakeholder
consultations to date and looks forward to working with the TRCA on the
Scarborough Section of Waterfront Trail.
TORONTO STAR SERIES: GREATER TORONTO COAST HALTON
On the heels of the GWTA, the Toronto Star is publishing a major series on the GTA coast. The feature, which will be printed in the Sunday edition of August papers, takes a broad view of the many challenges facing the waterfront. The first installment dealing with the Halton waterfront appeared Saturday August 2nd. A map depicting the Waterfront Trail and its attractions is part of the series. The Trust has supplied a number of materials and contacts to the reporters working on the series.
UPCOMING CONFERENCES AND COMMUNITY EVENTS:
TD GREAT CANADIAN SHORELINE CLEANUP
When: September 20-28, 2008
Many waterfront communities are participating in the annual TD Great
Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. This is a national conservation initiative
coordinated by the Vancouver Aquarium. Every September, tens of thousands
of Canadians from every province and territory take part in a national
cleanup week, and work together to ensure that Canada’s shorelines
are kept clean and healthy.
In addition to removing litter, participants in the program also record
the types and quantities of litter found on Canada’s river, creek,
lake and ocean shorelines. These results are used to help pinpoint the
causes of shoreline debris in order to identify the most effective solutions
to local, national and international litter-related issues.
For more information visit the website at www.vanaqua.org/cleanup.
Cheers!
Marlaine Koehler, Executive Director;
Vicki Barron, Director of Administration and Special Projects;
Petrina Tulissi, Manager of Promotions and Events;
Ian Lobb, Tour Director, Great Waterfront Trail Adventure
Tour; and
and David Arcus, Project Coordinator, Editor Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail
News
The Waterfront Regeneration Trust
372 Richmond Street West, Suite 308
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 1X6
Tel: 416-943-8080
Fax: 416-943-8068
Email: info@wrtrust.com
Visit http://www.waterfronttrail.org
to download 77 online colour maps of the Waterfront Trail, from Niagara-on-the-Lake
to Brockville!
Thank You to our Supporters!:
- CIBC
- The Lake Ontario waterfront municipalities, conservation authorities and community groups
- The Eastern Lake OntarioSt.Lawrence Waterfront Working Group
- MapArt
- Dunmap
- Niagara Freewheelers Bicycle Touring Club
- Regional Niagara Bicycling Committee
- St. Lawrence Cement
- The Trust would also like to thank the Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Program (COIP) for its generous support of the 51 projects that comprise the Lake Ontario Waterfront Investment Program.
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