Centre For Local Research into Public Space (CELOS)
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Show search optionsCELOS has received funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation:
and the Metcalf Foundation:
Custodians:
You are on the home page of www.celos.ca 
You are on the [cover page] of folder [CELOS (Main)]See also About CELOS, including our mandate
The Centre for Local Research into Public Space (Toronto)
The Centre for Local Research into Public Space (CELOS - pronounced "see-loss") is a small non-profit corporation which works in the area of public urban space, mainly parks. The primary focus of activity is in the City of Toronto. Read more >>
Elinor Ostrom
Governance Research
Ostrom workbook -- starting December 2011
posted August 01, 2010
In 2009, Elinor Ostrom received the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work on the governance of "common pool resources" -- water, grazing lands, trees, fish, cyberspace. Her book Governing the Commons has prompted us to try applying her list of principles to eight specific park issues in Toronto. This application is being documented in an Ostrom Workbook, now in preparation. The question to be addressed in our workbook is: if park users (including on-site staff) collaborate day-to-day with municipal management in shaping local parks, can park governance in Toronto improve?
Community Consultation
2010 Report from Dave Harvey (Toronto Park People), funded by the Metcalf Foundation Fertile Ground for New Thinking Dave's concludes that it's time for Torontonians involved with parks to join their voices in bringing about park improvements.
You can find out about the Recreation Service Plan by going to this city webpage. You can find out how the consultations were set up by looking at this staff report.
Here is the City's list of "stakeholders" who were contacted to give their opinions about the Recreation Service Plan in May and June, 2011 (and the Parks Plan in September 2011). Here's the city's stakeholder list with contact links. If your "park friends" or advisory group is not on the list of groups who will be asked for their views, you can e-mail 311@toronto.ca and ask them to help you get on it.
Notes on the public consultation sessions:
Kristen Fahrig blog from Rio de Janeiro
saucer-swings at R.V.Burgess Park
Operation
City Parks
Programs
- Cooking Fires
- Public Bake Ovens
- Farmers Markets
- Pizza Days
- Rinks
- Friday Night Supper
- Community Gardens
- The Food Strategy Deputation
- Art Activities
- Cob Building
- Rinks Energy Retrofit
City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation management
Community Consultation
Finance
2012 Parks, Forestry and Recreation budgets (operating and capital)
User Fee Policy
Proposed user fees policy: excerpts
User Fee Policy, September 9, 2011.
In interpreting the distinction between fees and taxes, the courts require that a fee charged for a service or activity must bear a relationship to the cost of providing the service or activity for which the fee is charged. Subsection 259(2) of CoTA provides that the costs included in a user fee may include costs incurred for administration, enforcement and the establishment, acquisition and replacement of capital assets.
Division Heads need to determine whether the benefits each service provides accrue directly to specific individuals or groups of individuals (a private service), and should therefore be paid for by users of the service; or whether the service benefits the entire society (a public service) and should be funded from the property tax revenues. Read More >>
Physical Assets
One way to look at city services is through the lens of physical infrastructure: it is the job of the city to provide functional [hysical assets for the rest of us to go about our civic lives.
We focus on parks infrastructure, since that is a common meeting ground.
Of the collection of material here, the most extensive is for playgrounds. Playgrounds have undergone many transformations in the last several years, and we try to make sense of the reasons and effectiveness of these.
Parks:
- See a list of city parks
- Parkland Acquisition Areas Map
- RV Burgess Park
- Ireland Park
Playgrounds:
- Playground Replacement Project (Research)
- Playgrounds (Notebooks) for the new Play Enhancement Program. the recent Stimulus Funded Recreational Infrastructure Program, plus notes from visits, some photos, and some notes about maintenance issues.
- Playgrounds (Media)
Other Infrastructure:
Capital Projects:
- Auditor Report on Parks, Forestry and Recreation Capital Projects, 2010
- Critique of the auditor's analysis
- State Of Good Repair
See also:
- cityrinks.ca for lots of information about outdoor city rinks.
- Water
- Energy Management
Legal and Regulatory References
The New CELOS Regulatory Research Database
June 1, 2010
Toronto has a new community resource, the CELOS Regulatory Research Database.
After years of accumulation of data on parks and public spaces, CELOS has embarked on a program to establish key parts of this data in a format that is as readily accessible to the public as possible: this is the Regulatory Research Database. Moreover the database sets the stage for collaboration with others. It's a shared resource.
Staffing
Toronto has more than 50,000 Full Time Equivalent staff positions (and a lot more people, since some are part-time). This army of people provide a varied set of services. Here we try to get some context and perspective on these staff, what they do, and what they cost.
Partnerships
Community Consultation
2010 Report from Dave Harvey (Toronto Park People), funded by the Metcalf Foundation Fertile Ground for New Thinking Dave's concludes that it's time for Torontonians involved with parks to join their voices in bringing about park improvements.
You can find out about the Recreation Service Plan by going to this city webpage. You can find out how the consultations were set up by looking at this staff report.
Here is the City's list of "stakeholders" who were contacted to give their opinions about the Recreation Service Plan in May and June, 2011 (and the Parks Plan in September 2011). Here's the city's stakeholder list with contact links. If your "park friends" or advisory group is not on the list of groups who will be asked for their views, you can e-mail 311@toronto.ca and ask them to help you get on it.
Notes on the public consultation sessions:
Content last modified on June 08, 2011, at 10:54 AM EST