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Parks and Rec General Manager Romoff on the State of the Parks, 2018

Speech at Park People Parks Summit, Jan. 24, 2018

Excerpts:

"Cities build parks and recreation facilities so that their people can build community."

"I want you to know that we’re being aggressive in our pursuit of a modern, innovative system that will transform our business and the way we work together. We’re working to implement tools that are digital, that offer online and user-focused solutions, and that can continue to evolve and grow as technology advances. We want to ensure that we’re not left with an outdated system in ten years, but rather that we implement a cycle of continuous improvement and innovation that puts us among the most effective and leading government services."

"Council adopted our Facilities Master Plan this year – a 20-year plan to steward, replace and grow our parks and recreation facilities. I can’t over-state the importance of this plan. We’ve never had a plan like this in the City of Toronto."

"Council has adopted and advanced more strategies on parks and recreation this year than we have since amalgamation – the ravine strategy, the tree planting strategy, the facility master plan, the parkland strategy, the recreation growth strategy."

"Park People often say that when communities get involved, parks get better, and over the past year we’ve seen plenty of examples of philanthropists, non-profit organizations and other partners working alongside us, playing together in the proverbial sandbox."

This is the GM's list of community partners "playing together":

Judy and Will Matthews, Bentway
Ravines: Toronto Water, City Planning, the TRCA, Evergreen
High Park Nature Centre
Grange: Art Gallery of Ontario, TD, the Weston family
Toronto Park and Trees Foundation
Friends of Allan Gardens read more
Downtown Yonge BIA, College Park and skating rink
Edwards Gardens: Toronto Botanical Gardens read more and more
Accessible baseball diamond: Jays Care Foundation
Drake ($1 million for basketball courts)
Maple Leafs Sport and Entertainment and the Jump Start Foundation continue to make major investments in our recreation infrastructure.

"Thank you to Park People and all of our partners for everything you do to make Toronto’s parks such vital civic infrastructure – our common grounds, where we come together to build a healthy, welcoming city."

"The strategy is helping to demonstrate that where we can’t acquire new land, we need to redevelop and improve the function of our parks, and we need to enhance their usability through programming. Again, Berczy Park is a good example of this – in a fast-growing neighbourhood a renovation of an existing park goes a long way in addressing parkland needs."


See also: doing the math: a spending spree

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Content last modified on April 15, 2018, at 05:07 PM EST