Everyone seems to like Dufferin Grove Park, and it’s not hard to understand why. They’ve got outdoor bread ovens, a community garden, snack carts, wireless internet and a club house. They host Friday night suppers for the community and farmers markets and they aren’t afraid to fight the city when stuffy bureaucracy gets in the way of what the community wants. Last summer they built a “cob courtyard”, a structure made of an old fashioned sand-clay-straw mixture known as “cob. The idea was to create a place where people can gather, play, wash-up, and cook.
This summer they’ve started building a second cob structure: the city’s first composting toilet. Unfortunately, the City’s building codes initially stood in the way. Christian Cotroneo tells the story in yesterday’s Sunday Star:
The toilet and surrounding cob seemed to fall under existing safety codes, meaning kids would not be allowed to muck around in the clay and straw to help erect the structure. According to the building code, construction hats and safety boots would be mandatory — and the Modu-Loc fence would stay up throughout the project. But the whole point, argued Friends of Dufferin Grove, was never about the end, but the process — a community sculpting its own space.
Read the full article here.
Photo of kids helping to build the cob courtyard from the Friends of Dufferin Grove Park website.
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It should be noted that significant elements of the city bureacracy have, in fact, been extremely supportive of the project. A number of employees have really put themselves on the line for this initiative, because it speaks to an ever more slightly sustainable future. The roadblocks have arisen because of 3 (yes, three!) local citizens who stand against the project and, apparently, know how to ‘work the system’. Not In Their Backyard, indeed!
In July, they sent notice to the local councillor that there was not any public consultation for the project, and included a long list of their concerns. There was, in fact, a widely-publicized public meeting on June 25 that they ‘didn’t know about’ where all concerns were addressed. They asked that another meeting be arranged, and it was agreed that said meeting would take place on September 12.
Close to 100 citizens showed up for the meeting, including Councillor Giambrone, Sandy Straw (City Parks Manager) and Peter Leiss (Parks Supervisor). Much discussion ensued, without -alas!- the three folks that called the meeting in the first place! Anecdotally, I’m to understand that they claim they weren’t informed of the meeting that… ahem… THEY called. The meeting time and date was 0) Established in July 1) Posted on the dufferin grove website 2) Sent out on the dufferingrove list serv 3) Given away on flyers in the park 4) Announced in the monthly newsletter 5) Publicized at the farmers market 6) Distributed door to door on flyers from Councillor Giambrones office (with spot checks that they were, indeed distributed). There was not, however, a truck with very large speakers stating the meeting outside of the naysayers doors.
*sigh* It’s yet another case of NIMBY, I’m afraid. It makes me sad, because the whole point of this project was to engage the community and ignite debate. But there hasn’t been any debate with these folks. They’ve got it in their bonnett that they don’t want this “hideous thing” (from an ‘interview’ on AM 640 that we -oddly- weren’t invited to participate in) within eyesight. And that’s it. No talk. No debate. No nothing.
Just “No”.