{"id":55686,"date":"2016-08-12T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=55686"},"modified":"2016-08-12T13:51:23","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T17:51:23","slug":"private-patio-supposed-public-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2016\/08\/12\/private-patio-supposed-public-space\/","title":{"rendered":"This private patio is supposed to be public space"},"content":{"rendered":"

First let me say this: I love patios. The wind in your hair, the sun on your face, the hot waft of a garbage trunk barreling\u00a0down the street. It\u2019s all part of the glory of summer in Toronto.<\/p>\n

But I do have a bone to pick with a patio that is currently occupied by La Carnita\/Sweet Jesus on John Street just south of Adelaide. My bone?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s supposed to be a public space. As in no fence around the edge. As in I don\u2019t need to buy something to sit there. You know, open to everyone?<\/p>\n

Kind of like how it was before:<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-08-11-at-3-37-38-pm\"<\/p>\n

What makes this extra annoying is that King-Spadina is one of the densest, rapidly-growing, open space\u00a0poor neighbourhoods in the entire city. The fact that we created\u00a0a public space (however itty bitty) and then had\u00a0it taken away so people could eat over-priced (but Instagrammable) ice cream cones is just\u00a0the pits. We need all the slivers of public space we can carve out in this city, especially in the downtown, and especially especially in King-Spadina.<\/p>\n

How did this happen?<\/p>\n

The space is meant as a POPS (privately-owned publicly accessible space<\/a>). These are spaces created through the development process in Toronto where developers get extra goodies (height, maybe, or chocolate) in exchange for creating and maintaining publicly-accessible open spaces on their property. We have a ton of these in Toronto, many of them in the Financial District. (My favourite POPS is the TD Centre \u201cpasture\u201d where all those lovely cows like to hang out all day).\u00a0Here\u2019s a map<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact, the\u00a0approval<\/a>\u00a0for the building included a condition that the developer provide this publicly-accessible open space. It\u2019s pretty clear:<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-08-11-at-3-26-42-pm\"Whoops.<\/p>\n

So turning this space into a private patio for a business is basically the opposite of what is supposed to be happening here.<\/p>\n

It also highlights the challenges of using POPS as ways to create \u201cpublic space\u201d in highly dense, rapidly developing areas. It\u2019s an attractive tool for the City for sure\u2013you get some new public space and you don\u2019t even need to maintain it!<\/p>\n

But hiccups like this show why we need to be cautious with these spaces, and why we certainly don\u2019t want them ever to be seen as a substitute for a publicly owned park or plaza. One clear example of this\u00a0was highlighted on a Jane\u2019s Walk I went on two years ago (led by City Staff) where we were approached by two security guards as we stood in a POPS to\u00a0talk about it. These\u00a0are still, ultimately, privately-owned spaces.<\/p>\n

I contacted Councillor Joe Cressy\u2019s office to ask about this and was told by his staff that he\u2019s aware of the issue, does not\u00a0approve of what\u2019s happening, and has instructed the city\u2019s legal staff to look into it. Hopefully we can expect some action soon.<\/p>\n

Yes,\u00a0patios are cool. But we can\u2019t let these things slide if we\u2019re going to protect the spaces that we\u2019ve managed to create\u00a0for the public to use. Tear down the fence, people.<\/p>\n

photo of the space without the fence was nabbed from Alex Bozikovic\u2019s Twitter feed<\/em><\/p>\n

This post was originally posted on\u00a0This Land is Parkland<\/a>, a blog about open spaces, large and small. Jake Tobin Garrett is the manager of\u00a0policy and research at\u00a0Park People<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First let me say this: I love patios. The wind in your hair, the sun on your face, the hot waft of a garbage trunk barreling\u00a0down the street. It\u2019s all part of the glory of summer in Toronto. 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