Centennial Park Masterplan public meeting

Don't know if anyone going would be reading this, but any chance I can get a ride from downtown?

Rod, maybe try calling Dave and Prisca? Prisca is giving me a lift from their place at 5:30, not sure if there is more room...

Will do - thanks....rod

There were about 15 cyclists out to hear about the proposal. The cycling proposal is definitely in the works along with other big changes to the park - but it's up to the cycling community to drive this forward.

It was a good night. All told I think this may happen. Hats off to Craig and midweek for being on the ball. Imagine a place to train and race without banging into cars all the time or being yelled at by dog walkers. This project deserves your support. At this stage planning is at its most creative.

Nice meeting some of you folks last night. Hopefully with enough gentle prodding we can make this work. I don't think our demands are really that outrageous, at least not for a paved training/racing loop with the (solar powered/switched!) lights. Ditto for the UCI BMX track.. while I doubt I would ever use it, it would definitely be an asset to the GTA as a whole, and I don't imagine it would cost a whole lot to build/maintain.

Does anyone have a good sense for what the next steps are, from last night's consultation? I am assuming the planning consultants will be trying to incorporate some of the feedback from the meeting - does it then go back to Parks and Rec? Will it be going to council at some point?

This would be useful to know, to be strategic about supporting it - who to talk to next, when to talk to your local councillor about it, etc.

Do not quote me on this but the presenter seemed to suggest that this was a very long term plan as far as implementation. Inclusion in Toronto's captial budget seemed to be 2009 at the earliest.
It seems that the sooner our interest group is able to raise 25% of the costs needed to fund the changes cyclists would like to see implemented, the sooner the three levels of government would consider contributing.
In an attempt to boil it down to real terms I asked Craig if it simply meant raising $500,000 of the 2 million required and he agreed.
So I guess we need to somehow raise the money.

Toronto Cycling Training Facility proposal for Centennial Park:

First thank you to all of you who came to the November 1st meeting in support of a cycling training facility; your comments reinforced the recommendations made in last February's meeting with the the park planners. It was great to see that our recommendations were incorporated into the new Master Plan for Centennial Park and that it now includes a 1.4 km competitive cycling course.

The planners are most receptive to adding the additional things that were in our October proposal; road over the top of the ski hill, pavement up the hydro right of way and lighting so it could be used later into the evening. They received these additional ideas late so they didn't have time to include them. Basically what was initially asked for is in their plans now.

Just a general comment; we have to be sensitive to the parks planners concerns and one concern they have is a fast moving cyclist while training running into a child who just runs onto the path. They feel the risk is higher during training than during racing, as racing will focus people's attention. It is a legitimate concern but something we cyclists deal with all the time.

They like the lights because that reduces the probability of such an occurrence -- evening races probably means the youngest children are in their parents arms or home in bed. They also like us well away from the kid's area for the same reason. The same risk reduction comes from putting our addition training areas into the meadow area (hydro right of way). Until we all experience it no one will actually know the degree of problem there will be. Therefore we must listen to them and help them with solutions to there concerns too.

In conclusion we have moved from a "pipe-dream" to a 1.4 km competitive cycling course with cyclo-cross and UCI bmx in a new master park plan. To make it move to courses on the ground we need to have Toronto cyclists let their councillors know how important this is to them and all cyclists let their federal and provincial politicians know that they should support the grant applications when they come forward. Lastly it is now time to start putting our/your own time and money where all our mouths have been for years... money talks. As the lead planner said "those sports with money to contribute will get built first".

Next steps:

Get the word out that this project is moving forward; it is no longer a pipe dream and execution starts NOW!

Visit the site, ride it, get to know what is currently there. May I suggest Nov 10 and 11 from 10 to 4 is a perfect time.

Strike a fund raising committee... already started. If you want to join, let me (Craig) know.
The goal is to have the funds in place by 2009 which means we need to start pitching now as there is typically a 2 year lead timed needed for this level of requests. I'd strongly encourage the corporate executives of the cycling community to consider joining this venture in some capacity.

Strike a needs committee. My plan is mainly conceptual, it needs fine tuning, the seven of us who went to dinner after the meeting are a good starting point but we also need mountain bikers, bmx'ers and others. The goal is to build a centre of excellence. That said we need to temper our requests to what do we really need and what will be heavily used with very little maintenance/operating costs. No WHITE ELEPHANTS!!! Why, because after this one is up and running and demonstrating how well used it is we need another in the east end of the Toronto. Let me know if you want to help with this committee. Note this committee's recommendations will affect the amount of money the fund raising committee needs to get.

Lastly we need to support our events, especially at Centennial... even if you aren't racing come out and watch, stay to end of races. Numbers speak volumes.