A Great Mitzvah And I Pay Common Sense Prevails.....

Great news for T.O. park
$1-million donation largest in a decade
By SUE-ANN LEVY
At tomorrow morning's Parks and Environment Committee, councillors will be asked to accept the largest private donation made to a city parks project in at least a decade.
The $1-million donation from Toronto senior Goldie Feldman will create a water-themed playground and sensory garden in the 120-acre Earl Bales Park that will be accessible to children and adults with physical and developmental handicaps.
The report to parks committee notes the $1 million will cover the entire cost to build the project, which the city would be require to maintain to the tune of $70,000 annually.
Parks committee chairman Paula Fletcher couldn't be reached for comment, but Rob Richardson, manager of partnership development for the city's parks, forestry and recreation department, said the donation is "unbelievably important" during these tough economic times.
"What a great bit of good news that a private citizen would be willing to come forward like this," he told me last week.
Speaking on his behalf of his mom, David Green said she felt there was an "unmet need" at the Bathurst and Sheppard-area park -- one she wanted to fill by making this donation in honour of her late parents.
Green said his mom approached Coun. Mike Feldman (no relation, but who represents the area) to ask what opportunities existed in the park that she could address. They had a bunch of discussions and this project was something about which "she got really excited," he said.
Coun. Feldman, who worked behind the scenes over the past six months to make things happen, said he's particularly appreciative of the fact that Earl Bales park was chosen for this "mitzvah" (act of human kindness).
Green said there's a Sensory Garden in Jerusalem and another in Richmond Hill, but the one at Earl Bales won't necessarily be modelled after either.
"There's no specific definition of a sensory garden ... it's not just plantings but could be other things that stimulate your hearing, your touch and your (sense of) smell," the real estate developer told me from Egypt last week, where he was on tour with his family.
'INTERACTIVE PROJECT'
The water playground, he said, will also have furniture to accommodate special needs kids. Richardson noted that Earl Bales will be the first Toronto park to have an accessible water playground.
Coun. Feldman added that this "interactive" project will be located in a "great destination point" -- Earl Bales is considered to be a regional park -- for families right across the city.
Asked whether he'd be able to undertake this kind of a project without the $1-million donation, the long-time councillor responded: "Absolutely not.
"The (current) emphasis, it seems, with city money is downtown," Coun. Feldman said, adding that his office is constantly endeavouring to raise corporate money (mostly from developers through Section 37 agreements) to fund Clean and Beautiful projects in his ward.
Green said it will be left to the city's Parks and Recreation staff to come up with the plan for the project but he hopes to "facilitate" things along the line so it is open by the summer of 2010.
"We don't want to get bogged down in the bureaucracy ... one of things she (my mom) requested is that it be up and running as soon as possible," he said, adding she'd like to be able to see kids enjoying the water playground and the sensory garden.
Coun. Feldman said he not only loves the idea of the water-themed playground and sensory garden at Earl Bales Park, but he feels citizens are recognizing if something needs to get done to rehabilitate the city's parks, it has to be "done the hard way" -- in other words by giving of their time and money.
He even hopes to resurrect the Adopt-a-Park concept -- where citizens adopt their neighbourhood parks by helping to plant flowers, tend to the weeds and so on -- an approach that has been fought vociferously for years by CUPE 79 workers who contend this is their work.
Richardson agrees citizens are starting to take a "real interest" in their neighbourhoods and are realizing the city budget is not going to "answer all of their needs.
"There's a huge infrastructure deficit in the parks, forestry and recreation department," he said. "We're actively seeking this kind of partnership to make these kinds of things happen."
SUE-ANN.LEVY@SUNMEDIA.CA