I have been walking about 10 kilometers, 3 times a week…Since about Easter 2014…For my health…It’s important…

I walk through a ravine called The Moore Park Ravine…

At one section of the ravine, there is a steep hill with what appears to be one lone dirt trail…

In truth, there is another dirt trail, just a little south of the obvious one, which leads to more gentle wooden steps, to take one up the hill…

At the top of the hill there is a park called Chorley Park…

Halfway up the first dirt trail, there is a fork that goes to the left, which also is slightly gentler than the most visible trail…

Or if the first lone trail has been barraged by water & the dirt is unsteady, one can fork to the left on the more steady trail…

There is actually another dirt trail that leads to the right of the stair trail, also takes one up the hill…

All these passages lead up to Chorley Park, a nice park, a dog park, a people park, a baby stroller park, a grassy park…

So…Some City officials were thinking of putting in something called a “switchback”, which means an s curved snakey thing to S up that hill & they were thinking it could be 10 feet wide & made of asphalt…

So members of the community met at the Rosedale United Church because they thought that the Ravine was just fine, that the Chorley Park was just fine, & that the trails were all just fine & that a switchback made of asphalt was a dumb idea & they didn’t want that…

When I spoke to a personal trainer/dogwalker today, he said that when he was going up the hill with a client once that the trail was all washed away from water & was dangerous to use because the dirt had eroded…

So I said:”Why didn’t you take the stairs?”…”Stairs?” he said…He didn’t know about the second trail that led to the stairs…

Or the fork to the left trail…Or any of the other trails up that hill, because there are actually several options…

That’s when he realized that he could have taken another route up that hill…

That’s when I realized that the problem here was not that they needed to construct anything new to get up that hill to Chorley Park, but that they need some EDUCATION as to where all those alternate trails were…

It appears that the local community knows where the trails are, but that newcomers to Moore park ravine & the Brickworks development on the other side of the ravine, don’t…

So they want to build roads where roads are not necessary…

What the newcomers need are Maps…or Directions…Or a trail guide…Guide as in a person guiding them, not a book guide…or perhaps a tiny sign with an arrow like they have on downhill ski slopes “Trail here to steps”…or something equally folksy…

I have applied to be on the Chorley Park Ravine Working Group to help to design a solution to what City people feel is a problem…

That people need “egress” from the ravine & that egress needs to be an easy way out up that hill…

If I am chosen to be part of this group, I will have to attend 3 long meetings to discuss possibilities, design ideas, budget considerations & how about those endangered Butternut trees that are there?

If anyone has any experience with this type of thing, feel free to offer ideas as Comments here…

I will be updating this post with new information or pictures or maps if need be…

Protecting Nature in a city area is important to a DIY Medicine protocol…You have to get involved in the decision-making processes if you are going to protect your Zen walking spaces…

Ok, so if you have walked up the steps I showed you in the first picture, FROM the Moore park ravine to Chorley park(up the hill, but take the dirt trail that is NOT obvious, just SOUTH downhill from the obvious one, which leads to the steps…)

Then you get to Chorley Park…But NOW How do you get OUT???

Out of Rosedale back to somewhere more familiar if you aren’t totally local to the area & know the routes…

Ok, from Chorley park follow the yellow dots on the Google map I have altered & edited…

Basically you exit onto Roxborough street, then walk towards GLEN road…

Make a LEFT onto Glen road & follow that along…

You will see the Rosedale United Church on your left…

Glen road crosses with SOUTH ROAD & take a RIGHT onto SOUTH road…

Follow SOUTH road Until it hits CRESCENT road (which is shaped like  crescent roll)…

If you go RIGHT onto Crescent road, you can just then Follow Crescent ALl the Way to YONGE street…(Rosedale subway station is there)…

If you go LEFT onto Crescent road it takes you to SHERBOURNE street,

Then take Sherbourne street SOUTH to BLOOR street,

Then you can go RIGHT on Bloor street which will take you to the Bloor Yonge subway station or Just Yonge street again & you can make your way home since you know probably know where you are orientation-wise…

Note Bene: SOUTH road also, if you go LEFT on it from GLEN, takes you to ANOTHER TRAIL opening for the Moore park ravine…You will see the entrance to a hill that slopes down & is pretty steep…That also takes you into the ravine…It is a 6 or 7 kilometer run if you enter from there, do a bit of a run, & come out that same entry point…

Ideas proposed so far:

Idea number One is Wooden Flag markers on Poles to show people where the Steps are from the Moore Park Ravine…(most people don’t know they exist right now!!!)

Letter to Jason Diceman which I did not send…(Jason is the City official Contact person for this project, but I have not met or spoken to him myself yet…)

I have been interviewing the people who actually use the Moore Park
Ravine…

The vast majority of people who use the Ravine do not use the steep hill
at all in order to

exit the ravine…

Those that do are the most experienced hikers…

The dogwalkers(professional) use the steps at times…

It is odd that those stairs are considered unsafe considering that the
stairs across Mount

Pleasant that people use to scale up to David A. Balfour Park, are far
far more treacherous…

Oddly as well is there are no trail markers at the ravine level to show
people that there are others ways to scale that hill than the most
visually apparent steep dirt trail…

It is shocking that actions were taken in Rosedale before the community
there was consulted…

Most City Council members are aware that the Rosedale area is quite
sensitive to any change at all & would never have begun any actions
without first consulting the community…

It appears that the City has taken actions first & is only creating this
Working Group to appease the concept of democracy but really the plans
are already in place…

My understanding from my interviews is that nobody considers the asphalt
10 foot switchback to be a good idea…

Today someone mentioned a Funiculari, which is a device used at 9
Beamont to transport mobility challenged people up & down the ravine
there…

If indeed the “switchback” idea is to honour those who are mobility
challenged, one person asked me today “what exactly are they going to do
when they get down to the ravine?”

The Ravine itself is a bit of a nightmare for cyclists who hit rocks &
gravel or mud or water all the time, not to mention disturbing those
with small dogs or children…

A wheelchair is not really suited to that terrain?

If the people of Rosedale are part of that eco-system, then taking
actions that they do not like is not eco-friendly at all…

It is a bit of a mistake to call Chorley park or the Moore Park Ravine
“public”…

It is really a benefit of living in Rosedale, & the families who live
there, walk there with their new babies & in the nest older children…

Later young married couples meander…But the demographic is mostly
locals…

The Brickworks as well attracted some attention initially, but is
settling in now with locals once again…

The “public” is not the public…

Most people who use parks are people who live near to that park…

This Ravine & Park area was not meant to become a tourist trap…

Nor the Brickworks a mall…

The cutting down of trees is causing alot of attention, despite the
guilt professed in the online explanation of these actions…

Guilt is a nice emotion but is really not adequate…

The decisions to create a cement path down that hill were not cemented
yet in that community, so why trees were cut down before getting local
approvals is not justified by “we thought about it alot”…

A democracy doesn’t care whether a few experts “thought about it
alot”…

A democracy means you ask first…