The Great Skate Project

On Saturday, March 7, I enjoyed a solitary skate at a natural ice rink in Love Crescent parkette .* That was probably my last Great Skate of the season. Since then, the weather has shifted from wintery to spring-like. The sun is warm, the air is soft and you can hear water dripping everywhere. There may be a few die-hard skaters and shinny players out there, but I think most of us are ready to switch to cycling, ball hockey and other warm-weather activities. The Love Crescent rink was first built in 2013 by a group of community-minded skating enthusiasts. The street is tucked away in a neighbourhood just north of Kingston Road in east Toronto. It's not a place you pass through on your way somewhere else; you have to know where you're going to find it. The rink builders were clever. They designed the rink in the shape of an oblong donut. In the centre is a space for shinny players. Around the centre, separated by a wide snowbank, is a track for pleasure skating. There are ...

This weekend, 34 of the City of Toronto's 51 outdoor artificial ice rinks were scheduled to close for the season. For many people, this didn't make any sense: we've been beset by an epically cold winter, so why shut down skating rinks just when Torontonians are getting the hang of dressing for the weather and amusing ourselves outdoors? The answer, as usual, is money. It costs about $4,500 a week to operate each rink, according to the Globe and Mail . The city budget doesn't cover the cost of operating all 51 ice rinks for another month. It didn't in previous years either. Last year, corporate sponsors stepped up to bankroll some of the rinks scheduled to close, and that happened this year as well. So now 29 rinks will stay open until March 22. I'm glad more rinks are staying open. But I'm finding it hard to scrape up any outrage over the fact that some rinks are being closed. Community-Run Rinks in Toronto Here's why: even with the rink closures,...

When people talk about outdoor rinks in Toronto, they are usually talking about the 53 artificial ice rinks operated by the city, plus the ones at Harbourfront and the Brickworks. But there's another whole category of outdoor rinks in Toronto - the ones I call neighbourhood rinks. Unlisted on the city website, maintained by volunteers and completely dependent on the weather conditions, these natural ice rinks feel like secret spaces. You learn about them from people who live nearby, or by stumbling across them when you take a shortcut through a park. Or, when your five-year-old niece gets invited to a skating party and excitedly tells you about the rink afterward. (The rough ice near the sign isn't part of the rink.) That's how I learned about the rink at Orchard Park (near Dundas and Coxwell). I checked it out on January 26. The rink was empty when I arrived at noon, but the ice was clean and smooth. I sat on a nearby picnic bench to put on my skates. As I ...

It's a new year, and a new chance to enjoy outdoor skating! The goals of my Great Skate Project are simple: try to skate on a different outdoor rink each weekend, and encourage as many friends and family members to join me as possible. Great Skate #14 - the first Great Skate of 2013, on New Year's Day - was a quiet one. Unlike last year , the weather was perfect for skating: cold and sunny, with lots of snow on the ground. I wasn't feeling ambitious, so I headed for Fairmount Park , not too far from where I live. On my way there, I ran into my friend Mike. When I told him where I was headed, he told me he's one of the "ice masters" who volunteer their time to keep Fairmount's two natural ice rinks maintained. Way to go, Mike! This photo shows one of the rinks. The other one is right next to it, but it isn't surrounded by boards. There's a picnic table and lights, but that's it. Wondering why this rink is so empty on such a pe...