Faced with a garbage strike, the city of Toronto is looking for alternative sites to let city dwellers dump their trash. The last time this happened, in 2002, the trash was collected in parks — including Christie Pits park, which is like a gigantic sunken bowl in the middle of a neighbourhood and thus lends itself perfectly to the collection of massive amounts of trash — you know, except for the fact that it is a neighbourhood park!

I used to live in Toronto — kind of near Christie Pits, actually — and the great parks in that city were one of the things that I loved about it. They act as massive communal back yards for people who live in a dense urban environment. Filling them with garbage is a ridiculous idea.

From an article in the Toronto Star:

“At a time of great economic uncertainty, with many city services currently unavailable, we need our great public parks more than ever”, said Christopher Holcroft, chair of Green 13.

The dump poses “unknown environmental risks to the surrounding parkland and lake and it undermines the very idea of shared public spaces,” the group said.

As I said when I first heard of this plan — why a park? Why not a parking lot? And it seems that I’m not the only one to make this obvious point:

A better choice would be a city-owned parking lot that is removed from the waterfront and parks, the group says.

Well, duh. Of course, filling a parking lot with garbage would affect the city’s business elite and perhaps its economy. Obviously parking your car takes precedence over kids playing soccer, walking dogs, picnics and frisbee. I hate the attitude that all must suffer on the alter of economic development and that parks and recreation are a luxury.