Report 1 - December 14, 1997

I went for a walk at the beach today and was shocked to find some dramatic changes.

There is now a road from the parking lot, along the treatment plant, sloping down to beach #1 past the rocks and continuing at the back of the beach until it nears Highland Creek where it slopes up to the top of the original trail. It is poised to continue across the creek to beach #2 by bridge where similar destruction will occur.

This road is built with a large stone bed that will support heavy construction trucks. The only purpose I can see is to prepare for the waterfront trail that will be built next year. This trail will link East Point Park (where the beach is located) to Rouge Park by a pedestrian/bike path along the waterfront.

The damage to the natural surroundings of beach #1 is horrendous. It will take years for the vegetation to recover - if ever.

This road was built to support a construction project that has NOT cleared environmental approvals and that does NOT have any funding.

I urge everyone to take a walk down there to see the changes as soon as possible.

Ron S. and Dave F. have planned a meeting for early/mid January to discuss strategies and plans for next year. The road is definitely a factor.


Report 2 - December 16, 1997

I phoned the Director of Metro Parks Construction today.

The work that is being done is related to the completion of what is known as "Highland Creek Trail". This trail extends south from Colonel Danforth Park (Kingston Rd near Lawson) and follows Highland Creek to the lake front. The trail then goes underneath the railway tracks and joins East Point park.

It is not related to the Waterfront Trail and the public meetings that were held recently.

The road was put in to transport heavy equipment to the railway bridge. The road will be complete this year. At the bridge, supports will be placed for a walkway under the rail bridge and shore protection will be formed to protect the walkway from river floods. The whole project is expected to be completed in May/June '98.

The road will eventually be 3.5 metres wide and the existing large rocks will be covered with smaller stone and a finishing hard surface - probably limestone. This type of path is common to Metro Parks and used across the city.

Vegetation will be replanted and the area will eventually return to normal.

However, this is what WILL happen and the amount of destruction that WILL occur when the Waterfront Trail proceeds across beach #2.

The Waterfront Trail project across beach #2 and ending at Rouge Park will take about 8 to 10 years! I don't know how much of this time will require access from East Point and how much will occur from the other end.


Report 3 - December 22, 1997

I have submitted the following article to one of the local papers - the Bluffs Monitor.
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I went for a walk at East Point Park on the weekend and was shocked to find some dramatic changes to our waterfront. East Point is at the foot of Beechgrove Ave., extending from approximately Manse Rd. to Highland Creek. It is one of the last areas of the Scarborough Bluffs that is still rustic and in a very natural state.

Not any longer! Recently, a portion of the Bluffs has been bulldozed away to make room for a road down to the beach. This destruction of the natural surroundings continues along the beach until it nears Highland Creek where another chunk of the Bluffs has been torn away to allow the road to slope up to the top of the original trail. All natural vegetation has been flattened along the way.

According to Frank Kershaw, Director of Construction at Metro Parks, this road was built to allow heavy vehicles access to Highland Creek so that a pedestrian underpass at the railway bridge can be built. This is all part of the Highland Creek Trail that runs south from Colonial Danforth Park at Kingston and Lawson Roads. The Trail is expected to be completed in May/June '98.

While this project has merits and will permit enjoyable use of the Highland Creek area, why this intrusive method was selected is not known. An access road is already available at the railway bridge from the nearby treatment plant. The top of the bluffs had a natural path along it and minimal backfilling would have been required to widen it to the appropriate size.

Instead, this road has been built with a large stone bed that will support heavy construction trucks. The only reason for this route that I can see is to prepare for the waterfront trail that will be built next year. Eventually, this trail will link East Point Park to Rouge Park by a pedestrian/bike path along the waterfront.

Again Metro Parks has chosen a more expensive and difficult construction method. Current plans will require thousands of truckloads of fill to be dumped into the lake to permit the path to continue on the lake side of the GO tracks. These trucks will have to follow this new road at East Point and continue across Highland Creek to another stretch on unspoiled beachfront.

An alternative route would have been to use an existing trail along the north of the tracks until the natural shoreline permitted water's edge access. Current plans already show beachfront access from the foot of Port Union Road that is near where the underpass would be. The Waterfront Trail project across Highland Creek and ending at Rouge Park will take about 8 to 10 years.

I am opposed to the wholesale destruction of the Scarborough Bluffs for a walking trail. What's the point of having a scenic trail when the scenery has been destroyed? Part of the Scarborough Bluffs has been bulldozed away without public consultation. The road has been built with no regard for natural beauty.

I have lived in Scarborough for 16 years and wish to keep this area attractive to residents and visitors. Why do the Bluffs have to become a manicured park and lose their wild nature?

Comments on the construction along the beach by Phil M.

While I think we need to react to the recent events at Beechgrove, I think it's important not to over-react!

When Fred and Dave and Ron and I were at the Port Union trail meeting recently, it was apparent to me that major destruction would take place in order to create the trails. I also knew that the Highland Creek trail was underway, but that may have come from an off-line conversation with one of the staff. So as soon as I heard that they had built a bulldozer trail down to the beach I knew it was to aid the building of the Highland Creek trail up to Col Danforth Park, not about someone running amok ahead of permits to build the waterfront trail.

From the architects drawings, it was apparent that the total character of the existing beach would be destroyed to urbanize it and make a new trail. I don't think that's all bad. The existing vegetation at Beach 2 is scrub brush, inhospitable and impassable, containing poison ivy, sumach and small trees that can withstand the heavy weather. It does little in my mind to contribute to the usefulness of the beach, and certainly is unlikely to be home to anything worth saving. The tress at the top of the embankment do a little to obscure the view from the GO train but not much.

The architect's drawings showed a cross-section of their plan for the beach which unfortunately does not seem to be in the handout. We'll put what we do in this Beechgrove section soon.

What I remember about what they told us is that they consider this section of the beach one of the most rugged and exposed in the whole trail. Indeed, just past Beach 2 there is no beach at all; only the railroad embankment holds the lake back. Their plans change all that.

They intend to strip the vegetation right back to the cinders supporting the monumental train embankment. Near the foot of the embankment they will build a path well elevated from the beach which they can protect from erosion and ice. It will be slightly more than a metre wide and probably be of limestone (allowing bicycles and wheelchairs but perhaps not skating). In the areas where there is no beach at all, this will be a massive construction requiring heavy equipment and thousands of truckloads of fill, which will all drive right across existing beach 2.

Between the top path and the beach will be an area of vegetation on the slope down. It is possible that in the Beechgrove area they will provide heavy vegetation since they did show some concern about protecting beach privacy in this area, indicating they knew the existing use of the beach was for nude sunbathing. The 'beach privacy' part was written; the 'nude' part was verbal.

The path design allows for periodic viewing areas where there are railings etc. and places for people to stop and view the beach and even come down to the beach.

On the beach itself, where there is beach, they plan another trail which is vulnerable to the weather and likely will be little more than hardpacked sand and will require maintenance.

One perspective on this is that this will make the beach much more attractive and pleasant. Another is that, without the privacy, nude use is forever lost.

My personal view is that the current situation was unlikely to lead to a formal nude use of the beach at all. Access to Beach 2 was either illegally across the railroad bridge and down dangerous slopes, or to Beach 1 which is totally exposed to view from the commuter trains no matter how much money you spend on it. With the continued police harassment which seems to at least been likely to have derived from political puttering, the numbers using the beach were just not going to grow.

That's all hindsight.

The Waterfront trail is a huge political force in Ontario, and it is unreasonable to suggest that anyone could stop the placing of a waterfront trail right across the province; most definitely the shoreline of Lake Ontario will be done no matter what.

Thus, there will be a bridge across Highland Creek between Beach 1 and 2.

There will be trail access down to the beach, including handicap and bicycle access.

This will make the beach more accessible than any free beach I know of, other than Haulover from which I have just returned, where there is a God-given privacy barrier in the form of a sea-grape covered high dune between the beach and the paved walkway, making it possible for the city to claim that people seeing nude bodies were at least warned.

I see the biggest problem with the trail being the increased public exposure leading to making it politically difficult to permit nude use.

I propose two actions:

1) We campaign hard to have significant privacy built along the trail in the Beechgrove Area making the casual user either unaware of the nude use or at least able to ignore it.

2) We begin, starting in 1998, to find a way to get large numbers of nudists using the beach, which we can now easily walk down to, in the hope that we improve our ability to show existing use. I hate to say it, but if we have to, we may have to resort to the use of G-strings. It has been declared constitutionally legal in Canada for both men and women to appear without tops in public. We can make them seem ridiculous for harassing us if what we are discussing is the size of pouch or triangle. I'm really of the opinion that we have to give the authorities a little room here. Toronto is home to the most conservative of the country's people. Last month, finally, by referendum the last 'dry' section of Toronto was eliminated! The difference between nude and legal is significant in court. Don't misunderstand me, the difference between nude and pouched is huge to me! But, if at least once in a while they went to bust us and were wrong, it would give them something to say forever to the complainants.

3) We find a way to get the police to quietly desist from harassing us. I believe they would leave us alone if they were not directed to go there. Even then, with the proper coaching, they can use their discretion. Remember, the political situation in Toronto just changed dramatically. Toronto is now one, Scarborough no longer exists, the local councillor is one of 52 for the whole seething mass. Perhaps, with luck, we're in better shape politically.

Anyhow, this isn't all bad. I think it has good prospects!

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