Paving the Beach: Does it Really Make Sense?

Hi everyone,

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Township of Scarborough was blessed with myriad areas along the shore where people could get into the lake and swim. Between Fallingbrook and Kennedy Roads alone, three supervised areas existed, beginning in 1928 (“Parks in Scarborough Remembered”, Scarborough Historical Notes and Comments). Now all of that is gone. One of our last informal beach areas, a beguiling little pebble beach at the bottom of the Doris McCarthy trail (Gates Gully), was cannibalized to make way for the Waterfront Trail, an asphalt pathway, or superhighway, depending on your perspective, that currently runs through some sections of the Scarborough waterfront.

It’s hard to believe that in the twenty-first century, when people are returning to the waterfront, we find ourselves in Scarborough debating the benefits of paving over substantial swaths of two of our last three remaining beaches. I harken back to the words of Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, “The underlying attraction to the movement of water and sand is biological. If we look more deeply we can see it as the basis of an abstract idea linking ourselves with the limitless mechanics of the universe.”

I walked two of those three beaches from end to end this weekend with Jen Falvy. Please join me on this pictorial journey and ask yourself: is it a fair compromise to pave over these last remaining wild spaces, in whole or in part, to accommodate more “access” to the water’s edge? And exactly what kind of “access” to the water is gained on the revetment and beach headland areas of the Waterfront Trail? I climbed up onto the westerly portion of the trail that juts into the lake near the sands of Bluffer’s Park — please don’t confuse this monster with its fairer sister to the west in the Beach district, which exists essentially at grade with the water’s edge. The trail, as it winds its way east through Scarborough, is generally a behemoth-like armour rock affair that stops erosion of the shoreline (in many areas, a laudable and necessary goal). The irony is that this kind of trail allows access to the trail itself, but little else. The experience of the lake is more distant: the sound of the waves is hushed and the spray of the water pacified when you’re at least ten feet above the lake. Do we want to pave over large sections of two of our remaining beaches to accommodate more of that? Let’s face it folks: sometimes the proper place for the Waterfront Trail is on the headland or the road, above the beach.

It’s also critical, to my thinking, that the beaches offer rich habitat for a diverse number of creatures, large and small. I am flummoxed as to why the TRCA would include so many options in their alternatives package that significantly eliminate habitat for animals that live “along the shore”, yet stalwartly highlight the increased fish habitat that only the most intrepid angler might venture down to see, let alone catch. (Click on the link at the bottom of this post for access to a PDF detailing the TRCA’s alternatives, beginning on page 19.) I am also concerned that the obvious loss of substantial and varied habitat that would occur with the installation of the trail is not noted in their alternatives package at this stage — it seems to be a point to be addressed among others once the preferred alternative is chosen. Talk about putting the cart before the horse! Woah Nellie.

Please write to the TRCA and tell them that diversity is better than simply eating up more beach with the Waterfront Trail. We should be able to swim and fish in the lake, walk on the sand, hike and bike on the trail, and get into a boat at the shore.

You can send in your comments, either by email or letter, to Lindsay Clapp, Project Manager, waterfront@trca.on.ca (101 Exchange Avenue, Vaughan, ON, L4K 5R6). You may also respond in the comments section of the workbook document, if you don’t want to send a letter: http://www.trca.on.ca/dotAsset/217818.pdf.

Link to PDF detailing TRCA alternatives: http://www.trca.on.ca/dotAsset/217960.pdf

Scarborough’s beaches fall into three different Wards. It would be great if you could also make your views known to the Councillors. Just forward all of them the comments you have made to the TRCA at the addresses below.

Here is their contact information:

Gary Crawford
Bluffer’s Beach
councillor_crawford@toronto.ca

Paul Ainslie
Grey Abbey Beach (may be viewed as an adjunct of East Point Beach)
councillor_ainslie@toronto.ca

Ron Moeser
East Point Beach
councillor_moeser@toronto.ca

See you down at the beach.

 

Tagged as: Along the Shore, TRCA, Waterfront Development