Ford lashes out at Flemingdon Park over local fight to save Ontario Sceicne Centre
LIKE DONALD TRUMP, the felon he admires so much, Doug Ford has just had his “shit hole countries” moment, the infamous term Trump used to dismiss a continent and a race. Last week, Ford dismissed a local community, Flemingdon Park, that is interfering with his suspicious and destructive plans for the Ontario Science Centre and Ontario Place.
The focus of Ford’s contempt is a community he is supposed to serve as premier, not demean; but as his secretive, probably corrupt and maybe criminal action to destroy the Ontario Science Centre and Ontario Place unravels, he is lashing out at the Flemingdon Park community that has hosted the Science Centre since 1969, dismissing it to reporters last week as “a sleepy little neighbourhood in the suburbs that no one goes to.”
Premier Ford, that’s Canadian for “shit hole.”
Flemingdon Park is so “sleepy” that the provincial government is spending millions to service the neighbourhood with TWO mass transit points, the new Science Centre subway station and a stop on the eventually completed Eglington LRT.
Flemingdon Park is so “sleepy” that Ford’s deep-pocketed pal Alfredo De Gasperis has bought much of the land neighbouring Flemingdon Park and the Science Centre for development. Doug, you mean Freddo didn’t mention this to you over cocktails at your daughter’s wedding?
“Sleepy” Flemingdon Park was the site of a recent Sunday (July 14) demonstration demanding the Science Centre be saved, which featured local community members as well as supporters from across the city gathering for speeches and angry words in a park in Flemo before heading over to the Science Centre to demand the local treasure be preserved.
Local kid Alicia Zhu described to rallygoers how essential the Ontario Science Centre has been in developing her love of science and pride in her community. Others from the neighbourhood spoke of the jobs they had lost with zero notice and the summer programs they could no longer participate in.
Les Takahashi, from the National Association of Japanese Canadians, talked about how Science Centre architect Raymond Moriyama is a hero in the Japanese-Canadian community and that his magnificent building is a huge source of pride for them. The nearby Japanese Cultural Centre, as well as the Aga Khan Museum down the street, along with the Science Centre help form a foundation for a cultural district in this neighbourhood where “nothing happens.” (A Peace Bell, also designed by Moriyama, had a featured, proud location at Ontario Place before Ford had it crated up to await “relocation.”)
Politicians not in Ford’s pocket and prepared to fight for the Science Centre were on hand at the demo including Mayor Olivia Chow; MPP Doly Begum, Scarborough Southwest (NDP); MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam, Toronto Centre (NDP); MPP Bhutila Karpoche, Parkdale-High Park (NDP); and city councillors Lily Cheng (Humber River-Black Creek) and Anthony Peruzzo (Willowdale).
The lies Ford uses to power his graft-fuelled destruction of the Science Centre lost even more credibility the week after the demo, during a recent “storm of the century” where not a drop dripped through the “dangerous” Science Centre roof while, ironically, as Toronto city council debated further support for the Science Centre fight, City Hall sprung leaks all over. Don’t tell the premier; it might be enough of an excuse for Doug to level City Hall for his condo-developer pals too.
And his linking of the Science Centre to his obscene plan to level 800 half-century trees and turn a public park into a private spa at Ontario Place just shrouds both deals in more suspicion. His failed Greenbelt sellout shows Ford will literally do anything to please his developer pals.
Counc. Josh Matlow (Toronto-St. Paul’s), another vocal Science Centre supporter, tells NEXT of the mystery surrounding Ford’s backroom deals. “They were just caught red-handed in the midst of a Greenbelt scandal where they were handing over publicly protected lands to developers who had been part of their fundraising. So, it’s not unreasonable to mistrust the Ford government’s intentions given their very recent history.
“If they were confident that they had a good argument for doing everything they’re doing, they should boast about it. Tell us all the details. They should share all the information with the public. Then the public would go, ‘Okay, I get that, that makes sense.’ But that’s not what the government’s doing because it probably doesn’t make sense to a reasonable person.”
The Ontario Science Centre is on land owned by the city, and council is currently investigating to see if the province is violating its lease obligations by letting the Science Centre deteriorate and shuttering it.
Science Centre defender and one of the recent protests’ organizers, Floyd Ruskin noted this week after the storm that “the building’s not falling down. We had this hundred-year storm almost yesterday, and guess what? The roof that’s in danger from a heavy rain or a heavy snow, it’s still there. The only thing that’s not there are the visitors.”
I walked the streets and pathways of “the sleepy” suburb after the demonstration and, full disclosure, they are the streets of my youth. I grew up in Flemingdon Park and treasured my childhood there in that maligned neighbourhood where kids ruled and largely ran free as overworked and often single parents had other pressing concerns. My proud mother dealt with the “sting” of raising her kids in a defamed neighbourhood, but we just thought of it as home though none of the sitcom suburban spreads depicted on TV looked anything like our apartments. The density of the homes, while creating other challenges, ensures no shortage of playmates for kids looking for fun.
Off the main streets and walking the paved pathways among the apartments and townhouses, I am reminded of the car-free fun we had riding our bikes and roaming pathways close to our buddies and safely away from vehicle traffic. I’m reminded of how green Flemingdon Park and adjacent ravines were, and are, including one featuring the Don River with another including the heavenly home of the Science Centre terrain that, by the way, is not suitable for residential development. And, of course, the Science Centre was and has been an essential source of pride, employment, fun and learning in the neighbourhood for decades. Tearing it out of the community would create a huge wound.
There are more fences in Flemo than when I was a kid as developers literally “stake out” their spaces and Ford’s favourite “folks” set their sights on the “sleepy” neighbourhood with a number of condo projects underway in Flemo itself. My last address in Flemingdon Park, a high-rise across from Grenoble Drive Public School, has recently been torn down to be replaced by one of those condos. Ford’s developer pals know Flemingdon Park is anything but “sleepy” as it is poised to become an increasingly desirable neighbourhood. One where Ford would rather serve his deep-pocketed pals instead of the communities he is responsible for, including the one right across the street from the OSC, the dynamic and vibrant “village” of Flemingdon Park.