Celebrating the Creation of Sorauren Park

The Roncesvalles-McDonnell Residents Association celebrated the founding of Sorauren Park (289 Sorauren Avenue in Toronto) on September 12, 2009 .

On September 17, 1995 the city of Toronto opened up the green space on what had been at different times an industrial site and a municipal storage facility since the beginning of the last century. The creation of the park came about because of community grassroots action.

Please join in for the celebration. Former mayor Barbara Hall, under whose administration Sorauren Park became a reality, is the featured speaker. Also in attendance will be former city councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczynski, current councillor Gord Perks, and school trustee Irene Atkinson.



Contact Paul Weinberg at 416-533-2428 for further details



Chronology of events:

Walking around Sorauren Park with its soccer matches, baseball games, tennis and various festivals, it is easy to forget that the park is a recent creation born out of community action.

We have gathered today to celebrate the founding of the park and the grassroots that made it possible.
Before it was transformed into green space on September 17, 1995, the land at 289 Sorauren Avenue had been a hub at various times of industrial activity, storage and even film-making. Up to the Second World War, Dominion Bridge owned the property and used it to assemble bridges which were then shipped along a spur line across the city to their final locations where they were set up to replace level crossings where train traffic had interfered with the transportation of cars and delivery vehicles. In both 1914 to 1918 and 1939 to 1945 the site was requisitioned for military purposes. After 1947 the city bought 289 Sorauren to use as a maintenance garage for TTC vehicles.
But it was the acquisition of the site and its existing building in 1986 from the TTC by the pre-amalgamation city of Toronto that sparked the changes to come for what was then park-deficient territory in the Roncesvalles/north Parkdale area.

The citys Public Works Department had developed plans to close three existing west end storage facilities for municipal service vehicles including garage trucks, sweepers, snow plows and personnel trailers and replace them with a single consolidated site on the purchased Sorauren site.

By the time residents had an inkling of what was being proposed during a public meeting on March 8, 1990, an architectural firm had already been retained to produce a model for the new mega public works yard. The notion of a consolidation had been kicking around City Hall since the 1980s.

Concerns about hundreds of vehicles per day possibly entering and leaving the facility on Sorauren and side streets, with all of the attendant noise, traffic congestion and pedestrian safety issues to boot, helped to nurture strong local opposition in subsequent public meetings to the point where the city was forced eventually to abandon the project. "Over my dead body," one resident muttered about the project at the time.

Subsequent discussion revolved around the future possible uses of the land including construction of affordable housing and a composting facility.

But the park won out as the most popular and perhaps least expensive option for 289 Sorauren as part of a general makeover that would eventually include recreational facilities. The latter has yet to be constructed by the city, with the opening of the neighbouring Wabash Fieldhouse last year a tentative first step.

Local historian Alec Keefer says that the recreation opportunities on Sorauren Park have been among the draws for young families to our area in recent years.
The Roncesvalles-McDonnell Residents Association celebrated the founding of Sorauren Park (289 Sorauren Avenue in Toronto) on September 12, 2009.
On September 17, 1995 the city of Toronto opened up the green space on what had been at different times an industrial site and a municipal storage facility since the beginning of the last century. The creation of the park came about because of community grassroots action.