Fall/Winter Meeting & 2013 Projects & Activities

[Dovercourt Park]

Hi Dovercourt Park Community Members! 

Today's meeting at Nova Era was fantastic, and it was a huge reason why we're moving our discussion to this forum. To keep everyone engaged, I'll do a quick brief of the topics we covered and link to some resources to help you participate in this forum in the future. We've scheduled our next meeting for 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 14. Venue will be confirmed closer to the date, but please hold this date.

Firstly, it was unanimously decided by those present to reshape our catchment area to respect the boundaries of the Davenport Neighbourhood Association (DNA). Our boundaries will now go from Bloor north to the railroad (just north of Dupont). Our east/west boundaries remain Ossington & Dufferin. We hope to engage DNA in projects in the future that support both areas, and work together to continue to build a vibrant and supportive community. 

Secondly, after reflecting on our Really Really Free Night Market project, we were excited to point out opportunities for improvement when running large events of the type, and hope to be able to apply these lessons learned in the future!

Thirdly, we discussed that future! Over the winter period, rather than hibernating, the DPCA is looking to engage our community through longer-term initiatives, capital projects, and strategic planning. Highlights of some of our projects include: 

• Winter Skating Rink: we're interested in bringing back the community ice rink that used to exist in Dovercourt Park, and would love to hear from volunteers interested in managing the project and supporting maintenance of a natural ice rink. Councillor support staff are currently reaching out to the Parks department to give us an understanding of what's needed to get started, and the DPCA would love a community volunteer to take the lead in managing this project! 

• Community Audit: we'll be partnering with the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) to lead a community audit, and engaging city staff to be part of it. This audit can help us understand the unique needs of the community better, and enable quick response to community infrastructure needs. We're looking for volunteers to participate in the audit by walking portions of the area with a member of METRAC and the community, and survey a designated area for infrastructure issues (lighting, bike parking, general safety concerns) and environmental opportunities (hopefully through a partnership with Green Here)

• Development in the Area: the Sobey's development has been a major source of inquiry to the DPCA email account as of late. In response, we reached out to Councillor Mike Layton, as well as the Planning Department, to get to the root of the issue. For a full briefing on information, please visit http://dovercourtpark.wordpress.com/ or http://mikelayton.ca/development-on-dupont. In brief, from Councillor Layton`s site (highlights mine):

Sobeys (840 Dupont Street): The Sobeys application will be subject to the recommendations being made for Dupont Street by City Staff and any final decision of City Council over the coming months. In addition to this it will also have to move through its own application process. The Sobeys application is in its early stages. A public meeting will be held on the application in early 2014. Planning staff have not submitted their Preliminary Report to Community Council yet, but when they have I will make it available online. I am not in support of their current application. I do not believe it respects the adjacent neighbourhood. The planner assigned to the Sobeys file is Avery Carr and he can be reached at aca...@toronto.ca. It’s important that you share your thoughts on the application with the local planner as well as my office.

If you have any questions email me at councill...@toronto.ca or call (416) 392-4009.

 

The DPCA has registered as an interested party with Ms. Carr and will stay up to date on development in the area. We firmly support sustainable, smart development that values the residents and employees in the area while enabling a bright future for Dupont. 

We`re also interested in engaging other development projects, including the Canada Post building,and we're looking for volunteers to help with research and outreach, leading community partnership development with film companies, non-profits, developers, and local businesses. 

• Dovercourt Park Bixi Station: One of our volunteers had a lovely idea that we're excited to help investigate: helping Bixi expand their downtown network by adding a Bixi station within our community! We're looking to hear from you, and through our community audit learn about your interest in the project, where a station should be placed, and how many prospective riders we may have. We're looking for volunteers to help direct this project and lead communications with interested stakeholder groups. 

• A Community Column: We're looking to pitch a column for the Bloordale Times or the Bloordale Press, or creating a revenue-neutral community newsletter. the DPCA would love to support a few dynamic volunteers in either starting up our first newsletter, or managing scheduled content development. If you're interested, let me know at doverco...@gmail.com and send links or samples of your work. 

• Community Green Roof: I'll personally be exploring opportunities to build community green roofs and apiaries, and will be investigating funding through the Greenbelt Foundation. If you have experience in grant proposal development, green roof development, or apiary management, please reach out to doverco...@gmail.com.  

• Strategic Planning & Mission Development: With the beginning of 2014 being around the corner, it's an ideal time to map out what we'd like to achieve next year, so we can accomplish everything we'd like. A volunteer has proposed drafting a strategic plan for the year, charting what events, programming and/or administrative goals we have, so we can better plan for the year in detail. We'll talk about more specifics on this at our next meeting in December, but contributions of ideas or offers to help draft the plan are welcome.

• Fundraising: As a new association undertaking this size and scope of projects, we're looking for input on how to develop sustainable funding and manage fundraising in the short and long term. If you'd like to advise on fundraising, direct fundraising, or lead fundraising outreach, we're looking for energetic, committed volunteers!

We also decided this afternoon, that going forward, monthly meetings would be ideal, allowing project work to continue apace on their own, with meetings serving as an opportunity to update on progress to-date.

Thanks for your continued interest and support! Hope to see you on December 14th, and hear from you in the forums!

Kim Bethke 

DPCA Founder