For better use and better management. The UNOFFICIAL Website of Toronto's Outdoor Skating Rinks
11.30 a.m. -- good ice, change rooms open. No sign of any staff (office looked empty).
High Park rink is poorly maintained for a rink with its own zamboni. The change house is poorly set-up (it is the pool change room as well). It is too far from the rink with a walk down an often slippery ramp to the rink. The doors for access should be on the rink side not the pool side - an easy fix. The change room should be for all not divided by the sexes. There should be food and drink available. It is a rink that gets a lot of use but is poorly run.
This e-mail is in regards to the outdoor rink @ High Park. I packed the kids up this morning (Friday, Jan 28th) to go skating, but the rink was locked up tight. Online and on site schedule says 9:00am to 3:00pm public skate. Very disappointed that I wasted my morning waiting for somebody to show up. Is there only one person who opens the gates etc.? If he/she doesn't show up for work does the rink just stay closed? I would appreciate it, if I could get a reply in this matter.
cityrinks.ca is not a municipal website (it's website run by rink enthusiasts). So we have no power to fix anything directly, but we can help people follow up. (It's our hobby)
The best thing to do in this case is to re-send your e-mail to 311, with a cc to cityrinks.ca. 311 at this point in time has the mandate to stream all complaints to their right people -- and we've heard that the staff who get the complaint sent to them are supposed to respond within 24 hours.
If the actual rink gates were closed, that's very important to follow up, since the shift is supposed to begin at 7 a.m. If it was just the change rooms that were closed, and it was very soon after 9 a.m., it could be that somebody was late.
We have been getting a fair number of complaints about High Park Rink this season.
Thank you for contacting 311 Toronto.
My apologies for your experience at the High Park ice rink. I have forwarded your email to the supervisor responsible for High Park facilities for their review of the situation.
The staff member who would normally open and clean both High Park and then the Earlscourt rink, was sick that day and it took some time to call in an alternate staff person to do that work. Sorry for the inconvenience.