For better use and better management. The UNOFFICIAL Website of Toronto's Outdoor Skating Rinks
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6 pm: - 9 skaters, both youth and adult playing shinny, about half wearing helmets
7pm - no skaters.
5pm Tuesday - 6 shinny players, half wearing helmets, a variety of ages.
E-mail from advisory council president Heather O'Meara to community centre supervisor Mike Ellison, cc'd to CityRinks:
Can you please get the rink unlocked?
I need to get in there to replace the mesh on the hockey nets. While I was there I saw a few people with skates who were clearly disappointed. There is no need to padlock the rink in the daytime when people and schools could be using it. Can you please keep the rink unlocked, as the city agreed to last year?
2.30pm: 2 skaters, one shinny player in the corner avoiding an amateur figure skater. One family leaving the rink. Ice looks unmaintained.
Numbers at 3 pm: There were 16 parents and kids, all but 5 wearing helmets. Two girls inside, taking off their skates. Staff: one building attendant, off in a windowless office.
There were two lively shinny hockey games going on, and it looked like holiday activities with many dads, almost all wearing helmets.
The changeroom doors are only labelled as washrooms, and at first it seemed that the women's entrance was locked. The building attendant's office is far away from the rink, and when I knocked on the door (which is labelled "office") he said I only need to push harder, that the door is stiff. He said I could go in the men's door as well, since there is no barrier inside. And indeed, the washroom/changeroom areas are connected. The odd feature is that the toilet areas have no separate doors and so the first thing you see when you enter from either door is the toilet stalls.
The change area is windowless and uninviting despite fairly new paint, and people in this neighbourhood seem to have voted with their feet -- this rink is not well-used, so it was a nice surprise to see all the family shinny.
A skating instructor told me that their "Hockey in the Neighbourhood" program, equipped by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, is still going strong. He said it has 22 participants, with room for more.
9am - the rink is empty.
9.30pm - 15 shinny hockey players, 1/3 with helmets.
Numbers at 8pm: elementary age shinny players 3 with helmets
9 pm: There were no skaters.