Parkdale square

BY LIZ DEWDNEY

In recent years, with the gentrification of Queen Street pushing ever west, money and business are changing the Parkdale neighbourhood. Some want to see the intersection of Queen Street West and Cowan Street designated as a meeting spot or town square. Cowan Street is a short street about three blocks east of Dufferin Street.

Paul Bedford, the former chief planner of Toronto, is a big supporter of public space and believes that the town square idea may help Parkdale restore its identity.

“Queen and King are coming back to life,” he says, “but Parkdale needs pride and identity. Any public space improvements could help with that.”

The intersection is home to the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre and the Parkdale Public Library. Before Parkdale became part of Toronto in the late 1800s the corner housed Parkdale Town Hall two firehouses and a police station.

The plan to turn the intersection into a town square has been around for over 20 years. In the early 1980s the sidewalk at the north end of Cowan, where it intersects with Queen, was expanded by about five metres in the form of cobblestone. According to Devin Horne, co-ordinator of the Parkdale Business Improvement Area, this makes it the perfect intersection for a town square.

The World Peace Monument is the latest addition to the intersection. It was installed in the fall of 2005 and was a joint project of the Parkdale BIA and the city. It sits on the southeast corner of Queen and Cowan Streets, adjacent to the library, and is composed of a large metallic globe with sheets of copper for the oceans and large holes to for the continents. Inside there is a fountain, which sprays a continuous stream of water.

Horne sees the corner as being Parkdale’s Yonge-Dundas Square.

“We wanted the corner to be a focal point,” he says. “We want people to say, ‘Let’s go meet at the globe.’ ”

The monument has not been without controversy, however. Last spring residents, angered by the lack of benches around the monument, organized a protest. Kate Zankowicz is a Parkdale resident and used to write for a local newspaper the Parkdale Liberty. She organized the protest.

“Public space, in my mind, is created by public seating,” she said. “In order for the monument to truly inaugurate a town square, as they call it, it has to be a place where people can linger, relax and enjoy.”

After the protest a group of local artists installed an illegal park bench, which according to Zankowicz is very well used by the community.

Horn admits that he and many others use the rogue bench, he would like to see more go in.
Horne admits that he and many others use the rogue bench. He would like to see more additions, such as, community are installations, bike lockers and outdoor food vendors.

The problemwith adding more to the intersection is that the BIA extends well past Cowan Street and the businesses at the other end feel that money should now be spent on improvements on their end.

Horne says, however that even the biggest naysayers now support the monument.

“When it’s lit at night,” he says, “people who were dissenters have come back and said, ‘wow, that actually looks really great.’