Cedarvale Park (Toronto)

Cedarvale Park (originally known as Cedar Vale) is a park located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by very steep hills, and is located in the Cedarvale neighbourhood of Toronto. The Spadina subway line tunnels underneath it, between St. Clair West and Eglinton West stations. The north end of the park contains the Phil White (Cedarvale) Arena and Arlington Middle School. It is commonly used for dog walkers and students returning from the nearby school and the large open fields are heavily used by the community for everything from cricket games to flying kites.

South of the fields, the park angles southeast, and becomes more of a deep, naturalized ravine with steep sides, with a heavily-used footpath down the middle. Cedarvale ravine contains very sizeable wetlands east of Bathurst Street in Forest Hill; the remainder of the natural portion is young regrowth forest (the ravine was largely clearcut during the construction of the Spadina Subway in the 1970s). The path is heavily used and remains passable even in winter, with foot traffic packing snow down despite the lack of plowing, especially after drainage works in 2006 fixed water pooling and subsequent ice buildup.

The park benefits from its proximity to the Beltline trail in the north and the Nordheimer Ravine to the south; together these join together to form a large trail system through midtown Toronto.

History

A creek, Castle Frank Brook, used to run through Cedarvale Park, but now it is buried, except for a short section in the Cedarvale Ravine. [http://www.lostrivers.ca/castllfrankbrook.htm Castle Frank Brook ] ] Ernest Hemingway, an American novelist, often frequented this park's path, which was then used as a cattle path, during his stay in Canada. There were plans in the 1920s and the 1930s to build mansions in the ravine, but the Great Depression in the 1930s halted its construction. The Glen Cedar bridge that spans the ravine portion of the park was built during that time and restored in 1989, after being rescued from demolition. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were plans to build the Spadina Expressway through Cedarvale Park but Jane Jacobs successfully lobbied against the government to halt its construction project.

Since the 2000s, increasing ecological awareness has changed priorities within the park, with renaturalization projects already underway on slopes near the north end of the park; projects are planned for the area around the TTC's Markdale emergency subway entrance from September to December 2007, although Toronto's budget crisis may affect this time frame. There is also the Glenayr emergency subway entrance located near the southeastern end of Cedarvale Park.

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