One Great City
Here’s something I wrote about Grant Park and Millennium Park in Chicago. It got re-tweeted by Atlantic Cities!
Above is the road down into Bluffers Park. It has no sidewalk. As a pedestrian, the safer way down to the lake involves so much clambering and scrabbling that it must be doing ecological harm to the bluffs.
But you should still go. (Maybe drive.) I’ve lived in Toronto for two years now and I had no idea that the Scarborough Bluffs are serious features of the landscape — an imposing and beautiful flank for a city whose topography is otherwise predominantly gentle. These pair well with the more picturesque ravines.
This trail through Nordheimer Ravine (south of St. Clair West station) was almost totally iced over earlier this evening. In a few places I could walk on the muddy margins, but the combination of warm days and cold nights has made the rest of the trail pretty slippery.
There must be something we can do to keep these ravine trails reasonably accessible through the winter. Would it bother the trees if sand was spread on the ice?
It’s a shame to give 90% of our parks back to nature for four months of the year.
