Community Development · 1971–1972
The Greening of North York
A walk in a neglected ravine with my three sons became a park.
In the fall of 1971 I was 27, a research assistant at York University, living in Downsview with my wife Pam and our three boys, Steven, David and Brian. One October day the boys and I walked into the Black Creek ravine near our home. It was a mess: shopping carts in the creek, rubble and dead trees, eroded banks. Then we came upon a log some children had carved to look like a dinosaur.
Ottawa had just launched its Local Initiatives Program to create winter jobs, so I founded a non-profit, Community Consciousness Catalysts, named after the "Consciousness III" of Charles Reich's The Greening of America. We received about $125,000, and from February to June 1972 a crew that grew to nearly a hundred, many of them young people, hauled out the garbage, stabilized the creek banks, built two log bridges and laid a mile-long path from Finch to Sheppard.
On June 10 we held a Tree-in behind the York Woods Library. School children and their parents planted 3,500 saplings and walked the new park. I wanted the people living around it to see Black Creek as a park, not just a ravine.
Not everything survived. The sculptures we had planned were never built, and that summer Metro Parks mowed the children's saplings down. But Metro Parks later took charge of the stretch from Finch to Sheppard and looks after it still. Today it is Derrydowns and Northwood Parks, with a trail running its whole length. The park happened, and that is what mattered.
Hear Francesco tell it
Call and Via the Greeter will answer and introduce you to Francesco, the AI voiceprint built from Frank's own voice. Francesco speaks as Frank will for his family after he is gone, telling these stories in his own words.
You might ask:
- How did the Black Creek project begin?
- What was the Tree-in?
- What happened to the sculptures?
Or dial 506-616-0001 from any phone.