Consider this my declaration of bias. I live near Earl Beatty Community Centre and use it frequently with my two boys. I’m against its closure and am working with a group of parents to make as much noise as possible to save it. (P.S. the logo below was designed by 13-year old Gareth who is on the team to help save the community centre.)
The Earl Beatty Community Centre will be closed outside of school hours if the City of Toronto’s proposed 2012 budget passes. That means no more ball hockey, ballet, karate, kindergym, crafty kids, babysitting courses, T-Ball, yoga, Zumba and more.
This community centre, just north and east of Coxwell runs six days a week and is an important neighbourhood play spot in an area with very little recreation space. Most of the programs are full and have waiting lists. Closing a gymnasium in a city desperate for recreation spaces makes no sense at all. The pool is not slated for closure – yet.Let City Hall know this budget cut is not acceptable. Here’s how to get involved:
- Sign the petition, http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/torontoplays/
- Come to the PLAY DAY at CITY HALL. This Friday, Dec. 9, Earl Beatty Community Centre is taking over Nathan Phillips Square at 11 a.m. Wear your Earl Beatty shirt, bring your stick, ballet shoes or yoga mat and join us as we take the fight to City Hall!
- Contact Mayor Rob Ford’s office, 416-397-3673 or mayor_ford@toronto.ca
- Contact your city councillor,
- Janet Davis councillor_davis@toronto.ca
- Paula Fletcher councillor_fletcher@toronto.ca
- Mary-Margaret McMahon councillor_mcmahon@toronto.ca
- Mary Fragedakis councillor_fragedakis@toronto.ca
- Send a note, letter or video on what the Earl Beatty Community Centre means to you. We’ll share it online and in person. E-mail us at saveearlbeatty@gmail.com
- Watch for more details, join the Facebook page and follow us on Twitter at: saveearlbeatty.tumblr.com (click follow at the top right corner to follow along)
- Tell your neighbours!
The closing of Earl Beatty and all of the Community Centres is a tragedy and a false saving. If we cut off this service to our community and especially to our low income neighbours and their children we will pay far more in police services in a few years. These cuts are nothing more than a transfer of wealth (dollar value of services) from the poor to the rich who are not being asked to make a painless contribution by having their taxes raised so slightly to pay to keep open our community centres.
This is very aggravating, we just finished registering our son for swim lessons at Earl Beatty, we were very excited to find a location we could walk to.
At this point, swim programs are not affected – just recreation programs that go on in the gym and general use rooms like after school programs, ball hockey, soccer, karate, yoga, babysitting courses etc.
So we have nearly 2,000 EXCESS police officers according to Stats Canada figures, and laying them off would mean savings of over $200 million annually.
Instead we go after libraries and community centres that actually provide value and cost very little to run?
Mayor Ford …. why aren’t we going after all that police “gravy” instead of community centres and libraries?
Another example of how Rob Ford defines gravy. Many lower income Torontonians voted for Ford, and believed him when he said there would be “no service cuts, guaranteed”, and that he would only be cutting gravy and wasteful spending at City Hall. Now those very people are feeling the effects of these cuts the hardest. Hopefully, this will be a lesson learned for the next election in 2014.
I grew up in this community. I spent many of my childhood hours at the Community Centre participating in extracurricular activities.
I am VERY disappointed that Earl Beatty CC is slated to be closed!!! My daughter uses the services here all the time – not to mention that if it’s closed, I’ve lost my summer daycare option – no more summer camp!! I could understand if the centre wasn’t being used, but every week those summer camps are booked solid and the gymnastic lessons my daugher went to were full every time. The camps were amazing, offered a ton of fun and were very convenient, not to mention economical! I’d be more than willing to pay more for these services if need be, just for the convenience alone!