Popular Science says Corktown Common is among this year’s “best of what’s new”

The revitalization of Toronto’s West Don Lands is tied to Toronto’s Pan Am Games, which don’t happen until 2015—but it seems as though the international press is already starting to take some notice. Corktown Common, a recently opened park located near the mouth of the Don, made Popular Science’s annual “Best of What’s New” list. The magazine was particularly taken with the common’s stormwater management system, a cleverly disguised array of UV lights, underground tanks, irrigation pipes and man-made marshlands designed to protect the city from flooding while giving area residents an attractive and fun place to hang out. Waterfront Toronto, the agency that oversaw the creation of the park using funding from the province and the feds, is understandably pleased.
This is what happens when agencies like Waterfront Toronto are left alone to do their jobs without interference from small-time, small-minded politicos like much of Toronto’s City Council.
I shudder to think of what that park would’ve come to had it been in the hands of the “know the cost of everything but the value of nothing/gravy train” clown brigade on Council. My guess: unkempt weeds with a crappy park bench in the middle.