WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.540 Welcome to today's Deep Dive. I'm your host and 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:05.940 I'm here with our resident expert to unpack something 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:08.980 really fascinating. Hey everyone. Yeah, we've 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:12.599 got a great one today. It's a bit of a mind bender, 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:14.679 honestly. It really is. So to start off, I want 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:16.579 you to close your eyes for a second. Okay. Just 00:00:16.579 --> 00:00:19.739 picture a very specific kind of contrast. You're 00:00:19.739 --> 00:00:22.359 standing in the middle of a massive city. To 00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:25.239 your left, you have a river that's been heavily 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:28.019 industrialized for a century. Right. And to your 00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:30.359 right, you have heavy rail lines with commuter 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:33.100 trains just screaming past every few minutes. 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:36.299 So deep in the concrete jungle. Exactly. Deep 00:00:36.299 --> 00:00:39.619 in the noise. But where you are standing, right 00:00:39.619 --> 00:00:42.299 in the center of all that chaos, it is dead silent. 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.100 Wow. You're just surrounded by tall prairie grasses, 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:48.719 chirping birds, and the smell of wildflowers. 00:00:48.859 --> 00:00:50.759 It sounds like a glitch in the simulation, honestly. 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:53.719 It really does. You are standing in a 7 .3 hectare, 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:56.960 that's roughly 18 acres, by the way, Oasis. It's 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.060 called Corktown Common. Right, in the West End 00:00:59.060 --> 00:01:02.460 lands of Toronto. Yes, exactly. Toronto, Ontario. 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:04.659 And if you go there on a Saturday, you see families 00:01:04.659 --> 00:01:06.939 picnicking, people jogging, dogs playing fetch. 00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:09.959 It looks like this absolute masterpiece of landscape 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:12.579 architecture. Which it is. It is. But here is 00:01:12.579 --> 00:01:15.040 the thing that stops me in my tracks every single 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.260 time I dig into the research on this place. This 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:19.799 isn't just a park. No, not at all. If you were 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:23.310 to say... peel back that layer of beautiful green 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:26.609 grass and dig into the soil, you'd realize you 00:01:26.609 --> 00:01:28.930 aren't standing on a recreational space. You're 00:01:28.930 --> 00:01:31.870 standing on a machine. A very big machine. A 00:01:31.870 --> 00:01:34.170 massive piece of survival infrastructure that's 00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:37.870 just disguised as a playground. That is the perfect 00:01:37.870 --> 00:01:40.129 way to frame it. Korkown Common is a survival 00:01:40.129 --> 00:01:44.099 machine. It was built to solve two massive competing 00:01:44.099 --> 00:01:47.500 problems that really every modern city is facing 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:50.060 right now. One, we are totally desperate for 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:51.739 green space because urban density is going up 00:01:51.739 --> 00:01:54.420 everywhere. And two, we are facing the increasing 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:57.140 threat of catastrophic natural disasters. Yeah, 00:01:57.180 --> 00:02:00.739 climate threats. Exactly. And this park is basically 00:02:00.739 --> 00:02:04.079 the ultimate case study. on how you solve both 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:06.840 of those problems at the exact same time without 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:09.419 anyone even realizing it. So today on the Deep 00:02:09.419 --> 00:02:11.840 Dive, that's our mission. We are unpacking the 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:14.319 secret identity of Corktown Common. And we've 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:16.919 got some great sources for this. We do. We've 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:18.979 combed through all the historical records of 00:02:18.979 --> 00:02:21.099 the industrial wasteland this site used to be. 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:23.800 We've looked at the government reports on the... 00:02:24.009 --> 00:02:27.169 literal financial disasters that happened here. 00:02:27.310 --> 00:02:29.349 Oh, the financial reports are wild. They are. 00:02:29.490 --> 00:02:32.050 And we've also got the design breakdowns from 00:02:32.050 --> 00:02:34.669 the landscape architects, Michael Van Valkenburg 00:02:34.669 --> 00:02:36.689 Associates. And we really have to talk about 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:39.389 the money, too, because before this was a success 00:02:39.389 --> 00:02:42.110 story, this site was a complete financial black 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:45.120 hole. a literal money pit we are talking hundreds 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:48.280 of millions of taxpayer dollars that just evaporated 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:51.120 on this site for absolutely nothing for decades 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:53.879 right until a major international sporting event 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:55.979 came along and changed the timeline completely 00:02:55.979 --> 00:03:00.120 it's such a wild ride but i think um we should 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:01.639 probably start with that secret identity you 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:04.159 mentioned let's do it because if i go to quarktown 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:07.110 common today I definitely don't see a machine. 00:03:07.289 --> 00:03:09.569 I just see rolling hills. Well, that's the magic 00:03:09.569 --> 00:03:12.090 trick right there. The defining feature of the 00:03:12.090 --> 00:03:14.789 park is its topography. It's incredibly hilly, 00:03:14.930 --> 00:03:17.729 especially on the eastern side. Yeah. And to 00:03:17.729 --> 00:03:20.110 the untrained eye, that just looks like aesthetic 00:03:20.110 --> 00:03:22.430 landscaping. You walk in and you think, oh, the 00:03:22.430 --> 00:03:24.349 designers wanted to give us a nice view of the 00:03:24.349 --> 00:03:28.000 city. But functionally, those hills... are a 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.960 wall exactly we are looking at a flood protection 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:34.280 landform right a berm in engineering terms yes 00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:37.560 a berm it acts as a shield it's roughly four 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:40.599 meters high in places which effectively creates 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:44.319 a barrier 8 .5 meters or about 28 feet above 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:46.800 the danger zone of the river and we need to clarify 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.259 the stakes here because you know flood protection 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:51.659 can sound a bit abstract until you actually look 00:03:51.659 --> 00:03:54.240 at the hydrology reports right the source documentation 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:57.310 talks a lot about the 500 -year storm Which is 00:03:57.310 --> 00:03:59.729 a term that I think people misunderstand constantly. 00:04:00.050 --> 00:04:02.150 Oh, all the time. It doesn't mean the storm only 00:04:02.150 --> 00:04:04.210 happens once every five centuries like clockwork. 00:04:04.310 --> 00:04:06.050 Right. Nature doesn't have a calendar. Exactly. 00:04:06.210 --> 00:04:08.669 It's a probability statistic. It just means that 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:11.870 in any given year, there is a specific very low 00:04:11.870 --> 00:04:15.110 risk of a storm so massive that it would completely 00:04:15.110 --> 00:04:18.509 overwhelm normal infrastructure. Right. But low 00:04:18.509 --> 00:04:21.269 probability over a long enough timeline eventually 00:04:21.269 --> 00:04:24.170 becomes a certainty. And if that storm hits Toronto. 00:04:24.829 --> 00:04:27.829 Without this park. The Don River overflows. And 00:04:27.829 --> 00:04:30.050 we aren't talking about a few puddles on a bike 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:32.490 path here. No, not at all. We're talking about 00:04:32.490 --> 00:04:35.009 the river violently bursting its banks and sweeping 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:38.170 right into Toronto's eastern downtown. Wow. You'd 00:04:38.170 --> 00:04:40.430 have catastrophic damage. The financial district, 00:04:40.550 --> 00:04:42.649 residential neighborhoods, transit infrastructure. 00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:45.709 It would be a disaster on a massive scale. So 00:04:45.709 --> 00:04:48.189 the design of Corktown Common is essentially 00:04:48.189 --> 00:04:51.540 a hydraulic shunt. That is a really great way 00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:54.600 to put it. The berm is engineered to physically 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.439 block that water. And the overall shape of the 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:00.639 park shunts those floodwaters south, directly 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:02.680 toward Lake Ontario and away from the buildings 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:04.660 and the people. It really changes the vibe of 00:05:04.660 --> 00:05:06.699 walking your dog there, doesn't it? It totally 00:05:06.699 --> 00:05:09.180 does. You realize you aren't just walking up 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:12.180 a nice grassy hill. You are literally walking 00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:14.439 on the levee that keeps the entire neighborhood 00:05:14.439 --> 00:05:17.420 dry. And here's the context that I found most 00:05:17.420 --> 00:05:20.509 interesting in the planning documents. This berm 00:05:20.509 --> 00:05:23.509 wasn't just an add -on. What do you mean? Well, 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:25.129 it wasn't like they designed a park and then 00:05:25.129 --> 00:05:27.029 someone said, hey, let's make it flood -proof 00:05:27.029 --> 00:05:30.290 too. This berm was the prerequisite for the entire 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:33.370 neighborhood. Ah, because legally, the West Don 00:05:33.370 --> 00:05:36.569 Lands area was designated as a floodplain. Exactly. 00:05:36.709 --> 00:05:38.930 It was completely uninsurable. You literally 00:05:38.930 --> 00:05:41.829 could not build a single condo, coffee shop, 00:05:41.829 --> 00:05:45.170 or road in that area until this berm was finished. 00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:47.529 So the government's hands were tied. They had 00:05:47.529 --> 00:05:50.610 to physically remove the land. from the regulatory 00:05:50.610 --> 00:05:53.790 floodplain map by building this massive structure 00:05:53.790 --> 00:05:56.209 before any development could even break ground. 00:05:56.389 --> 00:05:58.769 So the park is the literal foundation for the 00:05:58.769 --> 00:06:00.709 entire community that surrounds it today. It 00:06:00.709 --> 00:06:03.350 is. The park had to come first. But the neighborhood 00:06:03.350 --> 00:06:05.750 wasn't always there. And this is where I want 00:06:05.750 --> 00:06:07.329 to pivot to the history because the backstory 00:06:07.329 --> 00:06:10.430 of this land is, well, gritty is an understatement. 00:06:10.550 --> 00:06:12.939 Yeah, it's pretty dark. If we rewind the clock, 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.199 we aren't seeing prairie grass and dog parks. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:18.819 We're seeing smoke, steel, and livestock. Lots 00:06:18.819 --> 00:06:21.800 and lots of livestock. This was the home of the 00:06:21.800 --> 00:06:23.860 William Davies Company. Which, for those of you 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:25.899 who aren't up on your deep Toronto history, was 00:06:25.899 --> 00:06:28.639 a massive pork processing operation. One of the 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:31.500 largest in the entire British Empire at the time. 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:34.480 This operation is actually a huge part of why 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:38.680 Toronto got the nickname Hogtown. Right. So picture 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:41.220 this for a second. You have massive meatpacking 00:06:41.220 --> 00:06:44.579 plants, huge rendering facilities, and just acres 00:06:44.579 --> 00:06:46.839 upon acres of rail yards to move the product 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:49.459 in and out. This was the beating industrial engine 00:06:49.459 --> 00:06:52.660 of the city for a very long time. It's so hard 00:06:52.660 --> 00:06:54.519 to imagine now when you're sitting on a beautiful 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:57.040 park bench there, but the ground you're sitting 00:06:57.040 --> 00:06:59.959 on was soaked in the toxic byproducts of industry 00:06:59.959 --> 00:07:02.819 for decades. Right. And like a lot of industrial 00:07:02.819 --> 00:07:04.980 zones in North American cities, the 20th century 00:07:04.980 --> 00:07:07.829 wasn't kind to it. As the meat industry consolidated 00:07:07.829 --> 00:07:10.370 and logistics changed, the processing plants 00:07:10.370 --> 00:07:12.910 moved out to the suburbs or just shut down entirely. 00:07:13.189 --> 00:07:15.170 The trains stopped coming as frequently. Exactly. 00:07:15.189 --> 00:07:18.170 And by the 1970s, what was left? Abandonment. 00:07:18.170 --> 00:07:21.129 Just a scarred, completely empty landscape. And 00:07:21.129 --> 00:07:24.410 this leads us to a chapter in the source documents 00:07:24.410 --> 00:07:28.139 that honestly reads like a tragedy. The Adateri 00:07:28.139 --> 00:07:30.819 Project. Oh, man. I went down such a rabbit hole 00:07:30.819 --> 00:07:33.259 in Adateri. It is the ultimate cautionary tale. 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:35.660 It really is. So let's set the scene for you 00:07:35.660 --> 00:07:39.000 listening. It's the late 1980s. The city of Toronto 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:41.459 and the province of Ontario look at this huge 00:07:41.459 --> 00:07:44.459 wasteland downtown and say, we can fix this. 00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:46.660 They needed housing. Right. There was a housing 00:07:46.660 --> 00:07:48.860 crisis in the 80s. So they say, let's build a 00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:51.160 massive new community. It was a very bold vision. 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:55.220 So in 1988. They expropriated the land in the 00:07:55.220 --> 00:07:57.699 West End lands. And expropriated just means the 00:07:57.699 --> 00:08:00.220 government legally seized the private land for 00:08:00.220 --> 00:08:02.939 public use, paying out the owners. Right. The 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:04.959 goal was to build this mixed income community 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:07.819 called Adetiri to solve that housing crisis. 00:08:08.019 --> 00:08:10.600 But they ran into two massive walls almost immediately. 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:12.439 Yeah. We already talked about the flood risk. 00:08:12.459 --> 00:08:14.379 You obviously can't build houses in an active 00:08:14.379 --> 00:08:17.100 riverbed. But the second wall was the dirt itself. 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:20.879 Right. Because you cannot run a massive pork 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:24.199 processing plant and a rail yard for a century 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:28.319 without severe consequences. The soil was incredibly 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.899 toxic. We're talking hydrocarbons, heavy metals, 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:34.720 industrial sludge. It was a total chemical cocktail. 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:37.120 So before they can build a single apartment building, 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:40.799 they have to clean the dirt. And looking at the 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:43.000 budget sheets from back then. It wasn't going 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.340 well. It was a complete financial disaster. By 00:08:45.340 --> 00:08:50.039 1992, the government had spent roughly $350 million. 00:08:51.059 --> 00:08:55.200 $350 million. In 1992 dollars. That is a staggering 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:57.100 amount of money. And here's the real kicker. 00:08:57.389 --> 00:09:00.230 They hadn't laid a single brick. Not one. That 00:09:00.230 --> 00:09:03.070 money was just for purchasing the land, evicting 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:05.049 the commercial tenants, and trying to start the 00:09:05.049 --> 00:09:07.009 cleanup. And then the new projections came in. 00:09:07.110 --> 00:09:09.029 It was going to cost another billion dollars 00:09:09.029 --> 00:09:11.149 to actually finish the project. Another billion. 00:09:11.269 --> 00:09:13.490 And then the final nail in the coffin hit. The 00:09:13.490 --> 00:09:15.470 economy fell off a cliff. The real estate market 00:09:15.470 --> 00:09:17.950 crashed hard in the early 90s. Right. So the 00:09:17.950 --> 00:09:19.769 private money that was supposed to help fund 00:09:19.769 --> 00:09:22.490 the housing construction just evaporated overnight. 00:09:22.940 --> 00:09:25.700 So you have a highly toxic money pit, a massive 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:29.059 global recession, and a very angry public asking 00:09:29.059 --> 00:09:31.620 where their tax dollars went. Enter the Bob Ray 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:34.019 government in 1993. They looked at the math, 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:35.820 they looked at the massive provincial deficit, 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:38.100 and they just pulled the plug. Just like that. 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:41.120 Canceled. Completely canceled. That is just heartbreaking. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:44.399 Think about the waste there. $350 million gone, 00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:47.940 and the land just sat there anyway. For 15 years, 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:51.220 it became this fenced -off scar in the middle 00:09:51.220 --> 00:09:54.970 of the city. A literal do not enter zone. Yeah. 00:09:55.129 --> 00:09:58.110 It's a classic example of urban paralysis. The 00:09:58.110 --> 00:10:00.129 problem is too big. The cost to fix it is too 00:10:00.129 --> 00:10:02.629 high. So nobody touches it. It just sits there 00:10:02.629 --> 00:10:05.360 rotting. But obviously we're talking about a 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:07.320 thriving park today, so something eventually 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:09.919 broke the deadlock. Waterfront Toronto. Right. 00:10:10.259 --> 00:10:13.279 This was the new entity formed in the 2000s. 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:15.440 It was a joint venture between the city, the 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:17.840 province, and the federal government. Their mandate 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.159 was basically fix the waterfront finally, stop 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:23.080 talking about it, and just do it. And they identified 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:25.299 the West Don Lands as one of their first four 00:10:25.299 --> 00:10:27.399 priority projects. So they came up with a new 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:31.759 plan in 2004. Let me guess. economic trouble 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.139 again history is a funny way of rhyming the 2008 00:10:35.139 --> 00:10:38.700 financial crisis hit oh right just as they were 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:41.159 gearing up to finally tackle this toxic site 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:44.720 the global markets melted down again it looked 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:47.000 like the project might stall out for a second 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.360 time But this time, they had an ace in the hole. 00:10:50.539 --> 00:10:52.960 Or maybe a ticking clock is a better description. 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:56.120 The Pan American Games. It is amazing how a hard 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:58.740 deadline changes things in government. It changes 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:00.759 absolutely everything. Toronto won the bid to 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:04.139 host the 2015 Pan Am Games. Right. And to do 00:11:04.139 --> 00:11:06.720 that, they needed an athlete's village. They 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:09.200 needed to house thousands of athletes and officials 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:11.539 from all over the world. And they decided the 00:11:11.539 --> 00:11:13.740 West Don Lands was the perfect place to do it. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:16.559 And unlike a generic housing target where a politician 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.600 can say, oh, we'll delay it a year, you cannot 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:20.720 move the date of an international sporting event. 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:23.220 Exactly. The opening ceremony is happening on 00:11:23.220 --> 00:11:25.340 that date, whether you are ready or not. So it 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:28.399 forced the funding to finally unlock. To host 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:30.320 the athletes, the buildings had to be legally 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:33.279 insurable. to be insurable the flood barrier 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:35.980 had to be built and to build the barrier the 00:11:35.980 --> 00:11:38.519 soil had to be remediated the dominoes had to 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:40.940 fall it completely broke the paralysis the park 00:11:40.940 --> 00:11:43.279 had to be ready for the games first it actually 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.320 served as the front lawn for the athletes during 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:47.379 the event and then was turned over to the public 00:11:47.379 --> 00:11:49.840 afterward So let's talk about that construction 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:52.740 process, because building a high -end park on 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:56.179 top of a toxic industrial graveyard isn't exactly 00:11:56.179 --> 00:11:59.019 simple gardening. No, this is extreme engineering. 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:01.759 Yeah. The final price tag for the park was around 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:05.539 $135 million Canadian dollars. Wow. And the design 00:12:05.539 --> 00:12:07.919 was led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, 00:12:07.980 --> 00:12:11.240 who are absolute giants in the landscape architecture 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:13.580 world. And they had to deal with that toxic soil. 00:12:13.700 --> 00:12:15.860 You can't just plant a nice oak tree in industrial 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:17.919 sludge. Right. And this is the really... clever 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:19.980 part. We mentioned the berm is a flood barrier, 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:22.419 but it actually serves a second function. It's 00:12:22.419 --> 00:12:24.980 also a cap. They brought in massive amounts of 00:12:24.980 --> 00:12:28.960 clean, fresh, clean soil from offsite to build 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:32.240 the topography. So they effectively sealed the 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:35.200 remediated industrial lands underneath a thick 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.759 layer of fresh, clean earth. So it's a lid. They 00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:41.860 built a new world on top of the old one. Precisely. 00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:44.639 And they were incredibly specific about what 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:46.730 they planted in that new world. I was reading 00:12:46.730 --> 00:12:48.850 through the planting lists in the design docs, 00:12:49.009 --> 00:12:51.750 and it's not just generic grass. No, it's a full 00:12:51.750 --> 00:12:54.409 -on ecological restoration project. It really 00:12:54.409 --> 00:12:57.909 is. They planted over 700 trees and thousands 00:12:57.909 --> 00:13:00.909 of native shrubs. But the goal was specifically 00:13:00.909 --> 00:13:03.870 to recreate the southern Ontario Carolinian forest. 00:13:04.210 --> 00:13:06.769 Which is the native ecosystem for this region, 00:13:06.909 --> 00:13:08.929 right? From before the factories arrived. Right. 00:13:08.990 --> 00:13:11.690 It's a very biodiverse, rich ecosystem. They 00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:13.889 also included an urban prairie on the riverside 00:13:13.889 --> 00:13:15.740 of the park. Right. I read about that. That's 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:19.120 about 3 .2 hectares, nearly 8 acres of tall native 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.700 grasses and wildflowers. It's designed to precisely 00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:24.100 mimic what this land looked like centuries ago. 00:13:24.259 --> 00:13:25.980 And there's a major water component inside the 00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:28.700 park too, right? The urban marsh. Which ties 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:31.539 the whole water theme back together. The marsh 00:13:31.539 --> 00:13:34.139 isn't just there to look pretty. It's a functional 00:13:34.139 --> 00:13:37.379 wetland that helps manage stormwater within the 00:13:37.379 --> 00:13:39.740 park itself. How does it work? It captures the 00:13:39.740 --> 00:13:41.879 rain, filters it naturally through the aquatic 00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:45.059 plants, and then reuses it for irrigation. It's 00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:47.419 a closed loop. So they aren't just blocking the 00:13:47.419 --> 00:13:49.460 river water with the berm. They are actively 00:13:49.460 --> 00:13:52.419 respecting the water cycle inside the park boundaries. 00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:54.779 It's fascinating because it creates this constructed 00:13:54.779 --> 00:13:57.379 ecology. It's totally artificial in the sense 00:13:57.379 --> 00:13:59.940 that they built it from scratch with bulldozers, 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:02.679 but it functions exactly like a real ecosystem. 00:14:03.059 --> 00:14:04.840 And that really is the future of urban design. 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:07.240 We can't just go out and find pristine nature 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:09.860 in the city anymore. We have to build it. So 00:14:09.860 --> 00:14:11.860 let's take the listener inside. We've covered 00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:14.419 the heavy history and the engineering. If you 00:14:14.419 --> 00:14:17.120 walk into Corktown Common today, what is the 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:19.960 actual experience? Because despite all this intense 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:22.860 engineering, it doesn't feel like a science experiment 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:24.980 when you're there. No, not at all. It feels like 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:27.740 a true community hub. The layout is this really 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:30.179 interesting mix of the wild and the civilized. 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:33.240 You've got the recreational stuff on one side. 00:14:34.059 --> 00:14:37.019 The athletic fields, the open lawns where people 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.679 are playing frisbee. And the splash pad, which 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:41.740 is absolutely huge for families in the summer. 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:44.059 Oh, yeah. But look at the social infrastructure 00:14:44.059 --> 00:14:47.100 they included. They put in large communal tables, 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:49.799 a barbecue area, and this is actually my favorite 00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:52.899 detail in the whole park. A fireplace. A fireplace 00:14:52.899 --> 00:14:56.120 in a public park. That is such a specific, unusual 00:14:56.120 --> 00:14:59.120 choice. It is. But think about what a fireplace 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:02.820 signifies to us culturally. Warmth. Warmth, yes, 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:06.179 but also the home. It signifies gathering. By 00:15:06.179 --> 00:15:08.539 putting a fireplace in a public park, the designers 00:15:08.539 --> 00:15:10.659 are basically saying, this is your living room. 00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.379 Oh, I love that. It invites total strangers to 00:15:13.379 --> 00:15:16.299 gather around a hearth. It turns a large, anonymous 00:15:16.299 --> 00:15:18.799 public space into an intimate domestic space. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:21.340 And for the more active crowd... You have the 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:23.639 bike paths that seamlessly connect to the wider 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:25.860 city trails. You have the boardwalks running 00:15:25.860 --> 00:15:28.379 right through the marsh and a great off -leash 00:15:28.379 --> 00:15:31.019 dog area. And we definitely can't forget the 00:15:31.019 --> 00:15:33.460 art. If you've been there, you can't miss the 00:15:33.460 --> 00:15:35.519 large sculpture by Marc de Severo. Oh, right. 00:15:35.580 --> 00:15:38.039 The one called No Shoes. No Shoes. Yeah. It's 00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:41.259 this large abstract steel structure. And I think 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:43.639 the name just fits the space perfectly. Because 00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:46.299 you take your shoes off. Exactly. No Shoes suggests 00:15:46.299 --> 00:15:49.320 grounding, taking your shoes off, feeling the 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:51.639 actual grass. connecting physically with the 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:53.779 earth. Which is deeply ironic given that the 00:15:53.779 --> 00:15:55.960 earth you're connecting with is imported soil 00:15:55.960 --> 00:15:59.340 sitting on top of an industrial cap. True. But 00:15:59.340 --> 00:16:02.179 it works. And the location itself really adds 00:16:02.179 --> 00:16:05.159 to that sharp contrast. We are east of Bayview 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:07.519 Avenue, south of King Street, but just look at 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:10.539 the borders. You are completely sandwiched. You 00:16:10.539 --> 00:16:12.620 have the Don River on one side, which represents 00:16:12.620 --> 00:16:14.779 nature, or at least the city's attempt to manage 00:16:14.779 --> 00:16:16.940 nature. Right. But on the exact opposite side, 00:16:17.139 --> 00:16:21.649 you have the Jugo train commuter line. It gets 00:16:21.649 --> 00:16:24.450 really loud sometimes. It does. But honestly, 00:16:24.629 --> 00:16:27.250 that's the point. You're standing in a restored 00:16:27.250 --> 00:16:30.450 Carolinian forest watching a butterfly land on 00:16:30.450 --> 00:16:33.950 a native wildflower. And 50 yards away, a massive 00:16:33.950 --> 00:16:36.750 commuter train is tearing past, carrying thousands 00:16:36.750 --> 00:16:38.950 of people. It's nature, but it's nature that 00:16:38.950 --> 00:16:40.870 has been forcefully squeezed back into the city. 00:16:41.049 --> 00:16:44.250 It's a very Toronto experience. It's not... pretending 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:46.970 the city doesn't exist around it. It's actively 00:16:46.970 --> 00:16:49.070 integrating with it. It acknowledges the context. 00:16:49.250 --> 00:16:51.970 It's reclaimed land, not virgin land. It's a 00:16:51.970 --> 00:16:55.210 scar that has finally healed. So when we step 00:16:55.210 --> 00:16:57.250 back and look at the whole picture, from the 00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:01.409 massive pork plants to the failed Etatiri project 00:17:01.409 --> 00:17:04.930 to the Pan Am rescue to this flood -protecting 00:17:04.930 --> 00:17:08.029 berm, what do you think is the big takeaway here? 00:17:08.460 --> 00:17:11.259 I mean, for me, I think Corktown Common is the 00:17:11.259 --> 00:17:13.900 ultimate proof of concept for the multitasking 00:17:13.900 --> 00:17:16.359 landscape. Meaning a park can't just be a park 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:19.440 anymore. Exactly. In a dense, modern city where 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:22.140 land is incredibly expensive and climate risks 00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:24.259 are rising every year, you just can't afford 00:17:24.259 --> 00:17:26.339 a single -use space. Right. You can't just build 00:17:26.339 --> 00:17:28.859 an ugly concrete flood wall. That's a total waste 00:17:28.859 --> 00:17:30.980 of valuable downtown real estate. And on the 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:32.500 flip side, you can't just have a pretty park 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:34.380 that gets completely washed away in the first 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:37.539 big 500 -year storm. That's just bad planning. 00:17:37.930 --> 00:17:40.730 Corky Uncommon does it all. It does. It heals 00:17:40.730 --> 00:17:43.269 the scar of pollution through the remediation 00:17:43.269 --> 00:17:46.130 cap. It protects the financial security of the 00:17:46.130 --> 00:17:48.829 city against the flood risk. And it creates a 00:17:48.829 --> 00:17:51.289 beautiful backyard for thousands of residents. 00:17:51.589 --> 00:17:54.349 It solves three massive problems. Pollution, 00:17:54.450 --> 00:17:57.630 climate risk, and livability with one single 00:17:57.630 --> 00:18:00.529 project. And, you know, for me, the lesson is 00:18:00.529 --> 00:18:03.269 also about persistence. Or maybe just timing. 00:18:03.509 --> 00:18:06.630 How so? Well, the Atatiri failure in the 90s 00:18:06.630 --> 00:18:08.980 made it seem like... This land was totally cursed. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:11.279 People looked at it and thought, this is a dead 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:13.599 zone. Right. We threw $350 million at it and 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:16.099 got nothing. Right. Untouchable. But it wasn't 00:18:16.099 --> 00:18:17.880 dead. It just hadn't found the right urgency 00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:20.220 yet. It needed the deadline. It needed the deadline. 00:18:20.299 --> 00:18:23.319 It proves that even the biggest, messiest, most 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:26.220 toxic failures in urban planning can be turned 00:18:26.220 --> 00:18:28.039 around if you have the engineering smarts and 00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:30.000 the political will, which usually comes in the 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:32.299 form of an international sporting event, to force 00:18:32.299 --> 00:18:34.519 it through. It gives you hope for other wastelands 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:37.380 and other cities, honestly. It really does. Every 00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:40.980 major city has that one spot, the old rail yard, 00:18:41.140 --> 00:18:43.099 the abandoned factory by the river that everyone 00:18:43.099 --> 00:18:46.500 says is just hopeless. Corktown Common proves 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:49.220 it's never hopeless. It's just waiting for the 00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:51.900 right design. Absolutely. So here is a thought 00:18:51.900 --> 00:18:54.500 for you to take with you today. Next time you 00:18:54.500 --> 00:18:57.079 are out jogging through a city park or walking 00:18:57.079 --> 00:18:59.940 your dog and you find yourself walking up a surprisingly 00:18:59.940 --> 00:19:03.099 steep... Beautifully landscaped hill. Don't just 00:19:03.099 --> 00:19:06.000 complain about the cardio. Exactly. Ask yourself, 00:19:06.180 --> 00:19:09.400 is this just pretty scenery? Or is this hill 00:19:09.400 --> 00:19:11.539 secretly saving my basement from a catastrophic 00:19:11.539 --> 00:19:13.980 flood? Because you really never know what kind 00:19:13.980 --> 00:19:15.920 of machine is buried under the grass. It's always 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:18.200 worth asking what lies beneath. It really is. 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:20.920 Thanks for listening to this deep dive into Corktown 00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:22.480 Common. We'll catch you on the next one.