« In a 37-1 vote, City Council has committed to create a continuous trail from Brampton to Rouge River as one of the City of Toronto’s Legacy projects for the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. Friends of the Pan Am Path has now shifted its focus to monitoring city progress and the ambitious task of programming the 80km route with arts, culture and opportunities for economic development.

The plan is to focus attention on twelve hubs along the path and support local artists and organizations to shine a light on the best in their communities. A call for expressions of interest to begin developing these sites is now open until August 31st, 2013. To participate please visit http://www.panampath.org/apply. All ideas, artists and organizations are welcome but expressions of interest are particularly welcome from artists with ties to South and Central America, the Caribbean as well as organizations rooted in communities in close proximity to the route. Please see a map at: http://tinyurl.com/PanAmPathMap.

In unanimously passing Executive Committee and then a landslide win in Council, the push was led by an east-west collaboration between Councillor Crawford (Chair, Mayor’s Task Force for Arts and Theatres) and Councillor Thompson (Chair of Economic Development and Culture) working in conjunction with Councillor Grimes (Chair, Mayor’s 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games Secretariat), the Mayor’s Office and Councillor Ainsle (Chair of Parks and Environment Committee.) Quotes of support from Mayor Ford and Councillors Grimes, Perruzza, Mihevc, Wong-Tam, Layton, Crawford, Carroll, Thompson, Grimes and Ainslie can be found by visiting: http://tinyurl.com/PathQuotes

According to the staff report approved by the Deputy City Manager, « the Path is expected to be used by thousands of Toronto residents every year and has the potential to become a high profile tourist attraction in its own right. » Staff also stated that the Pan Am Path is the only legacy / city showcase project to fulfil all three assessment criteria including: supporting economic development and tourism; sport development and healthy living, and, resident engagement and cultural celebration.

The community-initiated project was created as a city building project of Civic Action’s DiverseCity Fellows, working with Toronto Artist and Curator Devon Ostrom and is financially supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The proposal is endorsed by Manifesto Community Projects, Evergreen Brick Works, Metrolinx, Bike T.O., Park People, Ontario Trails, Jane’s Walk, the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at UofT as well as Hart House. Arts organizations from all corners of Toronto have also voiced support including Etobicoke Arts, Lakeshore Arts, East Arts, Urban Arts, North York Arts and the Scarborough Arts Council. »

-submitted by Devon Ostrom, Curator, Friends of the Pan Am Path

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