Latest news with #Saxe
CBC
31-03-2025
- CBC
Big problems at tiny Toronto park prompt calls for locked gates at night
'Plants have been tromped on and urinated on by the drunks and the frat boys,' local councillor says Image | Park-headline Caption: Paul Richard, with the group Earth Helpers, spearheaded the regeneration of Paul Martel Park as a botanical garden that features native plants and wildflowers, as well as a private area for indigenous ceremonies. He's still active in the park's upkeep. (Mike Smee/CBC) Annex residents appear to be on the verge of victory in their fight with city staff, who have insisted on leaving a tiny neighbourhood park open at night, despite regular vandalism, public urination and violence. The debate has focused attention on the city's blanket policy of leaving all public parks un-gated at night — a policy that some say is too rigid and can lead to costly vandalism. Paul Martel Park, on Madison Avenue in the Bloor and Spadina area, has been transformed over the course of the last five years into a botanical garden that features native vegetation, as well as plants sacred to the local Indigenous population, like sage, tobacco and sweetgrass. The problem, according to Paul Richard, an Indigenous former City of Toronto gardener who has spearheaded the park's revitalization since 2020, is city staff's refusal to gate and lock the park at night. "It's time, after all our work, for the city to walk its talk on their support for the project," he said. The local councillor, Dianne Saxe, introduced a motion at council on Thursday demanding that, in the case of Martel Park, staff set aside its policy of leaving all parks un-gated and open to the public 24/7. "The problem is right next door there's a pub and just down the street there are frats, and year after year the sensitive native medicinal plants have been tromped on and urinated on by the drunks and the frat boys," Saxe told CBC Toronto. "Grass can put up with it to a certain extent, but fragile native plants cannot." Saxe's motion passed Thursday, meaning staff must now ensure that park is secured between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. No timeline is given that lays out when the change will be in place. The park's problems began shortly after the death of its namesake, Paul Martel, in 2020. Martel had helped regenerate the small patch of green space, and after he died, upkeep passed to Paul Richard's Earth Helpers group, as well as volunteers from the Annex Residents' Association. Under Richard's guidance, the park was planted with flora native to the area: prairie grasses, wetland vegetation, meadow flowers and shaded woodland plants. Paths have been built that intersect the soil beds boxed in wooden boat hulls. Colourfully painted benches and Muskoka chairs were added, and a special area at the rear of the park has been set aside for Indigenous ceremonies. But after all the work, money and time, local residents say destruction in the park is commonplace. "It's really heartbreaking, and quite frankly it's really not fair," said Rita Bilerman, chair of the residents' association. "There's broken glass, there are needles ... That's not OK." Saxe said she's been trying for two years to convince city staff to secure the park at night. And while they agreed to erect a low fence across the park's sidewalk frontage and installed temporary washrooms last summer, they refused to put gates across the park's two entrances. "Their response is that parks ought to be open to all people at all times, no matter how badly damaged they get," she said. City staff told CBC Toronto in an emailed statement public parks need to be left open. "Parks and greenspaces are intended to be open and accessible for public use," city staff said in the email. "As such, the City typically does not lock parks." Richard argues however that Martel is more than just a park. He says that in his career as a city gardener, and after travelling to gardens around North America, "I've never encountered a botanical garden that isn't gated at night." He points to Edwards Gardens, at Leslie and Lawrence avenues in North York, a city botanical garden closed and gated between 8:30 p.m. and 10 a.m. According to documents from the city's tourism department, Martel Park has been labeled a botanical garden since 2022. Saxe emphasizes that she's not asking staff to drop its blanket, always-open policy for city parks. She says it makes sense for most public parks to be accessible to all, even though "the amount of vandalism we have in public spaces is just horrifying." It's up to individual communities to decide whether their parks require special security at night, Saxe said, and to lobby the city through their councillor. "I can't be certain that people won't kill each other if we have gates," she said, "but at least the gates will keep the worst damage and attacks out of the park overnight, which is all I can do."
CBC
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
JP Saxe on how his famous cellist grandfather, Janos Starker, got to 'the bottom of beauty'
JP Saxe can vividly recall the way his grandfather played the cello. "It's the most meticulous, magnificent thing I've ever seen anyone do in my entire life," Saxe said in an interview with About Time host Tom Allen. "You saw him pick up a cello and it was breathing with 60 years of life experience and agency. It was quite something to see up close." The multi-platinum Canadian pop artist was in studio to talk about his late grandfather, Janos Starker, a legendary cellist who was a leading soloist with some of the world's greatest orchestras — including the New York Metropolitan Opera under Fritz Reiner. Starker was renowned for his virtuosity, his attention to detail and his devotion to beauty. "He believed so wholeheartedly in the value of getting to the bottom of beauty," Saxe recalled. "He had a reverence for the pieces he was playing, and he wanted them to be as close to what was imagined when they were written as they could possibly be." In addition to Starker's impressive performing and recording career, he was also a highly sought after teacher. Starker began teaching when he was only eight years old, and throughout his career taught many of today's top classical musicians, including Roman Borys, known as the cellist of the Gryphon Trio, and Vancouver-born international soloist Gary Hoffman. Saxe, who was born in Toronto, visited his grandfather in Bloomington, Ind., a few times a year. During those visits, he witnessed his grandfather practise and teach, as well as entertain what Saxe calls the who's who of the classical world. Saxe recalls the "classical music jam sessions" that would take place, where he was serenaded by string quartets, piano trios and selections from Bach's cello suites. That said, Saxe didn't pursue classical music. "When I hadn't become a classical musician by the age of nine or 10, they already knew I wasn't going to be one," he explained. Even so, Saxe feels his grandfather's influence in his own music, especially through his admiration for Starker's attention to detail. "If I give it the time and the attention, every little detail of what I'm doing can have intention and can be in service of emotionally crafting a three-minute piece of music that allows someone close to a version of their human experience that maybe they don't get to feel … without the song that gets them there." To Saxe, one of the similarities between pop and classical music is the effect it can have on the listener. "I'm very grateful when a piece of music makes me feel a bit more human," he said. "I think our daily lives make it challenging to really look at our human emotional experience up close sometimes. There's a lot that gets in the way. And I think that great music, great art, can kind of act as a bit of a cheat code to put you in that feeling." Saxe says that his grandfather "didn't really get to see me have a music career. [But] he certainly got to see me fall in love with music." Near the end of Starker's life, he even began to watch The Voice to better relate to his grandson, and as a way to imagine what a career in pop music would look like. Saxe has received a Grammy nomination, seven Juno nominations and one win, plus a multi-platinum record. His latest single, "Safe," was released in January.
