Rob Ford climbs kids' apparatus at park unveiling
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was certainly in the mood to play at the unveiling of the new Underpass Park near the Gardiner Expressway.
Ford was on hand Thursday morning at the official unveiling of the first phase of the Underpass Park, which is billed by the agency Waterfront Toronto as "a park that transforms the neglected and underused space into a bright, new, urban neighbourhood amenity and key pedestrian connection and passageway."
The first phase of the park, located under the Eastern Avenue, Richmond Street and Adelaide Street overpasses between Cherry Street and Bayview Avenue, features two basketball half-courts, a mirrored ceiling, and children's play equipment, including climbing structures.
After making brief comments in which he praised the park as an excellent example of turning a neglected space into a useful one, Ford mingled with some of the children that were climbing one of the structures,.
He then himself took to climbing one of the play structures, egged on by children who regaled him with chants of "go mayor."
"I thought I was going to wipe out," the mayor said after his climb. "That thing's solid."
The second phase of the park is expected to be completed in 2013, and will include a community garden and 54 trees.
