Location

35 Glen Long Avenue, just south of Lawrence, west of Dufferin. See satellite map.

Phone: 416-395-7941

Schedule

See Schedule tab

City Councillor

The City Councillor for this rink is Councillor Colle

Glen Long Rink Profile

Rink change area: There are separate men's and womens' changerooms, but staff tell everyone to change in the womens' changeroom while the mens' changeroom stays locked. The floor in the changeroom is rubber. There are no windows, but the changeroom is clean.

Staff: Mostly zamboni staff, with rink guards for public skating. The staff room has a big window that overlooks the ice. There are also city staff in the community centre next to the rink.

Maintenance: The ice is regularly cleaned by the Zamboni that is located on the site. There are 14 ice maintenance shifts a week.

Free shinny-hockey and pleasure-skating hours:

2011-2012

Free Pleasure-skating: Available a total of 10 hours a week, during prime time.

Free Shinny hockey: Available a total of 12:45 hours a week, during prime time.

*prime time means after 4pm weekdays and all day on weekends

From the adjacent rec centre's newsletter: "The outdoor pad is open for unsupervised free skate outside of regular program hours and scheduled permit times."

 

Cost to run this rink.

To inquire about rink permits call Titti at 416 395-6025.

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Comments about this rink: e-mail us at rinkissues@cityrinks.ca.

Opening and closing dates:

Opens: Nov 24, 2012
Closes: Mar 10, 2013

Rink Diary 2012 - 2013

See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog

why is Glen Long Rink so often closed?

Read More >>

Views of the rink

Until 2009, this neighbourhood rink was often locked

The windowless changerooms are cheerless but clean.

From The City of Toronto Website 2012-13

For the skating schedule, go to Glen Long Rink page on the City website, then click on Skating.

For up to date listings of open rinks (not the same as scheduled openings), see Current Conditions on the cityrinks.ca Home Page

If you notice a different schedule at your rink, please let us know mail@cityrinks.ca
See also the City of Toronto Outdoor Rinks web pages.

Glen Long Rink history:

Graduate history student Jason Stabler tried to find out about the rink's history, and the story of Glen Long Park and the surrounding neighbourhood.

In March 2010 he wrote:

I talked to the North York Library on the phone. They told me:

--the Toronto Parks book has nothing in it about Glen Long Park

--the Compendium of Metro Parks has nothing in it about Glen Long Park

--Glen Long Park is within the Bathurst South Parks Planning Area in the Community of Glen Park

There are two newspaper references:

---1: Glen Long Park was built as a Community building project of the Dufferin Lions Club in 1961, who later gave the park to Toronto Parks.

---2: Plan to build Pool and Rink occurred in 1963

--a search for Glen Long on Google led to website called: luxurytorontorealestate.com This website refers to the community centre and community of Glen Park history. Sir Sanford Fleming used to live in Glen Park.

I visited the Toronto Public Archives:

Glen Long Rink and pool, just built, in 1964 (Toronto Archives)

--The only direct reference to the park was the photos of the park on the website.

--There were old TTC route maps which show how the neighborhood has been covered by the TTC.

--They have minutes from meetings of the North York City Council which may reference the park**This would require further research which could take substantial time as the records may need to be gone through by hand

--They have aerial photos of every neighborhood in the city from the 1950 to today.--By looking at these in sequence you can see the construction of the park and any changes that have been made.

Rink Diary 2012 - 2013

See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog

why is Glen Long Rink so often closed?

Read More >>

Rink Diary 2011 - 2012

Thursday Nov.17 2011

11.55pm: The rink has had some flooding, but the ice made so far looks crunchy and rough. The compressors are on. No staff around and the gates are all locked. The mats and benches are out ready. It's possible they could be ready by the weekend if staff came to flood later in the night, but it was deserted at 12am

The rink schedule sign is up on the wall.

Tuesday Nov.22 2011, 5 pm:

I couldn't get close enough to chat with anyone, but there were a lot of staff for an empty rink! 2 guys in the zamboni garage smoking...perhaps getting ready for a flood, but it they didn't come out while I was there. Plus 2 more staff in the office having a chat. The ice looked very rough and patchy like it had melted and broken up. Compressors were on, but all the public access is still locked up/fenced off.

Friday Nov.25 2011

10.10 a.m.: The rink is locked and there is no sign anywhere. But then I run into the caretaker/rink staff. He says that they've only done hose floods so far -- worried that the zamboni is too heavy and would crack the thin ice. No overnight floods, and maybe not many floods, period. He says that maybe they don't have very much power to freeze ice when it's warm. I say that 100 Hp is good strength for a rink that size.

He doesn't think they'll open this weekend because of the warm weather.

rink locked, no sign telling when it will open

ice looks okay but not clear how thick it is

Saturday Jan.14 2012

The city's website listed Glen Long as open for "pleasure-skating only" from yesterday until mid-day today. That usually means there's snow on the rink. But here is an e-mail from Amanda P.: "I am a resident in the Glen Long neighbourhood and actually the rink was open last night. I attended the public skating session from 6-8 p.m. I spoke with maintenance staff asking about the conditions of the ice, and they said they had to close for a little bit but was open for the 4 p.m. shinny hockey program. I swung by today to take my dog for a walk, and despite the frigid temperature, there were a group of people on the ice around 2:30 p.m. Hope this helps!"

Read More >>

Diary 2010 - 2011
Rink Diary 2009 - 2010
Diary 2008 - 2009
Diary 2007 - 2008