Rink diaries

Some are "working rinks," with ambitious neighbourhood-wide hockey programs, and some are mostly for playing around, pick-up shinny hockey or twirling around on figure skates. Twelve are double-pad rinks, so that shinny hockey players and pleasure-skaters don't have to take turns on the ice. The rest are single pads, mostly staffed, with varying degrees of supervision, but some unstaffed except for ice maintenance visits. The unstaffed rinks also vary -- some are much-loved in their neighbourhoods, while others are getting too close to being orphans -- needlessly, we think.

Toronto's civic winter treasure needs good care, which - in many rinks - could use improving. The first step is to describe what's happening. So we keep blogs on as many rinks as possible. We call these rink accounts "diaries," and we enthusiastically welcome entries by other rink users (and rink staff): write to us at rinkissues@cityrinks.ca. From time to time we use material from the blogs to make a report to the City's rink management (see the Zanetti reports, and the updates for the rink users who sign up for want to the periodic rink bulletins. To sign up for the rink bulletins: Click here