Cherry Beach, Toronto

1)I spend a lot of time here at Cherry Beach, it's one of my favourite spots, and is a 2) short bike ride from my Toronto apartment.
3) I have called this park Cherry Beach for over 20 years but it was only recently officially chenged to Cherry Beach in 2003. 4) The park has been a home to rumours of police brutality for decades. 5) I've nown punks and homeless people who alledge that cops have taken them here and beaten them, nicknamed "the cherry beach express",/li> by the band The Pukka Orchestra. 6) Once four of us came down here with drinks, candles and swam in the middle of the night after bartending. We woke in full punk leather gear, eyeliner, fishnet stockings 80's haircuts to families swimming and having picnics around noon. 7) The park was created in the 1930's. 8) Many Torontonians do not swim in Lake Ontario...but I always have. 9) Toronto Beaches are ranked among the top ten urban beaches for water safety in the world...another little known fact.
10) Lake Ontario is an excellent place for swimming, windsurfing and sailing. 11) An awesome sailing club is right around the corner from these photos, created by the YMCA for urban children and families to have lessons and access to sailboats...it is now a co-op with reasonable membership fees and a terrific community of folks.
12)Dozens of Monarch butterflies were at the beach in the trees....500 trees were cut down recently Toronto seems to have a love hate relationship to trees. I e-mailed a petition last year to everyone...There has been a rave in this park for years and the area where the trees were cut down was where this summer party happened...and now a couple of soccer fields are being built here...seems like the raves are happening again though for a little longer. 13) Why not soccer and dancing?

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