NDG rink rats lose boards

ENOR

It’s safe to say that Loyola Park in NDG won’t be producing any hockey heroes anytime soon, as one of the megacity’s first acts has been to remove the sprawling park’s hockey rink. Adjacent residents surveyed by the Mirror expressed surprise at the move, which has left a bunch of forlorn-looking skaters gingerly playing on an ice surface that no longer contains boards or nets.

The decision to remove the rink is in reaction to what local councillor Jeremy Searle describes as “persistent and organized vandalism,” which has seen some serial miscreants repeatedly knock the boards down. Searle says that counter-vandalism solutions, including installing dog runs and starting private security patrols, are being considered for the park, but hockey is finished for this year because the cost of putting the boards back up repeatedly had become too prohibitive. “The little bad people who require the city workers to keep returning to put the boards back up are redirecting city resources from other places they’re needed,” he says.

According to fellow NDG councillor Michael Applebaum, it costs the city about $16,000 to run an outdoor hockey rink (those maintained by volunteers cost the city $5,000). And Applebaum maintains that punishing the puck pushers for the lapse in neighbourhood security is appropriate in this instance. “The vandals will realize because of their actions, people in the community aren’t happy. They’ll realize that their actions have consequences.” :
—Kristian Gravenor