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I am thrilled to report that after a long and sometimes silly discussion, Toronto's city council has decided not only to accept the recommendation of the Economic Development Committee to extend the pilot project for another two years (discussed below), but they also voted to accept an amendment to extend the north boundary of the beach by 120 meters, so that part of the clothing-optional zone of Hanlan's Point will have supervised swimming!
The recommendation to extend the pilot project for another two years came from the Department of Economic Development, Culture and Tourism, the city bureaucrats who are responsible for assessing the the impact of different projects on the city. Faced with drastic budget cuts, the Commissioner recommended extending the pilot project for two years, for the main purpose of deferring any expenses associated with making the beach a permanent Toronto cultural offering. This suited us at TNT!MEN, since it meant that we would have further opportunity to work at improving the beach before the City makes it permanent.
One important improvement we were concerned about was extending the boundaries of the nude beach northward. There are lots of good reasons for this (see Top Six Reasons to Extend the Clothing-Optional Zone), but one of the most compelling is the fact that a lifeguard tower serves a virtually deserted stretch of beach just north of the nude zone, but not the hundreds of nudists that would visit it each day. Not only is this a waste of money, it's also a safety hazard.
So here's how it works: the Department (the bureacrats who know the issues and details) submits a report to the Committee (the politicians who typically have at least a vague awareness of the issues). The Committee then argues for a while, and eventually makes a recommendation to City Council (the rest of the politicians who generally have no clue about the specific issues of the matter at hand), which makes the final decision. Typically the Department's report is accepted pretty much "as is" by the Committee, and typically the Council goes along with the recommendation of the Committee.
Concillor Kyle Rae was the man who first brought the idea of an officially clothing-optional beach to City Council last year. (Read the story.) When the issue came up for discussion at the meeting of the Economic Development Committee on February 14th, Kyle appeared before the committee and asked them not only to accept the recommedation from the Department to extend the pilot project for two more years, but also to vote to amend the recommendations to include extending the clothing-optional zone of Hanlan's Point northward, so that it would overlap for a few dozen metres with the supervised swimming area.
Unfortunately, due to innuendo and misleading comments from Councillor George Mammoliti, a strange man who vehemently opposes nudity of any kind, some of the committee members were under the false impression that this amendment would cost the City money. (In reality costs will be minimal, since the lifeguard station is already being paid for, and changing the boundary of the clothing-optional zone is a trivial matter.) As a result, Kyle's suggestion lost by one vote at the Committee meeting.
But the Committee's recommendation to City Council is just that: a recommendation. Kyle Rae, armed with another document prepared by our own Peter Simm, moved that the boundary of the nude beach be extended. After a very long and at times tiring debate, and a great deal of effort by Kyle, City Council voted to accept Kyle's motion.
So thanks to Kyle's effort, the nude beach at Hanlan's Point will be bigger and better this year, with a supervised swimming area. Hooray!