A brand-new island at the mouth of the Don. The best thing the city has built?

For a century the Don River ended in a concrete right angle at the Keating Channel. The Port Lands flood-protection project dug it a new mouth through the old industrial land, and the land between the old channel and the new river became an island.

Its name is Ookwemin Minising, Anishinaabemowin for the place of the black cherry trees. It is 98 acres and cost $1.4 billion from all three governments. Additional parkland opened in July; the Lassonde Art Trail, fifteen public art sites through 4.2 kilometres of waterfront park, opens this year; there is water access for paddling. In June Waterfront Toronto issued the request for qualifications for a development partner to build the first homes of a community planned at 9,000 units, 2,700 of them affordable, for about 16,000 residents and 3,000 jobs.

It is the rare project in this region that has come in as promised and looks, on a summer afternoon, like the drawings. Which is why the argument has moved from whether to what goes on it.

Sources: Waterfront Toronto, Ookwemin Minising · Toronto Life, a 98-acre island ready for its close-up · RENX, the request for qualifications · City of Toronto, the naming