Play areas lacking in Kinsmen Park

The citizens of Saskatoon were excited with the announcement that Kinsmen Park, which has served Saskatoon families for decades, would receive upgrades through considerable donations by PotashCorp, Canpotex and Canadian Pacific.

Many people looked forward to the reopening, the new train, ferris wheel, refurbished carousel and new attractions. Many times over the years we took our four children to the Play Village and now we will take our grandchildren and as advertised, “celebrate the magic of play at Saskatoon’s newly renovated PotashCorp Playland at Kinsmen Park.”

The master plan was full of bold statements such as, “Integrated play spaces combine the assets of play equipment with the benefits of a landscape-based approach. In this way, designers are able to provide the physical excitement of speed and motion (e.g. slides and swings), while integrating these experiences with a sensory, living landscape.” Sounds like a snake oil salesman making a pitch. Unfortunately, the designers missed the train on that one by the lack of swings and slides — unless they are incorporated into the landscape and I missed them.

The park is impressive, but unfortunately it also lost 24 parking spaces. We were also “impressed” by the number of people wandering around looking for park amenities for young children (three to six years old) only to find a severe shortage or non-existence. What child doesn’t enjoy a swing, slides and climbing apparatus such as those currently being used but that will replace aging playground infrastructure elsewhere?

Apparently designers didn’t take seriously the written submission from the general public on what the park also needed — benches, picnic tables, barbecues, signage. The water feature spray park isn’t always young child-friendly. How many young children enjoy being blasted with cold water over the standing water and passive area such as the pool area of the Play Village?

If the Play Village is to be decommissioned and reinstalled elsewhere, with most of it being demolished, then there needs to be an upgrade done, because the current play areas are severely lacking. John M. Thomson, Saskatoon