Toronto needs more places for children to play
On recent trips to New York and Paris, I saw new evidence of a thriving city: playgrounds for children.
Playgrounds — big and small — are integrated into these cities’ public spaces and challenge the antiquated idea that a city is built exclusively for adults and commerce.
Toronto is far behind. In Manhattan, the battle for urban playgrounds began more than 100 years ago. Today, in Central Park alone, there are 21 playgrounds of various kinds.
Our city has the best of intentions, but we have a problem. The population of children living in the core has increased by up to 35 per cent since 2001according to the latest census data. The condo boom that started more than a decade ago populated the city with young adults who started families and now a wave of young citizens need more places to play.
We must recalibrate our thinking about downtown. The skyline has grown from a cluster of banking totems to a wall of twinkling bedrooms. The city is no longer just a commercial and institutional core. It is also a thriving residential neighbourhood in need of appropriate infrastructure.
As the downtown changes, so too must our thinking about its parks. They are not just “signature” spaces or “showpieces”; they are also outdoor living rooms and it is time to take the plastic off the furniture.
In developing downtown’s limited in- ventory of open spaces, we must not forget to include important functional pieces for everyday life — especially playgrounds.
Opportunities for safe childish adventure must be embedded right into residential neighbourhoods — even when the neighbourhood looks like a tower — to balance the recent trend toward building “destination” playgrounds like Corktown Common, Underpass Park and Roundhouse Park, which are fantastic but tucked away.
Let’s make room for a playground along the central waterfront and replace the one that has already been removed as part of “revitalization.” The demolished playground was within sight of a dozen residential towers and surrounded by foot traffic from the adjacent summer camp. It was replaced by an empty space paved with two shades of grey bricks. It is the new “Ontario Square” — yet another event venue along our waterfront.
Isn’t it enough that festivals and events take over sidewalks and roadways? Do they really need to eclipse playgrounds, too?
Playgrounds are more than an amusing distraction; they offer valuable social benefits. They are meeting places where neighbourhoods are strengthened and children learn to navigate the dynamics of community. A playground is not by definition too big, too ugly or too vulgar for a prestigious city park. The design process can reconcile many of these perceived challenges.
In Paris, next to Notre-Dame Cathedral, kids can climb, swing and spin on small structures that at first glance appear to be avant-garde art pieces. At Place des Vosges a discreet but extensive circuit of playground structures invites children to enjoy a garden where a royal home once stood.
In Manhattan not far from Wall St., the Imagination Playground at Burling Slip provides a sandy and wet oasis for kids to build, run and splash. Delightfully idiosyncratic, playgrounds in these city cores are well designed and contextually appropriate. An opportunity for Toronto exists in the leafy Berczy Park. The downtown space is frequently used for filming commercials and movies, but for the past two years it has been under a spotlight of a different kind. With roughly 4,000 condo units built and planned around it, its pending redesign is facing warranted scrutiny by local residents who are lobbying for a permanent and safe place for kids to play.
Antoinette du Preez, who is raising two boys in a nearby condo sees it this way: “When children do not have a dedicated place to play, they tend to play everywhere — dangerously close to traffic, through dog excrement or beside people who are seeking quiet.”
Already prized by the BIA, dog owners and the Friends of Berczy Park, the park is being redesigned by Claude Cormier + Associés, the artful landscape architects of Sugar Beach. There’s a great deal of ambition for the project but there is no commitment from the city to provide a playground.
Given that a playground can take an infinite variety of forms, their hesitation is hard to understand. After the ribboncutting ceremony and photographs, a park’s legacy will be measured by its ability to invite the whole community — including children — to thrive in it.