Tiny park dearly misses its grass
When the defining feature of a downtown park is hard-baked soil with barely a blade of grass, it needs a serious makeover.
That’s how it is at St. Patrick’s Square Park, a tiny patch of parkland that is supposed to provide residents of condos and townhouses around it with an oasis of green space in the middle of the concrete jungle.
Instead, the grass is worn down by heavy foot traffic and people who use it as a soccer pitch or a pee pad for purse poodles, while the shrubbery and garden at the south end are neglected and forlorn.
Danna O’Brien, a communications consultant and former News Talk 1010 radio reporter who we worked with in another life at city hall, is among the area residents who are fed up with the situation.
O’Brien emailed to say, “This is one of Toronto’s few downtown parks, just a five-minute walk from city hall, yet the city has allowed it to slide into a sorry state of disrepair.
“There’s barely any grass and few plants in the garden. The park’s defining feature is a murky cesspool of water in the centre.
“We are now entering the third summer with the cesspool. Rather than address the cause, the city’s answer is to plunk a pylon in the middle of it. (City crews did some digging last summer but clearly failed to fix it). We went there and found that much of the grass in the park, between two alleys north of Queen St. and west of McCaul St., is worn away, while the cesspool in the middle seems to have dried up.
O’Brien said the total absence of grass at the north end has a lot to do with a guy who spends hours every day practising tricks with a soccer ball. He was there when we were, and he is indeed hard on the grass.
There’s a garden with shrubbery and flower beds at the south end that could be a showpiece if some work was put into it. Status: Peter White, the area parks supervisor, said the perpetual swamp in the middle dried up after a water line running under it was recently shut off. The pipe is scheduled for repair next week, he said. Barren areas will soon be aerated and overseeded, but with so much foot traffic, White said it will be a challenge to restore the grass. The garden is also scheduled for work on the shrubs and flower planting. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer or email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.