Top Marks for Quality Parks

As the City of Toronto and the Greater Golden Horseshoe continue to become more densely populated resulting from the Provincial Growth Plan, increased stresses on existing parks spaces will occur due to overuse. The focus of this research is to evaluate Toronto’s effectiveness in maintaining quality park spaces according to the Park’s Plan (2013-2017) in the City through the trial of a Park Report Card that focuses on basic amenities in parks in the densest wards. The methodology was adapted from New York City’s Park Report Card which involved the definition of basic amenities and a scoring scale for their functionality. The observed parks did not meet quality park standards according to the Parks Plan and a series of recommendations to improve the level of quality were provided.