Local non-profit Park People seeks pilot ideas to rethink Toronto’s outdoor spaces

Theglobeandmail.com
Feb. 22, 2018
Alex Bozikovic

How could Toronto's public spaces be improved -- and how could they better bring the people of the city together? A new program from the local non-profit Park People is seeking new answers to those questions, and will provide more than $300,000 in grants for pilot projects over the next two years.

Dubbed "PS Incubator," the program will award up to $340,000 in grants, funded equally by Ken and Eti Greenberg and by the Balsam Foundation. It aims to support new uses of parks and other open space, bringing in community organizations and encouraging active programming.

"There is an insatiable desire for public space, and not just in downtown but the inner suburbs," argues Ken Greenberg, an architect who has overseen the design of The Bentway under the Gardiner Expressway.

Park People's mission is to animate parks and to build connections between parks and community groups. Executive director David Harvey adds that Toronto needs to rethink how it uses public land. "With increasing population, increasing density, the rising cost of land, and people needing public spaces more and more as we're living in smaller housing," Mr. Harvey says, "we need to make maximum use of every square inch of the city."

That will mean not just existing parks, but also "laneways, roads, schoolyards, community housing lands," Mr. Harvey said. "There are a range of spaces that could be used to serve the public good."

The program will be formally announced at a Park People event Saturday.

The 10 grants over two years will range from $15,000 to $50,000 and will be awarded through a two-stage competition. Park People, the Greenbergs and jury members -- including the Bentway designers Adam Nicklin and Marc Ryan of Public Work -- will support the implementation of the projects. "We would like to see all sorts of partnerships between, for example, design firms and community agencies and students," Mr. Harvey says. "We're looking for innovative ideas about how to bring people together in public space."

Ultimately, the program will engage the city's own parks department; so far, in private discussions, "The city has really stepped up," Mr. Greenberg says. Mayor John Tory's office has pledged its support for the initiatives that come out of the pilot. The jury also includes Elyse Parker, the city's Director of Public Realm.

The Greenbergs's donation reflects a significant act of philanthropy from a couple known for their interest in public space. Eti Greenberg, a therapist, is a member of the boards of several non-profits, including Park People. With this effort, "we are talking about public space that can be used by all different kinds of people, people of all ages and abilities," Ms. Greenberg says. "Not everyone has a backyard; everyone needs a place that they feel belongs to them."

Ken Greenberg, once the city's head of Urban Design, has played a central role in the creation of The Bentway -- and that project serves as an example, albeit on a larger scale, of a partnership between private donors, non-profits and the city. Mr. Greenberg worked with philanthropists Judy and Wilmot Matthews to steward their $25-million donation toward the Bentway.

The Bentway is also a relevant example because of its hybrid nature. It features a skating trail and will include a cycling and walking trail, but also public art, theatrical and musical performances and community events. "We think there are a lot of smaller-scale versions of that," Mr. Greenberg says, "waiting to be discovered."

"We need gathering spaces where people in our increasingly diverse, heterogeneous city come together to get to know each other."