Surface: wood chips.
Some of my favourite Toronto streets are the ones that break up the city’s grid-based monotony. Kingston Road, Davenport, the cool part of Dundas; their diagonal paths offer up unique views of downtown, and oddly-shaped lots where they intersect with north-south streets.
A recent walk through the eastern end of East York reminded me that Dawes Road is another diagonal street. Its angle is a bit steeper and it doesn’t give much of a skyline view, but I like it anyway, and it’s a good way to cut the Danforth-Vic Park corner.
One of the by-products of Dawes Road’s diagonal path is the bit of land that used to be known as Treasure Island Parkette. It was renamed in 2000 after a local boy named Joshua Cronkwright, who according to city councillor Case Ootes, “was very active with his mother in the adopt-a-park program and in getting Treasure Island Parkette cleaned up and safe for the neighbourhood again. Joshua assisted his mother and sister with the park clean up while he battled with cancer.”
It's a heartbreaking story, and when we visited the playground I couldn’t help but think that the city could maybe give this park a sprucing-up to respect Cronkwright’s legacy, as it’s looking a bit worse for wear.
The equipment is in decent shape considering its age, and there’s decent variety: a rotating Apollo Climber, monkey bars, swings, a slide, a toddler play house, a spinner, and a sandbox with a water feature. But the elements are spread out enough that it doesn’t really have the curb appeal to make your kid run towards it in anticipation. And the mish-mash of different manufacturers doesn’t make for much consistency.
But in the end, what do kids care about visual consistency? My daughter had a perfectly good time pretending to be a Pomeranian puppy, and we easily killed 20 minutes before it was time for choir practise.
Sometimes you don’t need the world’s best playground; all you need is a 20-minute play and to cut the corner at Danforth and Victoria Park.
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