[rakerman]

“Utopia would mean a park — some large, some small — every four or five blocks,” he declared. These micro-oases could spring up in the middle of dense, socially fractious neighborhoods where, he believed, they had the potential to “create wider ripples of reform.” - quote from Thomas Hoving

New York Times - City of Earthy Delights (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/opinion/13prochnik.html) - December 12, 2009

[reidjr]

I don't think ottawa is lacking parks.I would like to see some of the ones not used as they should be turned into sports fields.

[Ottawan]

I don't think ottawa is lacking parks.I would like to see some of the ones not used as they should be turned into sports fields.

Read the article again. I think you're missing the difference between vast open-field "greenspace" parks (Ottawa has more than it's share of these, certainly) and intimate "pocket parks". If you read the article carefully, many of these pocket parks must be 1/3 or even 1/4 of an acre for the math to add up: the size of an urban single-family home lot.

Yes Ottawa has a lot of parks, but it doesn't have alot of variety in parks.

[reidjr]

Read the article again. I think you're missing the difference between vast open-field "greenspace" parks (Ottawa has more than it's share of these, certainly) and intimate "pocket parks". If you read the article carefully, many of these pocket parks must be 1/3 or even 1/4 of an acre for the math to add up: the size of an urban single-family home lot.

Yes Ottawa has a lot of parks, but it doesn't have alot of variety in parks.

I did and yes ottawa does have pocket parks.I live by 6. 4 Out of the 6 are not used for the most part as they should be.

[Ottawan]

Which 6 lot-sized reclaimed spaces come renewal-oriented urban-setting parks do you live near? It sounds like a neighbourhood I would like to live in. And if they are pocket parks as described in the article, why do you not participate in the community-involvement component to make them properly utilized spaces?

[waterloowarrior]

I did and yes ottawa does have pocket parks.I live by 6. 4 Out of the 6 are not used for the most part as they should be.

But you live in Kanata, right? It's a different situation in other parts of the city

[reidjr]

Which 6 lot-sized reclaimed spaces come renewal-oriented urban-setting parks do you live near? It sounds like a neighbourhood I would like to live in. And if they are pocket parks as described in the article, why do you not participate in the community-involvement component to make them properly utilized spaces?

I am in westcliffe while i call them pocket parks because there very small there a bit bigger then 6 feet.I think part of the probleam with these parks is they back right on to a forrest and for atleast the past few years there are teens who hang out in the forrest and in some cases the parks.Don't get me wrong the idea of the parks is great just how there used is not and not matter how much work is done i don't see the changing any time soon.

[Aylmer]

An interesting idea would to turn the small parkinglots in Downtown into parks.

Our downtown NEEDS more small parks.

:)

[Kitchissippi]

Unlike NYC, though, most of the properties in Centretown still have backyards. Pocket parks in dense urban neighbourhoods are mostly used by people in high-rises with kids and very few families opt for condo living in Ottawa because there are much cheaper alternatives that give them more space. Almost everyone in central Ottawa has access to a decent sized park within 5 to 6 blocks, if you look at a map.

[reidjr]

To those who want more pocket parks then would you support clossing full parks.

[waterloowarrior]

To those who want more pocket parks then would you support clossing full parks.

To increase the amount of parkland in urban parts of the city there don't really have be budget cuts.... just a reallocation of funding. The new parkland dedication by-law helps this: 60 per cent of all cash-in-lieu of parkland payments made in a ward will be dedicated to park projects in that ward (instead of that downtown money subsidizing suburban parks...which happened previously according to Councillor Holmes)