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< Ontario playground design: what works pretty well | Galleries List | Ontario playground design: More of what doesn't work so well >

Ontario playground design: what doesn't work so well

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1. Toronto Parks playground with fixed digger, new sand

2. Rosseau playground -- expensive plastic "ship" is mainly stairs and hallways

3. Rosseau playground -- expensive but not much fun -- kids don't stay long

4. Midland -- only one tire swing left

5. Midland -- the merry-go-round used to hold more kids

6. MacGregor Park -- rule is "only two swings per bay" -- even if they're five feet apart!

7. Neighborhood park in Toronto -- rusty swings, chains too short, graffiti, deep sand means it's no fun to run, not accessible --nobody there

8. Same neglected playground. All the money was spent on sand, making it inaccessible to wheelchairs

9. The new swings at Harbord Playground. They cost a lot but the chains are too short for most kids

10. New playground at Alexandra park, with few users. Short swings, deep sand, and the city planners bake oven in the background can't bake

11. This maze at Little Norway Park is never used -- nice idea on paper

12. This 3 million dollar Lakefront Park was designed without washrooms -- note the portable toilets in the background

13. Demonstration at Trinity Bellwoods Park -- what you can do if the swing chains are too short. Left to right: swing standing up; twist the swing; push your mother

14. West Mall Park -- the headquarters of short swings

15. West Mall Park -- distant islands of equipment -- the empty spot of sand used to be a climber

16. West Mall playground -- usually empty. special soft sand has grass beginning to grow in it

17. Marie Curtis Park -- very short swings with very deep sand

18. Withrow Park -- this popular playground has mostly "stairs and hallways" and not very much shade. People have brought lots of semi-broken old plastic toys for the kids to play

19. Ramp is for wheelchairs, but what else is there to do?

20. Newer playgrounds have these climbing stairs with no guardrails -- puzzling

21. "Stairs and hallways" at Kew Gardens playground

22. A kind of slightly springy "bus" at Kew Gardens playground

23. Kew Gardens playground. What works: shade. What doesn't work: short swings. Kids don't use them

24. Trinity Bellwoods slide. Brand new, but some kids fall off the side. The slide itself is plastic and so it's pretty slow.

25. Kew Gardens playground -- no nearby washrooms, so these chemical toilets will have to do

26. Fred Hamilton Park: nothing to do, few kids come

Content last modified on September 11, 2008, at 06:27 AM EST