So it appears I did not get to posting my review of Dufferin Grove Park for
@Towered, and now
@evandyk.
I will now correct that oversight.
As per the norm, we'll start by looking at where this park is; and what the City says its supposed to be.
Dufferin Grove is a 5.3 hectare/13.2 acre park located opposite Dufferin Mall, just 2-3 blocks south of Bloor Street West.
This is what the City tells us we should find here:
That out of the way, lets start our tour.......... (Photos are mine, unless otherwise stated, and taken in early July '23)
We'll begin opposite Dufferin Mall, where a cross walk leads us to an entrance just a bit north of the park's southern boundary:
First, we're looking toward said entrance from the west/mall side of the street:
A bit underwhelming (no sign, no seats, no flowers right at the entrance....) But before we cross the road, let's look up the street to see how this park appears on its Dufferin frontage:
Lots of tree canopy above, that's nice, though it does include some non-native, invasive, Norway Maples..... but still; but i do have a critical thought here, the frontage is not 'forest', which is fine, for an urban park, but then it is sufficiently dense/unpruned that it does limit views into the park. Not a disaster by any means, but not entirely ideal. I also note the absence of a landscape zone for the sidewalk (buffering it from traffic), such that walking alongside the park is a less pleasant experience on its Dufferin side than one might hope.
Now back to our entrance as we cross the road:
Here we see the entrance consists of stairs, and is therefore not accessible to those using mobility aids. There are some accessible entrances, though the only one fronting Dufferin is currently closed.
The stairs themselves (the treads) are wood, and in poor condition, the railings, unattractive, unpainted and aging. We also see people have trodden a new path into the park beside the stairs, rather than use the former.
Overall, not a great start, we'll come back to how to address that later on..... for now, lets walk in....
The first thing we encounter on the narrow, and poorly maintained entry path is:
Never mind barriers to keep people outside Union Station safe from errant cars, Public Health needs to get everyone a Tetnus shot before they visit Dufferin Grove!
Ok, we're just past this lovely sign, lets look left and right to see the park just in from Dufferin:
Above, a fairly nice open space, grass in fair condition, and some people enjoying the late afternoon sun on the adjacent embankment. Its not a large enough area for a formal sports amenity, its not a bad spot for some picnic tables, though there aren't any here; but really, its fine, though, make note of how dense that line of trees next to Dufferin is (on the left), such that it virtually blocks all the sunlight out of that area at the bottom. I might argue that's excessive, but it does do a good job of screening the traffic/noise of Dufferin.
Now, let's look right:
More open space, grass is mostly decent, but not very popular relative to other parts of the park, maybe just a bit too much blank space here.
As we move forward a bit, we'll look, right, or south-west once more to the path that leads into the park from its south-west corner, at Dufferin:
Like the path we entered by, its narrow, and the access is in the form of stairs. This access clearly is not very popular, given that the grass is encroaching on the interlocking pavers, and there is no indication of a heavy wear on the grass at all.
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Lets look forward, to the embanked, or upper portion of the park, before we go further.....
Huh, path is a bit wider, but yet another set of stairs. The elevation changes here are not huge, but there are lots of barriers for people w/mobility aids or strollers, particularly on the Dufferin side of the park.
Now one last glance back, along the path we came from, before we move up:
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Now up we go:
We're looking due north, as we arrive at the top of the stairs. Once again, you see the vegetation next to Dufferin, and now the open grass which extends well into the park at the top of the embankment.
I don't think every space in a park needs 'programming'. Yet, I must confess to thinking this space seems a bit under used. Its not quite nature, its not quite a picnic space, its not a path, nor a super popular tanning spot; without being cluttery, I think this space could be just a bit more than it is.
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On that note, we need to break here due to pictures per post limits, and we'll continue in the next post.
