More should be done to make the public aware of parks with significant hardscaped areas in the landscaping. They're begging to be animated. Picture a used book or artisan jewellery market there. If it were bigger, it could host farmer's markets.
You can't have a market in a grassy park on a muddy day from late fall to early spring. But you can certainly program a hardscaped area year round, as long as there's winter maintenance. The problem is that a lot of people who'd benefit from these spaces don't even know they exist.
Awareness may be an issue; I'm not sure. I rather suspect the bigger obstacle to modest pop-ups or Farmer's Markets or buskers etc is byzantine permitting processes, fees, insurance requirements and the like.
There are lots parks people are aware could support some programming (and indeed have some programming) but spaces are more empty than utilized.
Think the bandstand in Kew Gardens; or amphitheater in Earl Bales, both of which are overdue for sizable capital investments, but I digress.
Farmer's Markets, can be, and often are allowed to pitch on soft spaces; though it certainly isn't ideal and can see vendors more likely to no-show with a threat of bad weather, its also really hard on the turf (tends to get muddy/rutted etc.)
I agree, a bit more animation would be good. Though I don't want to see every park subject to commercialization. I think we could do a lot more w/park-let/public square type investments, on side streets as they approach major shopping districts to create small-scale opportunities for this sort of thing.
The existing space at Danforth/Logan is already popular, but I think could be substantially improved:
IF the parking adjacent to this public space were removed and public/square park widened accordingly, permanent space could be found for musicians here. Paving the adjacent roadway in interlock, and replacing the street lighting here w/pedestrian lights to indicated a pedestrian-priority zone would help further, along with raising/enlarging and making permanent the bumpouts that can be seen here.
There are a host of intersections through out the city with similar potential. Not all would get a space as substantial, but many could, and smaller spaces can prove popular too:
In all parks, there are opportunities to better animate space by properly considering adjacent retail, if applicable (missed, in this case I would argue, as 11 Bay does not feature a good restaurant patio overlooking the park)
Consideration to making parks more hospitable in winter is also key, and I would argue might be best achieved by simply making sure one principle pathway has a snowmelt system laid in under it so as to keep clear, safe, and easy to navigate year-round. Proper 4-seasons landscaping also matters in ensuring spaces don't seem barren in the winter. (here, I think this design has something to offer, once the plants establish and grow)
