Downtown outdoor spaces

[tomh009]

But why exclude schools? Outside of school hours, the playgrounds are open to everyone.

Cherry Park is also fairly close. All depends on which direction from Victoria Park you are located in.

[danbrotherston]

Within Google Maps, there is a dotted line that follows west from where Jubilee Dr and Park St meet.  It parallels Devon St for a bit and then tucks between Victoria Park Place and the train tracks. There is an informal track crossing just to the north of Victoria Lake.

About the only expansion point left for Victoria Park, that would avoid knocking down any large grouping of housing, would be the old bus station and the former post office property.  Just riffing on this, but wouldn't the old post office property be a good spot for "bike in/walk in/transit in" movies projected on the big blank wall of the parking garage? I'm also curious what other larger, non-school owned, play structures there are near Victoria Park that could accommodate more than a dozen children? At most I can think of the Civic Centre Park (1km+ away), possibly Gzowski Park (next to the Victoria Hills Community Centre), and possibly Lakeside Park.

Does lakeside park have a playground, I don't recall seeing one?

And given that I live on the other side of Vic Park, equidistant to lakeside parks are things like George Lipper Park, even Duke St. Park both of which could probably comfortabley entertain 12 children outside of pandemic times.

There's actually a fair number of playgrounds around.

In terms of expanding Vic Park, the location you speak of is called Sandrock Greenway. There are two homes there, but even if you were unwilling to sacrifice two homes to expand the park, the space behind the homes is being used as some type of junk yard right now, the homes could be retained but the park expanded into the junkyard.

Additionally, Henry Sturm Greenway abuts the park. It's a more or less wild area, which isn't a bad thing, but if the goal was to expand the park, the park could be expanded there as well.

[nms]

But why exclude schools? Outside of school hours, the playgrounds are open to everyone.

Cherry Park is also fairly close. All depends on which direction from Victoria Park you are located in.

I excluded schools because those playgrounds are off limits for non-school aged families during school hours.  I have been at Victoria Park during school hours and the playgrounds have often been very actively used spaces. Schools also don't seem to have swings anymore. From what I can tell from the Google Maps aerial view of Cherry Park, while there are two ball diamonds, there does not appear to be a play structure there.

Lakeside Park appears to have some play structures near the Gatewood Road entrance but it is obscured by shade in the aerial shots.

[danbrotherston]

But why exclude schools? Outside of school hours, the playgrounds are open to everyone.

Cherry Park is also fairly close. All depends on which direction from Victoria Park you are located in.

I excluded schools because those playgrounds are off limits for non-school aged families during school hours.  I have been at Victoria Park during school hours and the playgrounds have often been very actively used spaces. Schools also don't seem to have swings anymore. From what I can tell from the Google Maps aerial view of Cherry Park, while there are two ball diamonds, there does not appear to be a play structure there.

Lakeside Park appears to have some play structures near the Gatewood Road entrance but it is obscured by shade in the aerial shots.

There does appear to be something in Lakeside Park, I've ridden past that section but never stopped. 

But I can assure you that Cherry Park has an extensive play area at the south end near the Strange St entrance. My daughter plays there regularly.

[dtkvictim]

I excluded schools because those playgrounds are off limits for non-school aged families during school hours.  I have been at Victoria Park during school hours and the playgrounds have often been very actively used spaces. Schools also don't seem to have swings anymore. From what I can tell from the Google Maps aerial view of Cherry Park, while there are two ball diamonds, there does not appear to be a play structure there.

Lakeside Park appears to have some play structures near the Gatewood Road entrance but it is obscured by shade in the aerial shots.

There does appear to be something in Lakeside Park, I've ridden past that section but never stopped. 

But I can assure you that Cherry Park has an extensive play area at the south end near the Strange St entrance. My daughter plays there regularly.

There is a small playground there in Lakeside Park. If you are taking the trail through the park, it's up at the top of the hill so you might not see it. If you look on street view from Lakeside Drive you will see it.

[nms]

There does appear to be something in Lakeside Park, I've ridden past that section but never stopped. 

But I can assure you that Cherry Park has an extensive play area at the south end near the Strange St entrance. My daughter plays there regularly.

Ah yes... the silly trees obscuring the satellite imagery!

[dtkvictim]

Victoria Park is definitely a well-used park. One wonders whether it will only get busier to the point of over-crowding as more development is brought online. The play area in particular can get quite crowded during the busy times.

It will surely get busier as the region grows. It's a shame it can't be expanded in any way. I suppose they could use the Henry Sturm Greenway but that doesn't offer much. There's also a barren lot beside that which seems to do nothing but store dilapidated tractor trailers. If the city bought that, you could make a pretty nice entrance to the park off Victoria and West Ave as well as expand it by quite a lot.

Going back in time a little bit: This comment stuck in my mind for the last month and I wanted to come back to it. I just wanted to say, I hope very strongly that no one would truly consider removing the Henry Sturm Greenway to make way for a park expansion. It's very quickly become my favourite part of the park, and I think it's the most beautiful part of both the park and the IHT. It's also the only place we'll probably ever have downtown where you can surround yourself with trees, see deer in said trees, and watch heron eat fish out of the creek.

The lot full of trucks/trailers could certainly go though...

[Acitta]

It will surely get busier as the region grows. It's a shame it can't be expanded in any way. I suppose they could use the Henry Sturm Greenway but that doesn't offer much. There's also a barren lot beside that which seems to do nothing but store dilapidated tractor trailers. If the city bought that, you could make a pretty nice entrance to the park off Victoria and West Ave as well as expand it by quite a lot.

Going back in time a little bit: This comment stuck in my mind for the last month and I wanted to come back to it. I just wanted to say, I hope very strongly that no one would truly consider removing the Henry Sturm Greenway to make way for a park expansion. It's very quickly become my favourite part of the park, and I think it's the most beautiful part of both the park and the IHT. It's also the only place we'll probably ever have downtown where you can surround yourself with trees, see deer in said trees, and watch heron eat fish out of the creek.

The lot full of trucks/trailers could certainly go though..

I have never seen deer there. It seems to be a rather small area for deer to hide, though I did once see a deer along the trail near University Ave.

[ac3r]

Going back in time a little bit: This comment stuck in my mind for the last month and I wanted to come back to it. I just wanted to say, I hope very strongly that no one would truly consider removing the Henry Sturm Greenway to make way for a park expansion. It's very quickly become my favourite part of the park, and I think it's the most beautiful part of both the park and the IHT. It's also the only place we'll probably ever have downtown where you can surround yourself with trees, see deer in said trees, and watch heron eat fish out of the creek.

The lot full of trucks/trailers could certainly go though...

Yeah I would not want to remove the actual greenway. It's a unique piece of nature and should stay. I just think that we could improve that area and make it a new entrance to the park. The lot of trailers could provide a nice opportunity for some good landscape architecture to invite people into the park from that side of it. I don't have a clue who owns that or what they really use it for, but it's an eye sore. I'd rather see it become part of the park, rather than have the owner sell it off to a private developer in the future.

[Acitta]

I looked on Kitchener's interactive mapping app and found that the property with the trailers is a separate address than either of the two houses in front of it on West Ave. I assume that the property is owned by some kind of business, but I can't find any information on it.

[dtkvictim]

Going back in time a little bit: This comment stuck in my mind for the last month and I wanted to come back to it. I just wanted to say, I hope very strongly that no one would truly consider removing the Henry Sturm Greenway to make way for a park expansion. It's very quickly become my favourite part of the park, and I think it's the most beautiful part of both the park and the IHT. It's also the only place we'll probably ever have downtown where you can surround yourself with trees, see deer in said trees, and watch heron eat fish out of the creek.

The lot full of trucks/trailers could certainly go though..

I have never seen deer there. It seems to be a rather small area for deer to hide, though I did once see a deer along the trail near University Ave.

Yeah, it was a little surprising. I was through here again today, and saw a fox this time. A little less surprising though; it's not the first time I've seen a fox on these train tracks.

[ac3r]

Rockaway Gardens always vandalized again on Saturday night: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...rdens.html

[panamaniac]

Rockaway Gardens always vandalized again on Saturday night: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...rdens.html

That’s such a shame.  Most of what’s damaged would be the product of volunteer activity and donations from the community.

[tomh009]

Going back in time a little bit: This comment stuck in my mind for the last month and I wanted to come back to it. I just wanted to say, I hope very strongly that no one would truly consider removing the Henry Sturm Greenway to make way for a park expansion. It's very quickly become my favourite part of the park, and I think it's the most beautiful part of both the park and the IHT. It's also the only place we'll probably ever have downtown where you can surround yourself with trees, see deer in said trees, and watch heron eat fish out of the creek.

I have never seen deer there. It seems to be a rather small area for deer to hide, though I did once see a deer along the trail near University Ave.

A reply to an old comment -- but I'll note that I saw a deer yesterday morning, running across Benton St, just on the (Kitchener) south side of Courtland. I don't think I have ever seen deer in so urban an area before.

[Acitta]

I have never seen deer there. It seems to be a rather small area for deer to hide, though I did once see a deer along the trail near University Ave.

A reply to an old comment -- but I'll note that I saw a deer yesterday morning, running across Benton St, just on the (Kitchener) south side of Courtland. I don't think I have ever seen deer in so urban an area before.

It was probably following Shoemaker Creek which is right there.