A popular downtown park is due for an upgrade, and like most things in Toronto, it’s causing controversy.
Barbara Hall Park, located in the heart of The Village at 519 Church St., is the only major park in the neighbourhood – it’s also the site of concern. The park is used for various events throughout the year, including Toronto Queer Markets, The 519’s annual Greenspace Festival during Pride, and this summer it hosted Blockobana.
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But city officials and residents say that with maintenance issues, drug use, and unhoused people forced to live in the park, it has been unusable for the majority of people living in the area. That’s why city officials have assumed a huge undertaking: a redesign of the entire space.
On Wednesday, the city hosted an open house event at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, presenting several new design concepts for the park. The three options include various nods to the 2SLGBTQ+ community, new lighting, and redesigns of the various amenities in the space, such as a proposed bathroom or a small cafe.
The open house was attended by more than a hundred community members, Councillor Chris Moise, and even the park’s namesake, former Mayor Barbara Hall, a longtime champion of the 2SLGBQ+ community. She tells Queer & Now she’s excited that so many people in the community are passionate about the area.
“This park is an enormous honour, to have my name attached to it, but it belongs to the community,” she said.. “So, I know over time the community grows and issues come up.”
“Seeing all the people here tonight shows the great interest and the importance of this as a gathering place for a community that hasn’t always had a place to gather.”
She explained that now, like throughout the rest of her career, having a happy and healthy community is what matters most.
“That means all people need to feel included and safe, and I’ve been fortunate to be in a position to advance that and to work in partnership with other people,” she explained.
“People often say, ‘I did this, I did that,’ I always say ‘we did this, we did that,’ because people educated me often. I didn’t realize initially, they educated me, and then we worked together using the privilege I’ve been fortunate to have to make good change happen.”
Daniel Fusca, manager of public consultation in parks and recreation with the City of Toronto, told Queer & Now the redesign is meant to make the park more “sturdy.”
“[To make it] better suited to the variety of uses that the park experiences now, and to honour the memorials that are there a bit more seems to be also a big kind of priority of the community,” Fusca said, adding that many people don’t know the park is home to the city’s Transgender and AIDS Memorials.
“These things deserve more prominence in the park. So, that’s why you see things like the ribbons, which act as wayfinding elements. So, these are all reasons why this is an important thing to be doing.”
TIMELINE OF REDESIGN
Fusca says the dog park will be redesigned first, starting next fall, with the rest of the project expected to get underway in 2027. But first, officials have to settle on a design, and then they will be able to provide an estimated completion date.
The park currently has amenities like a splash pad, seating areas, an open lawn, a stage, and a dog park, which one resident of the neighbourhood, Krista Wilson, says has raised major concerns for community members in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood for years. She shared that she wasn’t thrilled with the concepts presented at the open house.
“All of the designs have good, but they also have bad, and they overlook a lot of things that are really, really going to cause the community to get worse,” Wilson told Queer & Now.
“Such as if you change where the kids park is, if you make it half that size and you put tables and chairs, who do you think is going to use it?” she questioned, explaining that she is often confronted by people using drugs in the space, and wants to see more security and even police in the neighbourhood.
“We have syringes, we have broken pipes, we have assaults all the time,” she said. “I’ve been threatened once every week going to the dog park.”
THREE ENCAMPMENTS CURRENTLY IN BARBARA HALL PARK
Throughout the open house, several discussion boards were presented to allow space for community members to share their thoughts on the redesign concepts. Many of those who left comments were less than impressed.
“All (of) this is naive,” one comment read, questioning what happens to people who “dominate this space in a negative way.”
Some suggested fencing and locking the park at night to ensure no one can access it, while others called the suggestion inhumane.
“Fences are hostile towards unhoused folks who need park areas,” one comment read.
“Especially unhoused LGBTQ+ folks. We have enough dog parks and playgrounds nearby!”
Fusca says the goal is not to remove people living in the space, explaining there are currently three different encampments within the park, and the city is considering different ways to approach the redesign.
“Like staggering the construction in phases, so that there can still be some activity in the park,” Fusca said. “Whether or not that’s possible, I don’t know, but in general, we’ll look into it and report back.”
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He says unhoused community members have been considered throughout the process, with the proposed designs building on nearly 2,500 community interactions with trans community members, people living with HIV and AIDS, unhoused populations, local residents, businesses, and organizations.
“We do know that the best outcomes for people experiencing homelessness come through providing them with tailored supports and connecting them to shelter and housing, and that’s the city’s plan.”
City officials say Barbara Hall Park currently receives a high level of ongoing support to keep the space welcoming, clean, and functional for everyone, with crews visiting twice a day, seven days a week, to remove sharps, graffiti, and litter.
MEMORIALS FOR TORONTO TRANSGENDER, HIV AND AIDS COMMUNITIES
Brad Bowder, a resident who founded the Toronto AIDS Memorial Day of Care stewardship program earlier this year, says his group regularly organizes clean-ups of the memorial.
“We wanted to make sure that any sharps, glass or things that could potentially harm anyone [were cleaned up],” Bauder told Queer & Now.
“From someone running a patch cable, to a performer, to a respectful observer, no one [should] become a victim of something that the world has left behind in the park.”
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Bowder likes the design concepts, especially “The Ribbons,” which incorporates brickwork of the red AIDS ribbon and blue, pink and white transgender ribbon. He’s also looking forward to the memorials in the park becoming more accessible”
“It’s going to be so nice to see the Trans Memorial better lit and treated as a more sacred space,” Bauder said. “[So] the whole area is a space of memorial that the community can visit with greater safety, more dignity, and feel that they’re cared for when they’re there to honour their loved ones.”
The city is looking for feedback on the three design concepts proposed for the park improvements. You can access the survey here through Nov. 5.c
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