For the past three days, something remarkable has been happening in my neighborhood of Convent Glen North. A newly updated park (‘The Sand Park’, as my kids have called it) just reopened on Monday in Father Richard Ward Park, and every afternoon since, the scene has been the same: dozens of kids and parents swarming the swings and sandbox from the end of school hours until dinner time.
It’s a sight that happened occasionally at the old park, but it’s never been quite like this with 5 swings replacing a single old one, and lots of room for the kids to run around and play without worrying about running into traffic or other potential dangers. There is also seating for a dozen adults, including a new picnic table. The laughter and energy at the park this week are a powerful, tangible signal—evidence of a deep, unmet need in our community. And all it took was a swingset, a sand pit, some toys, a few benches, and a picnic table.
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Our Revealed Preference for Community
This shows me that the social isolation often incidentally fostered by suburban design isn’t necessarily a choice, but a consequence of our environment. We are not building strong community bonds when we live our lives taking a car from destination to destination, we get to know our neighbours when we walk home from school and stop at the park to play with friends. This park has instantly become a place for the casual, spontaneous interactions that build a truly resilient community.
This third place for families in the community won’t be able to be used in a rainstorm (none of it is covered or indoors), but not every place needs to. Even still, it serves as evidence that if we create places for people to gather in our communities, they will show up in numbers. There are effectively no public spaces where people can go on a whim (coffee shops, restaurants, community spaces) within short walking distance of this park, I believe our community would be able to be a lot friendlier and more welcoming if we absolutely saturated it with these kinds of spaces for people. There is a whole lot of social inertia preventing this from happening though, from outdated and restrictive zoning laws, neighbourhood norms and self-described ‘character’ preventing nearly anything other than single-family homes from being built in the surrounding areas.
A Building Block for Life With Less Car
This park is more than just a playground; it’s a crucial piece of infrastructure for a lifestyle that includes less car. It’s a fun and joyful destination that my family, and many others, can now easily walk or bike to. It provides a low-pressure and low-effort alternative to the monotony of shuttling children from one structured activity to the next.
My advocacy is founded on the idea that our transportation and places “toolbox” desperately need to diversify. When our neighborhoods have valuable amenities within a short walk or bike ride, we are no longer in a situation where every destination is a drive away. This is the foundation of a walkable community, where daily needs can be met without depending on a car, allowing for the gradual, organic evolution of our neighbourhoods.
A Model for the New Orleans
The success here is a small but powerful proof-of-concept for the vision behind TheNewOrleans.ca. It demonstrates that by making smart, incremental investments in our public spaces, we can catalyze the transformation of our car-dependent suburb into a more walkable, connected, and vibrant place.
This park is a great use of our green space, generating enormous social value and making our community more resilient in the long run, and I hope it’s just a start. If we can see this level of success from one small park, imagine the potential if we apply the same people-first logic to our broader infrastructure investments.
This should be a call to action for all of us. It may seem silly and unrelated, but I really think this is broadly applicable. We now have a clear, local example of how incremental positive change can happen. The policies that shaped our suburbs can be reshaped by new choices. Let’s use this momentum to advocate for more: for complete street makeovers on roads like Jeanne d’Arc Boulevard that would make walking and biking to this park even safer, and for the zoning reform that would allow a small café or corner store to open nearby. This park clearly demonstrates that if we build a better Orleans, residents are more than ready to embrace it.
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