June Rowlands Park

This used to be a great safe place to bring young kids to play. Unfortunately some groups which value their own design philosophies more than child safety have caught the ear of local politicians. They have managed to convince them to tear up a perfectly good playground and replace it with a dangerous art installation. Not only is it a waste of tax payers dollars, it is now a place I am not comfortable to bring my young child to play. I don't see how a log suspended 10 ft off the ground with nothing to hold on to except a rope is a good idea for children aged 5 (as the signage suggests). Or the 12 ft vertical climb on 2x4's to reach the big slide. If the city is interested in being sued by the growing number of injury lawyers here then yeah, great idea! This playground will have a statistically higher rate of serious injuries for children, guaranteed. On our first visit we couldn't help but notice how many parents now have to hover over their children playing on these dangerous structures, where as previously you could sit on a bench and let the kids play without any worry. Not to mention the overall lack of activities the new structures provide, and just one sad slide for toddlers. I could design a better playground myself in a few hours. Shame on the designers, advocates, and politicians that approved this.
7 years ago (18-03-2018)

Why was the kids park replaced, with such a dangerous playground???Unfortunately it is inevitable that kids are going to get hurt playing on this new design. The previous park was excellent, had fun slides, monkey bars, climbing apparatus etc. Was great for toddlers and young kids. The new wooden installment this winter (2018) seems very dangerous and not ideal for smaller kids. The climb up the logs is over 10 feet high, with only a small wire to hold onto! Even climbing up into the "fort" is steep and high with very little to hold onto at the top. There is also now very little playground for kids to play on. I hope this playground gets reconsidered by the City of Toronto. I do love this park and take my kids there regularly for years, to the farmers market, splash pad, playground etc. I'm just very concerned about this new playground equipment, injuries are going to happen here. What were they thinking when they designed this?? I hope others feel the same way and speak up so that the city takes notice and replace it back to the way it was.
8 years ago (24-01-2018)

I took my toddler there this morning, expecting the amazing park that I was accustomed to visiting, only to be shocked to find it has been replaced by a wooden structure that is totally unsuitable for young kids. This park is typically packed with tons of toddlers but was a ghost town this morning. It isn't surprising as the first words from my toddler was to go home even though he was begging to go to the park and always had a great time before going up and down the stairs, trying to climb up the bars to get to the bigger slide and running around the bridge. I'm interested to see my 5 year olds reaction when we take her there. I'm certain hers will be the same as she won't be able to reach the wires to attempt walking along the logs but also the height of the structure is so tall that she will want either myself or her dad to help her but won't be able to manage that because of the design. The structure that was there before was completely fine and was able to be used by children of all ages and abilities. There were multiple slides, bars to climb, and even stairs for children who weren't yet able to manage the bars. Now there are only logs with a single wire above for kids that are tall enough to hold onto and a slide that is accessible by these logs or a wooden climbing wall. No stairs for kids who are not able to climb the wall or reach the wire to walk the logs. There are no bridges, monkey bars, poles to slide down, nothing. The structure that is designated for toddlers (18months+ according to the sign) is pretty boring, just some logs for stairs and a tiny slide. I am so disappointed with the city for wasting city funds replacing a park that didn't need to be replaced. Clearly they didn't hire a designer who either visited the park to see who used it a majority of the time or had young children themselves to have some insight of what would be appropriate for the neighbourhood. Hopefully they will get enough feedback from the neighbourhood to have this fixed so families can enjoy it as they used too.
7 years ago (01-03-2018)

Beautiful park for sure with lots of mature tress. Just not sure why they replaced the playground. Looks kinda dangerous to me, but not nearly as dangerous as the playgrounds I used top play on in grade school.
8 years ago (16-01-2018)

They changed the park recently and it looks beautiful, but its a death trap for young kids. It's a high traffic park with lots of babies and preschoolers and the new equipment is way too dangerous for most and there is only 1 baby swing which is a huge problem. Poor planning by someone who clearly didn't spend much time in the park to get a sense of how many kids use the park and age ranges.
7 years ago (31-01-2018)