Suburbs with heavily utilized playgrounds

[Crawford]

There are a ton more outdoor hockey rinks than indoor, at least locally. And yeah, they're in parks. Obviously not ice hockey; mostly street hockey, but often roller or floor.

But almost all sports require equipment. Even soccer. My kid is in soccer, which requires shoes, shin guards, jersey, water bottle, snack, change of clothes, alongside everything else you're lugging from work/school/etc. We're lucky we can walk, but in sprawl I imagine most would drive, especially if it's one parent lugging multiple small kids.

[JManc]

When I was in soccer, I would walk in my soccer outfit and switch into my cleats when I got there.

[Crawford]

Keep in mind my son is three. Which means he isn't going anywhere on his own, and he's still young enough to require a "baby bag" of various crap wherever you go. So it's manageable with one but probably not with more.

[Steely Dan]

We're not a little league family, but there are hundreds of them in our neighborhood and I see plenty of them walking over to the diamonds at Welles Park on baseball saturdays with their kids and a wagon of sports crap (and bag chairs, and a cooler, and etc.) in tow.

Welles has 5 diamonds and no parking lot, so the families that can walk to the games, tend to do so.

This is probably less common in sprawlburbia (where there are parking lots at every park and everyone drives everywhere anyway out of a default mentality), but the notion that wagons don't exist, and that families don't use them, is pretty silly.

[memph]

Originally Posted by edale

What's your point? I truly don't get the question or what you're trying to discuss here.

55F and sunny in March is about as good as it gets in Ontario, and those early spring-ish days always bring out tons of people-- especially when there's nothing else to do thanks to covid.

I get the sense this thread is more self-congratulatory BS about Canadian suburbs being denser than American suburbs, where people are more inclined to ride the bus and play at neighborhood playgrounds. As if the US is totally lacking in these things, and if only we were smart enough to look north for guidance. Frankly, it's trite at this point. Of course American kids go to playgrounds. Denser environments, where private play space is more limited, will have greater usage of parks and playgrounds. Duh. What is there to discuss?

I didn't mean to make it so much of a Canada vs US thing, more of a low density vs high density suburbia. Canada tends to have more of the latter while the US has more of the former but they both have some of each.

In my case, I grew up in a low density suburban neighbourhood in Canada (SE Oakville), with average lot sizes of around 1/3 acre (and I'm back to living there for now). And each time I go to denser suburban areas around here in Ontario, it's like night and day.

Yeah, covid helps a bit, and the fact that it's nicer than average for March helps a bit, but back here in SE Oakville, the parks are nowhere near as busy.

I just came back from a walk in SE Oakville, exact same weather and time of day as when I was in North Oakville, and passed through 5 parks. The park with a baseball field, playground and tennis courts only had one girl playing tennis with her dad. The playground next to a wooded creek valley had two siblings with their parents and dogs. The schoolyard with a field, basketball courts and playground was completely empty. The park with an outdoor pool, playground, baseball field and wooded area was completely empty. The other schoolyard with a field and basketball courts was also completely empty.

A similar set of parks in North Oakville would've had about 100 people, so it's a whole different vibe. If you show up to a playground in SE Oakville, you better bring your dog or sibling because otherwise you'll probably be stuck playing with yourself. Meanwhile in North Oakville you can just show up and there will be plenty of other neighbourhood kids there you can befriend.

[Crawford]

It's also time of day/week, and neighborhood demographics. Rich neighborhoods have lots of stay-at-home moms and/or nannies/au pairs, so you'll see lots of toddlers playing in, say, Central or Prospect Park playgrounds, on a Monday morning. In a working class area, the park might not be as heavily utilized during "normal" working hours.

And obviously playfields are most heavily utilized after school hours and on weekends.

[memph]

Originally Posted by Crawford

There are a ton more outdoor hockey rinks than indoor, at least locally. And yeah, they're in parks. Obviously not ice hockey; mostly street hockey, but often roller or floor.

But almost all sports require equipment. Even soccer. My kid is in soccer, which requires shoes, shin guards, jersey, water bottle, snack, change of clothes, alongside everything else you're lugging from work/school/etc. We're lucky we can walk, but in sprawl I imagine most would drive, especially if it's one parent lugging multiple small kids.

This is an issue of organized sports vs playing casually with neighbourhood friends. With organized sports you don't pick the time and place, so it often ends up being far away, and there's more formal requirements in terms of equipment. If you're playing soccer with your friends, you just need one person to throw a ball into a back-pack and ride your bikes to the closest field, which is what that group of about a dozen boys in the third pic in the OP seem to have done.

I think there is a lot of value in neighbourhood layouts and densities that facilitate playing casually with local kids like this.

[memph]

Originally Posted by Crawford

It's also time of day/week, and neighborhood demographics. Rich neighborhoods have lots of stay-at-home moms and/or nannies/au pairs, so you'll see lots of toddlers playing in, say, Central or Prospect Park playgrounds, on a Monday morning. In a working class area, the park might not be as heavily utilized during "normal" working hours.

And obviously playfields are most heavily utilized after school hours and on weekends.

I suppose if the kids are in day-care the people running it would be reluctant to take the kids out too far, but a lot of working class families delegate those responsibilities to older siblings and grand-parents (probably more-so grand-parents) who could still take the kids to the playground.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by memph

I think there is a lot of value in neighbourhood layouts and densities that facilitate playing casually with local kids like this.

1,000,000% true.

One of the things that sold me on our neighborhood was when we took a quick stroll around on an October Saturday afternoon after looking at a condo with our realtor, and when we came upon the playing field at the local school, there was a group of about 20 boys roughly 9-12 years old playing a pick-up game of touch football without a single fucking adult in sight.

My mind instantly screamed "Yes! This is where I want to raise a family".

Youth sports as it should be: of, by, and for the youth. no stupid adults allowed.