Parkettes Are Off the Table. Leave the Parks Alone.

At a candidates’ panel last week, I brought up the future of neighbourhood parkettes, including Thornloe in Northwood. My answer was pretty simple: “If anybody wants to talk about Thornloe and it not being a parkette, sign me up. Parkettes are off the table. Find infill opportunities first. Leave the parks alone.”  That is exactly where I stand.

Thunder Bay needs housing and we need to make it easier to build it, but I reject the idea that established neighbourhood green spaces should become convenient targets for development. We have vacant and underused properties, redevelopment opportunities, appropriate infill locations and older commercial and downtown areas where new housing can help strengthen neighbourhoods. Those opportunities should be pursued aggressively before we start looking at the places residents already use and value.

This issue has already come to City Council.  I know this because I covered it extensively and shared my opinions on it publicly then. In 2024, Council considered adding parkette properties at Holly Crescent, Thistle Crescent and part of 661 Thornloe Drive to properties recommended for surplus. The motion was defeated. More recent City documentation continues to identify 661 Thornloe Drive as “not approved as surplus land for housing.”  I want to keep it that way.

A parkette does not stop being valuable because someone can draw a building on the property. These spaces give established neighbourhoods breathing room. Kids play there. People walk their dogs there. Neighbours meet there. They provide trees, grass, open space and a little bit of nature within residential areas. Once we sell them and put buildings on them, they are gone. That isn't a decision we get to reconsider twenty years from now.

Thornloe is one of the Northwood green spaces I will fight to protect. I would oppose declaring it surplus and I would oppose selling it for development. I would take the same approach to established parks and parkettes across the city.

We can support housing without selling off the pieces of our neighbourhoods that make them better places to live. Find the vacant lots. Find the underused properties. Redevelop where redevelopment makes sense. Build smart infill.

Leave the parks alone.