Why Park Designers Need to Think More About Mental Health

It’s 10 a.m. on a warm August morning in Regent Park, a neighborhood in the east end of downtown Toronto that has historically been defined by its public housing and poverty. Nadha Hassen, a junior fellow at Toronto’s Wellesley Institute, and her colleagues are here hosting a walking tour to get residents of Regent Park out to talk about how parks interact with mental health, both individually and across the community.

Except the residents aren’t showing up. Hassen is fighting hard to put on a positive face, but she seems concerned while repeatedly checking her phone. Word eventually comes in: gunshots in the early hours of the morning have spooked many people in the community, and an emergency meeting is being held to assess the situation. As the 505 Dundas streetcar rumbles by, the large park at the center of the entire neighborhood is virtually empty. The walking tour (which Hassen calls a WalkLab) proceeds with more facilitators and reporters than guests. But considering the topic at hand—how to measure the quality of parks as they interact with the broad mental health of a neighborhood—those absences speak just as loudly as anybody in attendance.