Soul of the city.
An old slogan goes that Toronto is a city within a park, and there’s no park, or neighbourhood, more city — especially the cultured, diverse, and constantly changing city that Toronto has become — than Trinity Bellwoods. And despite its rapid evolution from sleepy Bohemian grotto to global indie hotspot, the neighbourhood has kept its soul, which is the park itself. Yet these 15 peaceful hectares are no austere promenade: this is the west end’s communal backyard, home of b.y.o.b. family picnics (lawbreaking makes it taste better), a destination dog park, volleyball, hockey rinks, and most of all community.
The park is the yin of Trinity Bellwoods: the yang is the trendsetting shopping, food, galleries, breweries, music, beverages and sleeve tattoos of Queen West and red-hot Ossington that frame it. So the hipsters have grown up, and they’re buying the vintage Victorian homes all over, tearing down or redoing the duplexes, yet still flocking to the park as they did as students to read a book, sneak a glass of wine, or watch a solar eclipse — a city within a park, indeed.