The city of Toronto originally had more park space than New York's Central Park. But the need to generate revenue caused the city to sell off much of its parkspace over the years, leaving a city with comparably few open spaces.
"If you added it all up, in the early 1800s, Toronto had more foliage than New York's Central Park. But today, the GTA's most usable parks – Sunnybrook, Agincourt and Bluffer's to name a few – are only accessible by car or the TTC."
"Who in their right mind would plan a city without parks? No one. It was never supposed to be this way."
"'We had a cholera epidemic (around) 1830 and we needed to build a bigger hospital. But to pay for it, we had to sell off the land,' said Myers, who is the founder of Friends of Fort York and the Citizens for Old Town."
"Then in the 1850s, the Grand Trunk Railway arrived. City council soon realized it had this huge asset in the waterfront Walks and Gardens. The decision was made to sell off parts of the land and put the money into a trust to better improve city parks, Myers said."
"It wasn't until the mid-1950s that the city of Toronto put parks development on its priority list."
"Around the same time, in other parts of the GTA, city officials were working to make sure they didn't fall into the same trap."
FULL STORY: What happened to city's park plan?
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