My Tale of Two New Urban Parks

 

                                                     Kiweki Point Park, Ottawa

 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.

 On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 

Revelation 22:1-2 NRSVue

Last week, within the course of three days, we spent time in Toronto and Ottawa, the two largest cities in Ontario. We made a point of visiting urban parks in both, one along the Don River and the other overlooking the Ottawa River. Biidaasige Park is the billion dollar-plus redevelopment and rewilding of the mouth of the Don, which had essentially been killed as a natural waterway and habitat. Kìwekì Point, newly redeveloped, offers panoramic views of Parliament Hill and Ottawa-Gatineau. 

Both parks have names which acknowledge the historic and, hopefully, the current importance of these rivers to Indigenous peoples who travelled them and harvested from them for centuries before colonization. 

Biidaasige Park hasn't been completed and won't come to fruition for decades because there are thousands of young trees and other plantings which will take time and at this point require imagination about what will come. Still, in the created wetlands there are already water birds and songbirds. Biidaasige will be serviced by a light rail line to make it accessible without driving and there are bike lanes as well. 

                                          Artist's (AI?) rendering of Biidaasige Park, Toronto

I write from time to time about the importance of urban green spaces and these are two examples of a thoughtful and enduring approach to the challenge. I've noted that the Christian bible begins in a garden and concludes in a city where a clean river and trees are at the heart of it. Celebrating Creation shouldn't require us to head to the wilderness and this can be possibility to all. These urban parks can be sacred spaces as well. 

Now, if Premier Doug can be stopped from turning Little Norway Park in Toronto into a runway extension for jets...