Playfulness is often treated as an afterthought in our cities. It's something confined to playgrounds or pay-to-enter spaces like amusement parks. What happens when we weave play into everyday life?

For Neasa Ni Bhriain, Director of A Playful City, the question became personal when she became a parent. Suddenly, Dublin and towns around Ireland felt less welcoming — its streets and public spaces weren’t designed for families or people of all ages to connect and play. 

So she left her law career behind and co-founded A Playful City to help communities build vibrant, playful public spaces.

Musical seating? Travel route mascots? Intergenerational street games? Ni Bhriain shares a few insights into reigniting the spirit of play for all. 

How do we create a playful city? Read more →

What do public spaces mean to the people who use them? In Voices in Public Spaces, we ask community members to share how public spaces impact their lives. It’s all about real voices sharing real reflections. In this episode, we caught up with Niall on Toronto’s Don River Trail. 

"It's very easy to go a day in the city not saying hello to anyone. But that's not what it should be."

Any other birders out there? Watch the video →

LET’S GO PLAY IN TRAFFIC. We were always warned not to play on the road. Stay on the sidewalk. Look both ways for cars. Don’t chase the ball into the road. Great advice, sure. But the roads were the best place to play. They were open, flat and full of possibility (at least until a car came through and sent us scattering).  

Even as an adult, there's still something magical about playing on the road. In Toronto, festivals like Taste of Little Italy temporarily shut down streets so pedestrians can eat and shop. City programs like ActiveTO close major roadways for the day to give people more space to walk, run, skate and bike. I discovered a brand new joy: cycling down the centre of the Allen Expressway.

Spaces we’re so used to navigating cautiously suddenly become ours to explore freely. 

While it feels novel to step onto the road as a pedestrian, Canadian cities are increasingly dabbling with pedestrian-only streets.

But there are also solutions that allow us to share the road with the drivers and cyclists getting where they need to go. Last fall, our friends at The Centre For Active Transportation wrote that the popular CaféTO program — where restaurants extend outdoor seating to sidewalks and in curb lanes — should be expanded beyond restaurants, even beyond businesses altogether.  

Imagine, as they propose, if we allow yoga studios, libraries or even community groups to apply to use the street on occasion. "This could be especially important in underserved communities or in the dense downtown neighbourhoods that lack traditional public space," they write. 

When we say “public spaces" you often think about the parks in your neighbourhood, the plazas in your city or even the beaches in your province. Those places feel built for pedestrians. But the streets are used by everyone, every day. What if they were places of joy rather than just corridors of mobility? For hanging around rather than just getting around? 

The road to more joyful cities starts with our streets. Public art makes them more engaging; green space more comfortable; markets and fairs into places of connection. For 15 years, we've been testing these ideas at the Brick Works. Want to see more? Click the yellow box below.

🖊️ ETHAN ROTBERG, SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST | EVERGREEN

🎨 BANNER ILLUSTRATION BY MELISSA MEDWYK | MELISSAMEDWYK.COM

About Us     What's On     Donate