A community-run oven helped bring a Toronto park back to life
Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto has a community-run brick oven for pizza and bread, and neighbours who helped the city look after the park when no money had been set aside for its upkeep. The Project for Public Spaces calls it a community centre without a roof.
Dufferin Grove Park sits on the east side of Dufferin Street in Toronto, south of Bloor Street West, a block from Dufferin subway station and across the road from Dufferin Mall. It stretches two city blocks, mostly grass and trees.
The park is known for something unusual: a pizza and bread oven that the community runs. The Project for Public Spaces, which collects examples of public places around the world, describes Dufferin Grove as a community centre without a roof, where a community-run brick oven has helped bring life back to the park and drawn attention from around the globe.
That life came from neighbours. According to the Project for Public Spaces, when residents found out that Toronto's parks department had set aside no money for the park's upkeep, they came together to help the city manage it. Its listing notes that people of all ages and incomes feel welcome.
Today the park has a large playground, a wading pool, a basketball court, an outdoor ice rink in winter and an organic farmers' market on Thursday afternoons. The Clay and Paper Theatre stages outdoor plays there in summer. In 1998 artist Gene Threndyle and the Friends of Dufferin Grove Park created gardens and a fountain marking the path of Denison Creek, which once ran through the park.
When a city park had no budget, its neighbours stepped in, and a shared oven became the heart of a busy public space.
Further reading & sources
Source: Dufferin Grove Park (Project for Public Spaces).
Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].
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