CORNWALL, Ontario – They’re calling it a pop up park, and if you get the chance you should give it a try.
Summer interns with Heart of the City, a group looking to revitalize Cornwall’s downtown areas, created the park at the corner of Pitt and First streets and without missing a beat have turned a barren parking lot into a great place to relax with friends, have a chat or even read a book.
Some surplus turf from a now defunct tennis bubble serves as “grass” and a handful of tables and chairs have been set up to give the park an authentic feel.
Interns Corinna Thomassen-Darby and Molly Smith, students at Queen’s University in Kingston, came up with the idea.
“I’ve seen examples in bigger cities like New York and I had learned about it while doing my undergrad,” said Smith.
The parks can vary in size dramatically.
“Some of them can take up a whole parking lot, and others are only the width of a sidewalk,” added Thomassen-Darby.
Heart of the City’s Denis Carr said the response from the community has been positive, and added the park will be maintained in the future, though it could move around to different locales.
The idea is to create a point of attraction in urban centres, added Heart of the City member Bryan Merkley.
“We want to encourage the people to use the space,” he said.
A nearby police camera will keep an eye on the area.
