Illustration by Gina Park

In this issue

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Editorial by Tai Huynh

The Games We Play

Active leisure is more important than ever, so why are we making it so hard to just go out and play?

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Photo essay by Shawn Micallef

The Swimmer

Our intrepid beach correspondent swims his way across the city over one week to answer the question: what is Toronto beach culture?

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Feature by Nicholas Hune-Brown

Children’s Village Forever

Ontario Place designer Eric McMillan invented the ball pit, built the epicentre of kid-life for a generation of Torontonians and, for a brief moment, promised to revolutionize the way we play.

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Feature by Simon Lewsen with photography by Chloë Ellingson

Battle at Rowntree Mills

When the parking lot gates were shut ten years ago, Rowntree Mills Park became an urban wilderness. The fight to reopen it has divided a community and raises the question: how public is a public park?

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Feature by Matthew Braga

A Park for All, or a Park for Some?

How a small group of parks and rec staff called "parks ambassadors" became unlikely mediators in the growing battles over the city’s public space.