- by Hub staff

After a few months in his lovely new apartment in Owen Sound, 89 year old Frank Barningham has developed a pleasant routine. Some peaceful moments at the labyrinth outside his back gate, a walk around the community gardens and through the 11th St gate by St. George's on his way to the library, or downtown errands. He usually walks back along the harbour and back in his front door at the Strathcona Apartments.

This week his leisurely circuit was cut off. The gate by St. George's was locked.

The original lock was cut off, and now the chain has been crimped so it cannot be opened. Mr. Barningham had a conversation with the neighbours – some folks at St. George's , and a woman who has lived in her 11th Street home beside the park for over 40 years who said the gate has been open all that time.

His first call to City Hall was directed to a woman who told him that the gate was temporarily closed to allow a recently seeded area to grow. There is, on close inspection, a little green on what has the appearance of a packed clay path from an 8 foot wide open gate on the 10th St end. There is no signage of any kind.

So Mr Barningham called again, this time reaching Adam Parsons, manager of parks and open spaces. Mr. Parsons had a number of reasons for the closure, including verbal harassment of the women who play softball on the field, or the possibility of a walker being hit by a ball during a game. Mr. Barningham pointed out there were many other spots from which would-be hecklers could shout – including bleachers - and there are three other open access points to cross the field. Or perhaps the teams could lock the gate while they were playing and re-open it when they were finished, he suggested.

Mr. Parsons had a new explanation for the closure. There is worn path crossing the field from the corner of the former tennis courts, now community gardens. It is still grass – not even worn through to dirt, but about a foot wide and an inch or two below the grade of the surrounding grass. A ball might, said Mr.Parsons, bounce off the edge of that path and “break a player's nose or cheek bone”. There is no evidence of recent grading or filling in the path.

And with that, Mr. Parsons indicated he had other work to do and considered the conversation over.

Mr. Barningham sat by the gate, and he and this reporter spoke to people who approached from either side. One woman worked at a salon downtown – she came down the stairs from her east hill home of 25 years and returned by the same stairs. The alternate route suggested by Mr. Parsons – up the south side of the 10th Street hill – is both longer and noisier, and distinctly less pleasant.

An employee of an east-hill grocery store, on his way home from work, came down the stairs, around the gardens and headed for the gate which he hopped over in seconds.

A group of five St. Mary's High School students – all heading to their homes on the west side – approached the gate. One went through a hole in the wire fencing, and two handed their backpacks over and then easily hopped the gate. Another accompanied a less-agile friend down the seeded path through the open gate to 10th Street, along which there is a rutted, packed dirt path but no sidewalk. [That gate was also locked by Saturday, so anyone coming from the staircase would be walking past the ball diamond, out the driveway, and down a longer stretch of that unpaved path along 10th.]

Every space has a story – different users, different needs and sometimes problems. And the solutions can have unintended consequences, and sometimes don't even solve the original problem.

An open community discussion of this park to allow the City and residents to understand each other's perspectives and consider alternatives might be helpful. In the absence of that, residents can contact Mr. Parsons at 519 376-1440 ext. 1221 or email [email protected] , or one or more of your elected officials,  with your own thoughts and ideas.

If you want to know more about the City's plans for Victoria Park (including the possibility of replacing the grass with artificial turf) and St. George's Park, the 2011 Master Plan is available here.

A key element of the plan, highlighted on the City's website: “There is high potential for developing active transportation routes from the JMRRC to the downtown core and other sectors of the City.”