Trinity Bellwoods has changed a lot in the last ten years. The park has gone through many incarnations in its very long life (you can read a comprehensive overview here) but leading up to the 2000s, it had a reputation as the kind of place where drugs were readily available and you didn’t walk at night. Then, as the century plodded along, the park went through another transformation. It filled with young people, and families, and felt like a real community hub. You could happily host a technically illegal barbecue there, and as long as you were nice, the police who rambled around with regularity tended to turn a blind eye. Little girls from across the street would wander over and say hello holding giant guinea pigs. Art installations would appear out of nowhere, and proceed to weather and disintegrate as though they were a part of the natural landscape. 

Trinity Bellwoods has become a lot of things to a lot of people. It’s a place where dogs spend their mornings, softball teams win pennants, Feist plays glow-in-the-dark frisbee,and a DIY music festival happens every summer. It’s a farmers market, a favourite bar, and a place to nap. It’s the site of an annual Portuguese carnival. But I probably don’t have to tell you these things, because you probably spend at least a portion of your weekends lying on the grass, or coveting puppies, or watching people tightrope-walk between trees. And if you’re doing any of this under the influence of wine in a coffee thermos, then you’ve also probably been paying attention to the news.

Last week, a bright pink notice appeared at my boyfriend’s house: COMMUNITY MEETING, it said, and proceeded, in several different fonts, to inform of a discussion led by Councilor Mike Layton about alcohol consumption in the park. It’s definitely true that, from this summer to last summer, park traffic has increased. I look out from the front porch and see what looks like a scene from the back end of a music festival stage. The park has gone from peopled to packed, and this has apparently resulted in a rise in complaints from neighbours. What it all comes down to, of course, is insuring the park remains a place where everyone, from families to festival fans, can happily revel in this amazing pocket of green space in the middle of the city. The discussion tonight will hear residents, police, and licensing folks weighing in on the idea of cracking down on alcohol consumption in the park. Is this the end of your summer? No. If you can’t already drink in the park without attracting police attention or bothering the two-year-old in hilarious sunglasses beside you, you probably shouldn’t be drinking in the park anyway.