The great big map of Toronto park amenities

We mapped every park washroom, water fountain, bottle-filling station, and dog fountain in the City of Toronto. Here’s where they’re located.

It goes without saying that parks are one of the City of Toronto’s greatest assets. Used all year round, they explode with activity this time of year — hosting play dates, birthdays, classes, sports games, family dinners, impromptu meetings between friends, and more.

And just as each is unique in size, shape, and feel, they’re also unique in amenities, such as bathrooms, water fountains, bottle fillers, and dog fountains. And often the availability of items on that previous list can determine how long you can stay there — especially for parents of young kids.

Traditionally, the City of Toronto has promised to have seasonal park amenities open for the season by the end of June. However, many took to social media in 2022 to decry that rollout as too slow.

In seeming response to that, the City made additional efforts to open facilities as quickly as possible this year. A City press release noted that all 122 seasonal bathroom facilities had been opened by May 5 — the earliest-ever opening, according to the release.

#DYK? This is the earliest-ever opening for seasonal park washrooms across Toronto. It will take crews of specialized technicians, plumbers and cleaners about three weeks to bring all 128 seasonal buildings online by early May. https://t.co/8z6495johT pic.twitter.com/w5w1ADbRab

— City of Toronto (@cityoftoronto) April 18, 2023

Along with washrooms that are open year round, that makes a total of 174 washrooms at Toronto public parks.

“Extending the availability of our seasonal park washrooms is key to ensuring Toronto residents get the most out of their parks,” said deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie at the time.

“Thank you to City staff who have been out in the field daily since mid-April, working hard to open washrooms and drinking water fountains in record time. Their efforts help ensure we can all fully enjoy our parks as early in the year as possible.”

Tracking the park amenities

Washrooms aren’t the only seasonal park infrastructure maintained by the City. As of May 5, the City vowed to get its approximately 750 standalone drinking fountains and bottle-filling stations open by the end of the month.

And we haven’t even gotten to the dog fountains.

That said, with about 1,600 parks in total, there won’t be one of any of these things at every park.

So, how do you know what amenities are available at any given park in the city? And — perhaps most importantly — how do you know if those facilities are functioning?

As it turns out, the City of Toronto keeps a dataset for this. We ingested the data and placed it on the map accompanying this article.

Just tap or click the park you want to check out to get a read on both the available infrastructure as well as any service updates that may be limiting access to that infrastructure.

Spot an issue at a public park? Contact @311Toronto or email 311@toronto.ca to place a service request.

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Code and markup by Kyle Duncan and Chris Dinn. ©Torontoverse, 2023