New York has its High Line, Paris has its Promenade Plantée and now, with three separate rail deck park proposals, Toronto is raising its game when it comes to vertical neighbourhoods.Increasingly, a city that works and lives in the sky will play there, too.Elevated recreational areas, already common in condos and office towers, are now being incorporated into public developments in places where land is at a premium and cost prohibitive. At Canoe Landing downtown, a community centre and two schools will share a rooftop basketball court and walking track. Read more:Here’s what you’d need to earn to buy a mid-priced home in your Toronto neighbourhood — and what a typical family there earns (Hint: Not nearly enough) Toronto Neighbourhood Summit tries to find strength in community numbers across the cityToronto’s laneway homes are a needed and welcome housing optionIn the suburbs, preliminary designs for a new northeast Scarborough community centre include rooftop fitness amenities that will maximize the constrained building site so the nearby green space remains intact.Using once overlooked spaces — including those above eye level — for recreational, fitness and social activity is the next step in creating vertical neighbourhoods, said Toronto chief planner Gregg Lintern.“Elevated is literally the next level,” he said.It’s one thing to set aside park space in new subdivisions. But in established neighbourhoods, particularly densely populated areas, the city can’t expect to keep up with the green space and public realm needs of a burgeoning population, Lintern said. “We have to be a lot more inventive in an urban environment,” he said. “That has given rise to using space — finite space — more smartly than we have.”Elevated parks are only one element in a system of unconventional green spaces and trails — places “hiding in plain sight,” he said. They ...
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