Slope

Calls to loosen rules around drinking alcohol in public spaces have increased in recent years, spurred in part by the COVID-19 pandemic making it necessary ...

Malleck, who is strongly in favour of loosening rules around drinking alcohol in parks, agrees there should be options and said that drinking can be limited to designated spaces and parks. "There has to be a bit of a leap of faith and a recognition that most people are going to be reasonable — and also a recognition that if things go awry, it's not going to be catastrophic," he said. This spring, Vancouver and Edmonton expanded similar programs that began last year. "The issue is really whether the city is imagined as a place where the vast majority of people have spacious backyards ... or whether we realize that in places like Toronto, a lot of people live in tiny apartments and they may not even have a balcony, and so they may need to socialize in parks," said Mariana Valverde, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto. "The way I've considered this is that it seems to be a solution which is in search of a problem." "I've heard from many people with complaints about things that happen in our city parks that are obnoxious and are problems for the community, and some of those things are fuelled by illegal drinking," Stephen Holyday, councillor for Toronto's Ward 3, said in an interview with Checkup.