COVID-19 Showed Who Really Owns Public Spaces. It’s Not the Public | The Walrus

Are our cities meant for everyone?

The tent of a resident in Dufferin Grove Park, Toronto, 2021 (Photo by Anna Kramer) I n Canada’s cities, the unhoused are scattered in forgotten areas, banned from central public spaces like parks. In the case of Toronto, for example, sections of the municipal code state that no one is allowed to install tents or permanent structures in parks and that no person is allowed to sleep in one-even when they have nowhere else to go. This can be an alienating experience. When the first wave of COVID-19 swept through the city, though, parks were one of the few places for people to gather. Shelters for

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