Tuxedo

 Frederick Heuback Park was donated land from the first mayor of the Town of Tuxedo in 1964. It was dedicated in 1970 and part of Metro Winnipeg. In 1972, with the advent of Unicity, it was incorporated into the overall Parks and Recreation of the City of Winnipeg.

For a number of years the area of the park north of Grant Avenue had a soccer pitch on it. It was one of the fields used by Sir John Franklin Community club among others. The spot that became the soccer pitch at Renfrew and Grosvenor had a steam plant that was demolished as houses connected to natural gas in the 1960s in River Heights. 

The field had turf put over it but oil leaked up to the surface and probably was toxic. Kids were ordered not to play soccer on the pitch and played in early 1970s on soccer fields at Lipsett Hall and Frederick Heuback Park and Joe Malone Park. 

Park Boulevard residents were up in arms about the soccer pitch and it was removed in the 1970s. Any attempt to do anything with the land along Park Boulevard has been rejected over the years. Eventually pressure grew from Tuxedo residents about soccer pitches behind Lipsett Hall and they too were removed.

As apartments went up at Kenaston, there was growing pressure to remove Joe Malone Park as well. This faced  pushback on as Sir John's Franklin established the park and it was a regulation field as opposed to SJF. Eventually only access from Taylor was possible and the field continues to exist today.

Today Frederich Heuback Park is literally a green belt that is devoid of even basic park amenities for people.

You have to go a few blocks south to Assinboine Park or north to Edward Shindleman Park. There is a lake bordering West Taylor, Dumbarton and Kerslake. The lake space is not recreation space and lacks sidewalks or anything that would invite people to what is more or less a private kale. 

Large houses surrounding lakes are not neighbourhood recreation.

There are lakeside houses...or rather retention pond housing in various nice neighbourhoods.

The Edward Shindleman Park is one of the few places with an actual playground on it south of Grant. In the background you can see the fence where the CN line runs and the condos and apartments on the other side are Seasons and Seasons of Tuxedo.

Shindleman Park is a pleasant park at the southern most point of Tuxedo. It has some trails and a play structure and was fairly quiet on the day of this visit.

One of the things that is important in the future of cities is connectivity of places. For example, Shindleman Park is so close to thousands of people south of the rail tracks. You can see it from the pictures. But you have to go all the way around to get to it.

There are many parts of the city that don't even have sidewalks which defies logic on major roads where you can't exit the street to take safety from traffic if your car is in a collision or breaks down. 

Vital neighbourhoods are including more and more of what you need to be able to walk out the door and find recreation, groceries and services.

It would appear though that for people of Seasons, they will only be able to view a nice park from a distance with no easy access to it.