People in Toronto sure know how to appreciate their outdoor space, from braving our parks at the first glimpse of spring in March to swimming in Lake Ontario in December.

Though we do thankfully have quite a lot of it, one could argue that with how dense the city is, we could definitely use some more, especially in the downtown core — and one new park slated for a parking lot in the Entertainment District is slated to help meet that demand.

City Council just this week unanimously approved plans for the space at the southeast corner of Spadina and Adelaide, which citydwellers will recognize as a Green P parking lot, to be transformed from a concrete pad to a public space full of flora.

The initiative is one that Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina Councillor Joe Cressy has been pushing for years.

Parks and green space are what make our neighbourhoods vibrant and livable, especially in the rapidly-growing downtown core. That's why I have been working to turn the surface parking lots at Spadina and Adelaide into a new, 1,000 square metre public park. pic.twitter.com/fqQggcQbA9

— Joe Cressy (@joe_cressy) July 16, 2020

"The King-Spadina area has grown from approximately 945 residents in 1996 to a population of 22,000 in 2018," " Cressy wrote on Twitter earlier this year.

"These residents along with tens of thousands of workers, students, and visitors need services, cultural outlets, and outdoor space to exercise, relax, and play."

With the design of the new over 1,000 square metre park now able to begin, the city should see it completed in the next 24 months. It is just one of a slew of other similar projects both big and small that the city is taking on after a year of various forms of lockdown that showed just how much citizens need their outdoor space.

Some of the parking spaces lost to the new park, meanwhile, will be added into the lot at a forthcoming condo development in the area.