Please read my review to the end of you are visiting Gage Park. There's a lot to talk about here...

On the whole, I love Gage Park. I have visited many urban parks, my favourite being George Bush Park in Houston, TX. A good urban park is a retreat from the noise and bustle of the city. In that regard, I give Gage Park a B rating.

Gage Park is small, but offers many different areas, both "passive" and "active". That is to say, there are areas that are just trees and shrubs and fields, while other areas are purpose-built or have attractions such as playgrounds, rose garden, tropical greenhouse, kids garden, lawn bowling club, pavilion/bandstand for events etc.

I bring my toddler to Gage almost every week, and we have had many good walks in nearly every area of the park. She loves the squirrels, which thanks to human feeding, have become overzealous at even a child's "tsk tsk" sounds.

The turtle fountain and rose garden feel like a trip into Hamilton as it existed in a different era. The smokestacks from the steel mills fade into the background, and the whole thing takes on a slightly European character of leisure and retreat.

There are enough people around that I feel safe, but not so many people that it's crowded. That is the case in late spring, early fall.

That is definitely changing though, and by summer time when school is out, the park becomes something unrecognizable. Loud concerts and events take over, the playgrounds and splash pads become extremely busy, and recently the presence of homeless encampments make the trip less about retreat, and more of a confrontation between idyllic and tragic. I have also seen an increase in people experiencing mental health problems in the park, mostly homeless people yelling or having an episode.

For the most part, the problems in the park are problems that exist outside of the park - problems that are becoming too big to be contained outside the permeable border of this little oasis of leisure.

Pay a visit if you can, bring a picnic or something. Enjoy these places of leisure while you still can.