2024 In Review: Parks and Youth Services

The Bottom Line

54 events hosted
2 million visits to city parks
$6.2 million invested
$5 million in Federal grants and private donations
$2 million awarded through Youth Programming Grant Program

This year City of Toledo’s Department of Parks and Youth Services focused on programming, making long overdue improvements to our neighborhood parks, and improving our paved walking trails.

According to the Trust for Public Land, Toledo is one of the top cities in the country for providing access to public parkland in historically under-served communities. In Toledo, residents living in neighborhoods of color have access to 134% more nearby park space. Residents living in lower-income neighborhoods have access to 73% more nearby park space than those in higher-income neighborhoods.

When measured against the 100 largest cities in the country, Toledo Parks rank #27 in terms of quality, access, and investment. This represents an 14-spot improvement over our rank in 2023.

Park Visitation

Overall visitation is up approximately 100,000 visits as compared with last year, but especially in parks that saw recent investments:

Clinton Park received a new playground- Visitation is up 175%
Schneider Park was completely revitalized- Visitation is up 294%
Jermain Park tennis complex was completely revitalized- Visitation is up 455%
Corbin Park received a new playground- Visitation is up 212%

Project Highlight

Infrastucture Improvements

40 picnic tables
86 park benches
5 new grills installed
19 playgrounds mulched
9 swing set chains replaced
31 swing set seats replaced
24 illegal dumping sites cleaned
99 old tires removed
36 ballfields maintained
6 bullpens constructed at Scott Park
10 tennis nets replaced

Capital Investments

5 new playgrounds
4 new tennis courts
4 new pickleball courts
2 new public flush restrooms
6 parks received improvement to their walking trails
Detwiler Park baseball fields and concession building received major renovations
Roosevelt Pool at Smith Park is receiving major renovations to the pool tank and bathhouse
McCarthy Field at Highland Park is being reopened to the public with new restrooms, concession area, and bleachers

Division of Youth Services

73 summer programs launched
33 after-school programs launched
$2,196,185 in youth programming grants awarded
43,933 youth served with funding to 106 program providers
20 Youth Advisory Board members (YAB) marking the largest cohort to date