This is what it's like living next to Trinity Bellwoods Park right now

If you're feeling enraged by images of crowds packing Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto this weekend, imagine how the people who live right next to it feel. 

A resident of Gore Vale Avenue, the street at the east side of the park, reached out to blogTO on behalf of herself and two others in her building to express her frustration.

"We had drunken parkgoers peeing on our fire escapes, stoops and lawns," she says. "People were snorting cocaine in my neighbour's garden and dealing drugs in our yard out front. We are all afraid to go outside and upset and disappointed by the crowds and the garbage being left behind."

She calls the actions of parkgoers "very irresponsible" and hopes that bylaw officers can be employed to help with the issue. 

"The bylaw officers were out in full force on days where there can't have been more than like 15 to 20 people, and yesterday it seemed there were none to be found," says the Gore Vale resident. 

While we all hope social distancing enforcement can be stepped up, the City of Toronto did promise that there would be a visible police presence in Trinity Bellwoods today and that social distancing would be strictly enforced.

Toronto Police are out enforcing social distancing at Trinity Bellwoods Park today #Toronto #TrinityBellwoodsPark #TrinityBellwoods #TorontoPolice pic.twitter.com/qkWjeqHsba

— blogTO (@blogTO) May 24, 2020

"I understand people are feeling cooped up and it's a beautiful weekend. I know it's hard to stay home," says the resident.

"But we are not out of the woods yet and there are so many other public parks to visit with your friends. Elderly people and children live in this neighbourhood too. I am disabled and so are two of my neighbours, it can be hard to go out in the first place let alone with 10,000 people on your street!"

She says she feels even worse for her senior neighbours. "It's so unfair to them and to all the frontline workers too," she says.