Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is calling for those responsible for vandalizing a city park to be held accountable. The latest incident happened at Alton C. Parker Park. The downtown park is named after Alton C. Parker, the first Black officer on the Windsor Police Service and Canada’s first Black detective. While speaking to reporters, the mayor was made aware the playground had been spray painted, but had not seen the specific wording of the graffiti, which included a racial slur. “We really want and encourage any resident who sees something to say something. Let’s catch these people. Let’s make them accountable for their actions,” Dilkens said. “These parks are frequented by a lot of people every day, so it’s likely that someone saw something, saw some suspicious behavior. Please call Windsor police and report it.” Ward 4 Councillor Mark McKenzie raised concerns last month saying park vandalism was “getting out of control” across the city. The washrooms at Lanspeary Park were vandalized, and at the start of July, a fire was deliberately set to a children’s playground set at Parent Park, causing $200,000 in damage. Dilkens says taxpayers ultimately bear the cost when public amenities are damaged. “It’s so disheartening to see good investments be ruined by a few jerks in this city,” he said. “As a city, we self-insure for the first $250,000 of any claim, so if someone damages a park, in a lot of cases, it just means that we’re going to have to not do another park in order to replace the park that was damaged.” Dilkens says significant resources are being devoted to maintaining recreation spaces across Windsor. “This year alone, $36 million to start replacing the rest of the aging playgrounds,” he said. “We have spent a lot of money and we get a lot of compliments from the community on the condition of our parks, which is why on their behalf, I’m so disheartened to see a couple jerks move out and do damage to a park where we know residents enjoy that equipment and those facilities.” In Feb. 2026, city council approved a plan to replace 36 aging playgrounds across the city.
