One parent, one list.

I'm Chen, I live in Signal Hill, and I'm the one person behind this site. I help run the Signal Hill Community Association neighbour-day app and I build my own things on the side. I'm going to be honest — I built Calgary Playground because I was tired of being the person in my house googling "is the splash pad on yet" at 8:47 on a Saturday morning.

The answers were always there, but scattered across five different sites, always two clicks deep, never sorted by what a tired parent actually needs — age of the kid, indoor or outdoor, how far from my door. So I built the site I wanted.

Today there are 1,200+ playgrounds on the map, around 80 editorial write-ups, and events pulled in daily from the places that matter. The Thursday list goes out weekly. I read every reply.

How the list gets built

Playgrounds come from the City of Calgary Open Data portal. Events come from Heritage Park, Telus Spark, Calgary Public Library, Family Fun Canada, and a growing pile of community associations. A Claude model tags each one with age range, indoor/outdoor, and cost. Then I read them.

When something doesn't pass the "would I actually take my own kid here?" test, it doesn't go on the list. When I've been there, I write it up. When I haven't, I say so.

Know a place I'm missing? Send it. I check them all and the real ones go up within a couple days.

What this isn't

Not a listicle farm. Not an SEO blog with a dozen pop-ups. Not a platform that sells your email. The Thursday list is free. There are no tracking cookies. When a business eventually pays to be featured, it'll say “Featured” on it, and it won't sit above the picks I'd make for my own kid.

Say hi

Got a spot I'm missing, a correction, or you run a community group with events worth including? Email hello@calgaryplayground.com or drop it in the submit form. It comes straight to me.