People are unhappy when their parks get closed. We heard about it with Oppenheimer Park last year (now opened with grand new design) and now we’re hearing it a Grandview Park.
Here’s the news release from one group. Not sure what the counter-arguments are from others in the area, but perhaps posters can enlighten us all.
SOME COMMERCIAL DRIVE RESIDENTS CALLING FOR PARK PLAN THAT AVOIDS YEAR-LONG CLOSURE
Grandview Park needs sprucing up, but not a major makeover that requires full closure for almost a whole year
——————–
About 40 people met in Commercial Drive’s Grandview Park last Sunday to discuss alternatives to the approved plan that needs the entire park to be fenced off for nearly a year.
The homeowners, businesspeople, seniors, families, students and others attending the May 9 gathering agree that the park needs sprucing up, but nothing so ambitious that the whole city block-sized area will be off-limits for a year after June 30.
“Grandview Park needs a slight facelift, not a $1.5 million new face,” says area resident and parent Hazel Hoyle, explaining that really it is only the washrooms that are in a bad way. The small waterpark and the playground are showing their age, she says, but other than that, the rest of the park is fine and draws hundreds of people every day through the summer, and even more on weekends.
Hoyle feels that the parks board has not consulted the public adequately, and has instead been disproportionately influenced by a relatively small group of homeowners living near the park. Had the year-long closure been widely known, she says, “we believe there would have been an uproar.”
Located at Commercial and Charles Street, about halfway between First Avenue and East Hastings Street, the park and the adjacent Britannia community centre, school and library are at the heart of the Bohemian, iconic neighbourhood.
The “Friends of Grandview Park” homeowners’ group prompted the redevelopment because it feels the park is dangerous for them and their kids. In particular, according to parks board reports, the Friends complain about “non-families” using the playground, and the regular presence of “illegal inhabitants and illegal protestors.”
East Vancouver resident David Beattie says he and many friends worry that such a major makeover will spark a wider gentrification push that will do to “the Drive” what spiralling house prices have done to Kitsilano. The west side neighbourhood retains very little of the “hippie” feel that it had in the ’60s.
“We want East Vancouver and “the Drive” in particular to be a community where you don’t have to be rich to exist,” says Beattie, 51, “and where we don’t criminalize our neighbours.”
Beattie, a freelance writer and ESL teacher, says he and friends are holding a “Block Party” in the park this next Saturday evening, May 15. In addition to live music and dancing, he says, people will be told of the closure and total makeover plans.
16 responses so far ↓
1 Bill Smolick // May 14, 2010 at 11:58 am
There is an alternative. There’s a park just east of the drive off of Graveley. I always forget what its name it. Trout lake isn’t a long walk either.
Still, yes, it would be nice to avoid closing ALL of Grandview. I suppose this means no Parade of Lost Souls again this year, since it runs out of there?
2 booge // May 14, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Close it down. Full steam ahead and improve the park by all means. This park was closed for year and improved without any class warfare. Smarten up you whiners!
3 Chris Keam // May 14, 2010 at 1:46 pm
“Trout lake isn’t a long walk either.”
It is if you’re five years old. The playground is a busy place every time I go by on a weekend day. I hope a solution that doesn’t require such a drastic change is found.
4 Vancouvergirl // May 14, 2010 at 3:08 pm
I’m sorry, but as someone who lives two blocks away from this park. It is TIME for a serious makeover. I don’t care if it is closed and I live here! There are TONS of parks nearby, so it is no loss to me (Victoria Park, Britannia Field, Woodland Park, Trout Lake and McSpadden Park)! I never like hanging out there because of all the sketchy drunks and I feel bad for the mom’s there that have to explain to their kids why some drugged up bum is passed out near the playground.
Lets not romanticize this, like the park is facing somekind of sentimental loss of public space (like I said, 5 PARKS nearby). Change is good in this situation.
5 Bill Smolick // May 14, 2010 at 11:35 pm
>> “Trout lake isn’t a long walk either.”
> It is if you’re five years old.
Yes well, I’m not.
Or put the kids on a bike or in a trailer, or on a bus.
Or act like West Side parents and put the kids in the car.
In any case as someone else has pointed out there appears to be plenty of playground space nearby.
And yes, Grandview is a sketchy place but I doubt that will change with a redesign.
6 Susan // May 15, 2010 at 12:22 am
Just put in new bathrooms and don’t go for a big re-vamp. Do the job in segments, with different areas blocked off, instead of closing the whole park. As for the playgrounds, there is a trend away from the wooden ones at most places – though they worked fine during my childhood. I’m not sure why… there must be a reason…
7 Bill Lee // May 15, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Ah, the “Jews and Roma out of Swastika Park” theme.
They ‘redid’ Victoria Park’ over the way and with an intervening Civic Lockout had it fenced off for many more months. No improvment. It’s still a swamp when it rains, the bocce courts aren’t any better where they moved and are now too sunny. The fountain is fake, the same $1500 strollers dominate the welfare carry-the-kids-in-their-arms crowd at the cat-shitted sand box.
And shall we say that the “wrong people” are in the park.
Leave Grandview alone. They’ve done enough damage with shrubbery removal and such.
Eileen Mosca and her crew were obviously shunned at the recent Stone Soup Festival last week just off the park.
8 Bill Smolick // May 15, 2010 at 9:15 pm
> there is a trend away from the wooden ones at most places – though they
> worked fine during my childhood. I’m not sure why… there must be a reason…
Safety. Children can get splinters from wood, don’t you know? It happens. They now make “splinter free wood” which I presume is basically some form of fibreboard.
I lived near Maple Grove Elementary in Kerrisdale for five years. Just after I moved there they replaced the school playground with a beautiful, fun wooden one I used to take the kids too. Two years later, in perfect condition, it all got torn down and replaced with a plastic playground.
Safety, my man. All in the name of safety.
Manufacturing toys out of heavily refined oil products, after all, poses no danger to your children. That splinter could get infected and result in amputation. Imagine it!
9 John Paolozzi // May 16, 2010 at 2:26 pm
“They ‘redid’ Victoria Park’ over the way and with an intervening Civic Lockout had it fenced off for many more months. No improvment. It’s still a swamp when it rains, the bocce courts aren’t any better where they moved and are now too sunny. The fountain is fake, the same $1500 strollers dominate the welfare carry-the-kids-in-their-arms crowd at the cat-shitted sand box.
And shall we say that the “wrong people” are in the park.”
Actually, the park is a huge improvement. The swamp still forms, but disappears in a fraction of the time. The playground, formerly used by the occasional small group of adult males to drink beer is now dominated by dozens of kids at any given time (both rich and poor I assume, as there is no cover charge), and I don’t know how the fountain is “fake” exactly, since it squirts water.
And who exactly are the “wrong people”?
Grandview needs some love. The washrooms are mess, the waterpark barely adequate, and sort of dangerous, the lawn deteriorating, the tennis courts are mostly a waste of space, and there is practically no seating.
And re the plastic parks… actually they’re mostly metal, and have less plastic than the current one in Grandview. That said… I like the wood ones myself.
10 Wendy // May 16, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Random responses from a Drive resident:
On the wood playground replacement: the treated wood there now is known to be toxic and carcinogenic. So, a new playground would be in order. The fact that it’s falling apart is another reason.
Disagree with Bill Lee’s assessment of the Victoria Park re-do. The result is a much more used park than before. There’s a place for bocci, a great new playground that attracts hundreds of children per day, and still room for random park activity from dogs to music to hanging out. The grass field could have been better–during the strike no one was there to supervise and the wrong sod got used with the soil type (from what I’ve heard). Italians lobbied for the bocci move, and it seems to work well in the new location, creating a separate space for that activity.
Would have preferred if they could have done the Grandview park in stages so perhaps only 1/3 would have been closed at one time. This is an important park to avoid closing fully as the neighbouring parks are too small to absorb all of the Grandview park regulars.
11 John Paolozzi // May 17, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Wendy,
A likely reason they want to close the park and just get it over with is due to expense and time. This was the reason given when people suggested this for Oppenheimer Park.
http://betterparks.blogspot.com/2009/07/neighbours-decry-oppenheimer-park.html
The other nearby park options are Victoria, Mosaic, McSpadden, and there must be another half dozen within a 1.5km distance. I agree that it sucks, but it’s not the end of the world.
I don’t think that is what it’s about for many. They simply see this as a war on the poor. If you check out their Defend Grandview Facebook group they’re posting photos of houses and speculating they belong to Friends of Grandview people.
This whole thing seems unnecessarily divisive.
12 Tammy // May 17, 2010 at 10:58 pm
@Bill Smolick: Actually, the new park equipment is made of metal, not plastic. And while I personally prefer the aesthetic properties of wooden equipment, it’s not practical in this climate. The structures at Grandview are rotting. They regularly break underfoot, and it’s a miracle no kid has been badly injured. Though splinters definitely abound. My four-year-old got one the size of a large nail embedded deep in his hand.
I’m bummed the park is going to be closed this summer, though. My kids usually go to the sprinkler park every day. We’re going to miss it. My understanding is that, because the development work is being done by contractors, the city had to accept the dates the contractors said they could do the job. It sucks, but that’s life.
13 Bill Smolick // May 19, 2010 at 9:54 am
If they’re metal, hopefully they go with one of these routes:
http://io9.com/5542258/old+school-space-playgrounds-were-awesome-andor-death-traps/gallery/
Every other new playground installation I’ve seen in recent years has been plastic. Nice to see that’s not happening. Plastics are a scourge.
14 Friend of the drive // May 20, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Generally Construction is done in the summer months because of the weather, rain creates many chalenges which could lead to delays.
15 David Beattie // Jan 6, 2011 at 12:19 pm
I am Beattie of article. The park is “sketchy” is it? What a load of bourgeois bollocks. Just because people don’t dress like realtors and because they smoke the occasional joint or drink a beer or two does not make them sketchy, whatever the hell that means.
Vancouver is indeed becoming a boutique city for the international jetset, and with comments like this the transformation is deserved. Don’t come bitching when the cheapest beer on the Drive is $5:00 or more.
I decided not to go ahead with my Civil Resistance because there is so little support for resistance to gentrification on the Drive. I can’t wait to see what happens over the next five years or so. Those who encourage the park closure constantly cast red herrings – it was never about the park closure per se you smegheads, it is about the motivation and the ensuing DISPLACEMENT of people who are either marginalized through no fault of their own, and who don’t want to be, and those who choose not to lead mainstream consumerist lives.
The Vancouver Courier has been having a whale of a time poking fun at me and my ilk. I shall bide my time.
16 RE160 // Jan 30, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Paving over half the park is a step backwards.
So the new Grandview Park includes a grotesque concrete “Cenotaph Plaza” and concrete “Seating Walls” (walls??) where, before the “improvements”, local residents enjoyed summer days and evenings relaxing and socializing on the grass and under the trees…
http://vancouver.ca/parks/info/planning/grandviewpark/index.htm