Grandview Park is yours and is no fun for kids
On weekends our family usually takes one day to do something we can all enjoy together. It might be tubing at Cypress, cycling around Stanley Park, running for a cause or even enjoying the fare and village of Commercial Drive.
The last time the three of us were hanging out on Commercial Drive, my old stomping ground, we stopped by a favourite coffee shop we like to think of as ours. It’s obvious by the crowd of customers always inside and the many others hovering around the exterior that this is the way a great many people think of the place. To me, all of Commercial Drive is a little like that. Commercial Drive is a place many people call their hood. I don’t mean a location you tell someone you live. No. There is a connection that almost becomes part of one’s personality, or is it the other way around? Who knows. It’s more than simply an address of where you live.
As we were enjoying our coffee on the outside patio our nine year old son asked us if he could go play in the park across the street. He’s familiar with the park. He’s been there before. It’s the one that smells like “Man Pee”. I’m talking about Grandview Park.
His little adventure of crossing the street at the light and finding his way to the playground all by himself, (we could see him the entire time), was cut short when a yelling match broke out between two groups of people which quickly escalated into a fight. He came straight back. A few minutes later police cars where there. It was an embarrassing display.
So now I am hearing that people don’t want the park to change? That I am possibly a gentrified yuppie if I think it might be a good idea to make it safe for kids? A sense of ownership, reduced to a square block, by one group of people. At the very least, let’s have signs, “This is our park. No fun for kids”
The Approved plans (PDF)
And here are the “Owners” of Grandview Park
