"Dude Chilling Park" sign finds new home
"Dude Chilling Park" sign to be featured prominently in Brewery Creek Garden
The fake Vancouver Park Board sign that effectively renamed Mount Pleasant's Guelph Park has found a new home.
The "Dude Chilling Park" sign will be featured prominently in the Brewery Creek Community Garden, not far from its original location near a Michael Dennis sculpture of a lounging figure in Guelph Park.
The sign was created by artist Viktor Briestensky and designed to mirror the format of other city park signs.
When park staff noticed the sign last November, it was taken down. But an outpouring of support through social media for the sign led the park board to reconsider.
Local resident Dustin Bromley launched an online petition to save the sign.
"The sign looked exactly like the park board sign. It was really well done," Bromley said.
"And then I found out that the city wanted to take it out and that didn't make sense to me. It didn't seem like vandalism, it seemed very harmless and it totally represents the spirit of the park."
The petition garnered more than 1,800 signatures and caught the attention of Vancouver Park Board Chair Sarah Blyth, who invited Bromley to a park board meeting.
Bromley pushed to change the name of the park — an idea that was quickly quashed — but a motion to find a home for the sign was passed.
The park board discussed putting the sign in the Mount Pleasant Community Centre or in the Museum of Vancouver, but Bromley protested.
"Those didn't match the spirit of the sign," he said. "I feel like it needs to be outside and, really, in Dude Chilling Park."
Bromley ultimately agreed to the Brewery Creek Community Garden, which is located inside Guelph Park.
The garden's board approved the idea Wednesday night.
The sign, along with a commemorative plaque, will be moved to the garden soon.