Vancouver Park Board wants to preserve Strathcona green space
‘People’s Park,’ also known as ‘Garbage Park’, may become real park at corner of Gore Avenue and Union Street
The Vancouver Park Board wants to preserve a green space that residents say is a badly-needed outdoor space for the Chinatown and Strathcona neighbourhoods.
Commissioners voted unanimously to declare their intention to preserve the space, at the corner of Gore Avenue and Union Street, under the park board's care and custody, then eventually turn it into a permanent park.
Until recently, the land was set to be the site of a temporary fire hall, drawing the ire of some in the community.
"This is a very meaningful spot," said Independent Commissioner Scott Jensen, who seconded a motion at a Monday meeting. "It is a little piece of land, but it's a little piece of land that means so much."
It "has been sometimes known locally as everything from 'Garbage Park' to 'People's Park,'" according to the motion from Green Commissioner Tom Digby.
But it's not actually a park at all, his motion notes. Since 1971, it's been a "city-owned road right-of-way, with Park Board crews receiving special funding from the city to maintain the space for the benefit of local residents."
Speakers at a Monday night Park Board meeting told its history as a planned off-ramp to the planned-but-then-mostly-scrapped freeway into Downtown Vancouver.
"Our vulnerable, unhoused population… they need shade," said emergency physician Sophie Low-Beer at the Monday meeting.
"I have pronounced people dead numbers of times because of this heat emergency, and it drove me crazy when I was going to my job, to see people dying of the heat, and in the same breath, walking through my neighbourhood and seeing these trees that provide shade … were going to be cut down."
ABC Commissioner Jas Virdi challenged Digby on where else a fire hall could go.
Digby responded that he sympathizes with that need, and suggested unused parking lots, light industrial or commercial space could be leased for a temporary hall.
"I know City [of Vancouver] is currently looking for alternatives," Digby said. "We definitely need better first responder sites in the Downtown Eastside."
A City webpage about the fire hall projects states the proposal process is on hold.
"The City considers engaging with the community in productive conversations an important part of creating a vibrant, healthy Vancouver," a City of Vancouver spokesperson wrote in an email.
"Given the feedback that the City has heard from residents and community groups, we will be pausing the rezoning process at this time to re-evaluate location options."
The spokesperson also noted nearby Fire Hall No. 2 is "the busiest fire hall in Vancouver," and is at capacity serving the Downtown Eastside. The temporary hall was intended to help relieve pressure on Fire Hall No. 2.
The now-passed park board motion also directs staff to look at the costs of acquiring and maintaining the park, and puts the ball in city council's court to "arrange ways and means to give effect to this interest and intent."
Green Coun. Pete Fry told CBC Monday night that he will put forward a motion later this month to make the former planned off-ramp into a new park.
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