A quirky park just off Renfew and 7th, Kaslo consists of a giant hill, tennis courts and playground, in a quiet area of East Van next to a co-op. 

But the playground is one of the newest in the city, and it demands to be highlighted — a steep slide and climbing wall integrate seamlessly into the park’s hill. And at the bottom, there’s a full playground that is excellent for kids 8-12, with two solid slides, and a weird crescent-shaped jungle gym. There’s also a couple springy swings and other play accessories for younger kids. 

All of which is to say that if we were ranking parks solely for children, Kaslo would be around #35. But the rest of the park is fairly pedestrian (outside of the lovely view from the top of the hill), which is why we’re talking about it here.

Part of the reason Almond Park is so loved on the west side is because of its location: conveniently off Alma and 12th, it’s the closest mid-sized park for thousands of residents in Point Grey, Dunbar and Kitsilano. 

And specifically, its location wedged right up against Alma as cars race up the hill between Broadway and 16th provides its biggest strength and weakness: the steep hillside was turned into a forested area with ample shrubs and a gentle pathway, providing a quasi-hidden exploration space that’s rare for a park of this size.

However, the noise coming from the cars is ever present. And once you’re done exploring the little forest, it’s a rather ordinary park, with a small field, tennis courts and an adequate sand/wood/yellow slide playground from the 90s. 

In summation, the grievances of this ranking aired in a Canucks recap in The Athletic have been noted, but dismissed.

It’s a generic park with a generic name.

That may be a tad rude, but it’s also a fair description. An assuming city block near 1st and Nanaimo, Garden Park has a small field, tennis and basketball courts, a playground and a field house all clumped together, with trees on all sides and few extra flourishes. 

It is essentially the Vancouver Special of parks, both in the fact that it seems like it hasn’t been updated since 1983, and that it’s so well used and beloved that its relative specialness is rather besides the point. 

Which also means that, if we’re being objective, it could use an upgrade. The playground is rather small and toddler-specific, while the soccer field could use maintenance (or perhaps there should be a designated dog park closer than 1.5km away). 

Like any well-loved garden though, there’s evidence of lots of love, even in the absence of anything unique. 

When does a school’s playground count towards a park’s rankings?

This seemingly unimportant question carries some weight when you’ve been wandering around the public spaces of Vancouver for weeks, and beginning noticing just how many parks are right next to schools, with very little delineation as to when one ends and the other begins. 

Our general rule of thumb was that, whatever the technical boundaries of a park and school, if the playground was easily accessible to the public and generally blended into the common park area, it counted.

Now with that boring explanation out of the way, let us consider Camosun. Being next to an elementary school, there’s a Big Sports Field and a playground, with a fun climbing pyramid and another more modern play structure as well. 

There’s an old gravel track on the west side, in a gentle bowl shape with the trees of Pacific Spirit Park looming in the background, giving a feeling of old Vancouver. And the easy accessibility to nearby trails from the park is a definite bonus. 

One note of caution is the unique ownership structure of the site (owned by the province, leased to the park and school board), which means future upgrades are a big question mark. For the moment though, it does what it needs to, and quite pleasantly at that.

Fraserview is the type of mid-sized park with a playground, field and a walking track surrounding a perimeter that is rarely paid attention to. Situated a half-block off a semi-busy street in southeast Vancouver, it’s not really anyone’s definition of a destination area.    

But in 2011 the park was noticed by the park board, receiving a $700,000 upgrade. That brought new grass, new fitness equipment that loops around the walking trail, and a new playground that includes both a stairs-and-swing structure for smaller kids and a more ambitious climbing structure and swing set on the other side. 

The net effect is a fairly decent park for the time being, particularly for kids, though we note the fitness equipment is already breaking down and the playground equipment is separated by a couple big trees in a way that isn’t great for parents trying to watch multiple young ones at the same time. 

In an area of the city with very minimal amenities though, it will certainly do.

A well-used neighbourhood park in the heart of Grandview-Woodland, Alice Townley has lots of trees and gentle hills for a relatively small space. 

The playground is old but acceptable, with an old-school bendy metal slide that has hundreds of small indents, the type Calvin’s dad would say builds character. 

There’s a good cycling and walking path going through the middle of the park, and plenty of benches and tables that allow all types of people little areas of reprieve. 

None of this is incredible, as the grades would indicate, but it all works. In a small space a number of purposes are achieved for all demographics, all sloping down to a corner facing the mosaic bikeway. 

Well-designed small parks with character are a relatively rare occurrence in the city, and this is a keeper.

But it’s intricately plotted out, dominated by a beautiful mosaic art piece that wanders through the park like a lazy creek (hence the name). There’s a little rock structure that’s fun for kids to climb, multiple hangout spaces, and some nice shrubbery.  

This wouldn’t have delighted us so much if there were others like it. But most of the small parks in the city are either undersigned patches of grass intended for you to enjoy the ocean, or weird elongated traffic medians with a few trees in the middle. 

Mosaic Creek is about as good as a tiny park can be with no major amenities. We just wish there were more of them, subtly dropped throughout the city.