Built in 1927 as part of a subdivision of houses that are now among the most valued properties in the entire province, Westmount is another one of the city’s underdeveloped triangular parks, this one on a fairly steep hill.

However, there’s a few things that make it valuable for the community, including a small playground good for older toddlers, and a pair of swings where you can peer through the many Douglas Fir trees to get a glimpse of English Bay. 

Those trees are also dense enough to provide some shade and a somewhat interesting walk, making it perfectly adequate for the nearby community, if not worth directly seeking out.      

Less an actual park and more a collection of sports facilities, Elm has tennis courts, a lawn bowling club, washrooms and a baseball field. If you need to do any of those three things, the park will provide quite well, with trees on all sides providing both shade and noise reduction from Kerrisdale’s busy commercial area to the north.

If you’re requiring anything else though, it will be lacking — no playground, no picnic tables, just a small strip of grass between the field house and the baseball diamond. 

The easternmost of the Point Grey Road parks, this one has a number of benches where you can get wonderful views of Stanely Park and English Bay, plus there’s a picnic table that was installed a few years ago.

On the east side of the park there’s a rock with an engraved story about Vancouver in Ye Olde Times, of which there are around 15 more sprinkled through the city. 

This was one of the first pieces of land purchased by the Park Board on the street for just over a million dollars in the early 1970s. They are worth, um, considerably more now. 

Another park in the far northeast corner of Vancouver named for an adjacent street originally named for a prestigious university, McGill is a small, semi-hidden field just off Nanaimo Street, with fencing and a layer of trees providing some reprise from the busy street. 

While a decent use of a sloping space, the park itself is fairly minimal: a couple of interesting murals and tables to sit at, but a bit too cluttered for any activities aside from some green space for your dog to roam.   

This park site is slightly better than most of the Point Grey Road parks due to the more head-on view of the mountains, a couple more benches that are closer to the view, and a patch of land that has a few more gentle slopes for games of bocce. 

It’s also the site that became the subject of political controversy in 1991, because two years after the city bought the last of the properties for $1.9 million, some park board commissioners argued it should be flipped for a profit to build more parks on the east side of the city. 

Plus ça change…

Everything about Nat Bailey is a throwback to the past — the stadium was built in 1951, originally called Capilano Stadium, before it was renamed in 1978 in honour of the founder of B.C. ‘s venerable White Spot restaurant chain.

Its main purpose is to be the home of a minor league baseball team, a reminder of when Vancouver wasn’t major league enough to be home to any major sports outside hockey. 

There was the risk of it being demolished in the early 21st century, but enough supporters (and fundraisers) came together to keep it operating. And recent renovations make the stadium more than just nostalgia: it’s a fun place to watch a game with solid production values, good party sections and fun gimmick nights (fireworks, dog day, Jays alumni). Or at least was before two seasons were cancelled due to the pandemic. 

Ranking Nat Bailey as a park is weird, because it’s a concrete heritage site where you can’t do 95% of the things you associate with a park. 

But if you don’t mind spending a bit of money, and don’t mind having the patience needed for three hours of baseball, you’ll have a good time. 

You know how some schools have “annexes”, that are sort of its own thing, but also clearly connected to something bigger? 

Heather Park feels a little bit like that. Just one block north of the incredibly large and popular Douglas Park, Heather has four tennis courts (presumably because Douglas has zero) and a small field used as an unofficial dog area (presumably because Douglas’ fields are very sports-oriented). 

Two tiny springy swings in the shape of a duck sit under a tree; no need for anything more given the magnificent playground at Douglas. 

Heather is often fairly busy though, a solid example of how a park can become quite popular if it fills two or three core needs very well. 

Sadly, we ended up lying to Seth, and didn’t bump up the ranking. But if there isn’t a plaque in Ravine Park at some point for this bit of history, then we’re missing out.