It’s set up to be a great park. It should be a great park. 

And yet, Vanier is a big case of squandered potential. 

It doesn’t *seem* that way on first blush: after all, it’s a giant green space right on the water, to the west of Burrard Street Bridge, with multiple pieces of iconic city art, including the Gate to the Northwest Passage and the giant fountain outside the Space Centre and Vancouver Museum. A former air force base transferred to the City of Vancouver in the 1960s, there was a clear desire to make it a great public space from the beginning.   

There’s a lazy walking and bike trail lacing the water, a giant pond, even a hidden dirt bike track in the small forest in the south of the park. Bard on the Beach is here every year, tourists flock to it, and it’s easily accessible by car, bike or feet. What’s not to like?

Well, the goose, for one.

Specifically, their poop.

And look, one can debate whether the government’s moratorium on killing geese has run its course or not, but objectively there is no park in Vancouver with a greater density of geese, and excrement on the grass, creating a spongy layer that renders the large grassy area unusable for most activities for most of the year. 

“Built after decades of squabbling between the park board, city and residents in the first half of the 20th century, China Creek is dominated by a huge and ultimately generic field, with little tree cover or areas for people to do anything except sports or tanning.“

This was our initial impression of China Creek South, with an original ranking of 112th, and we are happy to say that initial impressions can be deceiving.

True, the middle of China Creek is, ultimately, Just Another Big Field, one without a lot of protection from the fairly busy East 6th Avenue to the north.

But it’s the areas on the perimeter that make China Creek work, most of which were part of renovations that happened from 2019 to 2021. There’s a new playground with a steep slide, but also with some smaller play structures good for kids under 5. And it integrates in well with a huge hill that provides an excellent view of Great Northern Way Campus and the surrounding industrial area.

It means there’s a winding path through some plants, which is excellent if you enjoy a bit of nature, but there’s still space for a giant toboggan slope that is one of the best in the city the three days a year where it’s possible to use it. 

There’s also a new washroom, lots of fitness equipment, and judging by the number of people working out when we’ve been here, it is to flexing what nearby Dude Chilling Park is to chilling — no doubt the ample amount of sun the park gets helping with that. 

That’s not to say China Creek North is an amazing park — but it has plenty of things worth visiting for different age groups, and we heartily concede our initial error in assessing a park that is going to get more and more use as the industrial areas to its north continue to evolve.

The story of Everett Crowley Park, 38 hectares of urban wilderness in the far southeast of the city, is well celebrated: the city’s largest landfill for decades in the middle of the 20th century, it was closed for nearly 20 years, slowly being reclaimed by nature (and losing residue methane gas) before becoming a park in 1987. 

That was largely due to the persistence of local residents, many of whom volunteered in the years after to improve the park by removing invasive plants. Now, the park is a large collection of small trails, along with a duck pond, a small meadow, ample room for off-leash dogs, and a few reminders of its landfill past, including a giant tractor tire one can hypothetically jump into. 

It’s a credit to Vancouver to have a place like this, so it almost feels unfair to point out that the trails are a little repetitive, or that it sometimes feels like a tree tunnel with few open spaces or real views, or that there’s nothing particularly here for kids. 

It’s a good park and a wonderful atmosphere though, one that 20 years ago was in danger of being shrunk so Fraserview Golf Course could expand to accommodate a potential PGA Tour event that was being held in Surrey. 

That golf tournament no longer exists. Odds are Everett Crowley will, and for a long time to come. 

Fundamentally, Sunnyside is a pretty simple park: some swings and an early 90s playground, on top of a raised grassy area with plenty of trees. 

So what is it doing here?

 Well, there’s the clever design — most parks in the city have a sunken bevel, but being on top of a small hill gives Sunnyside a different feel. And the park is filled with trees in a way most others aren’t — it feels a bit like a wooded area in the English countryside, particularly given most of the trees are of the plain variety. A rare structure with a permanent bench and table underneath can easily be covered with a tarp, giving options for family gatherings.

But really, the highlight of the park is something not technically in it: the giant 25-foot high climbing structure that’s between the park and Charles Dickens school. There isn’t a taller climbing structure available for free in the city, fun for both larger kids and adults, and “just” tall enough with “just” enough gaps between the intricate tightropes that there’s a sense of danger. 

Factor in the closed off street between the park and the school, filled with basketball courts and funky benches, and it’s an excellent example of how a few unique additions can make a neighbourhood park something special.

Amazingly (or maybe not, given property values), Nelson Park is the only inland park between Stanley Park and Chinatown that’s a full city block large. 

That puts a lot of pressure on it to fulfill a lot of needs; little wonder The Province had a 2004 headline saying ‘Every urban issue is in this park’, and not a decade goes by where there’s not some temporary panic over the future of Nelson, and whether the park and Mole Hill neighbourhood can withstand another torrent of downtown development. 

That’s warranted, because Nelson is a lovely urban park, well used with a lot of uses. The dog park is dusty but just large enough, the community gardens are designed so some of them face the sidewalk — subtly integrating the park into the neighbourhood a bit more — and there’s ample amount of benches and wide cement paths. And we’re not even including the farmers market that takes place on the adjacent street. 

There’s a climbing apparatus for smaller kids, though we wish there was a bit more for them to do. There’s a bit of needless fencing separating each area as well, and we’re getting to the point in these rankings where being solid across the board only gets you so far. 

Debate over Nelson will likely intensify in the next decade, courtesy the installation of a hydro substation under the park and the redevelopment of nearby St. Paul’s Hospital.

With so many West End residents who care for it though, we imagine it will be in good hands. 

An extensive renovation of Brewers means it’s essentially a different park now, with only the small soccer field on the far west side remaining from what it once was. And it’s a change for the better.

Before, the park had a playground, basketball court and tennis court After the $1.8 million renovation, it has…a playground, basketball court, and tennis court.

But they are new, with the basketball/tennis court having vibrant colours, and they’ve created plenty of opportunity for skateboarding with the new design. The new trees, picnic tables and community gardens are all solid as well. 

The highlight of the renovation is the playground, particularly the very tall slide that integrates with other play structures in a quirky but fun design that has a cartoony visual aesthetic.

The bottom sport part of the park doesn’t particularly integrate with the top playground area well, and Brewers has almost too much of a “new park sheen” at the moment.

A more lived-in authentic feel will come in time though. For now, it’s still an excellent renovation, and a great park for families in the area.