One can easily see a time in the none-too distant future where Columbia Park becomes an incredibly busy green space.

A block to the east of Oakridge Centre (currently being redeveloped to allow for more condos, as is the fashion of the time), Columbia is a lovely mid-sized park that isn’t too big as to seem cavernous, but isn’t too small to be cramped if there are sports games happening on the oft-used baseball and soccer fields.

A 90s playground with plenty of slides and tunnels and bridges is solid for most (albeit on a frustratingly raised sandy surface), and there’s good use of trees and slopes to separate the different parts of the park.

Unfortunately, the field house was destroyed last decade, and a separate set of slides was also removed. And the large pentagon-shaped wading pool is closed most of the year — like most wading pools in Vancouver, they’re now seen as an inefficient use of space, and the park board is slowly converting them to spray parks — which also docks points of Columbia’s score.      

An upgrade is needed. But what’s here is plenty good for the moment.