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.