If you ever want to crash a birthday park, New Westminster parks are the place to be on sunny Sundays in the summer. Just ask Mayor Jonathan Cote.
Cote was a man on the move on Sunday, when he walked, wheeled and drove his way to all of the 44 parks in New Westminster, posting photos and comments about many of the stops on social media along the way.
“I had a lot of fun visiting every single park in the City of New Westminster,” he said. “It was the end of my time off – I had a couple weeks off at the beginning of August. I just thought it would be a really fun way to showcase the amazing parks that we have in the City of New Westminster. One of the most common feedback I got from people on my travels was, ‘Wow, I had no idea we had 44 parks in the City of New Westminster.’”
Cote started his #project44parks at Albert Crescent Park at 8 a.m. and finished his day at Sapperton Landing Park at 9 p.m. Along the way, he clocked 26,000 steps.
“I probably wouldn’t recommend it, particularly if you have kids, to try and do all 44 parks in a day. It was certainly a very interesting challenge to take on. But I would encourage residents to have a look at all the different parks that I visited and maybe plan out a few in a day and try to explore some parks that they haven’t been to, he said. “There are a lot of hidden gems out there.”
Cote said he got a lot of feedback from community members as he posted photos of the parks he visited throughout the day.
“I had a number of comments about Glenbrook Ravine when I posted some pictures from there saying, ‘Where is this green oasis in New Westminster and how do I get there?’” he said. “That gets to why I wanted to do this: to let people know about some of the great parks we already have in our community.”
While many residents are familiar with larger amenities like Moody, Queen’s, Hume and Ryall parks, they’re often less familiar with some of the smaller parks in New West.
“I actually discovered two parks that don’t even have road access – you can only get to them from back lanes, which really makes them secret hidden parks in New Westminster,” Cote said. “I thought it was funny, when I was talking to residents in those neighbourhoods, they were almost telling me, ‘Don’t let the secret out about our secret little park here.’”
Before hitting the road, Cote mapped out his itinerary for the day’s adventure. He started the day walking to parks near his downtown home with daughters Renee, Leah and Violet and his sister-in-law’s dog Rocket. With his daughters exhausted from the tour and Cote falling behind schedule, he grabbed his bike and met up with Coun. Patrick Johnstone, who accompanied him on a bike tour of Queensborough and West End parks.
While Cote enjoyed visiting each of the city’s parks, he also had fun meeting residents who were spending time in the great outdoors.
“As the day progressed, more and more people started following the journey I was doing. There was one individual on Twitter who kept trying to catch up to me or find out where I would be and was always 10 minutes behind,” he said. “It was interesting – at the park you’d have some people aware of what was happening and want to come up and talk to me, and then just other people recognizing the mayor was in their local park but didn’t know what I was doing, but wanted to come up and talk to me. It was really nice getting the feedback from residents directly in their local parks. I heard of some issues where people hope maybe some of the maintenance in a particular park might be done a little bit better.”
At the all-wheel park in Queensborough, a 10-year-old boy provided the mayor with “a whole whack of feedback” about what he’d like to see with the new skateboard park when it’s relocated from the high school site.
Glenbrook North resident Mike Folka had invited Cote to pop by his son’s birthday party in Queen’s Park and have a slice of pizza.
“One thing I wasn’t expecting was how many birthday parties I’d run into. There was probably 30 birthday parties happening in New Westminster parks on Sunday,” Cote said. “I got to Queen’s Park and there must have been 20 birthday parties. I thought, how am I going to find his party in this mass of birthday parties? It was great to see how the community is using the parks and to see all these kids’ birthday parties, all the way from Queensborough to Hume Park to Queen’s Park. It was really wonderful to see.”
Cote convinced his daughter Renee to hit the road with him for the final leg of the journey on the eastern side of the city. That part was done by car.
“That was really the only way we were going to make it,” he said. “To get Renee to have the energy level to get out, I had to bribe her to say we would visit Hume Park pool near the end of our visit. We went to the pool for almost an hour.”
It was past Renee’s bedtime when the pair visited the 44th park on the tour, Sapperton Landing Park, at 9 p.m. on Aug. 20.
“With the Pattullo Bridge and the sun just setting, it was a beautiful location to end the day,” he said.
After zigzagging all over the city, Cote feels he has a better insight on the city’s park needs. He said it emphasized the fact that the Connaught Heights area doesn’t have as many parks as other areas of the city and the need to ensure the city creates new greenspaces for neighbourhoods going through a transition.
“I am really happy I did it,” he said. “It really got me thinking about how, into the future, we can make our park system even better. Maybe one day we will reach the 50 park mark.”
