[Radley77]

I would have strong reservations about the creation of any new parks within the City Centre. Why? City parks can lack the natural guardians that streets have, and often creates sightline blockages that aids criminals at concealing criminal activity. Even the best designed park is at risk for crime like drug trafficking and alcohol use.

Instead my thinking goes along the lines of instead of creating a "park", create ribbons of green space, interjected with focal points. Work on improving the streetscape and sidewalk, and lighting beneath railway underpasses. I believe serving the mobility needs of pedestrians is way more important to improving quality of life in City Centre than development of parks. For example, the Stampede Grounds are awful for pedestrians, there are also areas of downtown where sidewalk is non-existent, or the stretches of railroad lines where there are no crossovers for pedestrians.

Sorry for the rant; this weekend I found a cache of spray cans hidden behind some shrouding in a park (which was likely used for graffiti tagging), so I am convinced parks end up all to often fuctioning as places for drug trafficking instead of the beautification that city planners had envisioned.

Even Olympic Plaza which I would say is one of the more pretty parks in the city, and has been wellfunded, it is difficult to cross through without being hassled for money or seeing someone passed out and drunk on a bench.

Putting up a bunch of benches, picnic tables, and a couple of trees can seem like a well meaning idea, but if the park lacks engagement of people throughout the day and night, it might as well be the perfect place to cache spray cans or traffic drugs.