Residents to clean up Grandview ‘ashtray’
Smoking is banned in Vancouver parks, but there are so many cigarette butts in Grandview Park that users of the park have decided to clean it up.
DJ MacKinnon is organizing a cleanup of the park between 10 a.m. and noon Saturday, but there’s more than litter that needs to be addressed at the heavily used patch of green on Charles Street and Commercial Drive.
While MacKinnon was being interviewed in the park by The Province, a fight broke out and a man was beaten with a camping chair until he slumped to the ground and onlookers intervened.
Before the police arrived, his assailant fled the park along with his companions — as did another man drinking beer, which is illegal. The unrest is something that has long concerned Andre Montagliani, owner of the nearby Renzo’s Cafe.
“I think it’s horrible the city has left the park to be just completely abandoned from any authority of any sort,” he said.
Montagliani said he has called the city to complain numerous times and has received the response: “Oh, sorry, we’re just too busy.”
He contended Grandview is the busiest park in the city — if that activity was measured by the square foot. There may be more visitors to Stanley Park, but on a hot, sunny afternoon, Grandview was crowded from the playground to Commercial Drive.
“Stanley Park is at least set away from bars,” said Montagliani. “Not here, though.” There’s also a liquor store just a block away, he said.
While MacKinnon agreed the park is for everyone, the cigarette butts that are almost everywhere have some residents calling Grandview “a giant ashtray.”
“There are hundreds of cigarette butts,” said MacKinnon.
“It’s really quite disgusting. I really can’t just sit there comfortably where there’s all these cigarette butts. A lot of people don’t realize that it’s illegal to smoke in parks.”
Some people may not have got the message because MacKinnon recently found one of the signs warning people not to smoke tossed in the bushes.
In addition to breaking a bylaw against smoking in parks and at beaches, the smokers are littering. Carelessly discarding cigarettes is also a fire hazard, particularly now with parks rated at a high fire risk.
According to the Vancouver park board, park rangers have written 10 tickets for smoking this year, but the majority were warnings and only two tickets resulted in the $250 fine.
There were 122 warning tickets written last year by the rangers and 10 people were fined.
The Vancouver police fined another 15 people.
Park board chairman John Coupar admitted the situation was “not good.”
But enforcement can’t be everywhere.
“We’re spread thin,” he said. “There’s lots of issues in the city. You can’t be everywhere.”