This sounds like a great idea for the hood! Hope to make it down!

Thanks goodness this Park being used for something the community will benefit from and don't have to pay admission to get in.
This park was originally intended for the people of East Vancouver to enjoy.
It was "plundered", built on and paved for commercial purposes.

Get the Racetrack & the PNE out, the derelict buildings torn down, tear up the parking lots and return it to a park.
Hastings Park can be a beautiful green space for all to enjoy.

Hey Cathy, if you read the 104 yr history of the park you will soon realise you are very wrong, the site was created to hold a Fair and the park slowly grew around it. As a resident of the area I am very happy with the forth coming plan and what the staff there do to ensure the park is accessible and safe. As for the derelict buildings you refer, some of those are actually heritage buildings and are scheduled for refurbushing over the next few years.

My family has owned a heritage home in the area for longer than the grounds have been there, we have watched it grow and with all cities & parks it has had its ups and downs, its up to those of us who live in the area to help keep its history strong.

I bet it you are/if you were a resident of the area you would probably take all the free tickets and other perks they offer us and still complain. I don't know of any other park who treats their neighbours as well as the PNE does and good for them as I am sure a majority have only lived in the area for 1/3 the amount of time the Fair has been in around, moving in knowing full well the park was there and what it was used for.

jill:

Thanks for the post, but it contains some major inaccuracies. The park was originally deeded in trust to the city to be a green space, not a fair.
Everything that happened over the next century-plus was not in the original plans. It's just that no one really stood up for it's original purpose until the past decade or so.
The relatively small green space, including the skate park, ceded in response to (mostly neighbourhood) activists demanding that it be returned to its rightful status now serves as a reminder of what it could be.
All other activities are strictly commercial and have steadily expanded under recent PNE boards and city supervision.
Free tickets, parking restrictions, and other concessions to area residents are seen by most people, and rightfully so, as payment for the near-constant noise and disruption. What's surprising is that those cheap bribes seem to have mostly worked.

$10.00 to park on PNE Grounds

Forgetaboutit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did live in the area on Adanac St. for a long time. We were out of the "official area" for any 'freebies' offered {wouldn't have taken them anyways} but had to contend with: crowds, increased traffic, lots of noise, petty damage, drunks late at night and more.
The PNE was not a "good neighbour".

Jill,

Take your blinders off, the PNE has been a terrible neighbour for years. Raves that go on all night, garbage piled in the park space by the PNE, parking and traffic nightmares on residential streets, helicopters circling at low altitude, slot machines, dead horses, the negative impact to the surrounding neighbourhood has steadily increased in the last 10 years. Oh and FYI the land was originally granted in trust to the City by the Province in 1888 as part of the will of its late owner, with the site to be kept in perpetuity as wilderness park for public use.

The city and the province have constantly broken the law with their abuse of this land. (It was even used to hold Japanese Canadians after their homes and businesses were stolen but before they were shipped further inland and held in internment camps.)

The East Side needs green space just as much as the west. Move the agricultural fair to the valley where it belongs, tear down the amusement park and build a decent one in a non residential neighbourhood, a city the size of Vancouver could support a proper theme park with decent rides instead of the vomit scented embarrassment that is Playland. The city needs to give control of this public land back to the public not the non democratic PNE board that controls it now. Refurbish the buildings as arenas, indoor play areas for kids, community centres, gyms, instead of the convention centre they have planned. The PNE is one tradition that needs to end.