Help unlock the Sun Yat-Sen Public Park gates
Contact Park Board and City Council to free the park
We recently held a beautiful community Tea & Paint event with lucky.munyi at the Sun Yat-Sen Public Park to protest the permanently locked eastern entrance and reduced park hours.
Ever since we raised awareness about this issue, many people online also mentioned they had mistakenly believed that the park was permanently closed. This situation directly contradicts the efforts to revitalize Chinatown.
This issue caught the eye of a CTV reporter who tried to find answers on why the gate is locked and hours reduced. But after asking lots of questions, even she couldn’t get a straight answer from Park Board or anyone else on why the public park has become less accessible to the public. Here’s the CTV story with a video.
If there’s no reason why it’s locked, then there’s no reason why it should continue to be locked.
Let’s use our collective voices to demand the Parks Board to reopen the gates and restore longer opening hours:
(If the button doesn’t work, see the email instructions below.)
By the way, we also made some cute videos of the Tea and Paint Koi event at the park to demonstrate what how this unique public park could be used! Imagine the possibilities if it was more accessible and programmed all the time for community and visitors.
Email Instructions
TO: Brennan.Bastyovanszky@vancouver.ca, Laura.Christensen@vancouver.ca, Tom.Digby@vancouver.ca, Angela.Haer@vancouver.ca, Marie-Claire.Howard@vancouver.ca, Scott.Jensen@vancouver.ca, Jas.Virdi@vancouver.ca, steve.jackson@vancouver.ca, ken.sim@vancouver.ca, rebecca.bligh@vancouver.ca, christine.boyle@vancouver.ca, adriane.carr@vancouver.ca, lisa.dominato@vancouver.ca, pete.fry@vancouver.ca, sarah.kirby-yung@vancouver.ca, mike.klassen@vancouver.ca, brian.montague@vancouver.ca, lenny.zhou@vancouver.ca, peter.meiszner@vancouver.ca
BCC: savechinatownheritage@gmail.com
SUBJECT LINE: [Insert something personalized]
BODY: [Please personalize this]
Dear Mayor Ken Sim, Park Board Commissioners, and City Councillors,
Please unlock the eastern gate to the Sun Yat-Sen Public Park in Chinatown, and extend the public park hours to later than 3pm like what it used to be.
The permanently locked gates and short hours make the park seem closed all the time and send people away. This isn't good for Chinatown's revitalization.
Also, because of the locked gate, seniors and people with disabilities have to walk an extra full block from Chinatown to enter the park.
I urge you to unlock the gates and extend opening hours to make the public park more accessible to the public again.
Chinese School in back in session! (Sat, Oct 21)
Join us for Chinese School to reclaim the Chinatown Plaza Mall where Mark Lee 阿聰 ("Ah Chung") of Onion Language Centre will teach you Chinese language and phrases centred around food. Buy some lunch, support the local businesses, and let's lunch and learn together.
When: Saturday, Oct 21 at 2 to 4pm
Where: Chinatown Plaza Mall (Food court)
Cost: Free lesson ($5 to $20 to buy food)
Family-friendly. All ages welcome.
Upcoming Community Events
Sid Chow Tan archive film screening with Heart of the City Festival (Fri, Nov 3 6pm at Carnegie Community Centre Theatre, 401 Main St)
Big Fight in Little Chinatown screening with Heart of the City Festival (Fri, Nov 3 7:30pm at Carnegie Community Centre Theatre, 401 Main St)
Help us expand the events series to reclaim space in Chinatown!
This community events has proven that regular cultural events in Chinatown helps bring people to the neighbourhood while enhancing our connection to Chinatown’s living culture, so we’re planning to keep them going from Fall to Spring! To help us with the costs of expanding the event series, consider making a donation to the community events fund to make the events free and accessible to as many people as possible.