212. Four Letter Words: Park

Jul 8, 2025

Justin McElroy, Municipal Affairs Reporter for CBC Vancouver and the mind behind VancouverParkGuide.ca, takes us on an urban adventure exploring Vancouver's parks. He addresses the evolving definition of 'park' and shares insights on ranking every park in the city based on unique criteria. The talk highlights the transformation of spaces like Crab Park from landfill to community haven, and the cultural significance of playful park names. Join the discussion about how naming influences community pride and the functionality of public spaces.

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ANECDOTE

Vancouver's Park Ranking Journey

Justin McElroy explored all of Vancouver's 243 parks during the pandemic.
He ranked them on kids, adults, design, and X factor to share park insights.

INSIGHT

What Qualifies as a Park?

Anything can be named a park, regardless of its size or facilities.
There is no minimum standard to be called a park once designated legally.

INSIGHT

Parks and Urban Social Tensions

Parks can become focal points in urban social tensions like homelessness.
Clearing encampments often displaces residents without providing alternatives.

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Get in, winner: we're going on a field trip. We're spending the day in five of Vancouver's city parks with Justin McElroy, Municipal Affairs Reporter for the CBC and ranker of Vancouver's 243 parks at VancouverParkGuide.ca. Together we ponder: what IS a park? You think you know, then along comes a slab of concrete called a park to test your taxonomy.

Visit theallusionist.org/park for photos of the parks and more information about them, plus a transcript of the episode.

Events are happening! Get info at theallusionist.org/events about the meetup on 13 August in one of Vancouver's beach parks, the listening party for the live Radio 4 broadcast of our piece Souvenirs, and for Four Letter Word season, a watchalong of the films Dick and Dicks: The Musical. Want to join that? Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, livestreams with me and my collection of dictionaries, and the charming and supportive Allusioverse Discord community, where we're watching the current seasons of Great British Sewing Bee and Bake Off: The Professionals.

This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. The music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.

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Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:

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