To hear former Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard tell it, the real hero behind the Esther Short Park revitalization effort was the homeless man who ordered the then-mayor out of the park and proceeded to shove him.
“The attack on the mayor,” Pollard said, recalling the confrontation about two decades ago, “that was a historic moment of the city of Vancouver. That was the incident that turned Esther Short Park around.”
These days, Esther Short Park is a community hub known for hosting a variety of events from the Vancouver Farmers Market to the Recycled Arts Festival.
In 2015, the park hosted 48 permitted events. In 2016, the number jumped to 50 events; the majority of them were annual returning events and a handful were multiday events.
The biggest problem facing the park now?
“We’re always having an internal conflict about how many events are possible for the downtown area,” said Sean Douglas, parks operation program assistant with the city of Vancouver.
Esther Short Park boasts a range of community events throughout the year. It’s the launching pad for a slew of runs and charity walks, and a place for the community to gather and listen to live music. There are Easter egg hunts, weddings and wine and jazz festivals.
But it wasn’t always that way.
Pollard’s mission
In the mid-1990s, Pollard would ride his bike around town.
“I was riding around, and I decided to go through Esther Short Park. … There were only guys in there doing nasty things. It was a jungle. It was full of trees,” he said.
The cops couldn’t see inside the park, and at 5 p.m. in the evening all the business would close and people would empty out of the downtown.
Pollard said he launched an effort to “take back” the park and started handing out free bananas to convince local people to eat lunch with him.
One afternoon, Pollard was standing in the park with about a dozen people when a transient man confronted him.
“Get the (expletive) out of my park,” the man told Pollard.
When confronted, the man repeated himself and shoved Pollard. The man was later arrested.
“The next Wednesday — every Wednesday I would do (the lunches) — and the next Wednesday there were 500 people in Esther Short Park,” Pollard said.
It was a turning point.
“If they ever put a statute in Esther Short Park, they should put a little guy pushing his grocery cart,” Pollard said.
Future, past
One of the most popular events at the park is the Recycled Arts Festival, which had 40,000 visitors last year.
The Vancouver USA marathon, which is moving from June to September this coming year, has become a staple event.
Douglas, with the city’s park department, said the city has reserved a few days this summer to just let the park serve as a park.
“It’s a tricky balance we have to walk,” he said. “Some neighbors love the events and others not so much.”
Douglas said the next big question facing the park is: What will happen once the waterfront park and development is complete? The waterfront will add another nearby venue.
“What events do we move down there and let it be more open, or do we simultaneously book?” he said.
Either way, the park has come a long ways since its urban jungle days — and from days even farther back.
In 1853, Esther Short bequeathed the 5.4-acre park to the city. It’s the oldest public square in the Pacific Northwest.
The park’s Propstra Square was named after the late Burgerville founder George Propstra and his wife Carolyn who donated $3.2 million for the square and bell tower in the park. At the 2001 dedication of the square, then-mayor Pollard was quoted as saying, “Every community needs a heart. And the heart can be pulsating right out of Esther Short Park.”
