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| Opera and children's gardens with skateboard park in the background |
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| Empire field |
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| Hastings race course and casino |
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| Pacific Coliseum |
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| Playland's famous wooden roller coaster |
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| The Italian gardens |
As the above images show, Hastings Park, located at East Hastings and Boundary Road, doesn't really have a common theme. It's a little of everything. To some it's the home of the Pacific National Exhibition and Playland, to others it's a neighborhood green space and bird sanctuary, and to others it's a gambling and sporting destination. The result has often led to conflict between groups regarding the park's the future. AccessEco BC is rooting for the return of more green space, but as always, our prime concern is access.
This 15.5 hectare park is easy to reach and generally accessible. The province granted the park to the city in 1889. The racetrack and the PNE came along, and their success led to the building of Empire Stadium for the newly named Commonwealth Games (formerly the British Empire Games) in 1952. Empire Stadium is long gone and is now revamped as Empire Field and the temporary stadium home of both the BC Lions and the Vancouver Whitecaps until the opening of the newly built, yet to be named downtown stadium. Currently at Empire Field disability access is a little rustic with porta johns and limited accessible seating. But it's still a great place to catch either of these two teams. For ticket information go to http://www.bclions.com/ or http://www.whitecapsfc.com/ When the stadium moves to its new digs it will leave behind a state of the art artificial playing surface for soccer, softball and other community sports.
In the winter the Pacific Coliseum is home to the Vancouver Giants of the World Hockey League (WHL). This former home of the Vancouver Canucks hosted the Memorial Cup in 2009 and figure skating at the 2010 winter Olympics. The retrofit for the Olympics has greatly improved accessibilty. For event info http://www.vancouvergiants.com/
If you like paying "stupidity tax" perhaps the casino racetrack is for you. Mesmserizing clinging bells and chimes await to enchant you and separate you from your money. I had a real eye opening experience of just how slick this money prying operation is during my AccessEco BC visit. Needing some money I stopped to use the bank machine conveniently placed in the casino foyer. This particular machine would not release funds of less than $100. I accepted the bank charges and received one crisp $100 bill. The normal light beep to remind you to pick up your cash was replaced with the same chiming hypnotic music the slots play to alert you to a payout.
I prefer to pay my stupidity tax a little more interactively than the stupefying slots and I do like the horses. The racetrack stadium offers lots of accessible seating options but the elevators to the upper reaches of the stadium need a retrofit to be as accommodating as the new casino elevator that takes you track side and the paddock area. For info go to http://www.hastingspark.com/
Want an even bigger adrenalin rush than the possibility of missing your mortgage payment? Playland and the PNE is for you. For event information and accessibility features and policies go to http://www.pne.ca/
Whatever your reason for heading to Hastings Park, you can count on safe crossways into the park, nearby accessible paid parking, and easy transit access. For transit info go to http://www.translink.bc.ca/ . The children's play area near the Italian gardens is not accessible, so for little ones it's better to head to the northeast section of Hastings Park where you will find the Hastings Community Centre with its featured water park. For park information go to www.vancouver.ca/parks
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