Bridgeland-Riverside rolls out new names for park spaces

The northeast community of Bridgeland-Riverside is rolling out names for 10 local parks and greenspaces, after city council quietly approved the names in a meeting last June.

The parks are being named after prominent people with connections to the area, including former lieutenant-governor Norman Kwong, and the first woman to be elected to city council, Annie Gale.

Parks are also being given names that nod to the area's historic Italian community, and to ethnic Germans who emigrated from Russia more than a century ago to settle in Riverside.

Two of the identified parks will be named at a later date, after consultations with Indigenous groups.

The project was initiated by the Bridgeland-Riverside Community Association (BRCA).

Deb Lee, a board member with BRCA, said the new names will not only honour the area's rich heritage and improve wayfinding, but supersede any informal names the greenspaces were garnering online.

"The city has a formal naming process and we wanted to go through that process and have them official and be recognized," said Lee.

"And also to tell the story of our community in many respects."

But why do 10 parks in one go?

Lee said it was more efficient to go through the process naming 10 parks at once, instead of the BRCA's original idea of naming just two at a time.

"For us, it was kind of a big undertaking, but at the same time I don't regret that we did it that way because it really allowed us to look more broadly at our community," she said.

The area's city councillor, Gian-Carlo Carra, praised the work done by the BRCA in seeing the naming project through its lengthy process.

"They're really focused on civic beautification [and] accessibility, particularly for seniors in Bridgeland and the heritage of the community," said Carra.

"They realized there's a whole bunch of greenspaces without a name and they decided they had to give them names informed by the heritage of their community."

While the parks now have names, getting signage to reflect the new monikers will take some time.

Lee said the group will be fundraising and seeking matching funds for signs and plaques to tell the story behind the names of each park. She expects they will be ready sometime next year.

In the meantime, the group has painted the names of the parks on rocks to be placed in each of the greenspaces.