2nd Edition of #RateThisBench
Welcome to the second edition of #RateThisBench! This series is modeled after the UK original which you can find here.
This time around I invited a couple of friends to help me out in rating benches around Downtown New West. You can actually find an entire inventory of park benches across the City as well as any that have dedications. So, if you’re like me and are becoming a bit of a bench nerd you can go down the rabbit hole with that open data set from the City of New West. According to that data, the City owns 484 park benches, but there are plenty more throughout the City that are owned by others and are publicly accessible.
First up, I’m honoured to welcome our esteemed Mayor, Jonathan Cote, who was gracious enough to help me out and rate a bench this month. He chose one of the benches at Albert Crescent Park, which is on the east end of our Downtown near Pattullo Bridge.
Mayor Cote gave this bench an 8 out of 10, he cited it as a pretty standard bench, but the view really made it a must visit. One downside he noted however was traffic noise, especially during rush hour. Special shout out to his furry friend Piper for tagging along.
On a rainy day in April my family took a nice walk down to the newly reopened Pier Park, then meandered over to River Market and the boardwalk. Along the way I tried out one of the benches on the Front Street Mews, which is one my favourite streets around (yes, I’m biased for sure). I tried one of the benches in front of Columbia Integrated Health, facing the Trapp Block. It was comfortable although I didn’t stay long as it was wet and my family impatiently wanted to move along. I’d give it a solid 7 out of 10, good angle to the back rest, and a nice seat height for me.
Lastly, I met my friend Dana from Family Place down at the Quay, we grabbed drinks from River Market and settled in for a long chat at the boardwalk bench at the base of K de K court. Dana meets a lot of people in this spot, it’s her go to for distanced outdoor coffee meetings.
We both felt that the height of the seat was quite low, but overall this was a very comfortable bench. In fact, we spent more than an hour there and it was lovely. Dana noted that this spot is always windy, no matter what the weather, so if that bothers you, we suggest finding a more protected spot for your coffee meetings. We collaboratively rated this one a 9 out of 10.
We had lots of great feedback on our first edition of this series, please keep that feedback coming. And we all encourage you to go out and rate a bench of your choice, tag us @downtownnewwest and be sure to use #RateThisBench to share your favourite benches around New West.
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