It’s an overcast Tuesday morning in Vancouver’s Dude Chilling Park and the man sitting in a camping chair, smoking a cigarette and scrolling through his phone is in fact a self-confessed dude chilling in the park.
“I mean look at me — you literally found me like this, just chilling,” said the man, when asked if the park’s name is a true reflection of what goes on at the famous park in Mount Pleasant.
The dude’s name is Michael.
He didn’t want to provide his surname because he’s in a line of work that requires privacy.
He was, however, willing to share his thoughts on a page of Vancouver police statistics handed to him by a Glacier Media reporter. The statistics cover calls for service to the park from Jan.1, 2019 to Aug. 9, 2024.
For that period, police were called 181 times, with 66 of the calls related to a “disturbance,” according to the statistics recently posted to the VPD’s website in response to a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Other calls included assaults in progress (10), check on the well-being of a person (nine), “assist general public” (eight), “assist police/fire/ambulance” (eight), “suspicious circumstances” (seven) and “suspicious persons” (seven).
Many other types of calls, including mischief in progress, unwanted person and drugs were included in the data, but generated no more than five calls in each category over the time period.
At the same time, it will never be known how many incidents occurred in the park that were never reported to police. In addition, police said in a note included with the data that the statistics are “not necessarily representative of documented police activities at the requested address.”
For example, the police said, a person may call from one location to report an incident that occurred at another.
“The event may be linked and thereby included in the premise history check of the location from which the call was placed,” the police said. “The Vancouver Police Department therefore does not warrant the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information provided in the requested premise history check.”
'Energy is quite positive'
The data can be interpreted in several ways, but Michael, who lives in the neighbourhood and regularly visits the park during the day and at night, said his experience at Dude Chilling has been, for the most part, positive.
“I don't really see chaos,” he said. “I feel at peace. I feel no harm. Everyone lets me be. People might ask me for a cigarette here and there. I don't mind. But other than that, I feel like the energy is quite positive.”
Michael’s take — and that of some others interviewed in the park — was that 181 calls to the park over five years and seven months didn’t seem like a lot for a densely populated neighbourhood.
By comparison, the Vancouver Courier reported in 2013 that Victoria Park at 1401 Victoria Dr. generated approximately 900 police calls between Oct.1, 2008 and Oct. 1, 2013.
Shelley Sullivan, who was walking her dog Georgie in the park, suggested some of the calls regarding Dude Chilling may be coming from the same person. She pointed across the street to a building, where a person regularly calls authorities on “the dog people.”
Tino Whitford made the same point about a neighbour who regularly tells him and his friends to turn down their music in the park. Whitford, who was drinking a beer at a picnic table, said he is a regular at Dude Chilling and takes ownership of the park when it’s required.
He told a story of “some young guys” recently drinking a bottle of vodka in the park and then smashing it on the Dude Chilling Park sign. He and a man who looks after the community garden went and cleaned it up.
“Kids play around here, so you can’t have that,” Whitford said.
Park commissioner Tom Digby
Sullivan described the park as one where different clusters of communities gather, including dog owners, millennials who play bocce and people who drink alcohol and use drugs.
Asked why she thinks only five drug calls were generated over five years and seven months, Sullivan said Vancouver has mostly become a tolerant city of vulnerable people.
“I don't see those folks as ‘other,’ I see them as a product of our society and capitalism,” said Sullivan, a mental health professional who carries a Naloxone kit. “So I think that those of us with privilege have contributed to that.”
Dude Chilling is adjacent to Mount Pleasant elementary school, so at different times of the day there are families in the park. A farmer’s market also operates on Sundays, which is where park commissioner Tom Digby was this past Sunday.
Digby said people he spoke to at the market had many concerns about the neighbourhood, but they weren’t all related to crime in the park.
“Some of them mentioned drug use in the park, but most people were concerned about the urban tree canopy, dog parks in the area and child care in the area,” he said.
“From my experience [Sunday] in talking to passersby, it didn't seem to be that big a concern, or beyond the normal level of concern that we all have living in a big city.”
