University Drive: the City Centre’s future parade route?

Cloverdale Rodeo Parade

When I used to work at the Downtown Surrey BIA, there were frequent conversations about events and festivals as a means of attracting people back into the area. Parades, of course, are one of those community events that residents enjoy and it was frequently suggested that King George be closed down for one. Logically, as King George is Surrey’s equivalent to Vancouver’s West Georgia, it makes sense that it would be adopted as the local parade route.

However, while such an experiment delights the amateur urban planner within me, I doubt it would ever happen in the near future. Until the South Fraser Perimeter Road is built, goods movement will continue to rely heavily on King George, as well as 108th and 104th. Additionally, King George remains a relatively rundown strip in the City Centre and will likely remain so for at least a decade. All the civic investments that have been made in recent years are located west of King George, roughly in the strip of land between University Drive and City Parkway. For these reasons, King George, in my opinion, would be an unsuitable route for a parade.

Bright green trees line University Drive

That said, there is a bright, attractive alternative: University Drive. The street, previously West Whalley Ring Road, features a planted median and is well kept, unlike King George or the incomplete City Parkway. It connects Gateway with the Whalley Athletic Park, Tom Binnie Park, and Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre, as well as new developments such as D’Cor, Urban Village, and the future SFU Residences towers. Further south, it runs past the new Library and City Hall, the North Surrey Recreation Centre and Surrey Central SkyTrain station, Central City Mall, SFU Surrey, and finally, Holland Park at its terminus. Not only is it beautiful and well connected to civic venues, it’s also relatively lightly used traffic wise, making it easy to close for a parade.

University Drive near Whalley Atheltic. Sidewalks are narrower, though there are plenty of trees and the street is -dead-

University Drive opposite Central City. The greenery is lush and the sidewalks are wide and clean.

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Below I’ve outlined three possible parade routes: one short (1.1km, orange), one medium (1.7km, red), and one long (2.2km, purple). They all begin and end near City-owned property and travel a good portion of their route down University Drive. Staging areas can be set up in Gateway or along City Parkway, while end corral areas could be in the Central City parking lot.

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Cloverdale currently hosts most of the parades in Surrey. The most popular, held during the Cloverdale Rodeo, attracts nearly 10,000 people – quite a draw for a local parade. More recently, the Cloverdale BIA has run an annual Halloween Parade for kids. They’ve also attempted to expand their Santa Claus parade, running since 2000, into a city-wide event, through it has yet to receive significant support from the City. Most Cloverdale parades last roughly 30 mins to an hour and are about 1.5km in length.

Meanwhile, Downtown Vancouver’s parades are longer and far more popular due to their regional pull and access via rapid transit. The Canada Day parade (in red), running only since 2009, is roughly 1.3km in length and attracts 100,000 people. The Rogers Santa Claus Parade (in green), running since 2003, attracts 300,000 people and runs for 1.7km. Vancouver’s most popular parade, the Pride Parade (in pink), runs an astounding 3.2km long, and brings in over 600,000 people!

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Undoubtedly, were Surrey to bring parades to the City Centre, attendance would be initially much smaller than the numbers Vancouver brings in, but is sure to grow with time. Vaishaki, although less a parade and more of an extremely long street fair, attracts around 150,000 to Newton’s closed roads during the spring.

One of the immediate options would be to move the Santa Claus parade from Cloverdale to the City Centre. It would be a politically disastrous move, as the Cloverdale BIA would be up in arms over such a decision. However, for the City as a whole, residents would enjoy a far greater celebration, as it would certainly attract a greater number of attendees, thus resulting in greater money for to improve the production quality and size of the event.

Another obvious choice would be to extend the small Parade of Nations, which begins the annual Fusion Festival in Holland Park, into its own event. It could start at either Central City Plaza or even the new City Hall once completed, travel down University Drive and right into Holland Park. Each nation could show off its traditional and modern forms of dance or music.

A final choice to look at would be expanding Surrey’s Gay Pride celebrations from a current festival in Holland Park into a parade as well. While it would never compete with Vancouver’s, a Pride parade could help celebrate diversity in all its forms within Surrey and the South Fraser region and would certainly grow with time. If scheduled roughly a week ahead of Vancouver’s, it could also capitalize on tourists coming into town for the big V’s Pride events.

What do you think? Do you enjoy parades? What parades should the City and community groups look at starting in the City Centre?