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The Chinatown and Little Italy Business Association want to create a museum and community garden in Mary Burlie Park on 97th Street. On Wednesday, February 23, 2011 several speakers took issue to the suggested changes during a City Council meeting suggested that the proposed changes would push the current “transient street people” who mainly use the park out of the area.
 Suggested changes include enclosing the site to create space for quiet contemplation and charging an admission to enter the area.
The park, named in memory of Mary Burlie, who was a social worker who died in 1996, could become a tourist attraction to help spruce up the area according to comments made by Chinatown business owner Terry Lui who is a director of the business association. However, those who strongly oppose this suggest that the move would impact the very people Burlie would help if she was still alive.
Although the suggested changes have the potential to raise the profile of the Boyle-McCauley area, the question still exists: where would the current individual who frequent the park go and how long before they would get pushed out of another area?
To read the article in the Edmonton Journal go to:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Inner+city+Chinese+garden+displace+transients/4342345/story.html
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Tuesday, 18 June 2013 
