The loss of his freedom is a price one resident is willing to pay to protest the temporary closure of Grandview Park.

The Commercial Drive park will be closed for nine months beginning in July for a $1.5 million redevelopment to provide new playground equipment and improved drainage.

But David Beattie, an ESL teacher and freelance writer, objected to the closure and what he referred to as the authoritarian and insensitive approach of the park board. Calling for public meetings to discuss the park's closure, which he said was not addressed in previous meetings, Beattie promised to engage in civil disobedience if the park is closed despite public opposition.

Beattie said he would repeatedly tear down the fence, trespass on the park, handcuff himself to park fixtures and possibly disable equipment brought in for redevelopment. "If they leave earth moving equipment around, there are ways to keep them from functioning," he said.

Beattie said he would not hurt anyone or damage private property in his protest. "I will become ungovernable as far as that park is concerned," he said.

Vision Vancouver park board commissioner Sarah Blyth stated in an email the redevelopment could not be done in phases due to the structure of the funding. "We have to be finished the project by March 2011," she wrote.

Blyth said extensive public consultations, including discussions about possible closure, were held dating back to June 2009, including a meeting in Grandview Park. She noted the park board had no plans for more meetings.

Beattie, who moved back to the neighbourhood six weeks ago after living abroad, called Commercial Drive "the last bastion of the beatnik." He said he hoped the issue could be resolved without civil disobedience. "We are not spoiling for a fight, we want to be conciliatory," he said.

He claimed he would be willing to serve as many as three months in prison to protest the closure of the park and said the redevelopment should be completed in phases, leaving most of the park open.

Beattie said he was concerned the redevelopment of the park might lead to the gentrification of the area, pushing out homeless people and dulling the neighbourhood's vibrancy. "If a McDonald's opened up, I'd be furious," he said.

Eileen Mosca, an artist who's lived in the area for 30 years and is a board member with the Grandview-Woodland Community Policing Centre, said she found it difficult to relate to the protesters. "These people are protesting to achieve neglect of the park," she said.

Mosca rejected the notion the redesign of the park had anything to do with gentrification. "You can't force people out of a park through landscape design," she said.

Mosca said the park board did a good job of communicating with the neighbourhood. "They really listened to people. You felt like you were involved with something real."

Mosca worked on a mural in the park that was recently defaced with graffiti. Some of the graffiti seemed to be directed at her. "I lived in a fifth floor walk-up in the South Bronx, nobody around here scares me," said Mosca. "There's a group here who will protest motherhood and apple pie."

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