The idea of Aberdeen holding a contest to find a new name for Festival Park is a good one.
Situated as something of a green public square surrounded largely by government and public service buildings ranging from City Hall to the Aberdeen Library, Festival Park is the city's most prominent park.
It figures prominently in one of Aberdeen's biggest community events – Christmas Street – and also is the location for a farmers market in the summertime.
A lot of work went into transforming Festival Park into the venue it has become over the past 25 or so years. Prior to its being renamed in the late 1980s, it had been known simply as Howard Street Park, a patch of public property named after the nearest street.
Unfortunately, when the process was begun that would add a pavilion and, eventually, comfort facilities to the park, the name was changed with relatively little public input. While Festival Park is a perfectly good name, it hardly reflects anything unique to Aberdeen. Festival Park could be anywhere.
By contrast, signature parks in Havre de Grace, for better or worse, bear the names of prominent citizens. Bel Air's Shamrock Park may seem to have a generic name at first glance, but the streets that surround it have a decidedly Irish flavor: Shannon Drive, Dublin Way, Shamrock Road and Irish Road.
Aberdeen has plenty of heritage that could be drawn from to come up with a park name, and a contest is as good a way as any to bring plenty of suggestions out in the open. Who knows, maybe there will be enough names generated that a few other parks named after the streets they're on can also be renamed.