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Parks and Wreck: L.A.'s Fight for Public Green Space

In search of the Emerald City

A A A Comments (15) By Matthew Fleischer Wednesday, Jul 16 2008

...continued from page 7

As we talk, a young mother holding her infant son glides by behind us.

“When’s the park going to open up?” she asks Thomas.

Illustration by Ronald Kurniawan

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“Not sure yet,” Thomas replies. “Kids were complaining about the smell.”

The smell?

“There’s a big, exposed sewer pipe in the back of the park,” Thomas explains. “No one wanted to pay to have it dealt with, so it’s still there.”

For all Villaraigosa’s media play, as it turns out, the city’s main contribution to this new park was to donate an acre of blighted land with an exposed sewer line.

A Murky Green Future

Today, the Park Mesa Heights playground is open, and the sewage smell isn’t too bad, insists Marta Segura, who’s managing the playground for the L.A. Neighborhood Land Trust. (The city is no longer involved.) And if it becomes a problem, she says, “we’ll find a way to deal with it.”

If and when that need arises, however, it remains to be seen exactly how Segura’s going to pay for the job. “The city didn’t put us into the budget this year,” she admits.

Segura remains upbeat that the park will be a success. Of course she has no choice but to stay positive — she’s doing the best she can with what the city has given her. But the people of L.A. deserve better than a sewage-scented acre.

The Olmsted brothers gave us a heroic vision for what this city can become. People like Lewis MacAdams and Mia Lehrer do what they can to keep that dream alive. But such a monumental task requires the will to act upon inspiration. The mistakes of the 1930s are once again upon us.

For decades, scholars from Mike Davis to Norman Klein have posited Los Angeles a city of fiction — caught between opposing narratives of dystopian noir and booster-backed land of sunshine. Parks and public space offer a third way — a collective lens we can use to view our city, and a gauge to see how far we’ve progressed.

The answer: not very far at all. Los Angeles is still searching for its Robert Moses — someone capable of turning Emerald City fiction into tree-lined reality.

Reach the writer at mfleischer@laweekly.com.

* Editor's note, July 29, 2008: In this story, reporter Matthew Fleischer stated that City Council President Eric Garcetti had ordered park rangers to ticket people fishing or feeding ducks in the L.A. River. Garcetti’s office points out that the ban on fishing and duck feeding stems from L.A. County municipal code 41.22 and that the extent of the Council President’s involvement is a plan to put up signs reinforcing the code.

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park people 08/09/2008 3:29:00 AM

um,good article but doesnt mention how Mia and her team have yet to put out the assessment report on the rec and parks - it was due in the spring.so here we spend millions on consultants who can't finish on time. but we don't spend those millions on purchasing open space or revitalize old spaces.

John Crandell 07/25/2008 8:37:00 AM

Dear L.A. Weekly; your image of a "re-imagined Cornfield" is nothing of the kind. Anyone familiar with the downtown area will instantly realize that it is one person's vision for a re-imagined L.A. River half a mile to the east of the Cornfield. Oh for the days of Michael Ventura and quality journalism at the L.A. Weekly.

JoAnn Whitmore 07/23/2008 9:49:00 PM

Some years ago I lived in the LA area. I read with interest Mr. Fleischer's well written and well researched article. He brought insight and perspective to troubling problems. One can only wish this information will propel government and the city to address the problems.

ubrayj02 07/23/2008 5:11:00 PM

Your focus on explicit "parks" is story about a problem, but not a solution. The largest public landholdings in Los Angeles? The public right-of-way. It is relatively cheap and easy to make public areas (from private property lines to the middle of the right-of-way) into a quality space for residents to enjoy the good life promised in the Hall of Mayors atop City Hall. I recommend taking a look at what New York based advocacy group NYC Streets Renaissance has documented around the country for examples. The one thing sacrificed in this approach would be access for private automobiles. Boo hoo.

Matthew Fleischer 07/23/2008 12:07:00 AM

From the Hood -- that picture was taken less than a week before the story was published. The park had been open for months. There was no one in it on that day. The situation in Park Mesa Heights is desperate enough that I have no doubt the 11th Ave. park will get plenty of use. It has the potential to be a very nice pocket park. But, as I stated in the piece, I'm of the opinion that the people of South Los Angeles deserve better than a park that occasionally smells like sewage. That's not a slight against the Neighborhood Land Trust. It's beyond admirable that non-profits are stepping up to maintain park space in areas that the city has been unable or unwilling to. The city donated the 11th Avenue land and LANLT is doing the best they can with it. But Park Mesa Heights is loaded with open space and abandoned lots. I went to 4 different locations that community leaders have been begging the city to turn into parks -- none of them had open sewer lines. I don't think I'm throwing the baby out with the bathwater by suggesting the children of South L.A. deserve better than the city's table scraps.

from the hood 07/22/2008 10:06:00 PM

Youre article went out of its way to bash some really good efforts in South LA by non profits that do have a good model for community development. The 11th Ave. park has a lot of usage, great activities, community gathering and meetings and so much more. You used a picture that was before the park even opened, that's really bad journalism. It's good to comment on what's not working, but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. You need try again, or not do this at all.

The Hollywood Jedi 07/21/2008 11:56:00 PM

wow Matthew, You're a real fucking idiot. To think I respected you for the Bukowski article.... even Jedi make mistakes.

Pre-13 07/21/2008 1:31:00 AM

Agree with everything in your article, but please don't infer that Prop 13 had anything to do with the conditions of Pershing Square. It was an eyesore in the late 50's, and had to be cleaned up for the 1960 Dem. Convention. As for the River, I remember it as a wild untamed river, beautiful but sometimes destructive as in 1937-38. But the concrete should go.

Atwater Oldie 07/20/2008 3:52:00 AM

Great piece. A few points: * We need to have a city that doesn't just build parks, but maintains them * We need to be sure that Sacramento money is spent in park-poor areas, not just in the hills that are wealthier areas * Villaraigosa needs to step up--he was a great green speaker and is just so-so on this stuff * Councilmembers need to step up in their districts, especially on QUIMBY fees (only a couple of them have been open and accountable and on top of them--Reyes and Garcetti) * There is very uneven leadership on parks in the city--Garcetti has been great (he was the driving force in the city government behind the Neighborhood Land Trust and his girlfriend is chair of the board or something, he has built like 20 new parks in his district alone and is helping clean up the water in Echo Park lake with tens of millions of dollars), Reyes is great (he deserves as much credit for the LA River Report as my friend Mia Lehrer does and he got both Cornfields and Taylor Yard and Vista Hermosa to be open space--the most in a generation and he has done a very good job with neighborhood-based plans--I kind of feel like the author hasn't hung out in the new Taylor Yard park which is exactly the kind of vision I think he is for, unless he is opposed to soccer players and old grandmothers going on walks), Perry has done well (not downtown, which still lags, but in South LA, where she built one wetlands and is doing another), and Greuel is good too (she bought some of the biggest swaths of open space in Northeast SFV in a long time). Other councilmembers aren't doing much at all. The supervisors particularly suck--they are hands off about the Grand Ave park and besides Molina, who is pretty good on helping fund some parks, they couldn't care less about collaborating with the city. * Parks need to have better maintenance and better hours. I live in Atwater Village (where I have fished by the way and talked to Garcetti about it with his approval--don't know where you heard he was ticketing folks) and we need to have all parks open until late at night like in Glassell Park. The mayor's night lights program is a great start. * The City's Rec and Parks Department is a big problem. They actually do have a list of city-owned property--I have it from the city. They just don't do anything about it and the DWP land (which is a lot of it), DWP won't let anyone touch. I think this Rec and Parks Department has almost no vision, though the Commissioners seem to realize that. Keep up the drum beat. Maybe when Garcetti is mayor or when Villaraigosa is running for governor and needs some accomplishments we will get some of what you want. But in the meantime, there are some good things happening, just not enough money to sustain them with groups like FOLAR and the Neighborhood Land Trust.

McRib 07/20/2008 12:21:00 AM

My esteemed father-in-law used to say: "Don't make love by the garden gate; love is blind, but the neighbors ain't."

Sam 07/19/2008 12:58:00 AM

Interesting history. And I've only made out in my front yard once.

Developerscumafiosi 07/18/2008 6:31:00 AM

...but they love to build expensive new schools [where the education remains decidedly piss-poor], now don't they. Speaking of clusterfux... Was Griffith Park's a "wildfire" or was it arson? Wasn't there a bum to blame? Has there ever been a definitive report?

Eric 07/18/2008 5:30:00 AM

The Mayor's claim to have more parks is simply a re-election stance to curry public favor. This is the same mayor who said, "The construction crane is the official bird of Los Angeles." In my relatively short time living in Los Angeles I've seen three different administrations out of City Hall and this current administration is by far the most developer-friendly of the lot. The current City Council also shares the blame for their ridiculous rules governing development in this city. They changed the laws regarding the amount of parking spaces required for new apartment/condominium complexes, lowering the amount considerably if there was a bus stop or train station nearby. The developers got their campaign contribution's worth with that change. Public transportation continues to be pathetic in this city. As for the present of the city's children, it is really bleak with the lack of parks coupled with LAUSD's school property gated and closed during and after school AND their complete absence of any extracurricular sports in its elementary and middle schools.

McRib 07/18/2008 2:00:00 AM

It was ever so. Having lived here since 1936, I say the interest is in development for profit, not public use. Observe the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy - Millions and Millions of Dollars for land purchase. Used for walking and viewing only. It's run by a bureaucratic Nazi with his own Jack-booted police force. He lays taxes on the homes surrounding the "park". No campgrounds, motorcycle trails, gun ranges or facilities useful to the general public. The "River Restoration Project" - Har de Har Har! The Los Angeles River is a pathetic trickle except when it's raining and very dangerous. The project is to beautify the river's surroundings so the dingbat apartments around it can be torn down to be replaced by expensive condos developed by the mayor's friends and other connected folks.

rocketman3.5 07/18/2008 12:33:00 AM

hey when do we get a chance to get rid of villagross anyway? orwellian is right, he and his fellow pigs that walk like men are turning l.a. into a sty.he is an adulterous bastard who deserves to have his ass kicked out of town. but then we get the pig we deserve don't we. so goes the dumbing of l.a. so goes the dumbing of america.