The ouster
of Occupy L.A. left City Hall Park with dirt where once there was turf.
And when ideas started coming in about what should be done to restore
the landscape that adorns the symbolic center of the city, the range of
opinions was something akin to those within Occupy L.A.: widely varied,
with a generally progressive bent.
In gardening terms,
“progressive” means less grass and more drought-tolerant and native
plants. The fear, however, was that the city, bureaucratic and broke,
would blow the opportunity to reboot the garden and just go with the
least expensive and most traditional option: planting another flat,
green sprawl. After all, grass is the cheapest to install and the
easiest to maintain.
Even before the city had the chance to assess
damage to the sprinkler system, accusations began to fly that the city
Department of Recreation and Parks, the municipal office responsible for
City Hall Park, was mired in “cultural inertia,” incapable of
maintaining any landscape beyond the standard grass farm. Case in point
was supposed to be the green space around LAPD headquarters downtown.
Redesigned with low-water plants in 2009, the space today is plagued by
sunken trees and sickly grass. When asked about City Hall Park by the L.A. Times,
Scott Baker, the landscape architect who oversaw the LAPD project, was
quoted as saying the city didn't deserve any great green spaces until it
could figure out how to do the maintenance.
Asked about that
quote, Mike Shull leaps into battle mode, bristling, “I've been waiting
for a chance to answer that!” Shull, superintendent of construction,
maintenance and planning for Recreation and Parks, says the accusations
of incompetence are “completely false — so false it's unbelievable. We
operate more than 16,000 acres. To say that we can't do maintenance is
the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.”
In fact, the LAPD
property isn't a park and wasn't handed over to Recreation and Parks'
jurisdiction until late December 2011. Before that, the property, which
had no maintenance budget, was being cared for only by volunteers.
Shull
is confident that his department can tackle the City Hall job: “There
is nobody in the city more qualified or with a broader base of
knowledge.” At 44, Shull has worked for the city nearly half of his life
— 21 years — and has been in his current position for six.
The
plan to re-landscape City Hall Park's north lawn with low-water-use
plants was already in the works well before Occupy pitched its first
tent, he says. But, like many other city projects, it was still in
search of funding. “It's no secret that the city's broke,” Shull says.
But half of the funds for the north lawn project had been identified,
and because the departure of Occupy brought the iconic location both
more attention and a heightened desire to get back to business as usual
ASAP, Shull is certain that both the north and the south lawn will be
transformed from dead grass into a lush xeriscape before the year is
over.
Last week, Shull hosted a walk-through of the site for a
group of landscape designers and representatives from organizations
including the California Native Plant Society and the Theodore Payne
Foundation. Rec and Parks wanted their input — as well as that of the
Downtown Neighborhood Council — on three proposed concepts for the
redesign of the park.
Because City Hall Park is the site of a
weekly farmers market, as well as more than 100 special events each
year, the challenge is to create a green space that can win over a
number of interests: those who want to see the city showcase the
importance of water-wise gardening and those who want to maintain an
open expanse for events — or future protest gatherings. A cactus garden
is clearly out.
Rec and Parks has put out three general design concepts (on view at laparks.org/restoration/index.htm),
which range from the most turf to the least. The less turf, the more
money the design will cost, primarily due to the necessity of changes to
the irrigation system. Already, there's consternation at preliminary
cost estimates — $300,000, $500,000 and $900,000. The numbers are so
high, Shull says, because the city must pay union wages, as opposed to
the sorts of wages most L.A. gardeners earn.
Shull grouses a bit
about charges that his department is stuck in the past, even as it's
making as many changes as possible. The recent installation of a
state-of-the-art “smart” irrigation system, he notes, has already
reduced water use at the site by 30 percent.
Still, given City
Hall's iconic status, Shull understands that putting in native and other
low-water plants is as important symbolically as it is environmentally —
which means no matter how smart the irrigation system, there will be
complaints until a dramatically visible change is made to the site.
But
Shull is optimistic about being able to get a design approved and the
project done in a timely manner. A number of funding options are being
considered, from DWP rebates to private donations, he says.
Given
the typical pace of city bureaucracy, will plants even be in the ground
before 2012 is out? “I sure hope so,” Shull says, half-laughing,
half-sighing. The goal, he says, is to start construction by March and
be finished by summer. And if he can accomplish that, well, the grass at
City Hall won't be any greener. But at least the naysayers may be
quieter.
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