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[ EDITORIAL ] |
Beautiful Places Should Not Be Locked Up
by Lori Oddino and Andrew Sears
With the joyful news that the Meadow on the east side of the Silver Lake Reservoir would finally be opened to the public, a negative force emerged to shut it down.
Those in opposition are actively working to stop the project by making false claims about lack of community process. At CSSLR’s website, evidence of the process abounds, beginning with the approval of Meadow access in the 2000 Reservoir Master Plan. That process was revisited with two more workshops in 2006, finding that 89% still support an open Meadow.
The culmination was a third event in April 2007 at which 700 neighbors and small children frolicked on the Meadow on a magical morning and enjoyed the music of the Observatory Orchestra, while 20-40 bitterly upset people stood for two hours to voice their grievances to Eric Garcetti, Tom LaBonge and a panel of experts.
Silver Lake Friends and Neighbors (SLFANS) has organized to mount a scare campaign predicting crime, litter, increased traffic, an influx of “outsiders,” noise and a parking nightmare. They accuse park proponents of destroying the environment, their neighborhood, and wildlife habitats.
These issues are all being addressed: The environmental team from the bureau of engineering is involved with all wildlife impacts, and an agreement between the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power and Los Angeles Recreation & Parks is being carefully developed to address maintenance and security.
Council District 13, the Mayor’s office and neighborhood groups are working on a parking plan and seeking a signalized pedestrian crosswalk on Silver Lake Blvd..
The community is invited by CD 13 to establish a citizens advisory panel to create guidelines and participate in management oversight. All are encouraged to volunteer for this important job.
Security plans include a Park Ranger and a DWP hotline to report suspicious activity. An additional fence with a gate locked at night was offered to SLFANS, yet they refuse to accept anything other than keeping “their” Meadow permanently locked.
Measures to protect and enhance wildlife habitats will continue to play a big part at the Meadow. The proposals include a native demonstration garden to attract birds, water conservation projects and other environmental education opportunities. The L.A. Sierra Club and L.A. Audubon both hope to participate in programs on the site.
The park design is low-impact, passive open space, a single path, a conversation area, a couple of benches, no restrooms, organized sports or other amenities. The emphasis is on creating a unique place to relax, learn, and enjoy the wildlife and water views, away from the noise of the traffic of the city.
The city is working hard with everyone involved to make this project perfect, but there are forces aggressively opposed. If you care at all about parks, it’s time to aggressively support this project or the best parts about it could go away.
Call Heather Repenning in Eric Garcetti’s office (323-957-4500) to let them know how you feel, and stay informed about upcoming events by joining the CSSLR email list at www.csslr.org.
Lori Oddino is an interior designer who has lived In Silver Lake for 6 years. She is Vice President of the Committee to Save Silver Lake’s Reservoirs and a member of the SLNC Urban Design & Preservation Advisory Committee.
Andrew Sears is President of the Committee to Save Silver Lake’s Reservoirs (CSSLR). He also works on the Elysian Reservoir; both reservoirs are protected by the Coalition to Protect Open Reservoirs (CPOR). He’s a photographer documenting changes to Silver Lake and Echo Park, a dedicated environmentalist, and spends most of his free time taking care of dogs and horses. He’s been a resident of Silver Lake since 1991.
“Eric? Are You Listening?”
Don’t Open the Meadow
The Los Feliz Ledger holds a unique position in our community. It’s where many of us count on getting the real news of our neighborhood.
Sadly, last month’s issue fell far short of doing that concerning an issue that has caused very heated debate in Silver Lake; Eric Garcetti’s push to open an area of the reservoir that has—for over 85 years—remained a protected home to wildlife, a quiet oasis in a traffic-clogged city, and a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument (HCM #422).
In years of community meetings it was becoming obvious that Garcetti’s office has decided that what we want is an open Meadow area. But in reviewing the results of questionnaires from those meetings there is not a shred of evidence that suggests that the community is “overwhelmingly in favor” of such an opening, as was suggested in the Ledger. In fact, one meeting survey is “overwhelmingly against it.”
“Silver Lake Friends and Neighbors,” a group formed to keep development out of the reservoir, circulated 100 flyers to neighbors in April asking if they wanted the Meadows opened. Seventy households showed up from that flyer to a meeting where a representative from Garcetti’s office was inundated with concerned and angry neighbors who felt that the community meetings were a sham and that their voices were going unheard.
And this has been a mounting frustration in the neighborhood. We are fed ‘happy facts’ about the benefits of having additional park space. There was never a table at any of the community meetings to present the consequences of losing such a large chunk of this monument—an act that would change the nature of living in Silver Lake forever.
At that first meeting of Silver Lake Friends and Neighbors, the frustration boiled over when people attending realized that they weren’t alone in their anger over being steamrolled by Garcetti’s office. When it was presented that plans to open the Meadows were going forward against their wishes people began to wonder what other agenda was in motion.
At a meeting that Garcetti’s office conveniently held on the Meadows in April, it was estimated that about 700 people attended, split in their views about the project. Most had never been presented with the negatives of developing the meadows: no parking planned and little available; no safe way of crossing from existing street parking to the meadows; loss of wildlife habitat and peaceful meadow; potential for increase in noise and crime; associated litter and graffiti.
After that meeting, Silver Lake Friends and Neighbors has been contacted by dozens of families who have had a chance to digest all of the implications of losing the Meadows. Many said that they had at first supported the opening but after hearing all of the negatives associated with it have decided that it is just a bad idea. Their children have come to understand that the Meadow supports a vast ecosystem that supports a diverse host of wildlife and that removing it would affect the entire reservoir habitat.
They have also now heard that the reservoir is a part of the migratory pattern of numerous bird species and that putting more people into that area would forever change that.
Children have a passionate respect for our environment and deserve credit for it. Passing on to that generation a preserved wildlife refuge and an area of calm in an increasingly busy, noisy city is also something that they deserve.
Saying that Los Angeles is park poor is true. Saying that this area is park poor is patently false to anyone who owns a map of LA and sees 4800 acres of Griffith Park, 480 acres of Elysian Park, the Community Park at the South end of the lake and Echo Park all clustered around us. We will soon have the Cornfields and the LA River open to us.
The funds for Garcetti’s development are desperately needed in the real park poor areas of LA. They are needed to improve our much-used dog park. Eric’s office likes to boast that they are meeting their goals for opening new park space and we applaud them. But to fight resistance from your own constituents on a misbegotten plan is odd for a city counselor.
On two Saturdays—for a few hours—Silver Lake Friends and Neighbors set up a booth on the Walking Path around the lake to inform the community about the negatives to developing the reservoir. Over two hundred people signed up when they were allowed to be presented another side of this issue.
Eric. Two hundred people in a few hours. Are you listening?
Brian Wakil is a member of “Silver Lake Friends and Neighbors” and has lived in Silver Lake for 10 years.