One of my favorite blogs on the local L.A. scene is man-about-town Joseph Mailander's street-hassle. He has wide and varied interests and is usually pretty compassionate in his view on City Hall's foibles. But this posting today on Griffith Park and how its doing a year after a devastating fire ought to disturb everyone who loves L.A. Here's an excerpt:
A year later, I also don't understand any of the City's decisions---any of them. Not the decision to hydromulch at a cost of $2 million, even though the hydromulch itself cost nothing. Not the decision to let the burned brush on the trails fend for itself rather than clear some of it around the trails. Not the decision to keep chainlink gates on the entrance to some of the trails. Not the decision to let anything that can grow grow, including pernicious weeds, some six feet tall, along the trails. It's like nobody can decide anything.
A year later, it's like nobody really wants a Parkl...A year later, it's like politicians view the Park as a dumping ground for all their idiotic, money-grubbing ideas: raising fees on golf, selling the naming rights to the great franchises, cutting the Rangers' budget. A year later, nothing in the Park is sacred anymore, though there will undoubtably be lots of political chest-thumping today, by a lot of lying kleptocrats who couldn't tell a redwood from a dogwood.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the Naitonal Enquirer.
Mailender's post is very impressive and reinforces how vital it is to have you guys keeping the big guys honest. I'm sure the Times would have done this story, if they had more reporters. It''s tough to get a paper out with just 800 editorial employees!
Hi Ron,
I'm not sure I see the same things as your blogger pal. I walk/run/hike with the doggies there all the time on the different trails. I see it slowly coming back to life.
The hydro mulching thing was kind of weird, but it seems to have worked, with little sprouties everywhere. Trees that seemed burned dead are coming back to life. And the burned brush left there seems to act as soil conditioner. As for the closed-off areas, which are few, it's fairly common practice to close trails from time to time to allow them to heal. This is particularly true of trails that are subject to erosion. Remember, plants hold the soil in the place. When they burn or die, the soil just rolls away. And if a "pernicious weed" (which some might call a "native plant") will be the temporary glue to hold a hillside together, probably should let it grow. One can always de-weed later.
I'm not saying everything the city is doing for Griffith Park is the right thing. I simply don't know; I'm not a scientist. But as a long-time and regular user of parks, trails, mountains and other outside spaces in every corner of LA and SoCal, none of this seems particularly out of the ordinary to me.