To the editor: Thanks to columnist Patt Morrison for her wonderful history of some of our parks and the lack of parks in the city of Los Angeles (“Feel a bit crowded at the park? Why L.A. park spaces come up short,” May 6).
Readers should also know about the current effort, as part of charter reform, to get a measure on the ballot in November to allow our city parks to receive adequate funding.
Our entire city park system, including all the recreational programs, senior centers and other services provided at those parks, has had the same percentage of the city budget since 1937.
As a recent member of the Charter Reform Commission, I urge Angelenos to contact their City Council members and ask to get a measure on the November ballot so we can go from .033% to .066% of the city annual budget for our parks (yes, you read that correctly; still less than 1% of the annual budget).
Everyone knows the value of parks, open space, recreational programs, etc. Can we please persuade our council and then our voters of this important matter?
Mona Field, Eagle Rock
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To the editor: I appreciated and agreed with Morrison’s lament on the dearth of parks in Los Angeles. If only that 1927 plan she mentions hadn’t effectively been dropped off the end of the Santa Monica Pier, never to see the light of the sun!
But there is one rather large oversight: Topanga State Park is said to be the largest wildland within the confines of a city anywhere in the world. That may not help the good people of Maywood or others “who really deserve the dignity of beautiful parks” near them, but surely our 11,000 acres of gorgeous wilderness count for something.
Susan Hanger, Topanga
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To the editor: Kudos to Morrison for noting the need for more park space in Los Angeles. How appalling that there is more paved parking lot surface than park space in the city.
Morrison touched on just the tip of the problem. Even park space, with its acres of turf, does not solve the serious problem of decreasing biodiversity in our community and world. Of course concrete inhibits the interaction of flora and fauna, but a massive spread of grass is basically an ecological desert. Grass is useful for picnics and children’s play areas, but does not otherwise serve us well.
We need to bring back native plants in abundance to encourage biodiversity, not just in parklands, but out our front doors. Yards, balconies, window boxes and container gardens can be magnets for native fauna. Imagine median strips, shopping mall borders and corporate office building roofs planted with indigenous flora, hopefully creating corridors for the movement of native fauna.
Los Angeles is home to nearly 4 million people who depend on biodiversity to survive. We don’t have to live in a concrete jungle.
Margaret Baker Davis, Claremont
