Posted: December 1st, 2005

Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick recently released the first of three audits of the Department of Recreation and Parks. Program fees for the same recreational services vary among facilities throughout Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Daily News called the system of park fees “discriminatory, capricious and just plain sleazy.” The audit exposed a lack of oversight of the Municipal Recreation Fund, which is supposed to cover direct costs of programs but which has accumulated $21 million. According to the audit “those monies are not always used for their intended purposes.” The Center is organizing support to improve park and recreation programs for all the children of Los Angeles and their families and friends.

The Los Angeles Daily Journal published a front page article highlighting successful strategies to create green space in Los Angeles. The urban park movement has created parks at the Cornfield, Taylor Yard, Baldwin Hills, Ascot Hills, and along the Los Angeles River using many strategies including litigation, conservation financing, and creative partnerships.

A Pasadena Star News editorial urges La Vina homeowners to “live up to the original agreement” and allow public access to Millard Canyon and hiking trails: “The situation is akin to those who live on the beach, public property, who want to fence it off from that very public owner. That’s just not right.”

A proposed toll road extension threatens the San Onofre State Beach, eliminating precious open space on the California coast, impacting world-famous Trestles Beach, forcing the closure of San Mateo Campground, and destroying habitat for endangered or threatened species. The proposed project would obliterate a public trail from the campground to the beach, or dramatically reduce the recreational experience for trail users who would have to go under a concrete structure to reach the beach. San Onofre is an affordable coastal haven for middle- and low-income families throughout the region, and one of the five most visited parks in the state park system. Public access and the beach must be protected. The Center submitted opposition to the toll road extension to the California State Parks and Recreation Commission, which has urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to block the controversial 16-mile project. The toll road extension would raise serious legal and policy issues parallel to the efforts to limit public access to public beaches, and to run high speed trains through state parks across the state.

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