Saturday, September 27, 2008

Parks, Poppies and Pasadena



The California State Parks Foundation Friday night honored numerous organizations and individuals, including several Pasadena-linked ones, for making the Los Angeles State Historic Park, commonly known as the Cornfield, a reality. The Advocates for Los Angeles State Historic Park honorees recognized at the 6th Annual Golden Poppy Awards Gala held at Union Station included Sen. Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), Northeast Trees, the environmental group dedicated to restoring the Arroyo Seco watershed, and Mia Lehrer, a consultant of the Pasadena-based Tetra Tech team that developed the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, which blog partner Todd wrote about for the Pasadena Star-News.
To get to Los Angeles State Historic Park from Pasadena, take the Gold Line to the Chinatown stop.



8 comments:

Randolph Ruiz said...

I am glad this project is moving forward, but I am disappointed that this State Historic Park is going to have so little historic content. The current plans show lots of lawn and gardens, but it looks like historic interpretation will be limited to signs. None of the site's buildings will be reconstructed, and it does not even appear that any of the excavated structural remains will be featured. I assume this is due to the state having to respond to the interests of a community that has never demonstrated any excitement over the site's former role as the western terminus of the southern transcontinental railroad. --A development that was largely responsible for the early growth and success of Los Angeles.

Thanks for the post Monica. Sorry for ranting a bit. You know, the internet...

Todd said...

My river story! As a reporter, of course, what I remember was being annoyed at some villainous editor's decision to cut some vulgar-yet-colorful line about the river as bladder or kidney. Definitely some sort of uretic reference. In hindsight ... probably a good edit. <.<

Monica said...

Randolph,

Thank you for your comments. I followed up on this with City and State Parks staff, reading back your comments verbatim, as I thought you raised some valid concerns. Yes, you're right about the plan looking very green and very limited on historic interpretation. But that doesn't mean the City's history is being ignored by the City and community. A seperate consultant, who worked on Ellis Island's history, is working on a comprehensive historic component of the park plan. That project, widely supported by the community, includes the park's rail history, indigenous people, the Portola expedition, and the Zanja Madre, the irrigation ditch that supplied water to the pueblo.
This recent exciting discovery ... Archaelogists earlier this month said they uncovered massive redwood beams from a Southern Pacific Railroad Co. roundhouse built at the city's first rail depot in 1875. Like the Zanja Madre, we are working to expose it and share its history with the public as part of the historic interpretation part of the plan. I have limited space here, but would be happy to e-mail you more details on this if you so desire, Randolph.

Randolph Ruiz said...

I appreciate that Monica.

These projects tend to be driven by the interests of the activists that show up at meetings. This is not a bad thing, but the folks that participate are not always representative of the community, nor are they as knowledgeable about many of the issues as the professionals are supposed to be.

The history of the site will be commemorated through graphics and probably some history-inspired art projects, but there was an opportunity to do a bit more. The idea of reconstructing one or more of the site's historic structures had been discussed, but the community rejected those proposals as they preferred open space.

I don't necessarily blame them, but as I said before, a State Historic Park usually does a bit more in that whole "historic" direction than what is proposed here. The state runs one of the most successful railroad museums in the country, and there are several collections of historic railroad equipment in Southern California that are suffering from a fair amount of neglect. I was not thinking to take over the whole park, but I would honestly like to see a bit more railroad history on the site, and a lot less fake marsh.

The "habitat" is kind of a weird idea. They should be focusing that energy on restoring the river, not on a nearby site that was never a wetland.

Whoops. I typed too much on the internet. I need to not do that.

Todd said...

I actually saw the word "Foamers" in a non-A1 hed yesterday and thought of you, Randolph.

Randolph Ruiz said...

WSJ featured a ground-breaking expose on that topic two weeks ago.

Monica said...

"These projects tend to be driven by the interests of the activists that show up at meetings. This is not a bad thing, but the folks that participate are not always representative of the community, nor are they as knowledgeable about many of the issues as the professionals are supposed to be."

I know what you mean. And we've made a big effort to get the community involved. We've had major press conferences announcing community meetings, hired translators for them too, and the media have kindly calendered them.
Which of the meetings were you able to attend, Randolph?

Randolph Ruiz said...

"Which of the meetings were you able to attend, Randolph?"

Ouch.