New Rangers in Mayor's FY16 budget... but what is the "Regeneration Program"?

Mayor Garcetti released his 2015-16 City Budget a couple weeks ago. Included in the Recreation and Parks response to the Mayor's proposed budget is this:

"Approved the Park Ranger Regeneration Program ($1,200,000) which will allow RAP to implement the re-establishment of the Metro District Rangers Program. This is the first phase in a multi-year plan. It is expected each year a new region will become active. The Regeneration Program is expected to improve "quality of park life" issues by establishing a ranger presence throughout the City."

The Regeneration Program?   Sounds like a plotline from the fantasy show, Doctor Who. The written proof of this plan is just as elusive.  There are no City Council motions or searchable documents on this plan.   Ranger supporters turned out and spoke out loudly for what was the last "plan," making their case for the Optimum investment in the Park Ranger program.  You can read about that here. The report was filed, and it's been crickets on the issue in the public process of City Hall since then.

Now, *magic* - another new, different plan.  And, apparently, Griffith Metro gets it all from what is implied here.  Meanwhile, 10 Rangers barely covers the attrition in the past few years, much less provides any new service.

Also worth noting is that there is no sign of a Chief Park Ranger in that budget.  I did not think a POST Agency could exist without a Chief due to things like chain-of-command, and all that related peace officer silliness.  Thinking it's time to ask California POST directly about this.

Now hiring - part time Park Ranger patrol officers

The City of Los Angeles Park Rangers will be hiring part time security officers to work in the Hansen Dam area.

Applications are available at the Griffith Park Ranger Station or by contacting Sr. Ranger Pat Joyce via email: Pat.Joyce@lacity.org

Griffith Park Ranger Station
4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles CA

Beautiful new "Bill Eckert Trail" sign installed today

Photo courtesy A. Torres

Park Ranger Bill Eckert was City of Los Angeles Park Rangers badge #1 and a true legend in Griffith Park.

 
Ranger Bill was present to see the original sign installed, passing away not long after that ceremony. 

Recreation and Parks had stopped making engraved wood signs for the most part at that time, so the first sign had letter decals that recently were failing, peeling and falling off.

The new sign has been engraved like the old style signs and should last decades with proper care.

Park Ranger badge #3 - and another blossoming legend (although he'll deny it), Capt. Albert Torres - made this happen.

Beautiful!!

Read about the legend, Ranger Bill Eckert, here.  

Finally! New Illegal Vendors code for parks passed by Commission

Nine very long years after lawsuits at Venice Beach caused it to be suspended, on Wednesday the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners passed a new version of the Illegal Vendors code within LAMC 63.44 sections governing City parks.

And...

It's damn well time they did!

The reticence on the part of the City Attorney to deal with this issue in a reasonably timely fashion is unconscionable. For nine years, the City itself was left wide open to a variety of potentially costly liability lawsuits. After all, if someone falls off a horse they paid to ride in a City park  or someone gets sick from food purchased in a City park, who are they going to sue? How about the equestrian riding on a legal park trail whose horse spooks and throws them when a vendor wagon or vendor with flowers rushes out in front of them - who are they going to sue?

The physical impact to the facilities itself has been pretty bad. City parks are looking like street parties on weekends, with vendors just about everywhere including pushing their carts deep into sensitive wildlife areas of some parks to sell food, toys, beer, cigarettes, and so on.

Concessionaire agreements for the parks dept. were significantly impacted, too. Vendors paying for exclusive contracts in City parks were often inundated with unregulated competition, making such contracts undesirable. This financially impacts the Dept. of Recreation and Parks because they are semi-proprietary and should therefore be able to control any financial undertaking on their properties. Without the suspended code, the Dept. had no control essentially of their own properties.

Meanwhile, Park Rangers and law enforcement were left with no authority to cite on the basis of the illegal vending - period.

Pure anarchy.

With the vote on Wednesday, the Board of Commissioners took the first official step to stopping the anarchy by passing the new ordinance content. It didn't happen quickly, though. This particular issue caused some consternation on the part of the Board  who took their time with it over the course of two meetings with special committees. Their approach to this issue is entirely unlike how they handled the two Tom LaBonge boutique items that failed to have proper CEQA work done on them and rightfully drew lawsuits. The Board passed those easily. I'm trying to decide if the board's new found caution is is a good thing (they're learning), or they were just following someone's (Mayoral?) orders again.

Let's hope this is a good thing and they're learning.

I should note that it was Rocky Delgadillo and Carmen Trutanich's office who let this crap slide. These two really were a complete waste of taxpayer dollars, weren't they? Thank you to Mike Feuer's office for handling this.

The code update also includes a tightened definition of Camping in Parks, which should help with transient management issues. Next stop is a vote at City Council. Hopefully these past nine years of park impacts have not been lost on councilmembers, and they pass this without changes.

Link to the new code is here. 

Or read on Scribd -

New Vendors Code

Jon Mukri back to Rec and Parks, and other park notes

For the past ten months, RAP GM Jon Kirk Mukri has been doing Mayor Garcetti a solid by managing Los Angeles's beleaguered  Dept. of Transportation while the Mayor searched for a new GM for that department.  Approved last week, Ms. Seleta Reynolds starts as the new DOT GM in mid-August.

At the time Mukri began babysitting DOT, he was still the General Manager of Recreation and Parks. Ostensibly, that has not changed. Mukri is still the General Manager of the Dept. of Recreation and Parks. Come August, will the Mayor return Mukri - arguably the most talented  manager in Los Angeles - to Recreation and Parks? Or come August, will the Mayor's wife (Amy Wakeland) be allowed to continue filling key Recreation and Parks positions with more of her girlfriends.


Speaking of Mrs. Garcetti's friends, Kafi Blumenfield - aka Mrs. Bob Blumenfield - seems to have gone missing from the Recreation and Parks Commissioners' coffee klatch.  Given the hideous conflict of interest her appointment represented, it's good to see that someone finally came to their senses on this. The Recreation and Parks Commission has a great deal more legal and fiscal power than most of the other figurehead commissions in Los Angeles. Recreation and Parks is semi-proprietary, and pretty much every major department activity must be approved by the Commission.

Given the poor legal performance by Mrs. Garcetti's friends on the Crystal Springs Baseball Fields project and the "Old Zoo Performance Stage" ... or whatever new name the Bandshell has this week, one can only hope that a new commissioner without baggage but with enough technical knowledge and actual talent will be appointed to replace Blumenfield.

We've previously noted another key poor legal performance in the same hearing by Acting Rec and Parks GM Mike Shull. Shull stated for the record that neighborhood children will walk to the new ballfields from surrounding neighborhoods. Honestly? The proposed fields are more than a mile from just the the park entrance. The walk through the park is along a public and sometimes secluded jogging trail. Any parent would think twice about before letting their child walk alone or even with friends on it. 

Thinking we've had enough of the bullshit pretend leadership being appointed over our City parks. Seriously. One way or another, it's time for a real manager to take back the managerial reins of Recreation and Parks.


Griffith Park is getting a Park Advisory Board. Yes, you heard that correctly. The current councilmember vociferously opposed this idea when the Griffith Park Master Plan Working Group originally proposed it a few years back, but now it is happening. Unfortunately, the surprising acquiescence on said councilmember's part is likely due to a plan to fill the board with their chosen people.

From all appearances, at this point in time there is an actual process in place for the selection to the new Griffith (Park?) Park Advisory Board. Personally, I actually believe in the Park Advisory Board system in principle. I hope the establishment of Griffith Park's first PAB is completed with due diligence and foresight, not politics. Fingers crossed.

Still empty.

Finally...properly staffing and supporting Park Rangers remains a thinly veiled joke in Los Angeles. No new hires, no proper Chief as required by POST, and no action on the Mitch O'Farrell motion to resurrect a real Ranger program. That motion was supposed to be heard in April. To date? Crickets...  Meanwhile, the Ranger Division struggles to have one single full peace officer Park Ranger available a couple times a week for the new Hansen Dam Ranger Station. That station needs twelve Rangers plus Park Patrol officers for full coverage.

A token four new Rangers and a supervisor is included in the FY15 budget, but no action on that either. Four new Rangers doesn't even cover attrition, folks.  I'd laugh, but honestly as a dedicated parks volunteer, I find the hypocrisy -- "Los Angeles cares about our parks, parks resources, and park safety" blah blah -- utterly nauseating. Cities that have nice things take good care of their nice things. To look at our parks right now, Los Angeles must not give even the slimmest of shits about them.

Encino wants more Park Rangers!

....yet City Hall still doesn't get the message. Four new full-time Rangers and one Supervisor  (who are replacing three retirees), and still no Chief for FY15 doesn't constitute any kind of investment in the Park Ranger Division.

Grand-opening Thursday: First new LA Park Ranger Station in 35 years

The first new Park Ranger Station in Los Angeles in more than three decades opens this Thursday.

Now it would be nice if Los Angeles would actually allow Recreation and Parks to hire some full Park Rangers to man the station. Twelve Rangers are needed for reasonable coverage - they're allowing only 4 to be hired as of today.


Come on by for the grand opening and let the City know we want more Park Rangers!

Yet more problems with new ballfields if built in Crystal Springs

This is from a public comment letter to Recreation and Parks Commissioners by a recently retired Park Ranger with nearly 3 decades on the job. Someone who spent almost every day on the job in Crystal Springs, where the Ranger Station is located.

Their concerns are not addressed in the EIR, and their concerns evaporate if this project is built in Ferraro.

These are those concerns:

The Crystal Springs Picnic areas are among the most heavily used areas in Griffith Park and are already filled to capacity on many weekends.

The ball field project would remove a large portion of the picnic grounds from public use. The circular road system that is there now replaced a cul de sac system which was abandoned in the 1970s because of severe traffic impacts. The ball field project would recreate the cul de sac system - it didn't work then and it won't work now due to severe traffic impacts.

The destruction of so many mature heritage trees is unthinkable.

In addition, the (Park) Ranger fire station is located in this area and this project will certainly impact emergency response times if it does not cause relocation of the facility. ...

But go ahead, Councilmember LaBonge - shove your legacy project into Crystal Springs anyway.

Tell City Hall: "Optimum Investment" Park Ranger option is the only reasonable option

Update 2/10/14:  At the APHAR Committee meeting, Recreation and Parks reported that they are putting just four new Rangers into the 2014-15 budget and no mention of a Chief Ranger.  Three positions are already open due to retirements so Rec and Parks is in reality adding just one new Park Ranger in their 2014-15 budget if nothing changes.

Meanwhile, the preponderance of the public comment both sent in via email and in person requested that the APHAR Committee choose the Optimum Investment option. The APHAR Committee made no recommendation but asked for a report-back from the CAO (who just loves Rec and Parks) on the cost of each option in 60 days, which is only a week or so before Recreation and Parks submits their budget for 2014-15.
---


The Dept of Recreation and Parks has released their final report on the current status of the Park Ranger Division.  The City Council's Arts Parks Health Aging and River Committee will be discussing this report Monday at 2pm in Room 1060 at City Hall.  (agenda item 7)

If you've kept up with any of the information about our City of Los Angeles Park Rangers published here and at Mayor Sam over the years, you won't be surprised that the situation is bleak.  Citywide, just twenty-one Park Rangers are left in the City, and more than half of them are grandfathered-in as non-peace officers -- an artifact left over from a crippling union agreement more than a decade ago.  There is no Chief Ranger in spite of the position being required by California POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training), who oversees peace officer agencies and training in this state.

The final Park Ranger status report being presented on Monday provides three different tiers of investment that City Council could select that would bring the Park Ranger Division back to a level of health and effectiveness:  

• Optimum Investment
• Modest Investment
• Minimum Investment

Only the Optimum Investment will cover all of our larger Regional parks including Hansen Dam Recreational Area, which has a new Ranger Station and no Rangers. The cost of the Optimum Investment is just four times the current barely-breathing cost of the Park Ranger Division.


Is the Optimum Investment Option worth it?

When initially created in 2005, the Office of Public Safety had a budget of $21-$25 million, the vast majority of which (they often whined) was devoted directly to parks.  Meaning - as Park Ranger replacements.

Hansen Dam Ranger Station - nobody home.

Creating OPS saved the City $200,000 - $900,000, said the CAO. Within a few years, OPS had already added $7 million more to their budget, and I wrote about in my first article for the Mayor Sam blog. More additional funding demands followed and were granted.

Again, OPS's budget was mostly for patrolling parks, as they constantly reminded anyone listening. 

The Park Ranger position historically grew directly from the day-to-day needs in our parks. Park Rangers do 80% more job duties than Office of Public Safety officers.

Park Rangers are professional peace officers, fire fighters, wildlife managers, naturalists, and environmental managers. There is a reason that LA Park Rangers are often hired out of the department to become Emergency Management coordinators all across the City:  Rangers are professional multi-disciplinarians, giving them a broad world view other single-disciplined professionals do not have.

So in comparison, OPS at it's peak (optimum?) had a budget of over $34 million* , most of which was for parks.  Their officers did only 20% of the job duties Parks Rangers do for our parks.  Our City Council and Mayor felt this was worth investing in.

Park Rangers do 80% more for parks and the Optimum Investment option is $17 million** -- half the cost of OPS.

The analysis is pretty clear.

City Council should do the right thing: choose the Optimum Investment option.



Make your voice heard!

You can demand the Optimum Investment option by attending the Arts, Parks, Health, Aging and River Committee meeting this Monday at 2pm in Room 1060, or by emailing the City Clerk with your public comment before Monday.

Be certain you write on your comment that it is for two different files:

1. APHAR Committee meeting 2/10/14 - Agenda Item 7, and
2. Council File 12-0899-S1


* = not including indirect costs. Indirect costs are roughly an additional 45%
** = including indirect costs.

Sunland-Tujunga NC wants more Park Rangers

Items 6 & 7 passed unanimously last night.

CF #12-0899-S1 should be going back to Arts, Parks sometime this month.

Hansen Dam Ranger Station
Nobody home

It's reassuring to see that the Park Ranger program is not just a single park phenomenon, and that a single council office can no longer control this Citywide conversation.

LA Commons hosting historic Amir's Garden tour this Sunday

As part of their Found LA series, LA Commons is hosting a historic tour of Amir's Garden this Sunday from 11:30 am to 1pm.

The tour will be led by myself and one of our best Park Rangers. Bring your lunch, expect freebies and a nice fall tour of a very historic Iconic Garden in Griffith Park - Amir's Garden.

See you there. RSVP at this link.

See other Found LA events across the City at this link.

Ranger Leadership missing from Arts Parks Health Aging and River report request

Update 10-8-13

Councilmember Fuentes just added a friendly amendment requiring study of the impact of not having a fully-qualified Chief Park Ranger.

The motion passed 14-0.

----
There is clearly something integral missing from the APHAR report requesting a comprehensive update from Recreation and Parks on the challenges currently facing the Park Ranger Division:

CHIEF

PARK

RANGER


This will be voted on in City Council on October 8th.

Do you think any of our City Councilmembers will care enough to catch this major missing piece and correct it? Or will lack of proper qualified leadership continue to threaten the very existence of the Park Ranger Division?

Name a qualified Acting Chief Ranger now.

It's time.

Mayor Garcetti, GM Mukri, Arts-Parks Chair O'Farrell:  The Park Ranger Division needs proper leadership.

It's time to name a truly qualified Acting Chief Park Ranger now.

Challenges facing Park Rangers, City parks start with the CAO

This past Monday, the City's Arts Parks Health Aging & River Committee had an item (cf# 12-0899-S1) on their agenda asking the Department of Recreation and Parks for an update on the challenges facing the Park Ranger Division.

Tom LaBonge authored the vague-sounding motion and Felipe Fuentes - a new councilman with a new Park Ranger Station in Hansen Dam Recreation Area and zero Park Rangers to operate it - seconded the motion.

The challenges facing the health of our Park Ranger Division have directly impacted the health of our large Regional Parks in Los Angeles.  Read all about why this is the case in the PUBLIC COMMENT below.

Hansen Dam Ranger Station - Nobody Home

So what exactly are those challenges? There are a number of us parks advocates out there who know from years of experience and advocacy that these challenges facing the survival of the Park Ranger Division are substantial. Ever hopeful, this particular advocate was looking for some real discussion of this important parks issue during the committee meeting on Monday.

Alas, it was not to be. After what amounted to a haphazard non-report by Recreation and Parks' AGM Kevin Regan (who is, himself, one of the very challenges in question), the motion was amended to have this report presented in 60 days. 


AGM Regan could easily have produced a report at Monday's meeting on the challenges facing the Park Ranger Division. Easily. After all, he's put himself fully in command of the POST-certified division. That said, one suspects that if any give in hiring new Rangers was likely by the Parks Department-hating CAO, Miguel Santana, it would have happened yesterday since they could hire to fill funded positions that are currently unfilled due to attrition. But the entire hearing on this item was just giving the pretense about doing something concrete to address the serious issues affecting the Park Ranger Division, so Santana must be saying "no".

Not surprising. CAO Santana simply hates the Department of Recreation and Parks. He actually went out of his way to taunt them during their budget hearing, which is utterly shocking behavior for an alleged professional.

Taunting Recreation and Parks as he facilitates the theft of $70 million from the department and balances his budget on the backs of Los Angeles' children goes well beyond amoral. Why is this guy still working as CAO?

OK, so add CAO Miguel Santana to the substantial list of challenges facing the Park Ranger Division. And facing the children of Los Angeles.


As for myself, I took a different approach to this hearing. Rather than adding to the number of simple public comments I've made on the Park Ranger Division, I decided to respond to the motion and write that report from what I know firsthand. And, oddly enough, a number of questions Kevin Regan was asked by the committee and didn't necessarily respond to are factually addressed in my public comment.  Fascinating, that. 

So here for your reading enjoyment is an update on the challenges currently facing the Park Ranger Division. Minus CAO Miguel Santana. I'll be adding him in to my next draft.

Listen to the audio of Monday's committee hearing here (item 2).
---


PUBLIC COMMENT
 
A. Who are the City of Los Angeles Park Rangers?
 

The best way to understand who the Park Rangers are is probably by reading the Draft Park Ranger Division 5-Year Strategic Plan (2009).

The City of Los Angeles Park Rangers are a California POST-certified agency. Park Rangers are highly trained professionals whose job duties evolved directly from the day-to-day needs in our Los Angeles parks. No other agency can or does respond to these needs like Park Rangers.
 
Currently, Park Rangers are the in-the-field managers of our Regional Parks (largest City parks), including Griffith Park, Hansen Dam, Elysian Park, Harbor Regional Park, Sepulveda Basin, Ascot Hills, Augustus Hawkins, Debs Park, O’ Melveny Park, Verdugo Hills park, Angel’s Gate, and others. When allowed to respond, Park Rangers typically answer 26,000* calls for service in parks annually (*2007, 2008).
 
Park Rangers also play a critical and under-appreciated role in the Mass Care portion (Recreation and Park’s responsibility) of the City’s Emergency Plan.


Vital park-specific services provided by Park Rangers -
 
Major job duties:

1. Security and Law Enforcement
2. Firefighting
3. Search and Rescue
4. Community Policing
5. Wildlife Management
6. Education and Interpretive

Park Rangers patrol Recreation and Park facilities by vehicle, foot, horseback and bicycle to prevent unauthorized entry, vandalism, theft or other crimes.
 
Park Rangers provide emergency services, shelter and welfare to persons in emergency conditions.
 
Park Rangers respond to accidents and administer First Aid and/or Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) to victims, some may have infectious diseases.
 
Park Rangers carry out search and rescue operations for people who are lost.
 
Park Rangers manage park resources to address wildlife issues, special events, repairs and maintenance, fire safety, patron utilization.
 
Park Rangers present both professional and impromptu educational and interpretive programming to the public to enhance the enjoyment of the community.


B. What are the current challenges facing the Park Ranger Division?
 
A reasonable full deployment of Park Rangers for the Los Angeles Regional Parks we currently have looks essentially like this:

1 Chief Park Ranger
3 Sr. Lead Rangers
28 field Rangers
(Griffith Park Ranger Station) 12-16 full-time Rangers
(Hansen Dam Ranger Station) 8-12 full-time Rangers

Part-time Park Patrol officers and trained volunteers and docents can cover some of duties of these positions but are in no way replacements for full-time Park Rangers.
 
Currently, the sum total of Peace Officer Park Rangers and grandfathered Non-Peace Officer Park Rangers in the field is less than 18, placing the Division and parks services and safety at a very critical tipping point.


Why are we at this point?

During the past decade, the City has allowed non-negotiable hiring freezes, lay-off threats, ersatz “park patrol” entities, managerial neglect and misuse, and attrition to literally decimate the Park Ranger Division.

Peace Officer status is vital to the safe, effective ability of a Park Ranger to efficiently manage their parks in the City of Los Angeles. The current situation is this: a non-POST certified civilian Assistant General Manager acts as the Chief Ranger through a puppet peace officer (typically a Captain) loaned from a different agency. The loaned officer often has little to no understanding of the full scope of the Park Ranger job and most have shown no desire or received no motivation to learn the job.

The linear Command-and-Control structure that is fundamental to POST agencies was removed by the AGM in 2009. When there was a Chief Park Ranger previously, they were answerable to an AGM rather than to a GM.
 
The current type of structure and leadership are fairly unheard of for a California POST agency. Undeniably, it is not healthy, safe or appropriate.
 
Additionally, more than a century (100+ years) of invaluable institutional Ranger knowledge was lost during ERIP due in large part to the alleged hostile work environment created by the AGM in question.

Morale has understandably been low.
 
Non-equal pay (lower) within the City is a factor negatively impacting hiring. 

The college degree requirement impacts hiring but expertise is necessary for this complex position.

Most Peace Officer Park Ranger agencies in California are armed. The current lack of being armed negatively impacts hiring. At face value, this should not be an issue since it is common in California. Los Angles politics remain the main reason for the continuation of this negative hiring impact, sadly.
 
Many of these challenges have been and remain completely unnecessary, specifically where the management of the Division is concerned. The management issue can quickly be corrected by hiring or naming a truly qualified Chief Park Ranger.


C. How do these challenges affect our parks and parks patrons?

During 2004-2008, hundreds of concerned parks patrons and almost 20 neighborhood councils representing more than 800,000 Angelenos passed resolutions or community impact statements that not only supported keeping the Park Rangers in our parks as full peace officers, but with increased staffing to include full coverage of each regional park with Senior Lead Rangers and a Chief Park Ranger. (List is attached)
 
The situation now with few Rangers and no proper Chief Ranger is that no one is home in these parks.
 
When no one is home... Parks users are not safe. Park inhabitants are not safe. Park resources are not safe. When no one is home, our fragile City resources are damaged and abused, costing even more funds to restore. Or they are damaged beyond restoration altogether.


LAPD is not a replacement for Park Rangers.

OPS was not a replacement for Park Rangers, and neither is LAPD. Except for special details, LAPD simply answers radio calls. Most typical park calls are prioritized by LAPD as lower than Code 2 and are placed in the non-emergency call queue (1-877-ASK-LAPD phone line). I have personally been on hold on this line for more than 30 minutes more than once before an operator addressed my call for service.
 
If the call is at a location without a street address such as we have in our Regionals Parks (ex: “Water Crossing” at Hansen Dam), the vast majority of LAPD patrol officers and dispatchers don’t know the location.


LAFD is not a replacement for Park Rangers.

Witness the insane amount of expensive helicopter rescues in Griffith Park by LAFD in the past few years. Rangers contact, educate and inform the public about safe use of the parks before it gets to this point. Park Rangers intimately know their parks. Including locations without addresses.

Peace Officer Park Rangers in the field enforce:

· Alcohol laws
· Trespass laws
· Fire code violations (such as smoking in the brush or attempted arson)
· Handicapped parking violations
· Narcotics violations
· Animal welfare/abuse laws
· Vandalism or graffiti
· Vehicle code violations
 
…and other important quality of life laws and ordinances that LAPD will not bother with.
 
Citing the smaller offenses in parks is proven to prevent escalation of criminality.
 

Both LAPD and LAFD work most effectively and efficiently in and around our parks as needed when they work with a strong Park Ranger Division.

Ranger role goes largely unrecognized in Emergency Preparedness.
 
Park Rangers play a critical role in the Mass Care portion (RAP’s responsibility) of the City’s Emergency Plan. The impact of the “OPS Consolidation” that removed 56 peace officer positions from the Dept. of Recreation and Parks (along with millions of dollars in vital equipment and dispatch positions) on RAP’s specific role in the City Of Los Angeles’s emergency plan has gone unrecognized, with little acknowledgement, and without any real analysis. Due diligence requires that this be addressed.

What's up with LaBonge?

On Monday the City's Arts Parks Health Aging & River Committee had an item (cf# 12-0899-S1) on their agenda asking the Department of Recreation and Parks for an update on the challenges facing the Park Rangers.

I gotta say before delving any deeper into those issues in another article is that Tom LaBonge is simply ..... .... help me here.  Nuts?  Distracted?   ??




At Monday's hearing, LaBonge insisted not once but three times that the job description of a Park Ranger must include that they gotta pick up the trash. This is tantamount to adding the job of trash collector to someone with a college degree whose job currently encompasses being a peace officer, firefighter, wildlife officer, naturalist, and urban wilderness park manager. Crazy.

Um, wow. If the complete ignorance of who Parks Rangers are and what they do ain't a textbook example of one of the challenges facing the Park Ranger Division, I don't know what is.

Listen to the audio of this hearing here (item 2).

Overheard at yesterday's Griffith Park Resources "Board" (sic) meeting:

After reading through this laundry list of Griffith Park action items, you just have to wonder about the priority of agencies who are ostensibly tasked with the environmental health, care and protection of this urban wilderness park.

ACTION ITEMS: 

• Work on the new foot/bike/horse bridge crossing the LA River from Atwater Village into the park cannot begin until migratory bird nesting season is over, which is anticipated to be the end of July.

• Traffic study was just completed at the Zoo entrance by the Autry. Traffic calming solutions may include a traffic light. Yes, a traffic light in an urban wilderness park. Something is really wrong here.

• LA Opera wants to simulcast its opener on big tv screens on the Wilson-Harding Golf Course.   w-t-f?

• LaBonge is still talking about adding cell towers on water tanks throughout the park, same as he has been for the past four years or so.

• LAPD wants a 'public' horse arena on the Atwater Village side near the new bridge that they will have preferential use of... but the public can use it when they're done using it.

• The LA Zoo - which is on Griffith Park property - will be 'offering' preferential parking for $5. Looks like paying to park in our City parks now has a toe-hold.

• The Eco-Moron Award-winning LADWP Holiday Light Festival is finished as a vehicle event, but it may move entirely into the LA Zoo as a foot traffic event with all of the lights and noise. I'm sure the animals will love it.

• LADWP will be rebuilding the tree root-damaged sidewalks on Riverside Drive at LaBonge's behest. What do ratepayers think about this?

• the GP Senior Center in the Friendship Auditorium parking lot wants LaBonge to re purpose (? kick LA Shares out?) the building by Mulholland Fountain for an "Arts Center" that they will be using.

• LaBonge wants a trail from Lake Hollywood to Cahuenga Peak on LADWP right of away.

• After physical attacks upon both an LAPD officer and a peace officer Park Ranger by illegal flower vendors at the Forest Lawn entrance to the park, a public safety task force will be working on this issue.

• Related to the above issue, the Headworks plan calls for the removal of the fence that helps keep illegal flower vendors from completely impacting every inch of that section of roadway and park. This decision was called into question and may change.

Frequent hiker rescues highlight need for additional Park Rangers

The four-day search and rescue of two hikers found less than a mile from their vehicles in OC's Trabuco Canyon last week has highlighted the recent significant increase in these expensive and dangerous activities. Modern Hiker has a good discussion of this issue today and LA Weekly published an article addressing this issue with some focus on City parks. Griffith Park seems to have a helicopter rescue every other week with amateur hikers going off-trail.

Earlier this week LAFD, after a third helicopter rescue above Veterans’ Park, broadcast this:

*UPDATE: Veterans Memorial Park Trailhead* LAFD helicopter hoisting uninjured boys from precarious location (2 trips w/ 3 victims each) to awaiting Fire Engine transporting to parking lot. LAFD had similar incidents last 2 weekends in nearly same location. LAFD reminds hikers to REMAIN ON TRAILS. – Erik Scott###

Calling our Mayor, CAO, City Council, Budget Chair Paul Krekorian, and Mayoral Candidates Eric Garcetti (a Parks Save signatory) and Wendy Greuel:  

If there was ever a clear argument for more Park Rangers this budget cycle, this is it.  When Park Rangers are in the field and interacting with hikers, educating hikers, and are on-site managing the sensitive resources that contain trails, the number of these types of incidents decreases. With respect to City parks in particular like Griffith, there are such few Park Rangers left right now that these parks are essentially not patrolled and are a veritable free-for all. No one is “home”, so anything goes, and this doesn’t just enable unprepared hikers but it allows vandals to damage these resources at-will.

I personally can vouch for people reaching out to resources like Rangers when they are on-site. On busy days, park neophytes who make their way into Amir’s Garden keep me from getting any work done at all with the questions about trails, preparation, distances, difficulty, wildlife, etc. And that’s A Good Thing. I answer everything and direct them to additional resources. Exactly what Park Rangers should be doing as part of their vital job duties – if we actually had any Rangers.

The bottom line is that we need a more reasonable management standard for our urban wilderness areas that is primarily proactive (Rangers, volunteers on-site) as opposed to reactive (expensive and dangerous Search & Rescue).

Time to correct this and hire more Park Rangers and a Chief Park Ranger this budget cycle.

Amir's Garden receives a 'Best of Los Angeles' nod

Last week, LA Weekly was kind enough to select Amir's Garden as the best picnic oasis inside Griffith Park in their "Best of Los Angeles 2011" edition.

As the volunteer caretaker and steward of this special place since Amir passed away in 2003, I'd like to thank the Weekly for the award and write-up. The recognition for Amir's beautiful rest stop and ornamental garden in Griffith Park is very much appreciated!

Author Reuben E. Reynoso's write-up on the garden does bring up an issue that needs discussion. In it, he not-so-subtly suggests that visitors may want to bring wine to the garden and toast Amir (and then not to blame him or the Weekly for doing so).  This likely comes from the garden's and its founder's history. Amir's weekly potluck through the 1980s and early '90s often included wine. After all, when not caring for the garden, Amir Dialameh worked as a wine expert at Greenblatt's Deli on Sunset for years. A glass of red wine before bed was a part of his heart-healthy daily routine.

At the end of November, I will now have been caring for the garden as Amir did for a full 1/4 of the time he put in. That's 8 years at some 900 volunteer hours per year spent in the garden. In these past 8 years, the appearance of alcohol in the park - and in the garden itself - has definitely increased. And not in a positive way.

So I ask:  when you toast Amir for his beautiful gift and you want to use alcohol of some variety,  please respect the garden, the park, and everyone who enjoys the park by raising your toast outside the park.

Amir Dialameh in another lovely garden.

Credit: Farrokh A. Ashtiani

Today is a much different world than it was 20 years ago, for better or for worse. One contributing factor right now is the lack of any Park Ranger presence in the evenings and precious little during the day. No Ranger presence has made it obvious to anyone looking that no one is watching the store, anymore.

Over the summer, the amount of alcohol party trashings of the garden went from annoying-but-occasional to every weekend with one or more of these inappropriate uses of Amir's beautiful gift taking place. Just two weeks ago, I spotted four kids off-trail near Amir's with a telltale blue box in hand. When Park Rangers found them, these park patrons had 36 cans of beer prepped for a big afternoon.

It is illegal to bring alcohol into the park, and the law is for everyone: you cannot have one set of laws for some and not for others. Please don't bring alcohol to Amir's Garden, even for a simple toast.

If you are compelled to toast Amir in his fantastic garden, as anyone might be,  many non-alcoholic drinks are out there for you to choose from. Sparkling grape juice is my personal fave. Good stuff!


Read Farrokh Ashtiani's wonderful tribute to Amir at the time of his passing here.

Biggest darn rattler in the park successfully relocated

Remember her?

More than 4' long and 14-15 rattles.

They don't come much bigger than this in Griffith Park:

In 2009, this grandmomma rattlesnake, looking very pregnant, scared quite a few visitors around Amir's Garden for a couple months. At the time, Park Rangers were patrolling for her so that they could relocate her safely to a less-traveled part of the park.

But Grandmomma suddenly dropped off the map. No sightings! As the garden caretaker, I seriously had eyes peeled for this gal. When she disappeared, I was worried something or someone had gotten to this beautiful creature before she could be safely moved. That said, rattlesnakes are territorial, and big ones maintain big territories. She could be anywhere in her territory.

Meanwhile, as we wondered where she might be, this photo kind of went viral throughout the park community. People kept asking me if I'd seen the big snake they saw in their email. I had to say 'no'.

At the end of August this year, Grandmomma suddenly reappeared in Amir's Garden. Terrified calls from garden visitors again went to the Park Rangers and this time they got up to the location just as she was leaving the area. They carefully placed her in a travel container and moved her to her new home in the park.

Here is Grandmomma circa early September 2011 - 15+ rattles strong but not so pregnant, cruising into her new low-density home where she won't terrify too many humans. What a gorgeous girl!

More kids shot in Los Angeles City parks

Happened again last night:

Two shot at park during anti-gang program
July 21, 2011 | 9:39 am

And on July 14th, where it only made news because Hollywood stars were on scene:

Actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena witness real drama with LAPD
July 14, 2011

And on June 22nd. And a few other times in between that didn't make the news.


Meanwhile, it takes a full-on task force to convene in the future to address serious, well-known, ongoing operational issues at one of the large Los Angeles parks:

Problems at Harbor City park continue
July 20, 2011

So W-T-F?

The City Charter says that the responsible department is the Department of Recreation and Parks - full stop.

So where exactly has the department who is responsible for these parks been while all of this is going on?

Certainly not engaging in any significant proactive prevention.

Why isn't Recreation and Parks able to handle their parks?

Maybe you should ask your Councilperson and the Mayor that question. After all, they created and approved - unanimously -  a budget that has basically destroyed this department's ability to do much of anything, really.


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Additional: 

You can keep on top of emergency calls via the web:  listen to local police and fire radio transmissions here.

The Daily News is reporting that Villaraigosa had planned to show off his "Summer Night Lights " program - the anti-gang program where two kids were shot last night - to the US Conference of Mayors tonight.

We're unable to confirm the exact location of the 911 call for a shooting at Toberman Recreation Center that came in earlier this afternoon. More when we get it.

Related:

Venice's Penmar Park Pulled From Consideration For Homeless Parking Program After Double Murder There