As report cards go, it was one you hoped the dog would eat before anyone saw it.
In a recent ranking of parks in the nation’s 100 most populous cities, Los Angeles surrendered its spot at No. 88.
And dropped to No. 90.
That’s ridiculous in a city known for its year-round get-outdoors climate.
“It’s not a good look,” a city repairman told me while fixing a sprinkler at Griffith Park Recreation Center, where the historic swimming pool is an empty tank, out of service since 2020.
With the city about to host World Cup soccer matches next year, and just three years out from hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the repairman had a thought:
“This would be a good time to boost the parks,” he said.
No kidding. But that would mean jumping over a set of hurdles higher than any you’ll find in an Olympic event.
The Trust for Public Land’s annual rankings for municipal parks are based on acreage, investment, amenities, access and equity. Washington, D.C., is No. 1, Irvine No. 2 and San Francisco No. 6. Other California cities ranked higher than L.A. are San Diego (22), Sacramento (32), Fremont (38), San Jose (41), Oakland (44), Long Beach (56), Santa Clarita (63), Santa Ana (79), Stockton (80), Riverside and Anaheim (tied at 81), and Chula Vista (84).
Jimmy Kim, general manager of the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department, says staffing has plummeted from 2,400 to about 1,200.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
A synopsis by the trust, which released its latest findings in May, said Los Angeles “has one of the most challenged big-city park systems in America.” Five years ago, according to the report, the city was in the middle of the pack at 49th, only to sink steadily into a gopher hole. “The cause? A century of disinvestment.”
Jimmy Kim, general manager of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, told me that since he first worked in the department as a lifeguard in the ’90s, staffing has plummeted from 2,400 to about 1,200, making it harder to maintain aging, deteriorating facilities.
Several pools were in no shape to open this summer. Outside the Griffith Park pool, which is slated to replaced in the next couple of years, the children of two families played in the sandbox. It was 90 degrees, and the parents said they’d be in the water if the pool were in operation. I stepped into the men’s bathroom, near the tennis courts, only to find yellow caution tape stretched across a toilet stall.
“A lot of our rec centers are very old, so our pools and park resources all need some level of renovation or replacement,” said Kim, who conceded it’s a constant struggle to keep up. “We do try to stay on top of it as best we can, but it’s almost like whackamole.”
Money is a problem. A big problem.
The current tab for deferred maintenance?
How about $2 billion, give or take.
Kim said a needs assessment is under way, to prioritize projects and make the most efficient use of limited resources.
A person playing basketball at the Eagle Rock Recreation Center.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Joe Halper, a former Recreation and Parks board member, has been flagging these challenges for me since I began talking to him in January about losing his home in the January Palisades fire. Halper, 95, has been more interested in talking about his lifelong passion — public parks — than his own losses.
About 40% of the city’s population doesn’t live within a half-mile walk of a park or open space, Halper said. That’s a key metric in the trust’s ratings. As Halper notes, “The lack of opportunity for physical exercise has been associated with the high-level of diabetes and obesity,” especially in low-income communities of color.
But as disappointing as the park shortage is, there’s a readily available, tragically underutilized resource that Halper has been promoting in his role as a member of the non-profit L.A. Parks Foundation.
Open the gates of locked schools — on weekends and school breaks — and make those public assets available for recreational activities.
This is not a new idea. I first heard former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley make that pitch on the presidential campaign trail 25 years ago, when he was talking about how it makes no sense to lock the doors to school libraries and gymnasiums at 3 p.m. every day and all day on weekends. Community School Parks exist in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Oregon, as well as the ones in L.A.
Other cities have done it, and Los Angeles has begun its own initiative. Ten LAUSD sites are already operating as Community School Parks on weekends, and this week, there was some good news about the possibility of adding more to the mix.
After years of negotiations to address liability and access issues, beginning with an initiative under former Mayor Eric Garcetti and a motion in 2023 by City Councilmember Nithya Raman, the L.A. Unified School District Board voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a Joint powers agreement with the city.
Given budget constraints, Raman told me, “opening up existing resources is a much lower cost option for providing parks.”
“Ten is great,” school board member Nick Melvoin said at Tuesday’s meeting, “but 1,000 is where we need to get to.” He said he’d like to see two or three school gates unlocked “in the next few weeks and 20 or 30 by the end of the calendar year.”
“Any public space, in my mind, that is closed to the public, is a tragedy,” he added.
Not that the several hundred LAUSD schools have the greatest recreational facilities. The district has its own aging infrastructure problem, with a multi-billion-dollar backlog of deferred maintenance tab, according to Melvoin. There’s also a blacktop problem, as in, too much of it, and not enough greenery and shade (although some redesign projects are in the works).
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times; Photo illustration by Jade Cuevas / Los Angeles Times)
Halper was concerned that the joint powers agreement appeared to prohibit use of gyms and other indoor spaces, which would limit some organized sports. But at the school board meeting, where board members Melvoin and Kelly Gonez raised the same issues, a district staffer said the doors can be opened on a school by school basis if enough resources are available.
That’s the biggest challenge going forward. The district intends to open and lock school gates on weekends, and the city will provide staff to cover the grounds. But there’s no dedicated funding source, and Kim said the city will look to the community for help.
“I think the key is philanthropic and partner support,” he said.
Here’s where the city needs to leverage its hosting of the 2028 Olympics. The games will cost billions and generate billions, and L.A.’s kids shouldn’t be stuck with shabby recreational facilities while the elite athletes of the world compete at first-rate, dressed up facilities.
Kim said there’s already been a substantial benefit, with 1 million L.A. kids having participated in city recreation and parks athletic programs through a $160 million commitment from the International Olympic Committee and LA28, the local organizing body of the Games.
That’s a good start. Now let’s see a commitment to financial help in unlocking school gates. From the IOC and LA28, the Dodgers, the Rams, the Chargers, the Lakers, the Clippers, the Kings, the Galaxy, Angel City FC, LAFC, the Sparks.
“For all the money being spent, the public needs to see a lasting benefit from the Olympics, and I think it can be done,” said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes San Pedro, where the Peck Park pool has been closed for several years.
The county has had its own challenges with parks, and Hahn said her efforts to extend swim season have been frustrating.
“It never made sense to me that pools closed in mid-August when some of our hottest days are in late summer and early fall,” she said.
As for the Community School Parks, I’m going to keep score, checking on how many are opened and how long it takes. Raman said with some fanfare, neighborhood involvement and the programming of activities, she thinks the new Community School Parks can thrive.
Melvoin said that’s an admirable strategy, but first things first.
“Let’s open the gates,” he said.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
This story originally appeared on LA Times
