Meeting Held to Reverse Spring Street Park's Decline

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Details: Category: Latest News; Created on Friday, 24 January 2014 05:39; Last Updated on Tuesday, 04 February 2014 17:45; Published on Friday, 24 January 2014 05:39; Written by Steven Dornbuch, FSSP; Hits: 10814

On the morning of Thursday, January 9th, Spring Street Park's (SSP) original client / landscape designers, members of LA City's Bureau of Engineering's Architectural Division, shared redesign ideas with invited guests. The purpose: to mitigate the negative impact of park misuse and over-use. Chief among the problem areas is the thrashed elliptical Grand Lawn. Health concerns are another issue. Reseeding, while a welcome "breather", is not enough.

Patti Berman, our Friends of Spring Street Park's leader, pointed that our little pocket park could not survive with only the rules governing parks much larger ---even accounting for negligible rule enforcement at the moment. While we await changes (not to mention, full time Rangers), Richard Fisher, landscape architect, presented several redesign options. Everyone had their say. Mike Shull, Interim Director of Recreation and Parks, spoke of his commitment to not let SSP slip further downhill. Mr. Shull pledged to implement two or more mitigation ideas, over the coming weeks.

Don't be surprised if we see: 1) a fence protecting the playground 2) a small mulched dog "area" outside the park, located on Spring St. plus a large dog "area" accessed from inside the park, along Harlem Pl. 3) two planting beds replaced by turf 4) addition of knee-high fences to prevent foot traffic through planting beds. Rec. & Parks Dept. will foot the bill. Needed improvements will be fast-tracked. A community (re)planting event will be a welcome chance for the neighborhood to work together.

Most present already enjoy close working relationships. FSSP attendees: Patti Berman, Lihui Ke, Nathan McCusker and Ryuko Ozawa. Steven Dornbusch represented The Rowan's Park Committee. B of E attendees included Mahmood Karimsadeh, Richard Fisher, and Jane Adrian. Mike Shull led a delegation of Park managers. Community leaders Bill Stevenson and Greg Fischer added to the frank discussion and collaborative spirit of this working session.