Parks Los Angeles

Inspired by Tiger Woods, city parks officials announced Wednesday that they will open a golf academy for city youths next month in Griffith Park. The Tregnan Golf Academy at Coolidge is set to open July 10, providing city children with the chance to take lessons on three practice holes and a driving range.

Two decades ago, they numbered in the hundreds. On Sunday, there were just a few dozen. But when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked them to stand and be recognized, the Holocaust survivors in attendance for the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day at Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles were met with a standing ovation. "We ask you to stand up because of your courage, your perseverance and your memories," Villaraigosa said. "We honor you today because those memories of yours will make sure that this will never, ever happen again."

Surrounded by sand, slathered in sunscreen and holding the coldest of beers in your hot hand, you are sprawled out and gulping down the California Dream. Until an ominous shadow blocks your sun, pours out your beer and hands you a $50 ticket. If Los Angeles beaches are known nationwide as the place to catch West Coast rays and a summer beer buzz, law enforcement officials are going out of their way to change half of that image.

A woman apparently killed her 4-year-son and herself Saturday morning in a Highland Park home, police said. The Los Angeles Police Department declined to say how each died, citing the preliminary nature of the investigation, but Capt. Bill Murphy said investigators found a large kitchen knife that they believe was used. "It was really brutal," Murphy said. "I've been at the scene of hundreds of homicides, and this was easily one of the worst."

Late one hot summer night in 1982, three of my raffish teen-age friends and I left the Odyssey, a now defunct dance club, and headed north to the Sunset Strip looking for something rebellious to do. Feeling lawless, we drove up Fuller Avenue to Runyon Canyon. Benny had heard it was haunted. "It used to be Errol Flynn's estate," he said. "I heard an old opera star died there," said Billy, flipping his long blue bangs out of his eyes. "You can still hear him singing on quiet nights."

About 85 people gathered Monday in sweltering midday heat to dedicate the proposed Fossil Ridge paleontological park in the mountains above Sherman Oaks. Actor Ed Asner and Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky were among a host of speakers to laud the plan for a trail and visitor center that would make Fossil Ridge--a brushy promontory embedded with remains of ancient fish, mammals and plants--an educational resource for schoolchildren and other area residents.

In response to late-night drinking, loitering and other problems at O'Melveny and Little Bee Canyon parks, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson suggested Wednesday that the parks only open between sunrise and sunset. The adjacent parks, which combined provide more than 700 acres of open space and represent the second largest city park, are now open between 5 a.m. and 10:30 p.m.

With the demise of a proposal to ban gang members from city parks, a Los Angeles Police Department official told a city committee Monday that as an alternative the LAPD will beef up security this summer at as many as 18 busy parks. Deputy Chief Bernard Parks said increased security during organized events at the parks will reduce gang activity. The LAPD had opposed the blanket ban on gang members, calling it unenforceable.

Responding to late night drinking, loitering and other problems at O'Melveny and Little Bee Canyon parks, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to keep the parks open only between sunrise and sunset. The two adjacent parks in Granada Hills are currently open between 5 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. Together, the parks comprise more than 700 acres of open space and represent the second largest city park.

Organizers of a petition drive to keep two parks open in Sylmar netted 150 signatures over the weekend, pitching their cause to picnickers at Veterans Memorial Park. Enid Jones, president of the Sylmar Woman's Club, said members are gathering signatures to persuade county park officials to keep Veterans Park and El Cariso Regional County Park open. The two parks are on a list of 72 parks throughout Los Angeles that may close or be abandoned if the operating budget is cut by 25% this summer.

The storefront jazz clubs and art studios in the heart of Los Angeles' Leimert Park Village have been living on borrowed time. The longtime landlord charged below-market rates, often in exchange for tenants doing the plumbing and painting themselves. It was a small-town arrangement befitting an area developed in the 1920s as a walkable, neighborly community, one that has become a hub of African American culture, festivals and food.

Promising to help create a new network of urban greenery, Gov. Gray Davis announced Friday that the state is spending almost $60 million to buy two former rail yards near downtown Los Angeles that will be transformed into parks. The two lots along the Los Angeles River, now empty parcels littered with concrete slabs and laced with underground toxins, once were slated to become industrial complexes that would house warehouses and businesses.

Sparking debate over health protections and individual rights, the Los Angeles City Council gave preliminary approval Friday to a ban on smoking in most areas of city parks. The council asked the city attorney's office to draft an ordinance that would prohibit smoking in outdoor areas where large crowds and children gather, within 50 feet of athletic fields, playgrounds and large picnic areas.

In a setback to proponents of San Fernando Valley cityhood, lawyers for the commission planning a referendum on secession have found that Los Angeles cannot be forced to give up parks, libraries and other property without compensation. Secessionists are seeking the transfer of all city property in the Valley, along with fleets of garbage trucks, street sweepers, firetrucks and police cars. They contend that Valley taxpayers are entitled to a fair share without payment to Los Angeles.

After nine years of effort, city officials and community members on Thursday celebrated the groundbreaking of a new park in North Hills that will occupy the former site of a strip club. The 3 1/2-acre Sepulveda Park West, at Parthenia Place and Columbus Avenue, will eventually include three lighted soccer fields, playground equipment, a paved walking path and restrooms when it opens in May. Basketball courts, which were cut for lack of funding, might be added later, officials said.

If the state approves a deal to buy 30 acres of proposed parkland along the Los Angeles River near downtown, the seller--a Florida developer--stands to make a nearly $10-million profit at taxpayers' expense. The proposed transaction has some park advocates wondering if state park money is fast becoming a financial trough for companies that acquire key parcels and jack up the value before selling to conservationists desperate to buy.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to oppose the use of park bond money to settle a lawsuit over the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center. The vote, at the behest of Councilman Richard Alarcon, was intended to put an end to suggestions within the city attorney's office to use $2.3 million in park bond money to settle the suit. Proposition K, a bond measure approved by voters in November, was intended to raise $25 million annually to build and expand parks in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to oppose the use of park bond money to settle a lawsuit over the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center near Lake View Terrace. The vote, at the behest of Councilman Richard Alarcon, was intended to put an end to suggestions within the city attorney's office that $2.3 million of the bond money be used for the suit. Proposition K, approved by voters in November, was intended to raise $25 million annually to build and expand parks in Los Angeles.

A company planning to build an industrial project on land the governor and others hoped would become part of a proposed state park along the Los Angeles River has offered to sell the 30-acre parcel to an environmental group. Urban park advocates who had been fighting the project near Dodger Stadium for years hailed the decision by Lennar Partners, saying it would provide an invaluable parcel for the long-awaited 103-acre park just northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

In simpler times, Los Angeles gave you breathing room: the pause of a yard--endless mental comfort zones of space. And even if you didn't have a green patch of your own--back or front--you could wander toward the end of your block where there was an empty lot or two, or cross a couple of neat yards to the new subdivision where the money ran out and the clean black asphalt suddenly--like an interrupted thought--turned to weeds and brambles.