Recreation And Parks

Jarron Lucas tromped through waist-high brush at the Chatsworth Nature Preserve, flipping over weathered boards. "Let's see if anyone's home," he said, lifting a plank. Coiled underneath was a reddish snake with dark brown cross bands on its neck. Lucas reached down and snatched the young red racer. "It's just a baby," he said as the slender 14-inch snake writhed in his hand. Male, too, he said, judging from the long tail. A few yards away, he found a 4-foot adult female red racer thick as a broom handle.

Los Angeles Councilman Bernard C. Parks unveiled six security cameras at Jackie Tatum Harvard Recreation Center on Thursday, an issue that stalled in the City Council for months until a youth volunteer was gunned down in the park. The installation of the cameras marks the second phase of a multi-year project to revamp the South L.A. park, once a popular hangout for a Bloods street gang. Parks started pushing for cameras last year after he discovered reputed gang members were intimidating park workers, blocking residents from using the city-owned space and shooting music videos in the park after it was supposed to be closed.

Beverly Hills City Manager Edward Kreins has announced the elimination of the city's Transportation Department and consolidation of its functions into the city's department of Planning and Community Development, Finance Administration, Public Services, and Recreation and Parks. Kreins said the change was made to "improve efficiency."

The director of a Los Angeles city recreation center is facing felony charges after she allegedly stole up to $15,000 from the facility, including lunch money from children in her care. Carol Brandt, 47, who served as the director of the Montecito Heights Recreation Center northeast of downtown from 2008 to 2011, was charged Tuesday with embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds. She is accused of pocketing more than $10,000 from members of several basketball and soccer teams who paid to use the facility's courts and fields in 2009 and 2010.

The Rancho Cienega Pool, closed for two years because of circulation and mechanical problems, will reopen Saturday with a ceremony sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. The pool, at 5001 Rodeo Road, has been refurbished with new filters, a heating system and dehumidifier. Information: (213) 847-3406.

The director of a Los Angeles city recreation center is facing felony charges after she allegedly stole up to $15,000 from the facility, including lunch money from children in her care. Carol Brandt, 47, who served as the director of the Montecito Heights Recreation Center northeast of downtown from 2008 to 2011, was charged Tuesday with embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds. She is accused of pocketing more than $10,000 from members of several basketball and soccer teams who paid to use the facility's courts and fields in 2009 and 2010.

"Roller Rink Plan Spurs Neighbors' Concerns," July 23. As a former planning and design supervisor for the Department of Recreation and Parks from 1963 to 1974, I am appalled that the department is considering installation of a Rollerblade hockey rink at Studio City Recreation Center. It was criminal enough that the basketball hoops were removed from the basketball court, but to consider the replacement of the courts with a rink is ludicrous. The arguments that the 4 1/2-acre recreation center is already fully developed and the parking lot is too small to accommodate a roller rink stand on their own merits.

Congratulations to Carlyle Hall Jr., president of People for Parks, and Prof. Jack Foley for their insightful column "Recreation Is More Than Fun and Games" (Commentary, Aug. 5). The 2,000 full-time and 20,000 part-time employees of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks share the view that the work of the department not only helps "provide a satisfying life in Southern California," but is a deterrent to crime. Drawing a direct relationship between "quantity and quality of our parks and recreation" and crime has been done time and time again.

Henry Chu, in his Sept. 14 article "Park Proposals Are No Picnic," quoted Steven Soboroff, head of the city's Recreation and Parks Commission, as follows: "Parks should be very cyclical in their uses, because neighborhoods are cyclical in their demographics. You move to a neighborhood with teenagers necking in their cars and [soon] you're in a neighborhood with people walking with baby strollers." This is a "flavor of the month" approach for wasting the taxpayers' money. A logical interpretation and conclusion of his philosophy is to provide necking areas for teenagers, to be ripped out for baby stroller paths, to be ripped out and replaced with roller-blade hockey rinks for the baby-stroller children when they grow up--and eventually to be ripped out and replaced with senior citizen horseshoe courts.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky deserves a vote of thanks from users of the Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Park. Due to his support, work recently commenced to renovate the children's play area. It has taken over two years with a concerted effort on the part of my neighbors and friends to get to this point. Over two years, every swing in the entire park was broken. The merry-go-round had been removed. The sand was dirty and littered with broken glass. When I called the Department of Recreation and Parks to ask who was responsible for improving conditions at the park, I was told it was a "political" issue.

The public is invited to express its preferences on two different matters in a city-sponsored barbecue Saturday at the Watts Towers. The pleasant and easy one is: hot dog or hamburger? The thorny and contentious one - an issue simmering since 2009 - is whether it's a good idea to plant a state-of-the-art skateboard plaza in the shadow of the Watt Towers, a national historic landmark that's one of the most revered and symbolic public artworks on the West Coast, if not the nation.

Forget the 200-foot-tall observation wheel. Venice Beach expects to get a zip line this summer. The Venice Neighborhood Council this week approved the installation of a 720-foot zip-line ride to run for a three-month trial period, clearing the way for consideration by the California Coastal Commission. Under the proposal, riders will take off from a 44-foot tower near the skate park and ride to a 24-foot tower at Windward Plaza by the basketball courts. The metal towers will be decorated with local art, and the attraction will bring in much-needed revenue to clean up the boardwalk, said Linda Lucks, president of the council.

A British company's proposal to build an observation wheel about as tall as a 20-story skyscraper at Venice Beach has some residents' heads spinning at the prospect of more crowds, trash and noise. With enthusiastic support from Los Angeles park and tourism officials, Great City Attractions is seeking permission to operate a 200-foot-tall mechanical ride just west of the Venice Beach boardwalk at Windward Avenue. The attraction would consist of 42 enclosed, air-conditioned "capsules," each capable of accommodating eight people.

There were vinyl albums by Etta James and the punk band X. There were cosmetic kits, one with seven kinds of nail polish. There were sleeping bags, luggage, cutlery, a small red guitar with a broken neck and a collection of Ernest Hemingway stories. Hours after police launched a nighttime eviction of the Occupy L.A. encampment, Los Angeles City Hall's south lawn offered enough personal possessions to sustain a small community — except that no one was left to claim them. City crews on Wednesday began the long and potentially expensive process of restoring the 1.7-acre park that served as ground zero for Occupy L.A., saying they expected to send 30 tons of refuse to the landfill.

Jarron Lucas tromped through waist-high brush at the Chatsworth Nature Preserve, flipping over weathered boards. "Let's see if anyone's home," he said, lifting a plank. Coiled underneath was a reddish snake with dark brown cross bands on its neck. Lucas reached down and snatched the young red racer. "It's just a baby," he said as the slender 14-inch snake writhed in his hand. Male, too, he said, judging from the long tail. A few yards away, he found a 4-foot adult female red racer thick as a broom handle.

James Hadaway, who emphasized the renovation of inner-city parks as general manager of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department from 1976 to 1992, has died. He was 82. Hadaway, who had cancer, died Monday at his Hermosa Beach home, his family said. "He was the architect of the urban impact program, which refurbished parks and recreation centers in inner-city and lower-income areas that had been kind of neglected," said Kevin Regan, assistant general manager of the department.

I was surprised to note Mr. Bennett Kayser's letter on the proposed new recreation center for Silver Lake (Times, Nov. 14) and his charges about the position of the Committee to Save Silver Lake's Reservoirs on this issue. Since our group is focused on the reservoir issue, it is not our role to offer an opinion on traffic, organized community sports, "peewee" T-ball or any other of the numerous things mentioned in his letter. We have, however, taken a stance on one simple issue.

The board that oversees the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks voted Wednesday to cancel its search for a company to handle its golf cart rental concession, ending a seven-year bidding process that was derided as both heavily politicized and painfully slow. The commissioners, appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, voted unanimously to allow the department's unionized workforce to rent out the carts at seven 18-hole courses. Parks officials have tried three times to go out to bid. After a company was finally recommended by the department in 2008, the City Council refused to sign the contract, saying instead that parks officials should stick with the incumbent concessionaire, J.H. Kishi Co. Commission President Barry Sanders said canceling Kishi's contract — and turning the work over to city employees — would give the department flexibility if it decides in coming years to bid out all of the city's golf course operations to a single company.

The board that oversees the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks voted Wednesday to cancel its search for a company to handle its golf cart rental concession, ending a seven-year bidding process that was derided as both heavily politicized and painfully slow. The commissioners, appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, voted unanimously to allow the department's unionized workforce to rent out the carts at seven 18-hole courses. Parks officials have tried three times to go out to bid. After a company was finally recommended by the department in 2008, the City Council refused to sign the contract, saying instead that parks officials should stick with the incumbent concessionaire, J.H. Kishi Co. Commission President Barry Sanders said canceling Kishi's contract — and turning the work over to city employees — would give the department flexibility if it decides in coming years to bid out all of the city's golf course operations to a single company.

Hiking trails Then: Right after the fire, all the trails were closed. Some trails were subsequently opened partially as park officials set up gates or fences to stop hikers from going into the burn areas. Now: Only the Bird Sanctuary Trail, Bee Rock Trail, Fern Canyon Nature Trail and the fire road Vista del Valle Drive between Hogback Trail and Eckhart Trail remain closed. Bird Sanctuary and Bee Rock are in very steep areas where soil is loose. Workers are cleaning and fixing the stairs and amphitheater on the Fern Canyon Nature Trail, which is popular with school groups.