Recreation And Parks

While the eyes of the world will be on Olympic synchronized swimmers this month, local attention was on nearly two dozen Valley girls who practiced relentlessly and overcame some obstacles to end up winning five medals in a major competition. The girls practiced their skills all summer at Granada Hills Pool, one of several sites citywide where the Recreation and Parks Department offers synchronized swimming.

"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.

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.

Although the new Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is not scheduled to open until late 1994, it may already be losing one of its major tenants. Administrators of the Conejo Recreation and Park District recommend that the district drop its plans to acquire office space in the $64-million complex because of tight budget constraints. "We just don't have the resources and wherewithal to proceed at this time," said Tex Ward, general manager of the park district.

On a cold and blustery day, winter drawing to a close, snow-covered mountains rising abruptly to the north and sheets of ice crackling under the sun, John Frederickson gazes out over Crowley Lake and smiles. "This is great," he says, referring to the wind as it whips through the canyons from the south, driving frozen sections across the surface. "This is just what we need to open this lake up."

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.

Five years after community activists launched a fight to restore the Fern Dell section of Griffith Park, the initial phase of a Los Angeles-supervised refurbishment project has been completed. But city officials acknowledge that the effort has dragged and that a significant portion of the repair work has not begun. This month, 14 prefabricated bridges were installed, replacing steel and wood bridges that had become unsteady and unsafe. Railings were installed along the footpaths in the canyon that borders Fern Dell Avenue at the entrance to the park just north of Los Feliz Boulevard.

Plans to create a city-sponsored farmers market in Highland Park moved forward last week, with Los Angeles city officials naming Sycamore Grove Park as the site of the market. City officials had proposed Arroyo Seco Park as a site. But when homeowners in the residential area around the park objected, officials began looking for a new site. The farmers market will be run in its first year with a $25,000 budget approved by Department of Recreation and Parks officials earlier this month.