Tweet
Pasadena Star-News, CA
May 17 2008
Pasadena park undergoes metamorphosis
Larry Wilson:
Article Launched: 05/17/2008 10:25:30 PM PDT
It was hot as a Pink's chili cheese dog Friday - 93 in the non-shade
of the Washington Park lot - but when neighborhood advocate Betty
Sword and I strolled down under the live oaks, there was shade and a
cooling breeze through the park.
I hadn't been in the park, just west of Lake Avenue on Pasadena's
Washington Boulevard, in years. I recalled a graffiti-defiled place
with a reputation as a place for gangs to hang, as its gully is not
visible from any passing police cruisers on the street.
But it turns out that 18 months ago, thanks to the citizen-driven
Friends of Washington Square Park, the city, the Rivers and Mountains
Conservancy, the Theodore Payne Foundation and other people of great
goodwill, the historic park has been transformed into an oasis of
native plants, playgrounds, a ball field and the best-maintained
tennis courts I've seen in the city.
In the 1920s the park, the city's first north of downtown, was
designed by the great horticulturist and California plant booster
Payne himself, along with Ralph Cornell, the landscape architect with
whom Payne partnered on Occidental College.
In July 1920, a Star-News story headlined "Votes $6500 for Sunken
Garden" told of the park's creation. But in recent years it had fallen
into the squalor I had recalled.
Now, it's vibrant again. The planting is almost entirely indigenous,
and there's lots of signage explaining the native iris and
toyon. Tennis player Norm stopped by to extoll its virtues, and to say
that while some graffiti appeared a few days ago, it was quickly
painted over by city crews. Handball player Oscar came up to us, glad
there's still somewhere in town to enjoy his sport - and to point out
the cameras that'll flash and take your mug if you're in there too
late at night, along with an audio warning to get out.
My recommendation is that we all picnic in Washington Park more
often. There are some pictures on my blog that will help second that.
Non-newspaper types sometimes imagine the hurdles to entry on our
opinion pages are much higher than they are. In fact, we welcome an
incredible diversity of opinions, none of which - our unsigned
editorials aside - we necessarily agree with. The conversation should
be as broad as possible.
But we're not inclined to print mere propagandists, and certainly try
to sort out those associated with nutball hate groups. We wouldn't
print a tome by a Holocaust denier, for instance.
So we failed on that front recently by printing, on April 25 - one day
after the international Armenian Remembrance Day - an unsolicited
piece by a Washington, D.C.-based writer arguing that Armenians
worldwide should worry more about ongoing political problems in
Armenia than dwelling on historical tragedies.
Jason Epstein (not the great New York editor of the same name) is in
fact associated with Armenian genocide deniers - and that makes him
persona non grata in my book. Over 1 million Armenians were
deliberately killed at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. It's taking
way too long for the world to accept that horrific fact. We should not
have run Epstein's screed.
May 17 2008
Pasadena park undergoes metamorphosis
Larry Wilson:
Article Launched: 05/17/2008 10:25:30 PM PDT
It was hot as a Pink's chili cheese dog Friday - 93 in the non-shade
of the Washington Park lot - but when neighborhood advocate Betty
Sword and I strolled down under the live oaks, there was shade and a
cooling breeze through the park.
I hadn't been in the park, just west of Lake Avenue on Pasadena's
Washington Boulevard, in years. I recalled a graffiti-defiled place
with a reputation as a place for gangs to hang, as its gully is not
visible from any passing police cruisers on the street.
But it turns out that 18 months ago, thanks to the citizen-driven
Friends of Washington Square Park, the city, the Rivers and Mountains
Conservancy, the Theodore Payne Foundation and other people of great
goodwill, the historic park has been transformed into an oasis of
native plants, playgrounds, a ball field and the best-maintained
tennis courts I've seen in the city.
In the 1920s the park, the city's first north of downtown, was
designed by the great horticulturist and California plant booster
Payne himself, along with Ralph Cornell, the landscape architect with
whom Payne partnered on Occidental College.
In July 1920, a Star-News story headlined "Votes $6500 for Sunken
Garden" told of the park's creation. But in recent years it had fallen
into the squalor I had recalled.
Now, it's vibrant again. The planting is almost entirely indigenous,
and there's lots of signage explaining the native iris and
toyon. Tennis player Norm stopped by to extoll its virtues, and to say
that while some graffiti appeared a few days ago, it was quickly
painted over by city crews. Handball player Oscar came up to us, glad
there's still somewhere in town to enjoy his sport - and to point out
the cameras that'll flash and take your mug if you're in there too
late at night, along with an audio warning to get out.
My recommendation is that we all picnic in Washington Park more
often. There are some pictures on my blog that will help second that.
Non-newspaper types sometimes imagine the hurdles to entry on our
opinion pages are much higher than they are. In fact, we welcome an
incredible diversity of opinions, none of which - our unsigned
editorials aside - we necessarily agree with. The conversation should
be as broad as possible.
But we're not inclined to print mere propagandists, and certainly try
to sort out those associated with nutball hate groups. We wouldn't
print a tome by a Holocaust denier, for instance.
So we failed on that front recently by printing, on April 25 - one day
after the international Armenian Remembrance Day - an unsolicited
piece by a Washington, D.C.-based writer arguing that Armenians
worldwide should worry more about ongoing political problems in
Armenia than dwelling on historical tragedies.
Jason Epstein (not the great New York editor of the same name) is in
fact associated with Armenian genocide deniers - and that makes him
persona non grata in my book. Over 1 million Armenians were
deliberately killed at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. It's taking
way too long for the world to accept that horrific fact. We should not
have run Epstein's screed.