Astute Reader Points out Money Available for Rec & Parks

The Palisades Recreation Center, built in the 1950s needed electrical, plumbing and Wifi upgrades, as well as landscaping and a new playground, but never received it.

Resident Lynn Miller, who has been one of three people who headed the building of the Pacific Palisades Dog Park, and also sat for many years on the Pacific Palisades Park and Recreation Board wrote Steve Lopez regarding  his September 4 column (“L.A. Parks Get Low Marks, but Opening Schoolyards Could Improve Grades”) on the sad condition of the L.A. Recreation and Parks facilities click here.

Lopez wrote “L.A.’s roughly 500 parks and 100 rec centers, occupying 16,000 acres, are generally in bad shape and not easily accessible to many residents. In fact, in the latest annual ranking by the Trust for Public Land, they fell to 90th out of the 100 to  largest recreation and parks systems in the nation on the basis of access, acreage, amenities, investment and equity.

“Jimmy Kim, general manager of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, told me that since he first worked in the department as a lifeguard in the ’90s, staffing has plummeted from 2,400 to about 1,200, making it harder to maintain aging, deteriorating facilities.

“‘A lot of our rec centers are very old, so our pools and park resources all need some level of renovation or replacement,’ said Kim, who conceded it’s a constant struggle to keep up. ‘We do try to stay on top of it as best we can, but it’s almost like whackamole.’”

Lopez wrote “Money is a problem. A big problem.

“The current tab for deferred maintenance?” According to Kim, “How about $2 billion, give or take.”

Lynn Miller wrote “I am mystified as to why Jimmy Kim did not mention the $58 Million in Measure A money that has already been collected from the taxpayers over the last 10 years and is sitting in a bank somewhere, unused.  

She asked Lopez, “Please do an article on why the Councilmembers have not prioritized the topic of Recreation & Parks and taken advantage of these funds (they require a Councilmember to approve/support the project for which they are being used.)

“Here is a link to Measure A: click here..  The money is already available.  The issue seems to be priorities or staffing to write the grant applications and then manage the projects. Kim simply needs to hire some project managers and include their compensation as part of the Measure A grant money that he obtains for a project.  Staffing problem solved.”