No More Lunches at Santa Monica’s Tongva Park

Tongva Park is a public park in Santa Monica.

By HENRY KAMER

After losing so many things that mattered in the January fires, my childhood home, my town, and my high school Palisades Charter, my school friends and I searched for a place that could mirror the natural beauty of the Palisades campus in our new Pali South environment in Santa Monica (the old Sears building, which is serving as a temporary campus). I thought Tongva Park, located just over the 10 Freeway Bridge, could serve as that place of solace, just as it did when we visited it after school last year. Sadly, this turned out to be false.

As my friends and I are now seniors, we are allowed to go off campus for lunch. It’s really nice to get out of the shoebox that is Pali South, even if the lunch prices make dining out every day untenable. And no offense to Palisades rock stars, Garden Cafe and Gracias Señor, but Santa Monica does have a lot more lunch options.

One of the biggest things that we miss about the Palisades campus is the quad. Even though the grass sometimes started dying because of student traffic, it still brought a bright and charming effect to the campus, especially on sunny, blue-sky days. Pali South is surrounded by a concrete parking lot, not a blade of grass in sight. So, when we launched out for lunch, we were dying to find any patch of grass.

We went to Tongva on August 20, meeting up there after grabbing food or just grabbing our lunchboxes (go mom or dad!). It was so nice to get out and spend time together, having somewhere to run around and play. We all thought it reminded us of spending countless lunches on the quad listening to the 2010s hits that played over the speakers. Even though there were numerous homeless in the park, it didn’t affect us.

Just one day later, however, Tongva was ruined.

After getting our food, some of my friends and I made our way over to the park. We saw the rest of our friends coming in from the other way, smiles on all our faces. We sat down on the scalloped amphitheater steps in the center of the park and started eating our food and talking. Everything was going wonderfully, just as the day before, until the unfortunate classic Santa Monica issue, a homeless person, thwarted our lunch.

A  woman was sitting far away on the benches to our left, her possessions next to her. She randomly started screamed “Hey!” in our direction. Of course, we were confused, turning towards her.

She seemed to be mentally unwell, repeatedly screaming as she got up and started walking towards us. Now, we had no idea what she was about to do, but, in an abundance of caution, we gathered our things and made our way towards the park exit.

As she got closer, she asked why we were leaving, and instead of not engaging (which is the safest reaction although it feels the worst), my friend Jack told her we were students and we had to go back to school.

Then she said, “Let me go with you. I have something to show you.” As she kept walking towards us, we bolted up the steps to the exit, with food still in our hands as we had no time to pack up. My friend Sean was last out, and the woman called out again. He tried to be polite to her, but she forcibly took the chicken sandwich he had been eating out of his hands and then took a bite out of it. She then said she was thirsty and grabbed for his coke.

Sean resisted by pulling away, but  she leaned in, took a sip, then grabbed the entire drink. He ran to catch up with us and said he was glad nobody was hurt.

As we left, we noticed that people who appeared to be homeless, many of whom seemed unwell were everywhere.

After last Thursday, we don’t think we’re going to go to Tongva to have lunch anymore. Instead, we’re hanging out in Santa Monica Place (which doesn’t have grass, but hey, at least that place is getting activity, which it needs.)

It’s a shame that Tongva isn’t a safe place to hang out, though. Why have a park that most citizens are unable to use? As everyone knows, the homeless have been a longtime issue in Santa Monica, especially concentrating around the Third Street Promenade area.

There was no ambassador or official present at Tongva. It seems like no attention or resources are being devoted to the issue, despite attempts from locals such as John Alle, a property owner on the Promenade, to bring the park back to the public (I appreciate what you’re doing, John!)

I’m not a city planner or a government official, but I would suggest that the city create a designated place, separate from pre-existing public spaces, for the homeless, that has everything they need: food, shelter, medicine, job help etc.

I’m not unsympathetic to the plight of the homeless, but the city should find a way to help them without making other citizens feel that they cannot use the public spaces in their city. Whatever Santa Monica decides to do, I really hope that the homeless problem can be solved. It has made Santa Monica unsafe and dirty, tarnishing its amazing potential and reputation that I, along with many others, have observed firsthand. Santa Monica is a historic spot of Pacific beauty, attracting so many diverse people from all over the world, and I hope it can remain that way.

Tongva Park has picnic benches and a children’s playground.

 (Editor’s note: Palisades resident and Santa Monica business owner John Alle wrote: “Tongva park is mess, across from city hall and PD yet they allow junkies to hang out all day, all in the name of compassion I guess, because allowing people to do drugs with city provided needles is the right approach, to people who support this nonsense, how does this make sense or help anyone?”)