URGENT:

1ejz Morton Avenue, to> 90026

Tel: MA 58411 qr N()f.J1J8
September 6, 1966
WE AGAIN NEED YOUR HELP
TO SAVE ELYSIAN PARK
UNlESS the people of Los Angeles can persuade city
officials to revise or abandon present pla11s. the bulldozers will
be in El:yaian Park b;v Chr_Bitmas! w111 be dragging. out nearly
100 trees and cutting a deep gash .in hillside to route fast-
moving traffic through the park's main recreation area. The need
for tbe proposed road has not been established, especially since
it will feed addition.el autpmobiles into an already congested
bottleneck.. The damage to one of the most beautiful and most used
sections of. the park will be severe and irreparable.
LARGE CITIES are spending vast sums of money to
comect the errors of the past by carving out open spaces in the
center .of town. Los Angeles, in desperate need of more park land,
is spending its money to cut in two one of the finest natural
parks to be found in the country, its only large down-
town pa.rk. The money could be used advantageously elsewhere.
. PLANS for the 80-:f'oot wide extehsi'on of' Stadium Way from
Academy Road to Scott Avenue, through the "avenue of' palms," are
far advanced. The City Engineering Dept. advises that they will
.be completed in about one month and. that construction is expected
to s:tart following the end of' .the current paseball season.
- THE ORtGINAL DECISION to build the road was made hastily
in 1961, over strong protest, by what Mrs. Harold c. Morton, then
and now a member of' the Recreation and Parks Commission, termed
"shotgun tactics." The .reason for the destruction of the "best
and really only higl:ll;y usable recreation and park .. land," she said,
was NOT (her emphas1sJ to benefit the public park, but to provide
acce-ss-:-ror priv-ate enterprise. If The extension was to be part of
the multi-million dollar netw.ork .of access roads :for the Dodger
Stadium, but was not built at that time. George general
manager of the RE;!creation an.d Parks Dept., said the roa.d wa.s
"wholly unnecessary." There is no evidence that 1 t is any more
necessary today than it was five years ago.
STILL TIME TO ACT
IT IS NOT TOO UTE fol:' t-he city to rec.onsider its. deci-
sion and institute a survey to determine how best to develop the
park to meet the needs of 'the city's expanding population.
DO NOT DELAY! Please write MayOl' Samuel Yorty (City
Hall), urging him to call for such a survey BEFORE the bull-
dozers ):lave what can never be replaced. Please also
bring up resolutions ma.king a similar request in your organiza-
tions. Send copies to our Committee (ad_dress .above} and to the
following, all located in City Hall, Los Angeles, .90012:
-Louis Dodge Gill, President, Board of' Public Works;
Recreation and Parks Commission;
William Frederickson Jr., General Manager, Recreation
and Parks Dapartment; -
Calvi.n 5. Hamilton, Director of Planning;
Councilman Marvin Braude, Chairman, Recreation and
Parks Committee of the City Council; and
Councilman Pe11:. tm,.::ort-. (The park is in his d1str1et.)
- 2 '-
HALT THE WASTE
THE ENORMITY of the task of preventing further decay in
American cities is well recognized, On Aug, 28, the Los Angeles
Times commented editorially: " It is also men who despoil their
urban environment through neglect, greed or ignorance They (70
per cent of the nation} inhabit cities afflicted by past errors
and present indifference. Urban growth too often is measured in
terms of proliferating slums and housing. decay, increasing crime,
worsening waste and polution of natural resources, bigger traffic
jams and the waning financial capacity of local government to
deal with the problems."
THE TRAGIC WASTE and neglect of park land is nowhere bet-
ter illustrated than in Los .Angeles. Elysian Park is a striking
example of "past errors and present indifference;" It is diffi-
cult to correct "past errors," but we should not compound them by
carrying out decisions made years ago in haste, simply because
they are "on the books."
NO PARK SURVEY MADE
THE PROPOSED Stadium Way extension is one eN'_or t\lat need
not be perpetuated. Mrs. Morton, objecting that the proposal had
been rushd through a lame-duck Recreation and Parks Commission,
stated in a letter to the City Council Aug. 1, 1961:
"No complete or factual study has been made by anyone of
alternate routes that possibly could save this invaluable park
land, now used by hundreds of thousands -- save it from any more
destruction and division -- land upon which the public has a right
of use other than as a freeway down the middle of the best part,
to get to and from a private operation, however worthy. No Com-
mission should be forced by 'shotgun' tactics to make a decision
as important as this without complete study and evaluation of
what is best. for all."
NO SUCH SURVEY has been made to this day. While millions
of dollars were spent on access roads for the Stadium (the
county contributed :/2,740,000, and the city added-its share), the
palm-lined section was left undisturbed for the time being, though
its construction was author>ized and the 'land was tr>ansferred from
Recreation and Parks to the Board of Public Works (.Aug. 25, 1961).
Four years later, in 1965, the City Council appropriated $136,900
for its construction and on July 9, 19.65, the City Engineer ad-
vised that the r>oad was "essential to serve the pr-oposed Convention
and Exhibit Center" to be located in Elysian Par-k. Recently (Aug.
16, 1966), the City Council voted to place the convention center
at Pice and Figueroa, and not in the park. But the road is to be
built anyway. "Past er-rors" will not down!
THE MAIN REASONS given now for building the road are that
it is needed to route fast-moving tr-affic thr-ough the park and to
J
orrect a traffic hazard at the intersection with Academy Road.
The polite fiction is also maintained that.the road would make
lysian Par-k "mor-e readi'ly accessible to the public ".and it is
poip_.ted out that by making it a "secondary highway,?, maintenance
costs would be transfer-red fr-om the city to the state.)
JUSTIFICATION LACKING
THE CITY has not established that ther-e is sufficient
to warrant building a secondary highway. The principal
justifying such construction, we ar-e informed, is a
traffic count of between6,000 and 22,000 vehicles per- day. The
city has taken no tr-affic count in the palm-lined area, we weN
told ear-ly in August and again on Aug. 25 . Our- Committee took a
count on Stadium Way just south of Academy Road on a typical week-
day, Thursday, .Aug. 11; from 6 A.M. to midnight. (Weekend traffic
and traffic to and fr-.om the Dodger- Stadium is not pr-edominantly
thr-ough traffic.) Our- count, including tru.cks and motor-cycles,
for the 18-hour period was 4,915, mor-e than a thousand under- the
minimum.
WE ALSO CHECKED on tr-affic accidents. The Police Depar-t-
ment advised that during a nine-month per-iod, fr-om October-, 1965,
to June, 1966, there were no tr-affic accidents at the Stadium
- 3 -
Academy Road intersection causing personal injury, and only three
citations for minor trsffic infractions. Installation of a traffic
signal at the intersection might be considered as a means of pre-
venting accidents.
TWO CAUSES of traffic congestion on Stadium \vay do exist;
Cars pile up at the lower (southern) end where Stadium joins
narrow, tw.o-lane Chavez Ravine Place and makes a hairpin turn in-
to Colle!:'e Street . To us, it would seem logical to eliminate
this bottleneck before an increase of traffic flow
through the park. No work is scheduled on College Street as far
ahead as 1971. Tbe other traffic problem occurs during Dodger
games, but adding through traffic to Dodger-bound traffic would
... complicate, not relieve, this situation.
WE HAVE SUGGESTED one possible alternate route, skirting
the Dodger parking lot, which we believe would facilitate the
flow of stadium traffic, while routing it OUTSIDE THE PARK, where
it belongs. \ve recommend that this and other possibilities (a
tunnel has been proposed) be studied before the park is slashed
in two.
DAMAGE TO THE P .ARK
DAlYiAGE to the park would be extensive. Tbe proposed road
would eliminate 18 of the rare palms, a eucalyptus grove and the
forest-like area at the entry of the park, one of the city's most
picturesque and distinctive viers. It '"'ould wipe out Picnic Site
No. 2, and gouge an ugly gash in the hill behind. (Four years
after the hills were slashed for the Dodger roads, they are still
barren, hideous eyesores.) Fast-moving traffic adjacent to Picnic
Site No. 1 would be hazardous to children at play. If too hazard-
ous, a high chain-link fence would be erected. Increased traffic
noise and noxious automobile exhaust fumes would spoil the park
atmosphere.
ACCORDING TO the Recreation and Parks Department, the full
length of Old Stadium Way would be closed. What remains of the
palm-lined avenue would be used for parking. Additional parking
would be provided in three locations north of Morton Place, ne-
the down of more trees and inroads into Pic-
_.nic_ Sites 4, 5 and 6, bordering the Arboretum. Severing the park
into two segments would pave the way for further erosion and des-
truction.
AND, REMEMBER, there is no proof that the road is not
"wholly unnecessary" now, just as it was in 1961!
AUTOS vs PARKS
IVE HAVE NO DESIRE to quarrel with city officials over
whether, from a purely traffic point of view, this particular
stretch of road may be desirable now or may prove to be desirable
in .the future. But traffic is not the sole factor to be consid-
ered. Man does not live by automobile alone, and traffic needs
must be weighed at:tainst other human needs. Alternate routes can
be provided for autos, but there is no substitute for a park.
Traffic must be viewed as one aspect of the total problem, but
must not dictate the solution, with other needs subordinated or
ignored. By tackling the traffic problem first, to the virtual
exclusion of other factors, the city is adopting a short-sighted,
wasteful policy, instead of a forward-looking approach based upon
an over-all survey of the type advocated by Nrs. Morton in 1961.
Even if there were a demonstrated need for the road exten-
sion, preservation of Elysian Park must take precedence!
Please write to the Mayor and other city officials at
once. DELAY MEAN THE DESTRUCTION OF ELYSIAN PARK! YOUR
NOif MAY SAVE IT!