There is an easy trail through George Wolfberg Park at Potrero that ends at Pacific Coast Highway and six lanes of traffic across from Will Rogers State Beach.
A resident sent the following letter to CTN:
“There are more than a dozen city, country and state parks in Pacific Palisades. (Rustic Canyon, Santa Ynez Canyon, Los Liones, Asilomar View Park, Palisades Overlook Park, Temescal Canyon, Temescal Gateway, Santa Monica Mountains, Palisades Recreation Center, Wolfberg Park, Rivas Canyon and Will Rogers State Park.)
“All have issues with evening security. Only ONE of those parks is surrounded by fences and gates that lock at night. That park is Potrero.
“Yet, that is the only park for which the PPCC Chair deemed it necessary to establish a PPCC sub-committee, stocked with hyper-vigilant neighbors who look for every opportunity to complain.
“I wonder why that is?” the resident asked.
LATERAL TRAIL:
Many who live in the Potrero Rim do not want the Potrero pedestrian overpass, they say it will bring homeless into Potrero Park and argue that the lateral trail should be completed instead. There are a few problems with the lateral trail.
- Caltrans has still not given an easement to the City for a trail.
- The trail will not have a fence, so homeless (and others) will be able to walk up the hill to the Via de las Olas bluffs – there is no mechanism from keeping people out of the bluffs.
COASTAL COMMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
The Coastal Commission has said that the parking at Will Rogers State Beach and the bathrooms at the beach can be counted towards facilities that need to be in place for the Wolfberg Park. There are not enough facilities at the top of the canyon.
If the pedestrian bridge is not built, than parking and bathrooms need to be constructed at the base of Wolfberg Park.
CD 11 ZOOM MEETING.
Council District 11 will hold a Zoom meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 5, to discuss the Potrero Canyon Pedestrian Bridge Project.
CD 11, in partnership with State Senator Ben Allen, will discuss a pedestrian/bicycle crossing from Potrero Canyon Park to Will Rogers State Beach, which is needed to provide safe access across Pacific Coast Highway.
The California Legislature has authorized $11 million for the pedestrian bridge.
The meeting will be held on Zoom: click here.
Meeting ID: 160 325 6176 Passcode: 533703
As a member of the Potrero Canyon oversight committee, I take offense at this resident’s opinion that this committee is “stocked with hyper-vigilant neighbors who look for every opportunity to complain.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
This volunteer committee has spent tireless hours advocating for proper signage throughout the park, for additional trash cans, and for dog waste containers. This committee has volunteers who pull weeds, clean graffitti, alert Park & Recs when we see evidence of water leaking onto the road (broken pipe), contact the city to come fix the deep fissures in the walkways following the heavy rains, and pick up trash and debris – one time a shopping cart. Members spent untold hours on the phone with BOE when the gate locks were continually failing. It is unfair to compare Will Rogers State Park with Potrero Canyon in terms of security – Will Rogers has full time Park Rangers on site.
It is most appropriate for the community to be well informed of the Bridge and have to the opportunity be a part of open, honest discussions surrounding the decision to build this. We must remember there are many hundreds of people in the Palisades who are hearing about the Bridge for the first time. I encourage everyone to attend the upcoming zoom meeting on December 5.
For those who would like experience “open parks” go walk through Clover Park in Santa Monica at night or any time of day and tell me you feel safe. Or you can go to Penmar Park in Venice and see several memorials for young kids who’ve been shot and killed through the years. I believe the residents are correct. If steps are not taken to close access to park after hours, it will invite vandalism, property crime and an unsafe environment for others.
Peter,
Potrero Park closes at sundown and is fenced in–and has been since the park was opened. This is unlike the Palisades Rec Center and Temescal Gateway Park, which unfortunately has been undergoing some real issues with teenagers starting fires, doing graffiti and causing destruction. Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin has said he has seen zero homeless individuals in that park.
Sue
Cindy,
I think the writer made some good points. It seems that no one who lives along the rim wants the pedestrian bridge–they all seem to think that if a lateral trail is built, it will keep homeless from traveling from the beach parking lot into Potrero over a bridge.
The bridge will have a gate that closes at sunset just like the rest of the park.
Those who live in the Via da las Olas Bluffs might be more concerned about a lateral trail, which will not have a fence and will allow easy access for the homeless to once again repopulate those bluffs. (This editor helped on numerous cleanups in those bluffs, ensuring that no one was illegally camping. There have been numerous fires below the Via de las Olas Bluffs.) So why are rim residents pushing for a trail, rather than a bridge? The Coastal Commission specified access, so one or the other will need to be built–unless a parking lot and bathrooms are constructed at the base of Potrero.
Sue
Excellent article. Maryam Zar and the PPCC continue to sit on their hands and do nothing to address the myriad, well-documented safety issues of the Recreation Center, while Potrero Canyon is handled with kid gloves. Why isn’t Zar calling for similar gating of the Recreation Center as Potrero Canyon, where there is no parking lot anyway for kids to drive into and party? Have there been tasering incidents, overdoses, nightly fireworks and drag racing in Potrero Canyon, as have been documented for months if not years in the Rec Center? Don’t recall seeing a SINGLE video showing incidents coming out of Potrero Canyon, yet this space oddly seems to be PPCC’s singular and obsessive focus. PPCC serves only one constituency when it comes it park safety and the safety of surrounding residents—and that is the residents of Potrero Canyon.
Excellent article. Maryam Zar and the PPCC continue to sit on their hands and do nothing to address the myriad, well-documented safety issues of the Recreation Center, while Potrero Canyon is handled with kid gloves. Why isn’t Zar calling for similar gating of the Recreation Center as Potrero Canyon, where there is no parking lot anyway for kids to drive into and party? Have there been tasering incidents, overdoses, nightly fireworks and drag racing in Potrero Canyon, as have been documented for months if not years in the Rec Center? Don’t recall seeing a SINGLE video showing incidents coming out of Potrero Canyon, yet this space oddly seems to be PPCC’s singular and obsessive focus. PPCC serves only one constituency when it comes it park safety and the safety of surrounding residents—and that is the residents of Potrero Canyon.