The Field of Dreams at the Rec Center are framed by trees.
Palisades Recreation Center is serving as a storage area for DWP.
In a March 7 newsletters, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger wrote “our County Department of Parks and Recreation has committed to reopening Loma Alta Park in May! Thanks to a $2.4 million donation from the FireAid L.A. concert in partnership with the Annenberg Foundation, we’ll be able to build a brand-new playground for youth. Typically, a new playground of this caliber takes 18 months, but we’re fast tracking it so it opens in just two months.”
During L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ biweekly news conferment, this editor in the Q & A box asked, “When will DWP (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) relinquish its new headquarters at the Palisades Rec Center, so the sole park in the center of the town can be given back to residents?”
DWP’s John Vanacore replied “DWP is coordinating with Parks and Rec to have a presence in the community during the rebuild. We are coordinating with them to ensure we are not in their way for their operations.”
Another listener asked, “How long will the utility center be at the Rec Center? Why is it there?”
According to the DWP website, “The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Unified Utilities Rebuild Operations Center (UUROC) was created to support the Pacific Palisades rebuilding effort following the January 2025 wildfire. This full-service center is where customers and contractors can coordinate directly with LADWP on the rebuilding and restoration of water and power services to homes and properties in the Pacific Palisades.”
Since 5,449 homes were destroyed in the fire, 905 damaged, most are not going to need this facility for the restoration of services in the immediate future.
For former residents, who might like to see other members of the community, to come back once a week to play ball, tennis, bocce, play basketball or walk through George Wolfberg Park in Potrero, this Operations Center takes away the park.
DWP said they are serving 20 to 25 people a day. Every time this editor has stopped by the cubicles are empty.
In her March 7 Newsletter Berger wrote about the parks: “these vital spaces for community gathering and recreation have been sorely missed.”
“We know a small group of people want to see the park opened right away,” an official said at the March 11 Mayor’s meeting.
From what this editor has heard, large numbers of people want their park back, so they have a place to gather. They wonder why the DPW doesn’t lease the former Pharmaca Building, so Palisadians can have the park back.
One resident wrote CTN “Do you know the status of our George Wolfberg/Potrero Canyon Park?”
The gates are locked, so no one can access the park, but looking over the fence at the end of the baseball diamonds today, March 11, the park looks green, and the landscape seems to be healing beautifully from the burn.
A Palisades Park Advisory Board will be held on March 18 at 6:30 p.m. via zoom. Residents can make public comment. As soon as the link is available it will be published on CTN.
George Wolfberg Park at Potrero is beautifully green and inviting, but the park is closed.
It seems DWP isn’t taking much responsibility for anything. After illegally depositing hundreds of tons of trees they cut down on the parking lot of the Pacifuc Palisades Presbyterian Church right after the fire, there has been no acknowledgement of responsibility and dead ears from requests to clear the lot. Salt in the wound of a destroyed congregation and community resource. The good people of the Christian Scientists came over to help clear the lot. After spending hours of backbreaking work, they returned the next day to find even more trees had been deposited! At a point when the church needs financial resources, the failure of DWP to clean up their illegal dump site has cost the church thousands in contracts from federal agencies who wanted to lease the lot for staging areas.
And thanks to”neighbors” who decided to dump their contaminated trash in the lot as well. Some simply have no morals.
The last thing I care about right now is walking through the park…..
I applaud Supervisor Kathryn Barger for doing her job and recognizing the importance & value of opening up the parks in her community AND by miraculously securing a grant for a new playground structure from an Annenberg grant. The only issue I have with her comments is “usually it takes 18 months for a playground of this caliber”… the Palisades community has spent an untold number of years trying to get a new playground & bathrooms to no avail. At the last Park & Rec meeting, director Jimmy Kim said he was “waiting for info… there’s lots of money out there” and Steve Soboroff suggested community members “make it happen”. What is our Supervisor Lindsey Horvath doing to secure the Palisades a playground grant?? … why doesn’t she talk to Barger and find out how she made it happen and let Palisades homeowners deal with restoring our homes?
Having the Park back and walking Portero Canyon would be important for the residents who love the Palisades regardless of the status of their home. It is part of the return to something near normalcy. Is it going to be a DWP center for the 2 to 5 years the Mayor is talking about? I think the idea of leasing the Pharmaca store makes the most sense, give the park back to the residents and help rebuild it and the playground.
I sincerely hope that the DWP is paying rent in a sufficient amount that we will be able to build back the park and rec center.