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FARMERS MARKET:

In response to the August 4 suggestion in Musings that the Palisades farmers market should move to Temescal Canyon until Palisades High reopens, two readers responded:

“I think having a farmers market at Simon Meadow (with required masks and abiding by social distancing guidelines) is an excellent idea! It makes me so sad that summer produce could be available to us from local farmers but there is not a farmers market to purchase from them,” one wrote.

A second asked, “Good idea, but where is Simon Meadow?” (This is the YMCA property at the corner of Temescal Canyon Road and Sunset Boulevard, where the Y’s Pumpkin Patch and Christmas tree sales are held.)

TEMESCAL CANYON PARK IRRIGATION:

Rec and Park workers were fixing the irrigation system in Temescal Canyon Park.

I received a call from a reader that L.A. Recreation and Park workers were in Temescal Canyon, near where people illegally stack cut trees, branches and other wood scraps.

CTN walked over and spoke to the workers, who said they were fixing broken irrigation pipes. Rec and Parks cleared brush at the end of June, which left some residents worried about the little frogs and the year-round stream that goes along the canyon hillside.

The workers told CTN that the stream was still there and that the water being used for irrigation in Temescal Canyon Park was coming from the large holding tank underneath the playground near the intersection of Temescal and PCH.

They were in the process of checking the entire irrigation system and said that with the repairs, “This whole area should look better fast.”

LAUSD still has not done brush clearance on its property immediately uphill from the city workers. That could pose a fire hazard, given that on August 1, two large fireworks were set off in Temescal Canyon, shortly before midnight.

Fire season is now virtually year-round. Please have brush clearance done. And a reminder: fireworks are illegal in Los Angeles.

Brush clearance is needed below Palisades High School.

WOOD ON TEMESCAL:

While I was talking with the workers, a resident came up and asked why people were allowed to illegally dump wood along the sidewalk. Signs are posted to this effect, yet even when people took photos of the license plates of trucks dumping wood and sent them to authorities, there was no enforcement.

Some people are in favor of continuing the wood drop because they see it as a mutually beneficial service: they pick the wood up and use it, and the wood doesn’t have to be hauled away.

I explained that to the resident, who said, “Then they should figure out a place to do that. The wood here often blocks access to the sidewalk and the elderly and people pushing strollers have to go in the street to get past it.

“Have the Community Council figure out a place where people could make the exchange. It shouldn’t be on the sidewalk,” the resident said. “Find a different area.”

Another resident walking by added that burning wood in our fireplaces causes environmental damage, and that we would be better off breathing car exhaust than smoke from this wood.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the South Coast Air Quality Management District both have laws overseeing the sale and use of wood- burning fireplaces. According to the EPA, “Wood smoke is made up of a mixture of gases and fine particles that are produced when wood and other organic matter burns. The particles in smoke – also called particulate matter (PM) – can harm the lungs, blood vessels and heart. People with heart, vascular or lung disease, older adults and children are the most at risk. Smoke from wood heating devices can increase PM to levels that pose serious health concerns. In some areas, residential wood smoke is a primary contributor to the area’s nonattainment for the 24-hour PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard.”

The South Coast Air Quality Management District — which oversees most residences in the South Coast Air Basin, including Los Angeles, adopted strict rules on wood-burning fireplaces in March 2009.

Permanent wood-burning devices in any new residential developments were banned. Residences with wood-burning fireplaces are subject to mandatory “no-burn” days when high pollution levels are forecast.

MASK WEARING:

Another reader sent me the article (“The Hidden Danger of Masks”) in the August 5 Wall Street Journal.

The researches quoted in the article said, “Cloth masks may give users a false sense of protection because of their limited protection against inquiring infection. Taking a mask off is a high-risk process because pathogens may be present in the outer surface of the mask and may result in self-contamination.”

The article pointed out that White House Coronavirus Task Force Leader Dr. Deborah Birx had warned, “We don’t want people to get an artificial sense of protection because they’re behind a mask” or “send a signal that we think a mask is equivalent” to social distancing and good hygiene.

CTN doesn’t want to see people going without masks when in stores or near other people because masks still make sense. This should not be a political debate. So we repeat the common-sense mantra: keep social distance, wash hands frequently and wear a mask when out in public. Common sense means that cloth masks should also be washed frequently, too.

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