Councilman Mike Bonin’s Final Goodbye to the Community: F You

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The George Wolfberg Park at the mouth of Potrero Canyon, is supposed to be secure.

There is supposed to be a gate at the base of the park.

The George Wolfberg Park at Potrero is a 46-acre passive park, with no lights or fields, which will open this Saturday. Residents learned that proposed park signs would allow people to be there from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. year-round. They requested park hours be dawn to dusk and the signs reflect that change.

Recreation and Park staff said they could change the signs to shorter operating hours, but only if Councilman Mike Bonin passed an ordinance.

Bonin submitted a November 22 City Council motion that the park for “walkers, hikers and bicycle riders,” would open at sunrise and close at sunset. The motion has not left committee. Bonin leaves office December 12.

There is no legal enforcement until the correct signs are posted, and residents were promised at a December 1 community zoom meeting, they would be posted before the park’s opening.

At that meeting, Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness co-president Sharon Kilbride asked if signs could be replaced in the bluff areas next to the park.

“Restricted Entry, Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, Trespassing and Loitering Forbidden by Law, LAMC 57.4908.81. Fines up to $1,000 + Penalty Assessments,” signs disappeared during park construction.

There is also supposed to be a fence that surrounds the park to inhibit access to the park from PCH and other bluff areas after dusk. One resident sent Circling the News photos. The area is wide-open and accessible to anyone walking.

Could this lack of attention to Pacific Palisades public safety be Bonin’s goodbye and f**k you,” to the town?

Was he upset, because he was stopped when he wanted to turn the beach area across from Potrero into a tiny home village for the homeless? —And forgot to tell the residents his plans.

He actively lobbied for the senior center in the Highlands, even going to the Coastal Commission to give it his personal blessing, despite enormous community opposition and concern.

Bonin received money from Caruso, $100,000, for his nonprofit. Why would Caruso give him money? No one is quite sure, but the town’s Design Review Board was taken off oversight of the Palisades Village project.

Interestingly, the dirt dug in order to build the Village project went into Potrero Canyon as fill, starting in 2017.

Two years later, the Recreation and Parks Board of Commissioners were told by engineers the dirt was not good and were presented with a $3.9 million change order for grading.

At one time, Bonin proposed turning Temescal Canyon Road into a two-way-road, eliminating lanes in a major thoroughfare in one of the only three exits in and out of the Palisades.

Councilman Mike Bonin

When Bonin ran for re-election in 2017, against Mark Ryavek and Robin Rudisill, he promised that he would give the Palisades its much-needed dog park.

Under Bonin’s watch, streets have gone unpaved, sidewalks not repaired and the lone recreation center and playground in town are not ADA accessible.

He has given all his Council District’s discretionary funding to nonprofits that help with the homeless—with the exception of the one here, the PPTFH. The money for that nonprofit came from individual citizens donating.

It appears that Pacific Palisades is more than the “ugly” stepchild . . . But our councilmember will emcee the opening on Saturday as one of his last official duties. It appears that everyone loves free cake.

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