Los Angeles has always promoted its mountains, beaches and world-class weather, and while L.A. officials are justifiably proud of cultural jewels such as Griffith Park’s Greek Theater and Observatory, they have been slow to appreciate how important local parks are for taming a hostile urban environment.

Los Angeles parks failed to keep pace with explosive postwar growth, to the point that L.A. now ranks last among large U.S. cities in providing children access to a place to play within walking distance (considered a third of a mile). Some of our communities are greener than others, a disparity that steepens as the economic level of residents worsens.

It wasn’t always this way. The L.A. City Council created the Dept. of Parks in 1889, and established the first city playground department in the nation five years later. In 1925, the Council created the Dept. of Playgrounds, Recreation and Camps and proposed a charter allocating a fixed percent of property tax for parks that voters approved that year.

The charter’s provision was politically prophetic. During the Great Depression, the Recreation Commission and park supporters rebuffed repeated attempts by the City Council to divert funds to other projects. Four decades later, though, City and County parks and other public services began to crumble as revenue fell in the wake of Proposition 13. In the 1990s, local recreation received a $3.5-billion infusion from bonds that California voters approved.

Los Angeles voters reformed the City Charter in 1999 – including the provision for funding the Dept. of Recreation and Parks (RAP). During the last three years, however, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has done an end-run around the charter by treating RAP like Water and Power, the airport and other departments that generate revenue. The mayor has charged it $42 million for previously unbilled utilities, trash collection and vehicle maintenance, resulting in a 35% cut in the operating budget and a loss of 500 employees.

A coalition of park supporters and civic leaders is advocating a $39 yearly parcel tax estimated to generate $30 million a year for public recreation. Recent polling indicates that voters support the proposal, one of four tax measures the City Council has prepared for the March 2013 ballot to close anticipated gaps in the 2013-14 budget. Council President Herb Wesson, however, has indicated that he prefers to place only one initiative – a half-cent sales tax estimated to raise about $220 million a year – before the voters.

Denying voters a chance to rescue parks would be a mistake. Political leaders may buy into the argument that police, fire, medical and utility services are essential, while other government services are discretionary. The public, however, sees parks, schools and libraries as the bedrocks of livable, healthy neighborhoods – especially during bad times.

It’s been a long time since Los Angeles had any good news about parks. Over the last three years, the City has slashed 35% from the recreation budget by cutting 500 employees, closing facilities and eliminating programs. Even before the Great Recession, only one in three L.A. kids lived within walking distance of a public park, pouring gasoline on the fires of childhood obesity and diabetes.

Now it’s time for a smile. Two smiles, actually.

On Saturday, Jan. 28, People for Parks and the L.A. Unified School District will cut the ribbon on our first Community-School Park at Trinity Street Elementary near USC, and the following Saturday, Feb. 4, PFP and LAUSD will launch our second CSP at Vine Street Elementary in Hollywood.

For months, School District crews have been ripping up the asphalt playgrounds typical of older schools in the urban core and replacing these “heat islands” with trees, gardens, flowers and turf. The landscaped schoolyards will serve students during the day and their surrounding neighborhoods on weekends and summers.

Community-School Parks have been a long time coming. This dream started five years ago, and picked up speed about two years later, when the L.A. City Council and School Board endorsed the CSP concept and a joint task force worked out the details. The project could have died when the economy tanked and the City was sidelined, but the LAUSD carried the weight on its shoulders. Meanwhile, People for Parks raised funds for Beyond the Bell to provide quality afterschool activities.

Community-School Parks are the most cost-effective way to provide healthy public recreation to thousands of inner-city kids. CSPs also raise local property values and stabilize hard-pressed neighborhoods. People for Parks and LAUSD are already scouting locations for five more CSPs in the Pico Union-Westlake neighborhood.

Please join me – and hundreds of students, parents, teachers, administrators, elected officials and community leaders – on Jan. 28 at Trinity and Feb. 4 at Vine Street. These grand openings are the best news we’ve had in years.

These days I have a new dream, that someday soon there will be so many CSPs dotting the city that one more ribbon cutting won’t even be news. And that will really be grounds for celebration!

During the past 10 years, the Parks Celebration has reached out to broaden the base of support for public parks. Recreation is all about inclusion. We cannot allow that support to split along lines of conservative and liberal, young and old, or wealthy and poor.

The annual celebration has grown to mirror the face of Los Angeles, one of the most diverse and exciting cities in the world. This Wednesday - October 12 - everyone from Malibu environmentalists and housing project athletes, union activists and business leaders, teachers, recreation leaders and police officers will gather on the stage of the iconic Hollywood Bowl.

This year’s special honorees are Kelly Meyer and Chi Kim, the creative sparks behind an ambitious effort to curb childhood obesity. Meyer is a passionate environmentalist and Kim is a distinguished educator. Together, they created a program to teach school children how to plant seeds, nurture plants and harvest produce. The greater lesson, of course, is the importance of a healthy diet.

Meyer and Kim’s concept sprouted in Malibu, but what makes the program unique in my mind is their commitment to urban L.A. Now, with generous support from the American Heart Association, they are rolling out Teaching Gardens across the city and country.

The 10th annual Parks Celebration will also honor LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, and nine Park Heroes from all corners of Greater L.A.

In an earlier blog, I praised Chief Beck and a new generation of LAPD officers for teaming up with local recreation leaders to make our neighborhoods safer by providing urban youth positive alternatives to gangs. “Smart recreation” is a matter of life or death for these kids.

I also pointed out how Supervisor Antonovich has put his stamp on recreation by preserving open space, creating biking, hiking and riding trails, and providing sports complexes, gyms and pools to High Desert communities. As chair of a 5-member board with liberal and conservative members, he has also protected County parks, employees and residents from budget cuts.

Click here for information on how you can join us this Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl for an evening of good food, music and fellowship, and to support public parks and recreation in Los Angeles throughout the year.

At first glance, Mike Antonovich might seem like an unlikely honoree for a grass-roots group like People for Parks. Antonovich has been a conservative voice on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors for three decades. I could compile a long list of issues where we disagree, but let’s just say that our political compasses point in opposite directions.

Over the past year, though, I have developed a new appreciation for Antonovich. During my career as a park manager, recreation studies professor and president of People for Parks, I have seen how support for public recreation crosses ethnic, economic and political lines. After all, Republican President Teddy Roosevelt was the father of the outdoor recreation movement.

I may be unleashing a torrent of angry calls and emails, but let me make a bold statement: I like Mike!

Here are three reasons why. First, Antonovich has quietly compiled an exemplary record of preserving and expanding public access to open spaces, from a 2326-acre open space in the Santa Susana Mountains to a 507-acre preserve in the Santa Clarita woodlands that bears his name. He is an unabashed champion of riding, hiking and biking trails, and created a grant program for trails in 12 cities. He has developed all-climate sports centers for constituents in the High Desert, and preserved a 50-year-old community center in Pasadena.

Second, Antonovich and the Board of Supervisors have not laid off a single staff member from the County Department of Parks and Recreation during the 3-year budget crisis. Compare that to Mayor Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council, who have slashed the City’s Rec and Parks Department by 35% percent and eliminated 500 parks positions, or to Governor Brown and the State Legislature, who are closing 70 state parks.

Third, Antonovich brings new allies to the fight to defend public recreation. We need to reach across the partisan divide to build the broadest possible coalition to support parks. We need to tap the creativity and resources of the business sector, the hunters and fishermen, mountain-bikers and other traditionalists that we liberals often overlook. The political mood in locker rooms often leans right. Should we fight each other to a stalemate?  How does that benefit public recreation?

I prefer to work together for our mutual progress, and that’s why I will be at the Hollywood Bowl on October 12 to honor Mike Antonovich, a truly dedicated elected official who has significantly advanced the cause closest to my heart. I hope you will join me.

On Oct. 12, People for Parks will honor LAPD Chief Charlie Beck at the tenth annual Parks Celebration. Ten years ago, the award would have been almost unthinkable. Today, the Police Department reflects our diverse population, crime is way down, and many of its fiercest critics have become partners.

What a difference a decade – plus a consent decree, major personnel changes, and some top brass with good will – can make. Charlie Beck deserves much of the credit for the remarkable turn around.

Much has been written about the LAPD’s switch to a “community policing” model of law enforcement. Almost unnoticed, though, is the way the department has used “Smart Recreation” to help strengthen neighborhoods and redirect youth.

For example, when Beck was a captain, he aggressively policed McArthur Park to hit hard at rampant drug dealing and gang activity. But that was only part of the story. He also worked with the park’s recreation director, Larry Mellon, to offer programs to attract families and young people.

More recently, Beck was the LAPD’s point man on Summer Night Lights, a highly praised program at 32 parks offering basketball and other supervised activities until midnight four nights a week. Giving young people positive alternatives has helped cut crime in each neighborhood.

Similarly, the head of the LAPD’s Southeast Station, Captain Phil Tingirides, has built close ties with recreation directors Karl Stephens and Greg Thomas of One Watts, a cluster of programs at three public housing projects. Tingirides’ officers staff the midnight basketball league and compete with local youth in basketball and softball games. They recently taught dozens of South L.A. youth how to surf.

Charlie Beck understands that a close relationship between police and park staff is key to preventing crime, saving lives and reclaiming communities. For this, he deserves a warm round of applause. Please join me at the Hollywood Bowl as we honor the Chief.

The bulldozers are busy and I couldn’t be happier. In July, L.A. Unified School District crews began ripping up the asphalt from Trinity Street and Vine Street elementary schools. Flowers, trees and turf will soon replace the “heat islands” that typically dominate playgrounds. 

The two LAUSD construction and landscaping projects are a dream five years in the making. In 2006, People for Parks began a dialogue with city and school officials, non-profit agencies and community leaders into how we can add green space in neighborhoods with the highest needs and least access.

Those meetings gave birth to the concept of Community-School Parks. Because the need is so great – only a third of L.A. kids live within walking distance of a park – and available land is so rare, we decided that neighborhood elementary schools were the key.

Community-School Parks are one of those rare ideas that are good for everyone. Replacing blacktop on playgrounds with turf for soccer and ball fields, vegetable and flower gardens, and trees and shrubs will serve students during school hours and the surrounding communities on weekends, holidays and vacations.

Even great ideas, however, need help. We envisioned Community-School Parks as a joint effort by LAUSD and the City of L.A., but the economic crisis hobbled the Department of Recreation and Parks. The school district, to its credit, pressed ahead at Trinity and Vine, and PFP is raising funds for supervised afterschool programs by Beyond the Bell.

This fall, a state grant will enable us to begin evaluating five LAUSD elementary schools in the Westlake and Pico-Union areas for the next round of Community-School Parks.

We’ll tackle those challenges tomorrow. Today, we are celebrating this milestone and looking forward to Vine and Trinity students playing on green playgrounds. I’m dreaming of converting hundreds of LAUSD elementaries into Community-School Parks.

Summertime can be sweet in Penmar Park, a bustling hub of activity in a middle class neighborhood. Other times, however, Venice can be brutal. Last month, five local teens were hanging out and talking in the bleachers when a suspected gang member opened fire with an automatic weapon.Two 18-year-olds who had graduated just two days earlier from Venice High were killed, and a third teen was wounded. Penmar Director Juan Guzman quickly assessed the scene and called the police, then locked down children and staff in the gym, and helped a softball coach attend to the wounded youth.

People for Parks was founded 22 years ago, largely in response to safety in public parks. A series in the Los Angeles Times showed how gang turf wars and Prop. 13 budget cuts had turned rec centers in poor communities into the “Dead Parks of L.A.”

City and County parks have since taken many steps forward. Then-Mayor Tom Bradley launched the Urban Impact Park program, and PFP sponsored Safe Neighborhood Parks and Open Space initiatives in 1992 and ‘96 that have since raised $1 billion for local facilities. Other advances include “smart recreation” to curb gang activity, a new park ranger program, and better ties between police and recreation agencies.

Lately, though, the news has been bad. Budget cuts the last two years have hit the City of L.A. especially hard. About 500 Rec and Parks staff are gone, services have been cut, and supervision has been eliminated on Sundays and Mondays. More cuts are expected in October, after the summer peak in usage.

I do not believe budget cuts are directly linked to gang violence, but the June 22 shooting at Penmar Park is a red flag. Cutting programs, supervisors and part-time local staff will weaken – not strengthen – neighborhood safety.

Living within our means and public safety are both important goals. However, as long as police and fire services account for 67% of the City’s General Fund, every other department will be forced to reduce services to make ends meet. And that is a dangerous game that we can’t afford to play. Let’s not revisit the “Dead Parks.”

For more than 80 years, the Los Angeles City Charter blocked politicians from diverting funds from parks and libraries into “essential” services by setting a percentage for how much municipal revenue must go to those “optional” services. There were no “ifs,” “ands” or “buts,” even during the Great Depression.

For the past three years, though, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has undermined the Charter by charging the Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP) more and more for previously unbilled costs, including water, lights and trash collection.

In the recently approved 2011-12 City budget, the “charge backs” totaled $44 million – 25% of the total parks budget. As a result, the total RAP budget seems to be increasing, but the funding that actually reaches the public is shrinking.

We have a “Robin Hood in reverse” situation where RAP, one of the City’s poorest departments, is propping up the DWP, one of the richest. Nothing similar has taken place at the Police or Fire departments or, for that matter, at any other municipal agency.

Who pays the price? Hundreds of fulltime and part-time employees have lost their jobs, and tens of thousands of young people, seniors and working families have lost what little access they had to a healthy lifestyle. And more layoffs and service cuts are expected in October.

I’m hardly the only Angeleno who sees public parks, schools and libraries as foundation stones for healthy neighborhoods that are just as “essential” as public safety. Earlier this year, L.A. voters approved Measure L to ensure that libraries are properly funded, even during bad economic times.  I’m sure we will soon see a flurry of similar measures to protect parks and recreation.

Elected leaders can wag their fingers at “ballot box budgeting,” but none of that would be necessary if City officials defended the City Charter, instead of doing an end run around it.