Friday, November 30, 2012

Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 9

North Hollywood Park: A Piece of Urban Nature

(This week's adventure fulfills requirements:
2.  A car trip
 4. A visit to a location in the LA metro region that is at least 15 miles from UCLA)

This week I went to North Hollywood to spend the afternoon with members of Mentorship Program at UCLA, a student run organization that pairs UCLA student volunteers with elementary, middle, and high school aged mentees from underserved areas in North Hollywood.  Mentorship is a program that is very dear to my heart; last year I mentored a seventh grade girl and this year I have a leadership role as a program coordinator for the elementary school age group.  BBQs in the park on Magnolia are one of our favorite ways to socialize with the program's members.  UCLA mentors call their mentees and invite the kids and their families to come out to the park.  We carpool to NoHo and meet up with the kids and their families who make it out.  Most of the mentees live fairly close, so they can easily get to the park.  Usually when mentees' families come they bring a dish they've made at home, like pupusas or ceviche, and we also grill meat on one of the park's public barbecues.  Spending an afternoon eating, talking, hanging out on the grass, and playing soccer and football with the kids, their families, and fellow volunteers has provided such refreshing, good old-fashioned fun afternoons for me since I have been a part of this program. 
  
Tujunga Blvd and North Hollywood Park
Images of the park from Yelp

 We gathered at our usual location for the BBQ: North Hollywood Park at Magnolia Blvd and Tujunga Avenue.  North Hollywood Park has always reminded me a little of the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.  It runs several blocks long but only a block or two across, is in a very urban area, and bordered by busy main streets.  At every place in the park the streets, cars, and urban buildings and infrastructure are visible and part of the experience in the park.  North Hollywood Park has sports fields, BBQs, benches, pathways, a community center, and a couple public restrooms.  Soft lawn makes up much of the park and there are some great old trees.

When we watched the video of Majora Carter's TED Talk "Greening the Ghetto", I immediately thought of the existence and use of this park.  The park is a green space, a strip of urban nature, for the residents of North Hollywood.  Organized and pick-up sports on the fields, open space, and the BBQ grills give locals a place to gather and be together in their community.  

The park is accessible to the residents of subsidized housing as well as the high rise lofts of gentrified NoHo.  The other groups I've seen gather for BBQs and potlucks are usually composed of Latino families and friends.  From a Google search of the park, I learned that it is a popular destination for runners.  Individuals who go on runs are often white adults from a more middle class backgrounds.  Individuals of various ethnic groups, income levels, and classes use North Hollywood Park for recreational, fitness, and gathering purposes.  David Harvey elaborates on the widespread inequality and environmental injustice usually seen in the placement of parks (and dumping) spaces in urban areas.  Instead of limited physical access or an unwelcoming feelings surround North Hollywood Park, here is a wonderful example of a green space that is accessible, inviting, and used by people of various backgrounds and situations, especially non-whites of low-income.  

Mentees and mentors at an earlier BBQ at North Hollywood Park

North Hollywood is an inviting and usable public space in North Hollywood.  Although it is frequented by many different people and people of many different backgrounds, it is not seen equally by everyone who uses (or chooses not to use) the park.  Reviews on Yelp show that while many value and love the park, some individuals see the park as a site of social degradation and unpleasantness in itself.  The 39 reviews average to 4/5 stars and most of the reviews are very positive, praising its large size, location within walking distance, space for sports and running, and high levels of recreation and activities.  A few reviewers, however, are very negative and critical of the park.  One complains of the trash littering the pathways despite the existence of several trash cans, and another blames the park looking "pretty beat up" on the "Carnies" from a carnival held in the park.  
One review especially exemplifies a troubling "us versus them" mentality of people from different race and class stratification:
This "park" is one of the worst I have come across thus far. First of all it is surrounded by a highway and three heavily traveled streets so you suck in massive amounts of car exaust as you are trying to exercise. It is nothing more than an uneven dirt trail that is full of gross fat man that stare and suck their teeth at you as you run/walk by. Also, lots of homeless people that urinate on the ground so you get to breathe in the smell of urine along with the pollution. I honestly cannot understand how this park could get 5 stars? I guess it is all a matter of what you are accustomed to.

North Hollywood Park is in this way a site of social inequality and difference in the city.  Majora Carter, David Harvey, and myself among many many others see urban parks as valuable and essential to quality of life, especially in environmental injustice communities.  It is important to remember though, that simply placing a park in such an area of urban social difference and urban inequality especially, by no means brings community harmony and social equality.

Shakey's from the outside, photo from City-Data.com
A photo of the inside of the NoHo Shakey's, found on Yelp
Because the day was rainy and the ground was muddy, we actually didn't stay very long at the park this time.  We moved our social to Shakey's Pizza Parlor on Laurel Canyon Blvd, just a few blocks over.  Shakey's is a favorite and well-known location for the Mentorship kids.  Originally established in Sacramento as "ye public house" for pizza & beer, "ye public house" remains in the official title of the restaurant and the sign at the Laurel Canyon Blvd location.  Although Shakey's is obviously a private corporation and the restaurants are privately owned spaces, the decision to keep "public house" in the name shows a desire to be connected to and used by the community, even if it is fundamentally for advertising and attracting business.  Following this thinking, the franchise's webpage states: "At Shakey's we are more than just a pizza restaurant, we are a part of the neighborhood."

The lunch buffet was pretty cheap, and the manager didn't mind that we filled up a long table in the center of the restaurant for a few hours on the rainy afternoon.  We ate, talked, and played arcade games with the kids for the rest of our time together.  Although Shakey's is not a green spot of urban nature, but a restaurant on a long boulevard of single rise fast food places, low cost grocery stores, and auto body shops, in my experience it most definitely serves North Hollywood residents as a safe and positive space to gather and socialize.  It isn't a public space and it does require spending some (but not very much) money, but the management at Shakey's does effectively patrol their private space to ensure that the establishment remains safe and accessible.  I agree with Majora Carter that sites of public spaces of urban greenery are invaluable, especially in underserved urban areas of inequality.  I think that it is also important to recognize private establishments, even if their fundamental purpose is to make a profit, as places that can encourage and foster positive community development.  

Some of the group at Shakey's! 

Find out more about Mentorship Program at UCLA at our website mentorshipla.com :)



References: 


Carter, M. (2006, February).  Major Collins: Greening the ghetto [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/majora_carter_s_tale_of_urban_renewal.html

 Harvey, David. "The Environment of Justice." Oxford Scholarship Online (1999): n. pag. Nov. 2003. Web.
"Shakey's Pizza Parlor." Shakey's Pizza Parlor. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.

Yelp Review of North Hollywood Park and Recreation Center: 


Images:


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