Prairie S.
Yelp
What I desire in a park is the ability to turn away from the built environment dominated by the human world--its traffic, its noises, machines and industry, to seek respite in arcadia--the lost eden of nature. But that's impossible in a "park" that is an unabashed memorial of homo americanus' destruction of nature.
This park is the site of an erstwhile reservoir that stored water pumped and transported by violent, militaristic threat from indigenous peoples' territories in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains hundreds of miles away, by the LA aqueduct, brainchild of Mulholland and associates. The water was used to sustain anglo's residences, and signal their imperialist "American" domination by landscaping a city with green lawns better suited to the rainy climates of England or France.
Ironically, the reservoir collapsed in the 1960s, as a result of of oil pumps sucking out the viscous black sludge from subterranean rock strata in the adjacent Baldwin hills. The nearby oil extraction caused seismic instability and shifting of bedrock material. Just as with Mulholland's notoriously shoddy engineering of the St. Francis dam, hairline cracks developed in this reservoir's concrete and led to a catastrophic blowout that washed away homes and killed a few residents down the hill. The basin at the helm of this "park" is that reservoir.
The park's picnic areas, as well as the contrived, artificial pond and fountains, are within spitting distance of the aforementioned, still-actively pumping oil rigs, whose elbows and levers rythmically pumping up and down, gas valves and security fencing, certainly don't set up a relaxing ambience.
The park is designed for the proverbial Los Angeles resident who has lost use of their legs to the gasoline-powered automobile, so rather than have trails to explore the hills, parking areas are dotted throughout the park. This invariably attracts go-kart racers and motorcar primpers who "gun" their engines uphill and you feel like you're on a highway rather than in a park to commune with nature. Speaking of which, highway is the ONLY way to arrive at this park, no bike-lanes are available to ride in. A recent development is a pedestrian crossing over La Cienega Road from Blair Hills, and that is worth checking out since it opened on Halloween 2020.
The basin (erstwhile reservoir bottom) is circled by a walking path which is used by masses of Angelenos for walking and jogging (the majority of whom are masked--yay!). In the center of this unstable soil complex are some spectacular, mature indigenous live oak trees. But then you'll see people throwing disks across the basin and you'll want to make sure you duck. It's a common "sport" here, which doesn't mind whether your head is in the way or not.
From the Martin Luther King obelisk memorial there's a great view of the LA Basin looking east towards the distinctive sky scrapers of downtown Los Angeles. The urban metropolis stretches on, and on, and on. The open vista across the basin is marred only by the shrieks of children in the playground which means that even here, with a bit of elevation from the maddening traffic-filled streets of the westside, you can't really escape the human complex.
Spending time here doesn't feel like a nature break. Nature is contrived and false here, but it is ever forgiving and tries. The oil rigs to the west are the most visceral indication that you are in an altered environment. The Japanese garden is too paltry to be worth mentioning as an oasis of aesthetic pleasure and calm.
One can only hope that a few of the visitors will use the site to learn more about the real, devastating history of environmental destruction that constitutes this dystopian city of Los Angeles.
