March-April 2011
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IN THIS ISSUE...
Joyce White describes her quest “Navigating Mass Transit for a Manhattan Transfer Holiday Outing,” perhaps appealing to your adventurous spirit to encourage alternative transportation. Also inspiring, Griselda Dominguez Sasayama describes her garden transformation in “Our Native Garden”, the third in a series on waterwise gardening. Maybe you’ll be moved to transform a lawn-dominated yard to a dynamic, native garden teeming with life.
Once again, we’ll practice using our Internet skills in May when, due to the Southern Sierran distribution schedule, the May edition of the Foggy View will not be mailed with the Southern Sierran (or otherwise).
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO OUR READERS
The May issue will be online and NOT delivered with the Southern Sierran.
You can find it online at: http://angeles.sierraclub.org/foggy-view.asp.
Protecting Parkland
Over the past several years, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes and the Annenberg Foundation have been pursuing the development of a public park adjacent to Point Vicente lighthouse, called Lower Point Vicente. Their vision for the park is to build what Wallis Annenberg referred to in a Vanity Fair article as the “Mayo Clinic for animals.” The project would offer dog and cat adoption counseling and support, with adoption suites furnished with sofas and televisions to better prepare the animals for assimilation into family life upon adoption.
Lower Point Vicente, however, is governed by multiple layers of legal protections intended to forever secure its outdoor recreation and natural resource value for the general public.
Last fall, the National Park Service and state agencies came on the scene. NPS has compliance oversight responsibility in this situation because Lower Point Vicente was deeded by the Department of the Interior—for and in consideration of the perpetual use... as and for public park and public recreation area purposes. The Park is required to be for —passive recreation pursuits closely oriented to the attributes of the Pacific Ocean. In addition, the Park was the recipient of Land and Water Conservation Fund grant assistance requiring use of the land for—public outdoor recreation in perpetuity.
David Siegenthaler of the National Park Service wrote to the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council in September describing the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report as misleading and inaccurate because you have not considered all of the conditions under which the land was transferred. Although the proposed plan includes some elements that would be acceptable...(such as trails, restrooms, picnic areas), the proposed plan contains, in our view, many elements that would not fall under an eligible public recreational use, such as a building for general governmental purposes, an animal care and adoption facility, a theatre, space for civic events, and general education purposes.
Construction plans for Lower Point Vicente Park, showing limits of open-space for public outdoor recreation.
Mr. Siegenthaler’s letter went on to cite the—egregious omissions in the City’s failure to establish a need for the proposed project and failure to justify the development on—what is now precious open space land.
In October, Mr. Siegenthaler wrote to the City in response to a City Staff Report, which justified the proposed facility on the basis that Point Vicente Interpretive Center was previously permitted on the site and that the addition of another education center would not be a change in use but an expansion of the existing use. Mr. Siegenthaler noted that—unlike the proposed Annenberg Education Facility, the focus of Point Vicente Interpretive Center is interpretive—directly related to the unique coastal location and ocean-adjacent attributes of the Park, with emphasis on whale watching.
Following up that letter, the PV-SB Group of the Sierra Club sent a letter to the NPS applauding their vigilance in protecting this coastal headland. (See Excerpt below)
Currently the project is on hold as the City and the Annenberg Foundation prepare an application seeking approval of the project from NPS. Thus far, NPS has stated that if the City were to pursue the Annenberg development in its current form, they would be required to convert Lower Point Vicente from parkland that is subject to the restrictions to land that is not. But to do so, the City would have to provide an exchange of land of at least equal appraised market value and of reasonably equivalent recreational utility and location.
Peninsula and South Bay residents have been circulating a petition opposing the proposed project and urging preservation of Lower Point Vicente for its intended public, open-space, passive recreational purpose.
Our Native Garden
by Griselda Dominguez Sasayama
A pretty green lawn and the seasonal splash of vibrant roses. One, two and three years. All in a row, the roses and the years. It was very much like the neighboring gardens, this garden of ours. It seemed to fit in well...or so we thought. But that was “before.”
Out went the lawn and in marched the natives. For the last four years, it has never been the same.
It is now a dynamic garden. Thoroughly and patiently planned--curves, lines, points of focal strength, textures, color palette, plant list--this garden was fun to dream and to put on paper. It was fun to install and to discover its early surprises. It is now continuous fun to watch throughout the California seasons, as we record its gifts with our camera. We are learning to let some plants fade away and to more selectively bring new specimens.
It is a sensual garden. Vibrant pastel colors most of the year, and a variety of greens and textures in the winter, keep the eye roving over its living mounds. Flocks of tiny birds invade the Island Mallow in chirpy cascades. Bees and insects hum a busy tune enticing enough to help us ignore the noisy street. The scent of the sages salutes us as soon as we let the breeze come into the house in the morning and welcomes us back home as we enter the driveway in the evening.
It is a garden beaming with life. Few plants have died. Some are like old friends—we may not see them one year but they show up the next without much fuss. Often, these plants do not mind telling us where they like it best. They grow up, play with their companions, expand around, or simply move to a different spot. We grow with them.
“Out went the lawn and in marched the natives.”
It is a loyal garden. Now settled, it forgives our neglect and keeps on doing its job. When we show care, it thanks us profusely. It gets along well with the few exotics we could not part with when we planted it. Some of the new natives thrive in the shade of the old plants, while the new ceanothus shelters a rose from intense heat.
It is a garden that invites friendship. Lizards go about or bask in our presence. Hummingbirds come and go in busy frenzy. Bigger birds make their contribution from the power lines and an oak seedling shows up in the parkway! Passers-by stop to make comments or ask questions. “I love to deliver your mail because I get to walk through the scent of this place.” “This is a real garden, like the ones at home. May I suggest that you install a little gate here? It would then be complete.” “There’s always a flower in bloom in your front yard.” “Too bad you remove the plant labels. I like to learn the names of these plants.”
It is a good citizen, this native garden. Very responsible about resources, it does its best in grandeur with just about nothing as it showers its gifts to the larger community: food and shelter, pleasure and serenity.
And above all, it is not a perfect garden. It is a perfecting garden; self correcting at times but mostly perfecting us as we keep on watching and learning.
Navigating Mass Transit for a Manhattan Transfer Holiday Outing
By Joyce White
For our 2010 PVSB Group holiday outing, after reserving tickets for 30 people to see Manhattan Transfer at the Walt Disney Hall, I began to plan how we could reduce our carbon footprint by using mass transit. Steve Bradford, one of our Sierra Club leaders and Treasurer of the Executive Committee takes the bus to work in downtown Los Angeles every day. He helped me to figure out the timing of the bus.
Then, a couple of months before the event, on a Tuesday evening, my husband, Borzoo Rezai, and I took the bus on a trial run from the Artesia Transit Center on 182nd Street and Vermont to the stop two blocks from the Disney Hall, at Olive and 1st Street. It worked out well, so I sent the instructions with the tickets when I mailed them. Out of 30 people who purchased tickets, we had 11 brave souls who were willing to try the bus with us.
We had not counted on rain. It had been raining in the Los Angeles area for five straight days previous to the event and it was pouring as we stood waiting for the Silver Line bus on the evening of the concert.
The Artesia Transit Center is a huge area! Nevertheless, eight of us met up without much problem – thanks in part to my big bright Sierra Club sign. Then at 6:10 pm, just about the time we were supposed to get on the bus, I got a call from a member of our group who wound up in the wrong lane at the Transit Center and ended up on the 405 Freeway. Hersh Kelley, who uses the bus for transportation regularly and is familiar with the area, was able to provide directions to guide her and her passengers back to the transit center, where we all hopped on the 6:45 bus. We got to Olive and 1st at 7:20 pm with time to spare before the program. The Manhattan Transfer program was beautiful, including the old familiar “Route 66” and several Christmas songs, as well as a new Christmas song called “I love Christmas in New York.”
Heading back to the bus stop, it was raining pretty hard. We were all relieved when the bus arrived, after a bit of a wait had us starting to think about the metro.
It was an experience for sure, but we learned that the bus system is quite reliable. Borzoo and I really will use the bus to go to downtown Los Angeles in the future. While the rain certainly added another dimension to our evening and required a little patience, we didn’t have to pay $11 for parking. Our bus fare for seniors was $1.15 per person on the way and 85¢ on the way back. The cost savings was nice and knowing that we did a good thing for our planet was an added bonus to the evening.
Excerpt from the PV-SB group’s letter supporting Mr. Siegenthaler and the National Park Service:
The City of Rancho Palos Verdes has a duty to abide by the deed restrictions pertaining to its land use. Over the years, Rancho Palos Verdes has been the beneficiary of funds from state and federal agencies as well as many, many other donors, including the Sierra Club. As a result, the City holds some of the most beautiful parks and open spaces in Southern California. With those gifts, though, come responsibilities. The pressures of urban sprawl and the ever-increasing value of land in this area will continue and with those pressures will come temptations to build on our parks and open spaces. Without the assurance that legal restrictions will be enforced, such as in the case of the deed restrictions on Lower Point Vicente, every land use protection the City now has, including the Natural Communities Conservation Plan, is at risk of convoluted interpretation to permit development in the future.