To some, this park’s name is for the birds

Environmentalist Roy van de Hoek was hauled into court and threatened with prison the last time he tried to eradicate an invasive, nonnative plant in Los Angeles’ endangered Ballona Wetlands area.

So it’s no surprise that the 51-year-old biologist is treading lightly these days as he tries to remove another nonnative from a tiny park at the edge of the sensitive nature preserve.

This time the intruder is a hand-painted sign reading “Titmouse Park” that was planted there 20 years ago.

The sign popped up at the tiny Playa del Rey park after the local junior women’s club helped prevent a city-owned, 100-by-125-foot parcel from being turned into a parking lot.

But the titmouse is not native to the Ballona Wetlands area, and a controversy has erupted over the park’s name.

One environmental group asserts that the name was an attempt by local businessmen to belittle the women who had blocked their parking lot in the busy Playa del Rey commercial district.

Organizers of the Ballona Institute say they plan to petition city leaders to drop the titmouse label and rename the quarter-acre park after a native plant or animal or natural landmark.

Supporters of the titmouse name deny sexism played a part. But some acknowledge that they were confused over exactly what a titmouse is, and when the sign was painted.

The titmouse tumult is drawing unexpected attention to the tiny recreation area, made up of five narrow lots. The land was acquired by the city during the Depression when individual property owners were unable to pay their taxes.

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks ended up with the land. But it remained unused and covered by ice plant until the parking lot plan surfaced. Playa del Rey residents and other volunteers responded by creating pathways, planting trees and shrubs, and installing benches. The owner of a sign shop next door eventually hand-lettered a name for the park on a wooden signpost and erected it next to Culver Boulevard.

“When they started digging up the ice plant over there, thousands of these little mice all ran out” toward the adjoining wetlands, said now-retired sign painter Bud Harris. “I thought they were titmice.”

That’s because Harris had spied a bumper sticker behind the bar at the Prince O’ Whales pub down the street. “It said ‘Save the Titmouse.’ I liked it, so I painted ‘Save the Titmouse’ on the side of my building. Later, when it became a park, I painted out the ‘Save the’ and painted in ‘Park’ beneath ‘Titmouse.’ ”

Only later, Harris said, did he learn that the titmouse is a bird, not a rodent.

“I really kind of named the park accidentally,” he said.

Van de Hoek said he was told a different story about 18 months ago by a former Playa del Rey businessman, however.

“We were casually talking, and the conversation turned to the park. I told him I’d never seen a titmouse there, that it’s not their habitat,” Van de Hoek said of the songbird.

“He said the name came about because he and his buddies were playing a joke on the women. It was a reference to a woman’s body part. He was chuckling and laughing.”

The former shopkeeper could not be reached for comment.

The titmouse titillation reached the attention of city officials as the indirect result of Van de Hoek’s run-in with authorities over his efforts to eradicate invasive plants at a nearby Playa del Rey park site.

In 2005 and 2006, he took pruning shears to a pair of city-owned myoporum shrubs and to a ficus tree. Neither are naturally found in the area. Environmentalists say they are typical of invasive plants that crowd more fragile native growth out of parkland.

Van de Hoek insisted he had permission to eradicate invasive plants under a state agreement. The charges were dropped on the condition that he submit a report on the flora and fauna of the Del Rey Lagoon area and lead parks officials on two field trips through the wetlands.

It was on one of those nature hikes that Van de Hoek mentioned the titmouse story to a parks department administrator. “She said she found that offensive,” Van de Hoek said.

The titmouse tale was also off-putting to Marcia Hanscom, who along with Van de Hoek co-founded the Ballona Institute.

“It’s inappropriate. And it’s offensive to me, hearing its origin,” she said.

So the institute and others are taking steps to push the city to change the name.

Parks officials are skeptical of the claim that the park’s name is derogatory. But they said they will work with those who want a more appropriate designation. The formal process involves a review by both the public and parks leaders, and parks commissioners must approve any name change, said Patrick Kennedy, a Westside supervisor for the parks department.

Kennedy speculated that if sexism had been the basis of the original naming, “we would have gotten complaints about it.”

Jack Ferry, who described himself as a former businessman, said the titmouse name’s long association with the park makes it historical. “Why would you rename it now? We are adamant about fighting for history. We’re not joking around.”

Randy Myers, a onetime trucker who said he had lived in the area for 35 years, said the original mice seen jumping out of the ice plant were probably kangaroo rats. Maybe the park should be named after them, he suggested.

Ruth Lansford, former president of the 30-year-old Friends of Ballona Wetlands group, said the name “Ballona View” or “Gateway Park” might be appropriate.

But “I’m not offended by the current name. I know perfectly well it wasn’t intended to be sexist,” she said. “It was a kooky thing on Bud’s part. He’s a curmudgeon.”

Lansford said she was grateful for the titmouse tug-of-war for one reason, however. It has focused officials’ attention on the apparent use of city and state parkland in the vicinity for private parking.

Nearby business owners suggest they have long-standing arrangements for employee and customer use of the publicly owned land.

“Some businesses have leases for the parking that predate public ownership; others do not,” said Mary Small, regional manager for the Coastal Conservancy, which is involved with the restoration of the Ballona Wetlands. “We have just started working with the Department of Fish and Game and the neighbors to start straightening it out.”

Said Lansford: “The parking has been bothering us for a long time. It’s an incursion.”

They don’t want cars to take root in the Ballona Wetlands.

--

bob.pool@latimes.com