Uprooting Exposition Park’s Rose Garden

Wake up, people of Los Angeles! Don’t let greedy parking lot and sports barons steal our rose garden at Exposition Park out from under us.

Only one trip to this lovely oasis in the midst of the smog will convince you that this is a delight not just for the eyes and nose, but for the soul as well. Rose growing is an art and a passion stemming from what is gentle and loving in us. Let’s not lose that to more parking spaces for football games!

As one of the Coliseum Commission members pointed out, there is an alternative space for a structure near the Natural History Museum. The excuse that the site is “too far to walk from the museums” is simply too transparent to require rebuttal (and isn’t walking part of the fun of spending a family day at the museums?).

The 40-year-old bushes are not going to survive the two transplantings required to relocate them on top of a parking structure. Why should we risk this?

I have walked the aisles of the garden for many years, and never felt afraid. If we are serious about making downtown Los Angeles a place people can visit and live in without fear, do we really want to lose even one of the harbors of serenity and peace? The last time I looked, there weren’t that many to go around.

SUSAN MORAN TINKLER

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