Even a Bad Guy Can Leave His Mark on a County Park

For Tiburcio Vasquez, the desolate, arid sandstone rock formations around Agua Dulce looked like the perfect hide-out for a young, upwardly mobile Mexican bandido .

The year was 1870, about a century before the Antelope Valley Freeway would be completed, which meant that access for the federales would be limited, at best, for the next 10 decades or so. But at least one posse member must have made it through without the help of Caltrans, because Vasquez was eventually captured and shipped off to prison in San Jose.

The resourceful lawman who nabbed Vasquez has been long forgotten, though the badman’s name figures to live on for some time. That’s because his not-so-secret hide-out is a 745-acre recreation area known as Vasquez Rocks County Park, perhaps the only park in the country named after a notorious villain.

That title is just one of nearly 200 names that have been given to parks, recreation centers, greenbelts and community centers in the San Fernando Valley area. And each one, from the David M. Gonzales Recreation Center in Pacoima to Knapp Ranch Park in Canoga Park, has its own story.

According to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, the names of parks and community centers generally come from three sources: a City Council member, a community group or the parks department, which has jurisdiction over all recreation facilities administered by the city.

But the department has been decidedly uncreative when it has been given the chance to pick a name.

“Many of them are just named after streets,” said Al Goldfarb, public relations director for the parks department. Chevy Chase Park near Echo Park, for example, is named for the adjoining drive and not for the city in Maryland or for the star of “Christmas Vacation.” (It could have been worse. Until 1978, the park was known as the Atwater Multipurpose Center.)

Consider what the department did with a pair of adjoining parks in Chatsworth. Because Chatsworth Street ended where the parks began, and because one park was slightly north of the other, department officials racked their collective brain before coming up with Chatsworth Park North and Chatsworth Park South.

Catchy, huh?

City Council members have rarely been more creative. In 1980, Councilman Hal Bernson asked the recreation and parks commissioners to rename the Granada Hills-Northridge Senior Center after his predecessor, Robert M. Wilkinson. This was the same Wilkinson who campaigned to have Granada Hills added to the center’s original name.

Community groups, on the other hand, generally choose names “of activists who have done something for the community,” Goldfarb said. In most cases, a proposal is made to the district’s City Council representative, who will often carry the motion to recreation and parks commissioners.

Goldfarb said such motions are rarely denied.

“We try to make sure the person did what the community says he did,” Goldfarb said. “But if the community feels strongly about an individual who has contributed to the community . . . then we work with the council office.”

The Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department follows a similar procedure, says Sheila Ortega, the department’s director of public information. Suggestions for park and recreation center names are generally made through the office of the county supervisor representing the community surrounding the facility.

“The final body that approves a name is the Board of Supervisors,” Ortega said. “About the only thing we require is that if a park is named after a person, it should be someone who made a significant contribution to the community. But the board can decide on any name they want.”

Which explains why the district of former Supervisor Pete Schabarum is home to Schabarum Park and the former Puddingstone Lake is now called Frank G. Bonelli Regional County Park after former Supervisor Frank G. Bonelli.

But a politician’s backing is far from crucial in naming a park. Just last year, a group of Pacoima residents, working without the support of their councilman, Ernani Bernardi, succeeded in having the Pacoima Recreation Center renamed in honor of David M. Gonzales, a World War II hero and the first Los Angeles resident to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In some cases, residents have even been able to create parks of their own.

The Jaime Beth Slavin Memorial Park in Sun Valley is named after a 16-year-old Woodland Hills girl who died in 1983 of Reye’s syndrome. Because the girl had once worked as a camp counselor, her parents believed that a park named in her honor would be a fitting memorial. They approached the Valley office of the parks department with the idea, then formed the Jaime Beth Slavin Foundation to fund the project.

With $160,000 in donations, the foundation developed a vacant piece of land on the southern end of Strathern Park into a five-acre park with outdoor basketball courts, playground equipment, a picnic area, lights and a concrete walkway. Near the playground is the park’s central feature--a bronze plaque engraved with the park’s name.

But while more than 400 people contributed to the construction of Jaime Beth Slavin Memorial Park, which easily met the parks department’s criteria for community support, similar tributes can be had with much less hassle provided you have the money.

In 1964, developer Lou Boyar donated $50,000 and a two-acre parcel of land to the city with the understanding that it be turned into a park named for his late wife. Today, the Mae Boyar Recreation Center is one of the few non-residential addresses in West Hills.

Knapp Ranch Park, a sprawling 57-acre plot of land abutting the Los Angeles and Ventura county lines in Canoga Park, was sold to the city of Los Angeles by Walter Knapp 30 years ago. Knapp agreed to the bargain-basement price of $244,000 only after the city promised that the park would be named for his son, who died in World War II. As a result, the park’s original development plans include instructions for a plaque that would read: “Knapp Park--Named in memory of Edwin Frank Knapp, 1923-1944.”