SOUTH : Run-Down Park Gets New Lease on Life

Marilyn Nollan smiled as she described the change at Pico-Union Community Park.

“The kids desperately needed a place to go after school, but the park was just this split-level park with mounds of dirt,” said Nollan, who runs the Good Beginning Family Opportunity Center’s day-care program next to the park. “I had to call the police a couple of times because we had problems with people hanging out there.”

The park and center are nestled between rows of auto repair shops on South Hoover Avenue. Established by residents after the 1965 Watts riots, the park had become overrun by transients and gangs over the last few years.

But the park reopened last week with a new look after parents from the center and city officials remodeled it. Colorful slides, swings and sandboxes have sprouted on what had been a near-desolate lot. The supplies and the work were donated by businesses and individuals, City Councilman Mike Hernandez said.

“We decided to bring the park back because it’s symbolic of the people in this area and their will to keep surviving in the place called Los Angeles,” said Hernandez, whose district includes the center.

The park represents the latest success for parents at Good Beginnings, according to Lilian Payan, the center’s project manager. “What we try and do here at the center is to also emphasize networking within the community and to teach parents what resources are available,” she said.

That has translated into day care and educational assistance for low-income families as well as an array of adult classes.

The center, at 1839 S. Hoover Ave., is a collaboration between the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, USC’s School for Early Childhood Education and the United Neighborhood Council.

“We wanted to have a place where our corps members with young children could go,” said Amy Sedivy of the conservation corps. “This has been a really good thing for people in the neighborhood because they have a place to take their kids, and we’ve managed to increase parent involvement through things like the park.”

The three organizations took over operation of the center in 1991 at the city’s request. With an annual budget of $280,000 in federal and local funds, a staff of nine, including three teachers, provides day care for 3- to 5-year-olds. Parents pay $40 a week for child care at the center, which is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Payne said the next step for parents at the center will be to lobby to have the park’s name changed because it is in the Hoover-Adams area.