Miracle Mile (Square) : 25-Year-Old Park Is Playground, Haven--and a Focal Point in a Shooting Death

Oblivious to noontime traffic whizzing along busy Warner Avenue only a couple of yards away, 61-year-old Charlie Rey stood on a flat stretch along the edge of Mile Square Regional Park last week and calmly chipped away at some golf balls.

For Rey, an 18-year resident of this bedroom community, the 495-acre park has always been like a second home, a place to unwind and escape the pressures of everyday life.

“Except for those trees growing, not much has changed around this place,” Rey said as he absent-mindedly fiddled with a golf iron. “I’ve been coming here long enough to remember when you could see over the tops of the trees.”

Since it opened to the public 25 years ago, the county-owned park has become one of the area’s largest recreational complexes and is unique among county regional parks because of its central location and its flat, wide-open layout.

The well-maintained acreage, which is indeed a mile square, includes two golf courses, jogging trails and two lakes stocked regularly with fish.

The park, used by an estimated 250,000 people each year, also is used for countless political, religious and cultural events. Here three Presidents have made speeches; here thousands of area Muslims gather to celebrate the end of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest season; and here throngs of people come every Fourth of July to watch a massive fireworks display.

The park is also popular with Hollywood: Dozens of commercials are filmed there each year and a portion of the movie “Defending Your Life” was filmed on three landing fields in the center of the park once owned by the military.

But the park made news for a sadder reason recently: It was the regular jogging route of Jane Carver, a 46-year-old flight attendant who was gunned down a block from her home, which is a short distance from the park.

Carver was among the hundreds who frequently jog, walk or skate along the paths that meander through the park and around its four-mile perimeter, which consists of Edinger and Warner avenues and Brookhurst and Euclid streets.

Bobby Porter, one of 50 people who meet on Wednesday evenings to run around the park, said the slaying has deeply affected him and his fellow runners, who have pledged $200 toward a reward fund established to help capture Carver’s killer.

“We ran by the spot where she was killed and we all feel that we have to do something to help out,” said Porter, a 43-year-old Westminster resident.

The shooting has been unsettling to others who frequent the park as well.

“I think it was an isolated thing, but unfortunately it’s a sign of the times,” said 25-year-old Chris Ruspa, who was fishing at the park last week. “I still feel safe here during the day but I would never come out here at night.”

Orange County sheriff’s officials point out that the shooting did not occur inside the park and said last week that Mile Square has a relatively safe record during the hours it is open.

“All in all, I’d say the safety of the park is good,” Sheriff’s Investigator John Allen said. “The park closes at 9 p.m. in the summer and 6 p.m. in the winter. If someone is in the park after hours, we ask deputies to give them a citation. If we can keep victims out of the park, we can keep crime down.”

Law enforcement authorities say they face their biggest challenges when there are large crowds at the park. Deputies have had to patrol the park on horseback to keep order during major holidays and events such as Cinco de Mayo, Fourth of July festivities and special concerts.

It was early in World War II that the Navy bought a square mile of agricultural land that in 1970 became Mile Square Regional Park. The county entered into a long-term lease with the Navy in 1967 for development of the park’s perimeter acreage and in 1973 received title to the land at no cost.

But the Navy continued military operations on three landing fields at the center of the park until 1974. The landing fields, each approximately 2,200 feet long, were constructed in a triangular shape in the center of this area.

This 33 acres of land, which the county finally purchased from the Navy in 1992, is the only section of the park that has not yet been developed. County officials are still considering what to put on the property, said Tim Miller, manager of the county’s 18 regional parks.

Last year, the county’s Harbor, Beaches and Parks office began soliciting private development proposals for area, which is now used by hobbyists to fly their handcrafted, remote-controlled aircraft, radio-controlled cars and all-terrain vehicles.

Model rocket enthusiasts were temporarily banned from the site in 1994 after an unauthorized rocket launched from the park crashed onto the adjoining Mile Square Golf Course.

After a six-month ban last year, rocket launching was resumed but allowed only on weekends and under the supervision of the Southern California Rocket Society, park officials said.

Over the years, there have been many proposals for development of this section of the park. County supervisors in 1976 rejected a proposal to build a sports stadium, which would have been used by local high schools.

Five years later, a performing arts complex was proposed for a portion of the park.

While the hobby area is one of the park’s most popular features, it is only one of several attractions.

In addition to privately run golf courses on the southwest and northwest corners of the park, the city of Fountain Valley leases a 55-acre parcel along Brookhurst Street and developed it into a popular recreation and community center in the mid-1970s. This complex includes indoor and outdoor basketball courts, soccer fields, tennis and racquetball courts, baseball diamonds and a sand volleyball court.

On a recent overcast morning, John Partington, 30, took an extended lunch break from his job selling computer hardware to participate in a pickup basketball game on one of six outdoor courts at the city facility, which draws hundreds of players on weekends and holidays.

“People travel from throughout Orange County to come here,” said Partington, a resident of Anaheim. “There are high-quality games and these courts are known for their talent. There are hundreds of guys out here playing ball.”

Between the hobby area and Euclid Street, there is an archery range, and soccer, softball and baseball fields--all of which remain in heavy demand, park officials said.

“It is the most diverse recreational facility we have in the county,” Miller said. “There are more activities than anywhere else. It’s packed every weekend.”

Indeed, the park remains a haven for many, the ideal place for relaxation or recreation.

“This is a place where you can get away from the traffic and the car fumes,” said Westminster resident John McCowin, 57. “This beautiful park is actually one of the things that keeps us in our neighborhood.”

Sue Lovesee, 73, barbecued steaks with her 42-year-old son, Rick Kingery last week. Lovesee said that after her husband died in 1981, she came to the park almost daily to sit under the trees and think.

“It’s a real relaxing place,” she said, as she poured hot coffee from her thermos into a plastic cup. “I’ve always loved it here.”