Coliseum Plans and Exposition Park

Forgotten in all the rhetoric about the need for a better and improved Los Angeles Coliseum to attract a football team and future Super Bowls is the fact that Exposition Park offers the only green space and recreation facilities to hundreds of thousands of residents in the immediate area. For too long the recreation needs of the residents have been held hostage by the plans for the Coliseum.

It is time that city officials and the private sector work together to return Exposition Park to the people. The new California Science Center and planned aerospace museum and aquarium are a start. Unfortunately, even these new additions do not address all of the needs of the residents.

Green space for playing fields and picnic areas is greatly needed. A commitment to refurbish the existing Los Angeles Swim Stadium is a must. Each summer the pool serves more than 25,000 users. The pool is the only 50-meter pool in a seven-mile radius. A new pool is not needed. The present grandstand needs to be repaired to provide the locker rooms and additional recreation area for children and young adults.

There is no doubt that a new Coliseum and football team can bring economic development to the area. But how long will it take? Are not the area’s young people deserving of a park that offers them a respite from the blacktops they find in their schools and everywhere else they now play? It is time to plan and act for the recreation needs of one of the most densely populated areas of the city. The plans for the area, which are so dependent on the needs of the NFL, must be substituted by a plan that balances the recreation needs of the community and those of the NFL.

ANITA L. DeFRANZ, President

Amateur Athletic Foundation

of Los Angeles