A Treasure Spurned

Parks, libraries, museums--these are the amenities that make a city livable. With a measure of nature here, knowledge there, they leaven our day-to-day lives. On the simplest level, they give residents something to do on a weekend afternoon. But more than that, by providing a place for people to play, to learn and to share a common experience, they foster community.

So it never fails to astonish when homeowner groups, rather than embracing the addition of one of these treasures to their neighborhoods, react as if someone were proposing a maximum security prison. Recent NIMBY--not-in-my-backyard--outbreaks occurred in Studio City over a greenway along the Los Angeles River and in Woodland Hills over an expanded library.

Now along comes the Shadow Hills Property Owners Assn., arguing that the nearby Hansen Dam Recreation Area is a great place for horses but not for children. Or, more specifically, not for the Los Angeles Children’s Museum.

The private, nonprofit Children’s Museum has outgrown the cramped downtown quarters it has occupied for two decades and is looking for a new home. Museum trustees and city officials are considering five sites, including some sites downtown and one in North Hollywood, near the soon-to-open Metro Red Line station.

City Councilman Alex Padilla, whose 7th District includes Hansen Dam, is promoting the northeast San Fernando Valley recreation area, touting its ample parking along with its playing fields and swimming and boating lakes.

But the horse-loving neighbors cite those same features as reason to keep the museum out, lest the building itself--and the busloads of schoolchildren it would attract--detract from the area’s rural setting.

Others argue that the site, although convenient to freeways, would be too far to go for many of the city’s children--an argument that at least considers the children’s interests.

The Times favored a city-owned site on the edge of Griffith Park, which is more centrally located and easily accessible from the Valley, Glendale, East Los Angeles, downtown and South-Central. But the Los Feliz Improvement Assn. has gone to court to block putting the museum there, which just goes to show that the Valley doesn’t have a lock on NIMBYism.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on funding. Museum officials have until the end of June to use $9 million in city park bond money and, in addition, must begin raising matching funds, which is virtually impossible without a site in hand.

Whether the City Council decides to lease the museum land in Griffith Park or downtown or in the northeast Valley, the decision should be based on what’s best for the city’s children. This should be an asset that brings the city together, not one that pits neighborhood against neighborhood, arguing--incredibly--over where not to put a children’s museum.