Group Proposes Two New Children’s Museums

A group of Los Angeles Children’s Museum backers proposed Monday to build two new museums--one in downtown Los Angeles and one in the northeast San Fernando Valley--to replace the existing downtown facility.

By creating new venues at Hansen Dam and in the Arts Park area near Little Tokyo, the organization will make its programs more accessible to all Los Angeles children, said Doug Ring, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees.

“If we put the Children’s Museum just at Hansen Dam, we will be disenfranchising the children of East Los Angeles and South-Central Los Angeles, which is not something I am willing to do,” said Ring, who was joined Monday by several influential lawmakers in backing the two-museum idea. “If we just put it at the Arts Park, the San Fernando Valley will feel we turned our backs on them.”

The board still has to decide the size of the museums. But Ring said each would be larger than the current facility near City Hall but probably smaller than the 80,000 square feet originally envisioned for a single replacement.

The two facilities together would cost more than the available $9 million in city funds and $1 million in state funds, Ring said. He expressed confidence that the gap can be made up from state, federal and private sources.

Ring said that he plans to submit the proposal to the museum board of trustees on May 16 and that he will seek support of the City Council and Parks Commission.

Board members Monday sounded receptive to the idea, which also drew support from council members Rita Walters, who represents downtown, and Alex Padilla, a Valley council member.

Padilla had argued that his northeast Valley district deserved to host the museum because the area’s young people historically have been underserved. But Walters feared that moving the museum to the Valley would put it out of reach for families in South and Central Los Angeles.

“I’m pleased that the Children’s Museum has two new sites to call home,” Padilla said. Walters said the compromise would not deprive her constituents.

“I am extremely pleased with the museum’s consideration of this proposal and happy that one of the campuses will remain in the heart of downtown--where it began 20 years ago,” Walters said.

The museum offers hands-on exhibits and programs on science and history. But at 17,000 square feet, it is considered inadequate for the 250,000 children who visit annually.

City officials have provided the museum with $9 million in park bond money to build new facilities, but a site must be secured in the next month or the funding will lapse.

The museum board originally proposed an 80,000-square-foot museum in Griffith Park. A legal challenge by homeowners and environmentalists prompted the board to look elsewhere.

Neighbors of Hansen Dam in the Valley had opposed the site, largely because they didn’t like the idea of dozens of school buses visiting each day.

“There are still concerns,” said Bill Eick, president of the Shadow Hills Homeowners Assn. “Traffic is just going to choke the area.”

The proposal is a big setback for Councilman Joel Wachs, who had hoped that the museum could anchor the North Hollywood subway station opening next month. Wachs will still try to persuade the museum board to put the museum there, an aide said.

Ring was joined Monday by U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) and Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks). They offered to provide federal and state help.

Hertzberg is seeking $2 million to $5 million in this year’s state budget, an aide said.

Ring said the two new venues would not be identical.