Readers React: Kicking a kids’ running club out of a park? Only in L.A.

To the editor: I had a similar experience to the one described by Steve Lopez, in which a children’s running group was suddenly denied the use of O’Melveny Park in Granada Hills by the city of Los Angeles. My experience was with the California Department of Parks and Recreation. (“How can you boot a kids’ running club from practicing in a public park?,” Nov. 4)

I applied for a permit to hold a scholastic cross-country meet at Will Rogers State Historic Park. Although I was told the permit was approved, I never received the paper copy and was subsequently told the permit was denied.

As one ranger explained it: “We are called ‘Parks and Recreation.’ Some of us believe in recreation, but the ranger in charge of issuing your permit believes the parks are to be looked at.”

Eric Barron, Los Angeles

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To the editor: When a park is designated for passive activities and there is a population that expects to walk, dog-walk, hike, jog and look at birds — as with O’Melveny Park — a running club is not welcome. I witnessed the disruption to the whole park when there was a children’s track meet at O’Melveny last year at the same time as our Young Birder’s group was there.

The problem has been even more acute at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve, where groups paint chalk arrows on the path and direct runners to the side of the lake that has no path — where even walkers are not encouraged. Last year there were several large meets there.

The adults were not accommodating to other users. A sudden shout and the pounding of feet was your warning to get out of the way.

A nature reserve does not need that kind of activity.

Rose Leibowitz, Sherman Oaks

The writer is president of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society.

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To the editor: As a 30-year civilian employee of the military, I am puzzled by the city’s lack of definite authority and the absence of specific guidelines for use the park.

A park employee drove up to the runners’ group at O’Melveny Park and ordered them out. The group’s leader tried several people at the Department of Recreation and Parks and didn’t get an answer; she didn’t have much luck with a city councilman or the mayor’s office either.

That’s typical of the way Los Angeles runs. It reminds me of the time a few years ago when my car was towed because the new cardboard “No Parking” sign was placed four feet above the permanent sign with perfectly legal wording. I couldn’t get answers.

I’m glad I no longer live in Los Angeles. People like Lopez, who write about this incompetence, are the only hope for residents to catch a break.

Albert V. Weaver, Newbury Park

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