Griffith Park in the LA Weekly

Another article on the dismal future of LA's greatest park.

Of interest is the power that the article ascribes to local city councilman Tom Labonge, in who's district the park resides.

PERHAPS NOWHERE IS THE CURRENT PUSH led by Los Angeles City Hall and its platoon of private lobbyists for an overbuilt, overcommercialized, re-engineered L.A. better epitomized than in the unfolding struggle over the so-called Melendrez Master Plan for Griffith Park.

"Pleasure pier": Tacky commercialization envisioned on Los Feliz Bridge.

The voluminous report, prepared at a cost of $400,000, is packed with ideas for jazzing up the nation's premier swath of urban wilderness — aerial tramways, parking structures, meeting rooms, paving, concrete and concentrated development that many feared would include restaurant and hotel chains.

Given that the whole point of Griffith Park is the opposite — to preserve unspoiled natural beauty for all citizens, rich and poor alike, to use for free — reaction to the plan has been predictable. Virtually everyone hates it.

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