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Photo by An Tran/LAist
The Silver Lake reservoir has been drained for sometime now due to rare photochemical reaction that created carcinogens. In June, the Department of Water and Power plans to fill it back up, but its use as a place to hold drinking water is being phased out -- it will now become purely eye candy by 2015 (as well as the nearby Ivanhoe Reservoir). So if the water aspect has no functional use and takes up plenty of real estate in a city that is in desperate need of urban parkland, why not make some changes? USC journalism teacher and blogger Sara Catania has an idea:
The end of the reservoir provides us with a rare and potentially brilliant opportunity to rethink the concept of an urban park for the 21st century. Nearly every sizable open space in Los Angeles was designed long ago, for a town of citrus groves and open plains that looks nothing like the city we live in today.This reservoir-turned-park could offer a model of urban sustainability, continuing to provide sanctuary for urban-adapted wildlife while addressing the neighborhood's pressing human needs. New Yorkers pay astronomical sums for apartments facing the green of Central Park; a new Silver Lake Park could offer a similarly sylvan respite. What if the "lake" -- complete with some islands and wetlands -- were reduced to the size of five football fields, with a chunk of adjacent land fenced off as a sanctuary for birds and other animals? The remaining acreage could intersperse meandering walking paths with groves of Western sycamores, coast live oaks and other native plants.
There are currently plans for the reservoir, such as the Meadow, but Catania notes that since the need for the water will no longer be a necessity, maybe the Silver Lake Reservoir master plan could be revised.
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I love the idea of more park land, but I'm not so hip to the idea of it jacking up rent and housing prices.
I think the rent in SL is bound to go up anyways, regardless of residents having a park, so why not? The dog park could be expanded to a flat, more grassy area, and the odd mix that is the community that we see every August at the street fair could meet year round...some of them in assless chaps.
How about a music shell or small amphitheater (for like shakespeare plays, etc)?
A parking lot!
I love the idea of converting the space into something more useful. The poster who mentioned turning into a new performance venue/ art space is right on the money.
raul, I know you're joking about the parking lot idea, but that could be useful. Anyone's who's gone to Club Spaceland after 10:00 on a Friday or Saturday will know what I'm talking about.
I was mostly joking, but it would be nice to park there to go to Spaceland. I'm usually pretty lucky finding parking when I go, but once in a while I circle many times.
Ideally I think a park would be nice. A little oasis would be sweet.