Dear LAist: Is this the Disneyfication of Griffith Park?
Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
The people behind SaveGriffithPark.org write in and ask the hard questions:
It looks like several powerful corporations and the officials they keep have found an unprecedented way to privatize Griffith Park. If you're in the park this weekend – that is, if you're allowed – have a camera and paper handy to record the goings-on. Press releases posted by Forbes and Business Wire reveal that Saturday, June 21st, Disney-Pixar is holding the world premiere of its film WALL-E World at the park's Greek Theatre. Afterwards, the corporation will host 1500 of its guests at an after-party at Griffith Observatory lasting until 1 a.m. The Observatory's web site provides partial information on how the public will be shown the door:
On June 21st:• The Observatory will be closing four hours early to prepare for a private event.
• Inbound Fern Dell/Western Canyon road access will close at 5:00 p.m.
• Inbound Vermont Avenue road access will close at 6:00 p.m.
• The Cafe at the End of the Universe will close at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.
• The Observatory Shuttle service from the Vermont/Sunset Metro Red Line station will NOT run on Saturday.Late June 22 Opening (12:00 noon, instead of 10:00 a.m.) Sunday, June 22, 2008:
• The Observatory will be opening two hours late to clean up from the event.
• The Observatory Shuttle service from the Vermont/Sunset Metro Red Line station will begin operation at 12:00 noon on Sunday.
Neighbors report that on Tuesday electronic trailer signs went up on the median on Los Feliz Blvd. near the Park's Vermont and Western Canyon entrances and on Vermont just north of Los Feliz flashing: "PARK CLOSED TO PUBLIC 6 PM JUNE 21st." Public complaints followed and today the message has been softened to say: "PARK ROADS CLOSED 6 PM JUNE 21st." But the effect is the same.
Early indicators suggest that all of the Park's Vermont and Western Canyons have been turned over to Disney and the eviction of park users has already begun. Today, most of the diagonal public parking spaces in Vermont Canyon near its trailheads are coned off. The oak-shaded picnic area opposite the Greek at the corner of Commonwealth Canyon and Vermont Canyon is closed and locked. The gate to the large picnic/play lawn north of the Greek is drawn and locked. Walking/hiking/running the trails, or beating the heat in the picnic areas is a no-go from now until Sunday. Not known is whether or when Fern Dell's picnic areas, the Vermont Canyon tennis courts and Vermont Canyon's Roosevelt golf course will be closed to users and what the impact on cyclists will be.
Disney-Pixar's press release says that press arrivals are at 6 p.m. and celebrity arrivals begin at 7 p.m. As to papparazzi, helicopters, fans seeking glimpses of movie stars and politicians seeking cameras...who knows?
The Melendrez Draft of a new Griffith Park Master Plan failed due to the public's concern that its proposals would change Griffith Park into a theme park. Correspondingly, the successful opposition to Wolfgang Puck Inc's attempt to gain a liquor license at Griffith Observatory was rooted in the concern that it would lead to commercialization and closures of the public's museum. In both cases, the people made it clear to the City that the eviction of park users and the conversion of Griffith Park to non-park uses was not acceptable. This weekend, these concerns are being trampled – ironically at the Greek Theatre and Griffith Observatory which were gifts from Colonel Griffith to the people to enhance the great park he had given them for their free use.
What would Colonel Griffith think?