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Dueling petitions greet prospect of super-long wet banana slide in LA
Slide the City events have taken place in several cities already, but a proposal to come to California during the worst drought in modern history has many saying "no thanks,"
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www.slidethecity.com
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Slide the City events have taken place in several cities already, but a proposal to come to California during the worst drought in modern history has many saying "no thanks,"
(
www.slidethecity.com
)
This article has been corrected. See correction below.
An enormous Slip ‘n Slide, or Crocodile Mile, or wet banana?
However you refer to a plastic sheet that you hose down and slide across, thousands are calling it a big waste of water.
The Slide the City event would turn a section of Olive Street downtown into a water park on September 27. Many say that it would be a tremendous waste of water during one of the worst droughts on record.
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A petition on the site Care2 has collected more than 2,000 signatures from people wanting to stop the event from happening. The petition calls it irresponsible. Karina Soto, the petition's author, did not respond to request for comment.
Another petition on the site, calling for the water slide plans to remain in place, had collected about a dozen signatures by Monday evening.
An official for Salt Lake City-based Slide the City said the slide would use between 10,000 and 20,000 gallons of water and that most of it would be returned to a water reclamation plant at the end of the day.
“I don’t think the world should stop because of the water crisis here. We’re using less water than a typical swimming pool uses, and there’s swimming pools all over California,” said T.R. Gourley, a co-president of Slide the City.
Plans are still in the early stages. Rick Coca, a spokesman for Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents downtown, said it’s far from a done deal.
“It hasn’t been approved, and we’ll hear what they say to our street closure committee and how the downtown stakeholders feel about that, and then we’ll go from there,” Coca said.
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The committee will meet later this month. The final decision lies with the Department of Public Works.
What do you think? Is it irresponsible to host a slip 'n slide event in the midst of a drought? Take our poll below and share it with your networks!
Poll: Should Slide The City come to LA?
KPCC's online polls are not scientific surveys of local or national opinion. Rather, they are designed as a way for our audience members to engage with each other and share their views. Let us know what you think on our Facebook page, facebook.com/kpcc, or in the comments below.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the city department responsible for approving the Slide the City application.
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