Sparks Fly Over Plan to Close Parks at Dark

Visibly irritated members of the City Council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee rejected a proposal Monday from the Department of Recreation and Parks to shorten the hours of 37 park facilities, including Hubert Humphrey Memorial Park in Pacoima.

Seeking to curb loitering and what they call a rise in gang violence, park officials had sought to change the hours from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. to sunrise to sunset.

Committee member and Councilman Richard Alarcon, whose district includes the Humphrey park and pool, blasted the plan as “the opposite of proactive.”

“If we start closing parks now, are we acquiescing to the gang problem?” he asked.

In 1995, a Pacoima teenager was killed and two others injured in a gang shooting at Humphrey park. The incident and several other, lower-profile ones prompted a temporary move to a sunrise-to-sunset schedule, officials said.

Alarcon grew agitated Monday when Hector Hernandez, city director of park rangers, suggested the councilman supported the parks department’s plan to preserve the restricted hours at least through September.

“I want that park open in July,” Alarcon said. “We wanted to get this thing under control. . . . If you shut up these parks, you know darn well that we’ll have other problems.”

Committee chairwoman Rita Walters joined Alarcon in criticizing Hernandez for taking their support for granted in drafting the proposal. “I don’t know what this was based on. There’s a disconnect somewhere,” Walters said.

The committee directed Hernandez to return the proposal to the Recreation and Parks Commission for revision. It also asked that council members whose districts would be affected by changes in park hours be notified of the changes.

“We’ll have to go back to the drawing board,” said Hernandez afterward. “It’s not that I’m closing parks. We’re just looking at some ‘small-pocket’ parks that have no restroom facilities, no basketball courts.”

Hernandez said that all county-run parks are closed from sunset to sunrise. He also said if city parks were to close during those hours, residents could still be in the parks if they had permits from the city.