WooHoo!

Unfortunately the few times I have been with a group that needed to report something to the rangers it was difficult get them to understand exactly where we were. The more you know about your location the better.

“One excellent way to state physical locations without physical addresses in Griffith Park is by the numbers clearly painted on all active fire hydrants — each has two numbers on it, one is the grid number, one is the hydrant number. It’s only important to read the top and bottom number to dispatch — you don’t have to know which number is specifically which other than top and bottom. Dispatch will go to the LAFD’s excellent fire map and look up the location.

By way of example, the hydrant at Amir’s Garden has a 31 at the top and a 19 at the bottom. For the record, the hydrant location is in Griffith Park fire grid 31, and it is hydrant #19.”

Another way is the large numbers painted on the water tanks. Again by way of example, “Tank 73″ is near Amir’s, and a good landmark for authorities to use to identify your location.

Carolyn Ramsay gave me the press release with no problem and I looked like a dirty hiker in cargo pants and with a bandana on my head. There wasn’t much information in the press release anyway. I think the reason the meeting was so poorly announced was that the main purpose was a press event rather then an actual community meeting. You don’t want the general public to get in the way of grandstanding do you? That probably also explains the lack of seating.

My cell phone works in the park and the phones of my hiking friends also work in the park. Perhaps there are some carriers that don’t work, but to declare that cell phones don’t work in the park is incorrect because many do. You must have heard the confused muttering after his declaration about cell phones not working. We were all looking at each other and saying “my cell phone works – does your cell phone work”

I am not sure why the sudden need to put cell phone towers on every water tank. I have a feeling it is not really about safety rather having a convenient place for phone companies to put their towers.

The one thing I would add to Kristin’s excellent suggestions is this: If you are a regular visitor to the park try to familiarize yourself the names of the main fire roads and trails. That way if you need to report something and don’t see a water tower you can give a general description of where you are. The map produced by the park leaves off a lot of the trails but is a good starting point.

The “deputizing” was just a publicity thing. Basically they want the hikers to keep an eye out for suspicious activity and report it if we see something. We have been doing that for years anyway. They also want us to have more hikes through the side of the park where the arsons occurred (i.e. Tonyon/Landfill).

One more thing – They said that the fires on Sunday were started with an accelerant but they are not going to say at this time what it was. I got the feeling they did know what was used to start the fires but were not ready to make that information public.

I didn’t say cell phones don’t work in the park. I said that if you use a cell to call 9-1-1, you get the CHP on the other end who is not at all familiar with the majority of the park locations since they do not have physical street addresses. The Park Rangers are intimately familiar with all of the park. Call them: 323-644-6661

Yeah, I didn’t waste gas to go to the meeting because it was dead-clear to me this was pretty much a press event for the councilmember alone. Which is what you’ve reported. Quelle surprise. :-)

Honestly, did you learn anything really that you didn’t already know from the press? Other than LaBonge is now leading us all in the hunt for the arsonist. Oh, and deputizing people on his own authority, that too. And that people without shoes need barbecues in wilderness parks. But not afforable healthcare, good jobs, reliable transportation, safe schools and streets, and local parks to safely recreate.

Again, honestly, the Sierra Club hiking groups already do a great job looking out for weird stuff in the park. They don’t need a Deputy Do-Gooder membership badge and decoder ring to do the job.

So let’s work on we can work on — catching the firebug and getting him off the streets and out of our parks. As for our public representatives, that is another can of worms.