How to get $50 million dollars. (The lottery?)

It’s kind of like The Secret. You just say it over and over to yourself, and think good thoughts.

Or you tell reporters about it, that works, too.

The park was hurting, hurting bad. As I was grieving, the news that the park would be getting $50 million in emergency relief and recovery from the state gave me one small hope; that money would FINALLY be put to good use in its wildlands, like a sprinkle of good rain. From Daily News:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a $50 million emergency repair plan for the park over the next decade. “I’m someone who loves this park,” Schwarzenegger said before morning news cameras near the shuttered Greek Theatre. “I’ve shot a lot of my `Terminator’ in this park…”

Or as Channel 2 reported on May 14. Or as the LA Times reported on May 11. If the Times said it, it must be true. But dare we ask….SHOW ME THE MONEY?

Money tree, unknown artist. If you did this, let me know, so I can say so!

Wow, 50 million is such a nice round number. Too big for me to even think about for myself. But there are SO many things that need changing in the park. Like hiring a landscape architect. Yeah, that’s right. It’s not all woodsy up there now, is it, just barren. Not to make it look like a formal English garden (who would like to tour English gardens with me, raise your hand?), but folks, you gotta do something besides the golf course, the ball fields and the most boring lawns you can imagine. Wouldn’t that be great if someone with experience and vision could change some areas of the park? Maybe redo the two gardens that burned down. I never did get to see them. And the bird section, how horrible and sad is that.

Just a couple of months ago we had speakers at the PROS committee to talk about putting a little actual running water into the Bird Sanctuary. Can’t you hear the murmuring brook? Not yet, but maybe…

Citrines are my favorite stone! Christmas present, anyone?

Invisible money

One of the things I most admire about Bernadette Soter, Chair of PROS, is how direct she is, without being confrontational. I wish I was more like that. I’ve heard her ask city officials 3 times now, just simply ask, not demand, Where is the $50 million? Once she mentioned on the radio how important it was that the park get the money FIRST, before the city “steps in”…Well, it’s the park that burned down, not the city, right?  The answer to her question? There IS no money, not yet.

I had a chance to ask the same question recently to John Kirk Mukri. (He’s manager of all the parks, although of course Griffith Park is by far the biggest.) He said that there is no $50 million as an “emergency repair plan”. Nada. That this is just a cost estimate of 4 years to repair and restore the park. That the state may find funding, but that Catalina (which also had a horrible fire recently) will be “going to the same trough.”

Aren’t numbers fun?