May 5 Letters
Thursday, May 5, 2011 10:58 AM PDT
Gardener seeking PV farmland
There is a little-known nonprofit organization, started by some concerned parents on the Peninsula called Sustainable Palos Verdes Schools.
They asked me, a master gardener, to help out with their school gardens starting with Cornerstone Elementary. Ultimately, the idea was to grow enough food on school property to supply the lunch program with organically grown produce.
Though I relish the idea of having a student-participatory farm and garden at every one of PVPUSD’s 19 school sites, it makes more sense to grow crops of any serious quantity on one contiguous plot of land. When I looked into open spaces that might be suitable, I researched where the “last Japanese farmer,” James Hatano, had worked the land. I found out that the Hatanos had not renewed their lease on 8½ acres, as it was earmarked for the Annenberg Project.
I visited the former farm’s site and noticed it was going fallow. I wrote the Annenberg Foundation, asking if maybe they could include a farm on the property somehow. Imagine the opportunity to bring children to a working farm, show them where their food comes from, maybe even have cooking lessons right there with the fresh vegetables. The teaching opportunities are endless.
Later, I found out the Annenberg Project plans to have their main building structure on the site of the 8½ acres. Not to one side, as I had hoped, but right smack dab in the middle of it. If the National Park Service gives them the go-ahead, I doubt very much if the land will be used to grow food.
Nowadays, with food security becoming more and more a priority with consumers, maybe we should have our own supply.
What I would like to know is: Would this community support a farming operation, and if so, where would we put it? It doesn’t have to be on Point Vicente at all. It can be any five-acre area (to supply the lunch program) or larger if we want a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program.
Just food for thought.
Judy Frankel
Rancho Palos Verdes
LPV plan merits consideration
The biggest problem with controversial issues is that the public is not well enough informed. The second biggest problem is that they believe everything they hear without checking on the accuracy of the facts. Please, citizens, before you sign a petition in opposition to the proposed Annenberg plan, check the facts. Do not believe everything you hear from the naysayers. Look at the plans. They’re easily available online at www.annenbergfoundation.org and at Point Vicente Interpretive Center.
Fact: The proposed animal discovery and adoption center will be but a small part of the proposed Discovery Park at LPV. Take the opportunity to look at the plans, and see that the structures are truly only 4 percent of the entire park. That leaves 96 percent open space, trails, natural habitat, Indian gathering area, archeological “dig,” farm land, picnic areas, and vistas.
Fact: “Administration area” does not mean private space for the foundation (There is no trustee boardroom or private bath. Look at the plans.). It means that there will be offices necessary for operations and rooms for programs such as volunteer and intern training, school groups and community workshops.
Fact: The Annenberg Foundation will maintain the Discovery Park, but it will forever be owned and governed by the City of Rancho Palos Verdes.
The naysayers want this park to stay inaccessible to all of us, as it is now — no trails, only overgrown, invasive plants. Don’t we want to be able to enjoy this beautiful piece of parkland? Are not the [Palos Verdes Peninsula] Land Conservancy open spaces more enjoyable since the trails have been groomed for hikers, bikers and equestrians?
Oh, and by the way, why are so many of the objectors residents of cities other than RPV? They are guests in our city.
Joan Barry
Rancho Palos Verdes
Keep Point Vicente natural
As a docent of the Point Vicente Interpretive Center I find it necessary to state my opposition to the Annenberg Discovery Park (or whatever the latest name of their project is). The Annenberg Foundation has so much money to spend, we are constantly being bombarded with their propaganda in the form of “educational” full-page ads in the PV News. How anyone can truthfully say that a 50,000-plus-square-foot edifice fits in to the open spaces plan for Lower Point Vicente boggles my mind.
I salute the people who have been the guiding force behind the development of Point Vicente and the Museum. They have devoted long hours and much work to its completion.
However, they have convinced themselves that the only way to obtain funds for additional amenities is by giving Mrs. Annenberg permission to build her large edifice, labeled Discovery Park. Those of us who want to keep the area free of additional construction are labeled reactionary, resistant to change, unprogressive, uninformed, against education, et cetera.
Come down to the point on the weekend and you will find several hundred people gazing at the ocean, enjoying a picnic, a place for a rest stop while touring the coastline. A free place to enjoy the view, walk the paths, do some bird watching. Oh yes, some will come into the museum and enjoy it, too. But the reason they come to the park is to enjoy what’s on the outside. I would like to see the remainder of the land devoted to more grassy area, more picnic tables, more native plants — natural things to add to the visitors’ enjoyment.
The history of our nation demonstrates how the overpowering forces of money, politics and greed have continually chipped away at our open spaces in the name of progress.
There is such very little open space left. We do the generations to come a disservice if we cave in and let a moneyed lady have her wish for a pet shrine at Point Vicente.
Ruth Hattersley
Rancho Palos Verdes
First of all I would like to publicly thank the Annenberg Foundation for bringing to our collective attention this beautiful property that has been set aside for our use: Lower Point Vicente. I think of that line from a popular song “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s (almost) gone.” It is like the air we breathe — we take it for granted until it is no longer there.
This precious land above the sea is the reason Rancho Palos Verdes was founded. The residents value this open space more than development.
I can remember coming home after working all day in the inner city, and feeling a dramatic lowering of my stress level upon seeing the green fields backed by the expansive Pacific. I am sure I am not alone on this.
Seeing the Annenberg project ads makes it clear to me that this campaign to take the recreational space and build a domestic animal facility makes very poor sense. There are other available sites for this type of development. Moving the animal care component and offices would not preclude the foundation from enhancing the Interpretive Center. All the well thought out plans could be transferred to another, more appropriate site. Lower Point Vicente has the same type of value as a beach — somewhere you can go countless times to be renewed. A building with displays and educational material has a different function and needn’t be on a rare bluff in our fine city.
When I see open space in such a gorgeous setting I think of just sitting, or painting, or writing in its presence. Or taking my young grandson on a stroll through the grasses, picking up thistles in our socks and upon coming home, using them as springboards to an open-ended discussion about Mother Nature’s amazingly creative ways of spreading her seeds. Then we could go to a learning center and explore the subject now that he has a first hand, rich experience of the burr in his sock.
I urge the consideration that the best use of this land be a preservation of its natural beauty as a restorative and a contrast to the development we see all around us. It is a great discovery center just as it is.
Christine Campbell
Rancho Palos Verdes
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