dog in a puddle?
dog in an airplane?
dog in quicksand?
dog in a soccer field?
dog in a cake?
If you chose "dog in a soccer field," you are correct. Boz is standing on the planned location of "Sycamore Athletic Field" at Hahamongna Watershed Park.
Last July the citizens of Pasadena made it clear to the City Council that we do not want soccer fields in Hahamongna. (Not one citizen spoke in favor of the fields.) At the time, two fields were planned. We had half a victory. The the soccer field planned for the above location is still planned. The one for the location below was scrapped.
I hope the City Council will scrap Sycamore Field, too, not just because it's in a flood plain but because it's in the watershed. Pasadena gets 35% of its water from groundwater sources, the watershed being one of those. And despite these photos, evidence continues to mount that water is becoming more scarce in southern California. Where we live, water shortage is now a permanent condition.
Officials all over southern California are scrambling to buy water. Our own Water Conservation Manager, Nancy Long of Pasadena Water and Power, says "future droughts are inevitable. With Southern California's water supply uncertain, we can't afford to waste it." (current newsletter, page 7)
Those who built the Rose Bowl and the Devil's Gate Dam can be forgiven for building in a watershed. They were ignorant of the the conditions under which we'd live today. We know better.
Come to the Pasadena City Council meeting tomorrow (Monday, 10/17) and have your say. The Council meets at City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249 at 6:30pm. Hahamongna is the first thing on the agenda so we shouldn't have to stay all night to be heard.
Our city continues to demand that its citizens save water. We're happy to do it. We expect our City to do the same.
18 comments:
Gorgeous images and landscape! Have a great day!
good luck!
Good luck. For what reason other than unthinking greed can they choose a confounded soccer field over one of life's absolute necessities?
Good luck at the council meeting, Petrea. An underwater athletics field is one of the dumbest ideas ever to come out of California, a State with a long and unfortunately proud history of dumb political decisions.
Good to see Boz making a stand. Perhaps he's starting an "Occupy Hahamongna Watershed Park" movement.
Thanks, everyone. I hesitate to call the Council "dumb" because some very intelligent and worthwhile people sit on it. But we need a majority vote and the Master Plan for the park was put in place in 2003, before our current conditions prevailed.
Which makes the plan obsolete. Which is what I'm hoping the Council will realize.
And Speedway, as for the greed part, even that's no excuse. If we can't use that water, we can SELL it, and it'll make a lot more money than any soccer field grant can bring in. Towns all around us are spending big bucks to buy water from all over the place and we've got it right here. We'd be fools not to tap into this resource.
A soccer field has to be chemically treated. It ruins the water. Can't sell that.
I don't understand. Is the soccer field planned for "this location scrapped", or is Sycamore now slated to be just an athletic field instead??
Thanks for your question, Cafe. I see that my wording was unclear and I changed it. The photos depict two different locations, both of which are underwater after spring rains. The top photo is flooded with spring rains but usually dries up by fall. The current proposal is to raise it with silt.
Yeah, I know, what is silt? It's the stuff that washes away in the rain.
The second photo is the one that was scrapped as a location because it's an actual lake and doesn't dry up every year.
Good luck with making your case, it's a good one. All the water that falls from the sky can be saved, given enough planning and will.
Plus I don't want to give up any more of wild Hahamongna for car parking and high-maintenance team sports. Plus I don't want the kids or their soccer mums breaking their ankles in the ground-squirrel holes that will soon appear in the turf, like my friend has just done.
Expensive upkeep and liability seems to be likely.
Doesn't seem like a good choice.
High maintenance, upkeep, liability...
Rattlesnakes, flood damage...
If they build it, it will be very difficult for some of us not to say "I told you so."
Good luck with the city council! I hope they listen to facts and reason.
There's money in water these days--more than we can make off a measly soccer field grant. Every town around us is trying to buy water. Let's make some bucks off this stuff.
It's mind-boggling this plan hasn't been scrapped. I'll be at the meeting tonight.
Cool. I'll see you there.
Thank you.
Gorgeous place, I have been seeing it on your blog for some times but haven't ever made it up there. I think I'm due! - Devon
Check it out, Devon. Just do some wandering. You'll get some great pictures and I'd love to see your take on it.
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