Debs Park
Ξ February 18th, 2008 | → | ∇ Highland Park |
I’ve never understood New Yorkers and their unabashed love-fest with their city. The one time I visited, people were rude, everything smelled, and the only patch of green between me and southern New Jersey was an overhyped Central Park. Hell, San Diego’s Balboa Park is larger. Still, listening to your average Manhattanite, you’d think those 843 acres were Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Parthenon rolled into one. For a frame of reference, our own Griffith Park is about five times larger than Central Park. Still, this isn’t the New York vs. L.A. article that was passé when the Dodgers bolted Brooklyn half a century ago. Instead, I hope to extol the virtues of our own little “Backyard Central Park” in Debs Park.
Looming over the eastern border of Highland Park, Debs Park is a natural resource geared towards bringing out the inner Thoreau in all of us (including the only slightly stagnant west coast version of Walden Pond.) The park boasts over 400 acres of park, hiking trails, and scenic views of Northeast L.A. as well as the communities to our east in Monterrey Hills and El Sereno. As I walked my dog, families played on the grass, someone was filming a movie, and middle-aged hipsters let their dogs run free. To be fair, you probably will not mistake Debs Park with being lost in the wilderness as much of the park is tagged or developed with paved trails and concrete shade areas. After all, it wouldn’t be Los Angeles if there wasn’t that collision of the wild and the urban. Still, as I stare off my balcony to the slopes of the park, I can’t help but feel a certain fondness for the small dose of wilderness available within walking distance in a city where most neighborhoods lament their lack of green space.
Required listening for the Park: “On a Sunday Afternoon” by A Lighter Shade of Brown.
Ernest E. Debs Park.
4235 Monterrey Rd.
Los Angeles, CA
90032
on February 19th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Nice i just blogged about this place not long ago. Always my favorite park
on February 20th, 2008 at 6:58 am
In the fog, that pond looks like the one that the kids always ended up near in the Scooby Doo cartoons. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/notoriouslig/418375966/
on February 24th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Easier to get to from Highland Park is the entrance off Griffin Avenue. From there you can stop by the Audubon Center and pick up things to explore the park; binoculars, art supplies, field guides. The northern section of the park is much more wild, with many of the plant communities that were found in the hills of northeast still present.
on March 3rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
the appeal of central park is that its a real/legit park in the middle of one of the most dense cities in the world. its all about context. only been to NY once? you must go again my friend. Im from LA, but NY is the greatest city in the world. and i’ve been to them all…from tokyo to cairo to shanghai.