A mother watches her other son as best she can from outside of Peck Park Pool's facility.

Parents  Still Locked Out Of Peck Park Pool

By Diana L. Chapman

By all accounts, they are still locked out – unless they agree to swim.

Parents who come eager to watch their youngsters at Peck Park Pool in San Pedro have been banned from inside the facility.  Parents at other Los Angeles city pools --that don’t yet have this rule in place – all I can say is: Beware!

The parent-banning practice can be implemented with something as simple as a change in management. And while parents for years had been allowed in to watch their children at Peck, a management change is exactly what launched the new policy.

Immediately after my story ran on this practice earlier this month on City Watch and Theunderdogforkids blog, I received a call from head of the Los Angeles aquatics division. Trish Delgado informed me they would start allowing parents whose children are on the swim team or in swim lessons inside on the bleachers.

Other than that, she needed time –with no deadline -- to make any other changes.

“We are looking at the close of the summer,” Delgado said, explaining that the aquatics staff will be busy shutting the doors of seasonal pools. “We’ll look at it. We’ll work on it in the fall and have that in place. I can’t make it happen in a month. I just can’t be held to a timeline.”

My swimming arms were still ruffled, because I couldn’t understand why we were still eliminating parents whose children were in free swim – but accepting the parents whose kids were in lessons or on the swim team. The whole practice does not  bode well.  After working with a group to turn the pool around from its headier days, I don’t want to see it go backwards.

So on Tuesday,  I went back to check  and not a single parent was inside the facility. No one had been told that if that their child was on the swim team or in swim lessons they could sit on the bleachers inside. This didn't happen, Delgado said, because they coudn't distinguish the parents.

While this parent-banning (unless they are swimming) isn’t done at all the city pools, Delgado added, it is done at many and often is determined by the pool deck’s size. Other cities, she explained, also have this approach such as Lakewood and Carson.

That doesn’t explain why parents were once allowed all around the facility prior to its latest manager, Richard Rincon, who came to the pool two years ago, but became serious about the outside policy this year. 

 Rincon was not allowed to make a statement.

Many parents said they are still unnerved by the practice.

San Pedro High Principal Jeanette Stevens praised the swim programs, but said after she was tossed outside she felt so uncomfortable  she found herself bringing her children less and less.

Not good. This is a woman well trained in emergency services and the type of parent we want at our pools.

In the past the lack of parents at Peck allowed gang members to infiltrate the pool and take it over. Encouraging the adults to return helped eliminate the criminal element.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Rick Hamilton, a respiratory therapist with extensive training in medical emergency services. He has two bad knees and a cane. “Instead of being ten feet from my daughter, I’m  300 feet. This is about common sense and common courtesy.”

He dislikes being so far away from his daughter, Alexandria, 10. But his wife, Rovita, said she wouldn’t mind if the facility would provide shade outside. She was sweating under a baking afternoon sun.

Mother Falana Monroe, whose 10-year-old son James is taking beginning lessons, said she would love to sit inside because she strains to hear what the lifeguards are teaching her son. If she had that information, she explained, she could reinforce it when taking him during free swim.

“It would be nice if I could sit inside and be so helpful,” Monroe said. “Our goal is to get James strong enough so he can be on the swim team.”

The reasons parents aren’t allowed in are numerous, Delgado said, including the ability of lifeguards to attend to emergencies on the pool deck, concerns that parents will track in bacteria with their clothes and street shoes and the fact the Peck Pool had a change in management. In addition, some parents interfere with swim lessons and at other pools – have apparently said they were going to sit and watch their children avoiding the $2.25 fee – and then went inside and got into the pool.

When I returned Tuesday, only a  handful of parents were there.

What aquatics officials have done so far is planted more benches in the grassy area. However, the gate to the pool from the grassy area remained locked and parents had to go around the facility to get inside.

 Father Rick Hamilton, said he found some of reasoning flimsy at best. He understands bacteria issues having worked in emergency rooms and hospitals. When parents are involved when he's working, he said,  he finds it frustrating when they are  interfere  and cry – but they have right to be there. Taking them out of the equation isn’t right.

I guess that’s exactly how I feel.

More than a decade ago, the parents left the equation at the pool when they weren’t welcome. They dropped their kids off in the morning and picked them up at 6. What happened then wasn’t a pretty picture. The lifeguards became babysitters, mentors and parents and an ugly element took over.

Bringing parents back changed the flavor of the pool for the better. Parents bonded with other parents, building a sense of community around a pool that once never existed. To avoid destroying this, I’d like to make some suggestions to the city having been part of the early movement to makeover the facility.

•   Don’t ban the parents from the pool. Instead, tell them they can sit on the back bleachers but can’t roam the pool the deck. Also, open up the square patch of grass in the back – by removing the giant fence so parents don’t feel like they are locked in a cage. Then give parents the choice of the grass area or the bleachers where their children can come visit them.
•  
•   For those trying to cheat the swim fee charge – which always is a miniscule amount of people and everyone gets punished --  either stamp the hand of those who’ve paid or provide them with a bracelet that can be cutaway later.

• Have a meeting with the parents and explain the actions. Ask parents for their input on ways to make this work. After all, many parents are sore because they feel shunned and punished. They would be thrilled to be asked for suggestions.

In the meantime, Fermina Gutierrez, whose sons Guadalupe, 10, and Demetrio, 18, both swim at Peck, said she’s not as bothered as other parents, but added she would like the choice of coming inside.

“It’s OK,” she said. “But sometimes I’d like to see them closer.”

Brand new to the scene is Josephine Lemus, who brought her 7-year-old daughter Dayanarah Villegas.  She was surprised that she couldn’t sit inside, but unlike other parents she hadn’t had the chance to enjoy that in the past.

“I just thought it was odd,” Lemus said. “It’s not good. I’d definitely like to be inside.”

Taking the ferry over from Kingston to visit the Pike Place Marker. Spot the Space Needle through the window.

While Hanging Out At The Pike's Place Market Is As Wild As a Toad -- Or Should I Say -- Crab Ride, The Luscious Lavender Fields Brim With Peace and Purple Beauty On The Olympic Peninsula

Sometimes called the Soul of Seattle, Pikes opened officially at First Avenue and Pike Street in 1907 after residents showed the need  to buy directly from product producers. On the first day it opened, everything sold out and hundreds of citizens left empty handed. Today, the market touts 200 businesses, along with 190 craftsman and and 100 farmers.

When Pike's was suffering a drop in visitors, Pike's Fish Co. restored the interest of thousands with its fish-throwing antics, a treat to watch. They often toss the fish to each other and have an audience on the sidelines waiting just to witness their humorous sales techniques.

San Pedro High Teacher, Lupe Franco (left), myself in the center, and former San Pedro High Culinary Teacher Sandy Conley Wood who recently moved up to Puyallup, Washington gathered to check out the Pike in a small reunion.

A touch of goods that can be sought or caught at Pike's from fresh fish to crabs and farmed crops as shown below..

A trash bin filled to the brim with locally gathered crabs. Now, that is fresh.

Returning to the Olympic Peninsula on the numerous waterways that surround the area.

Now, the luscious lavender fields of the Olympic Peninsula; Did You Know You Can Eat It!?

The fields, brushed in royal purple, beckon these women to walk through them at Purple Haze Lavender field.

The Purple Haze Lavender farm above and below was a special treat because not only were there stunning views of bundles of purple haze, but it served several types of delicious lavender ice cream. My favorite was the lemon-lavender.

We also enjoyed the Olympic Lavender farm where the owners keep a variety of fun and reasonably priced gifts,. Owners Mary Borland-Liebsch and her husband, Bruce Liebsch, enjoy their farm and even show its hundreds of visitors how to distill lavender oil. Below, he shows off a bottle that he just collected.Visit their website for lavender recipes at http://www.olympiclavender.com

A SHORT TRIP TO VANCOUVER OUT OF SEATTLE SHOWS US A STUNNING ARRAY OF BEAUTY FROM CITY SCENES TO WILDLIFE AT ONE OF THE LARGEST URBAN PARKS IN ALL OF NORTH AMERICA

We stayed at the Riviera Hotel, where we visited 15 years ago. This time, we had a spectacular view and a rather large room hugging the downtown area within walking distance to Stanley Park. The 
natural gem was dedicated as green space before anyone ever thought of that name, opening in 1888. It's laced with hiking trails, thousands of trees from spruce to cedar. It can take more than a week just checking out its hiking trails and historic beauty. This spot, is like a giant arm off the city of Vancouver.

A baby river otter crawls out on a rock along Stanley Park to eat a clam. His mother is teaching him to fish.. He was born in the woods and ventured out into the Burrard Inlet for the learning sessions, park naturalists told us. Below is the other baby eating a freshly caught fish.

 

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Ryan walks along the shoreline at Stanley Park. The Canadian Geese have arrived and claimed the beach in this section of this urban wilderness. A seawall skirts the entire park for 5.5 miles taking in spectacular views all along the way.

A carved dragon overlooks the inlet at the park.

Vancouver's forefathers saw the gem they had in the woods and created the park forevermore for the citizens of the city to enjoy to this day. About eight million visitors attend a year. The park still has wild animals, including racoons, coyotes, mink, bald eagles and many other animals.

A bald eagle takes flight at the Vancouver Aquarium, a way to show that the once nearly deceased birds due to pesticides are at last making a comeback. This bird was a rescue and will remain at the aquarium for the rest of its life.

One of four Beluga Whales at the Vancouver Aquarium teach visitors about the safety these whales need to survive. A baby was born there recently and unlike the older whales, is gray. They turn white with age. The song Baby Beluga came from one of the whales at the aquarium, according to sources.

Ryan gets ready for a cruise to see the orcas (or killer whales) that are local residents off the Canadian San Juana Islands. Unlike transient killer whales, who eat mammals such as sea lions and whales and will kill in a pack, local orcas are happy to subsist only on fish, primarily salmon.

Spotting a pod of orcas off the coast in the Georgia Straight., we watched them
  breach, slap their flukes and fins, and show off their calves. Calves breached playfully many times o as we watched from a Vancouver  whale watch boat.

WITH ONE YEAR LEFT TO GO, WE BEGIN EXPLORING UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOR OUR SON, RYAN; IT'S A SCARY AND EXHILARATING THOUGHT AT THE SAME TIME

University of Washington's nicknames this library:  "The Harry Potter Reading Room." With it's Gothic appearance, perhaps you can see why.

The Space Needle that has graced Seattle's skyline since 1961.

Ryan and his Dad, Jim, to left, with Cousin Ava, 12, to the right pondering future years at the university. She says she wants to go there to achieve a double major in English literature and history.

A large fountain that graces the  heart of the university can flaunt majestic views of Mount Rainer on clear days. Parents and potential students listen to a tour guide explaining the school's system..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Ryan's mind, no school is complete without a football team. So we peeked into the closed stadium to peer at the University of Washington's football team, the Huskies.

 Whom Should We Pick Among the Candidates—Including the Usual and Unusual Suspects —to Replace Janice Hahn? Despite 15 Who Have Joined the Fray, the List Begins to Narrow Down Quite Easily

By Diana L. Chapman

Old guys jostling to make a comeback. New guys vying for the dream. Big egos snapping at each other like a pack of dogs. No gals have joined the race so far to grab the Los Angeles City Council seat vacated recently by Janice Hahn, who departed for Congress last month.

Somehow, the whole thing reminds me of the children’s book: Where the Wild Things Are (!)

So who has joined the race? A mixed bag of 15 men: two former council members, a state assembly member and political novices. Some have had to move into the district to make it legal to run in the Nov. 8 special election, which is expected to cost us taxpayers as much as $1.5 million. The runoff, if necessary, would be in January.

At least three have moved only recently to the San Pedro area to qualify.  Chop, chop, chop!  They are off my list.

I’m scratching off any candidate who has left the 15^th District (which includes Watts, Wilmington, Harbor City, the Harbor Gateway and San Pedro). To sum things up, if they don’t want to live in the district in the first place, they shouldn’t bother to run.

They obviously don’t love it here. They’re more interested in a pursuing position of power that pays $178,000 a year.

Why should we vote for someone moving in when they are most likely out of touch from a resident’s point of view?

On the list of the “Oh, I got to move back to the district to get the plum job,” are:

--Former Council member and current lobbyist Rudy Svorinich Jr., who served from 1993 to 2001. He lived in Rolling Hills Estates but recently moved to the Averill Park area, according to the Daily Breeze. Evidently he already has a big campaign war chest and finished first in a recent poll conducted by another candidate. (Scratched off my list).

--Gordon Teuber, Hahn’s economic development director, also moved here from the Peninsula. I don’t even need to go into the details of how many residents he didn’t help when he made it easier for an unwanted 7-Eleven store to move into Pacific Avenue in San Pedro as well as the controversial expansion of the Taco Bell on Gaffey Street.  Residents and business owners there still don’t know what’s going on. (Scratched off my list).

--Political newcomer Pat McOsker, who leads the City’s firefighters union, lives in Redondo Beach but moved to San Pedro so he could run. He was born and raised in San Pedro, he told me. I don’t know him. But again, I want to vote for someone who already lives in my district and understands – and truly cares about –what it’s like being tied to an enormously bureaucratic, ineffective city like Los Angeles. (Scratched off my list.)

I’m not very anxious to elect political hacks who have been running from one job to the next while not doing much solid work.

I’m ready for fresh blood. That’s what’s going to make me bite. Of course, candidates have until Aug. 22 to file, so there may be more to come.

Veteran political observers say Svorinich and Assemblyman Warren Furutani (D-Gardena) have the best chance to win. They have campaign funds and name recognition.  Furutani has some union backing.  Still, I don’t think we have to take it lying down. We can rally around a fresh candidate.

In an earlier post, I spelled out what I’m looking for in my new council member: a visionary who can pull our communities together and represent the entire Harbor Area.

So also off my list are the following:

·        Furutani.  He’s already had his shot at being a board member of Los Angeles Unified,  the L.A. community college district and an assemblyman.  At least he already lives in Harbor City. But he’s hasn’t accomplished anything earth- shattering during his Assembly term, representing the 55^th District that includes Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, Wilmington, north and west Long Beach, Carson and Lakewood. It just seems like Furutani, a career politician, is job-hopping.

·        Former Los Angeles Councilman Robert Farrell, a San Pedro resident (thanks for that!), who represented the 8^th  District in southwest Los Angeles from 1974-1991.  I’ve heard he’s a nice man who does a lot of community service work. But I’m still looking for someone new, someone ready to tackle the old guard in the ivory towers downtown.

·        Another candidate reminds me too much of the old-guard, a well-connected businessman who has too much at stake in the status quo.   Jayme Wilson, owner of the Ports O’Call restaurant and Spirit Cruises, are both docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He remains a heavy-hitting businessman in this whale of a town and is involved in the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.  That may not be bad in itself, but the same people have run the chamber for what seems like forever and have too much clout in this town. All of that eliminates him from my list.

Who’s left?

Newcomers running for the first time include Los Angeles Senior Lead Police Officer Joe Buscaino; San Pedro Democratic Club President David Greene; John Mavar, a longshoreman who serves on the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council;  Justin Brimmer, a deputy in Hahn’s district office, and Kenneth Melendez, a longtime Wilmington activist who served on a  waterfront advisory committee and lives in Harbor City.

Others declared candidates include Mervin L. Evans of Wilmington; James T. Law;  Kambiz Mostofi, a San Pedro education activist and entrepreneur, and DeWayne Stark, who retired from the computer industry and lives on a boat in San Pedro after moving here several years ago.

More on those folks—and whoever else might jump on board to surf Los Angeles political waves—later.

Mariela Leon and her son peer through the pool's fence to try and watch her three other children.

PARENTS AT PECK POOL KICKED OUT OF THE POOLSIDE IN THE NAME OF SAFETY:

They Say Los Angeles Aquatic Officials Have Ordered  Parents Outside at All City Pools While Their Children Swim Leaving Many to Feel Cut Off and Disenfranchised

By Diana L. Chapman

Frustrated mother Michael Murray sadly watches her son Bobby Oliver, 13, who struggles with a brain tumor, practice on the swim team.  She sits outside the Peck Park Pool’s fence in San Pedro on a sweltering day.

She’s been banished from inside the pool facility and that terrifies her.

It means she can’t talk to Bobby, ask him how he’s feeling or communicate with him in anyway. She  -- along with scores of parents across Los Angeles – it seems are an unwanted commodity when it comes to watching their own kids during swim lessons, while they are on the swim team – or even recreational swim at Los Angeles city pools.

It didn’t use to be that way at Peck after long battles; but the new policy makes Michael cringe – and worse -- feel excluded from her own child who has battled with the tumor since the age of five.  She finds herself sitting among  scores of other unhappy parents who can’t comprehend what they’ve do so wrong that they can’t be inside a public facility.

Parents doomed to their own seats outside the facility are frustrated they can't be closer with their children.

They feel punished for being a parent.

“They rooted all the parents out,” said Michael squeamishly saying she fears all the time how she won’t make it to her son if an emergency happens. “They said people were abusing the pool, but that’s a small portion. It was abuse of a few.

“We have bleachers to sit on on the inside, a water fountain and a new shady area and we can’t use it. Instead, we have to sit in this nasty, dirty corner,” she says peering down at several pieces of chewed gum stuck to the cement along with litter and dirt and a water fountain cut off from her reach by the iron fence. “I just feel cut off.”

She is.

Michael echoes many parents sentiments across the board at Peck who were all sitting behind fencing on a hot Tuesday afternoon trying to watch the children but  competing to fit neatly in a tiny square patch of shade offered by the pool’s rooftop outside the facility. They wished, instead, that they could sit inside below a large, brand new shade  the city recently installed.

Instead of sitting on bleachers under the shade, they were packed tightly together in a knot with chairs they dragged in on their own to sit outside the facility – hoping for a spot of shade.

Many of them said they felt like they were prisoners behind the fence, severed  from their own kids, ostracized and punished for being caring parents and fearful that they couldn’t react during safety issues. If they spot a child in danger, they have no quick way to tell the staff.  Worse, they said, they are discouraged from being part of their own family.

“I just feel very isolated,” said San Pedro High Principal Jeanette Stevens, who once enjoyed watching her two children, Taylor, 10, and Teel, 8, swim at Peck from inside the facility about a year ago. “It use to be nice. I could watch my kids. I just don’t get it. You want to keep an eye on your kid and now you’re so distant. The programs are amazing, but it could be so much better.

“Why would you want to go backward?”

The banning of parents and adults from sunning on at the city’s recreational pools while their children swim is a rule I fought against years ago when such stupidity allowed gang members to proliferate at Peck Park pool. First, I was told it was done for safety reasons. This time, parents said, they were told it happened because some parents were lying. Those parents apparently said they were going to watch and then jumped into the pool without paying the $2.25 fee to swim.

Parents lamented that they were shut out because of a bad few. In any case, they wondered, couldn’t the city come up with something creative such as stamping the hands of those who have paid?

A call to acting recreation supervisor, Trish Delgado, who oversees city aquatics,  was not  returned Wednesday before the posting of the story.

But cutting off parents didn’t surprise me at all.

 Years ago, a similar attitude happened among city aquatic folks who seemed to have built a mini-fiefdom in their ranks – that deemed parents and other adults sitting around the pool side a safety hazard along with other rules: No towels on the deck, no food. No fun. The attitude seemed: make the pools unfriendly as possible. And guess what, that worked!

Peck became a parentless pool. With hundreds of kids without much supervision, a handful of lifeguards served as babysitters, mentors, aunts and uncles, even though many of them were only 17; I bet this happens at other pools across Los Angeles. In the case of Peck, gang members glorified in taking advantage of the adultless pool and began to throng to the facility. There was no one to call them to account on anything. The lifeguard staff was terrified and who could blame them.

The day this started to change was more than 10  years ago when about five gang members – about 250 pounds apiece and in their 30s – began hurling each other around in the pool. No one stopped them. Suddenly, one gang member flew through the air – slapping down into the pool – a few inches from my son’s head.

I was infuriated.  Another time, a gang member was tossing a tearful 7-year-old around, dunking him repeatedly. The kid was crying – appeared to have trouble breathing   – and had a look of terror that would have broken any mother’s heart. It broke mine and forced me into action.

“Stop it,” I yelled at the gangster. “You’re hurting him. He’s scared.”

“I can do whatever I want,” the gangster yelled back at me. “I’m his uncle.”

No one else intervened.

That was when I decided the kids in our community – whether they are in Watts, San Pedro, or San Fernando Valley -- didn’t deserve this treatment. I spent the next decade – along with others -- battling to get the city to change stupid rules – such as outlawing parents from sitting inside the facility – and to overhaul  Peck’s aging pool. After a $1 million restoration, the pool was opened to families year round  – and families were encouraged to attend—especially by the pool manager at the time.

He knew that true safety meant having more adults on his deck. It provided more eyes and halted his staff from turning into just babysitters for hordes of children who were once dropped off at 9 a.m. and left until 6 p.m. because parents weren’t welcome. He was a smart man.

Having adults -- more importantly parents -- as a second set of eyes changed the entire atmosphere at Peck. Gang member attendance shriveled to zero. Families came together and picnicked and made a day of it. Little girls, who once feared stepping outside of the facility because of threatening boys, didn’t have to worry anymore about leaving the pool. There were too many adults watching.

Aquatic officials often argued with me that in the name of safety parents shouldn’t be hanging around the pool because they cause danger. They interfere with swim lessons and impede in safety when they are lying around the deck, they said.

They claimed in the past it makes it easier for the staff to keep everyone safe.

Does it really?

Actually, I think not only does it take away good parents it tears down the very fabric of what we so need to build in a giant metropolis of Los Angeles. We need to celebrate families and the health of our community!

Mother Suzie Lind, who finds it difficult to shield her one-month-old baby Nathan from the powerful sun while watching her son Silas, 7, perched outside the facility’s fence just wishes she could sit inside where the city recently propped up a pricey shade. She’s trying to be a great mother, she adds, and isn’t feeling too encouraged with the city’s recent boycott of parents inside the facility – unless they are actually in the swimming pool.

“Last year, they made us start sitting out there,” Suzie said as she carefully shaded baby Nathan with a blanket. “We use to be able to be inside. Last week, (Silas) hurt his leg in the pool and I needed to go in and check on him. I had to get the stroller, and walk all the way around to the front to get inside.

“I can’t leave my son alone. We live in a day and age where you just don’t leave your kid at a pool with strangers.”

Mariela Leon, who comes to watch her three children, Reina, 10, Frank, 9, and Andrew, 8, on the swim team, says she tries to understand it from the city’s point of view.

On the other hand, she really misses the days when the parents of the swim team congregated inside the facility, and mapped out future plans for the team – from bringing the kids snacks for tournaments to determining car pools for different events.

“We just felt more united,” Mariela explained of the parents involvement.. Sitting outside, “changed all of that. It’s not the same anymore.”

Of course, it changed the entire atmosphere.

Leave it to LA to figure out how to tear down the fabric of a family and a community just by lame rules that help no one but the staff – and even more so their bosses, who make thousands off of who – us, the residents and parents who care and love their community and so desperately want to do the right thing – and be with their kids.

Why would anyone in their right mind – city officials or not – use a fence to cut off parents from their children  -- especially a mom who is fighting just to keep her kid alive? And I have an even bigger question: where are our City Council members? Why aren’t they out advocating for us?

Or is this the way they like it: a city with services so unfriendly no one wants to go -- or visit.