faithful followers of this blog will remember that earlier this year i ran a series of posts on pasadena's city parks. pasadena also boasts several larger park spaces - one of those being hahamongna watershed park. as the name suggests, this space is more than just a park. it also acts as a sediment and debris basin due to the topography of the area and its proximity to the highly erosive san gabriel mountain range. if you look back at this image i posted earlier this year, you can see the flood plain in full blown soggy action.
the city has decided that this continually evolving and unstable area would be perfect for some new soccer fields. i'm not even joking. fortunately people are beginning to speak up to save this space - including this group (check out their very informative website).
other local area bloggers are writing about this important subject today and the story has been picked up by the pasadena star news. check out the following list...
Altadena Above It All
Altadena Hiker
A Thinking Stomach
East of Allen
Finnegan Begin Again
LA Creek Freak
Mendolonium
Mister Earl's Musings
My Life With Tommy
Pasadena Adjacent
Pasadena Daily Photo
Pasadena Latina
SaveHahamongna.org
Selvage
The Sky Is Big In Pasadena
Webster's Fine Stationers Web Log
West Coast Grrlie Blather
9 comments:
I'm afraid we'd have to rebuild those soccer fields every few years after the floods, and I'm not willing to spend my tax money that way. But the real issue is the natural beauty of Hahamongna. We don't need to destroy it. We have other land on which to build soccer fields.
Great post, Ben.
You're right, Ben, it would almost be funny, except the city council is actually serious. I think their plan to fill in the natural lake was the straw that broke this camel's back.
Thank you for your words.
Thanks for commenting, ladies. This event has got me thinking - what other causes should we be blogging about?
Hee hee, Ben! You get to be in charge of the next one.
Great idea to get a shot of the sign in.
Great point about the changing topography of Hahamongna. Let's hope the City officials take note.
For anyone who has hiked around Hahamongna and felt their feet sink into the oozing mud it does sound like some kind of joke, doesn't it? I can't think of a much worse place to put a manicured athletic field.
Not to mention trying to avoid polluting the water with all the chemicals that turf needs. The field to be built on the lake will be on unstable, flood-prone land that acts as a major water sedimentation basin for city drinking water, water that will be tapped into once the perchlorate removal starts up (which NASA and Caltech are funding at the moment). It doesn't seem like a good idea at all.
Good post, Ben, many thanks.
Love the "i'm not even joking" comment.
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