WeHo gives update on delayed park and pool openings

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The City of West Hollywood is working to open the Aquatic and Recreation Center (ARC) at West Hollywood Park in the coming weeks. Public access to the ARC will be accomplished in a phased approach to protect the safety and welfare of the public and users of the facility.

Despite the finished appearance of the building, final items are being completed and City staff has just begun to occupy the ARC at West Hollywood Park under a temporary occupancy permit. Currently, staff are training and certifying fire-life-safety systems for the pools and equipment in the building, and staff are beginning to move into office space and test and familiarize themselves with operations of the site.

The City anticipates receiving approval to allow limited public access soon and will begin a phased roll-out approach in June 2022. All maintenance, operations, and recreation staff, including lifeguards, must be fully trained in site operations and pools prior to public access.

The children’s playground remains closed at West Hollywood Park. Deficiencies in installation were identified after a state-mandated Playground Safety Audit and site inspections were conducted. The City has commenced repair work under guidance of the playground manufacturer and its installation contractor. The City anticipates this work to take a few weeks for completion. The playground repair work is being expedited to the best of the City’s ability. The City is aware this is especially frustrating and is working to open the playground for community use as soon as possible. In the interim, the City operates two (2) playgrounds at other locations: Kings Road Park (1000 N. Kings Road) and Plummer Park (7377 Santa Monica Boulevard). The playground at Plummer Park is the largest playground operated by the City of West Hollywood.

The City recently reopened a large portion of the park-site at West Hollywood Park. This area was previously closed for completion of the West Hollywood Park Phase II Master Plan Implementation Project, which includes the Aquatic and Recreation Center (ARC) building and park construction work.

West Hollywood Park open areas currently include:

·       Adult Fitness Equipment: Open to the public.

·       El Tovar Place: Open to the public. El Tovar Place provides east to west access through West Hollywood Park between N. San Vicente Boulevard and N. Robertson Boulevard including access to the parking structures.

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·       Expanded Turf Areas: Open to the public. There is access from N. San Vicente Boulevard, N. Robertson Boulevard, El Tovar Place, and from the third level of the West Hollywood Park Five-Story Parking Structure located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard.

·       New Public Art: Open to the public. Parallel Perpendicular by artist Phillip K. Smith III is located in the Robertson Gardens area.

·       Robertson Gardens: Open to the public. There are picnic tables and an expanded turf area for passive recreation activities.

·       West Hollywood Library Parking Structure: Open to the public. Open hours align with the West Hollywood Library’s operating hours.

·       West Hollywood Park restrooms adjacent to the City’s Small Dog Park: Open to the public.

For park updates, subscribe to the City’s West Hollywood Park Master Plan Phase II e-notifications list to receive updates.

For more information, please contact Erin Hamant, City of West Hollywood Senior Administrative Analyst, at ehamant@weho.org or (323) 848-6859. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

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WeHo Conscience
WeHo Conscience
2 years ago

Larry, when you verbatim publish a press release or official statement directly issued by the City — as this is — it is standard journalistic practice to provide attribution so readers know the source. Here, it appears authored by WeHoville which it is not. Readers need to know the source and that there was no independent verification or confirmation.

Larry Block
Admin
2 years ago

The title ‘WeHo gives update’ seems right to me but hopefully the editor picks up your note and keeps that in mind. If you would like to email directly to Brandon.com, im sure he is open to your suggestions. As a boss, my staff has the choice to make decisions and then we discuss if needed.

WeHo Conscience
WeHo Conscience
2 years ago
Reply to  Larry Block

Thanks, I will do that. And thanks for the reply and for taking the comment seriously. I think it should be prefaced with a subtitle that clearly states Wehoville is reprinting a press release and/or official written statement issued by the City of West Hollywood along with the date of the release. As it is, there is a Byline that shows it is authored by Wehoville which it is not. Given the Byline, the title creates the expectation it is a news report on what the city said to your reporter that perhaps featured an interview accompanied by independent fact… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by WeHo Conscience
Randy
Randy
2 years ago
Reply to  Larry Block

Thank you Larry. In addition, I think it would serve the public better if the byline isn’t something vague, like “City News Service,” “Contributor,” or “WEHO ville.” I think it serves the public much better if they know who wrote the content.

Larry Block
Admin
2 years ago
Reply to  Randy

City News Service is an affiliated partner, the same one that has been contributing to this site thru 3 owners and multiple stories. Thats that author, City News Service, we publish the story as they present to us. As far as Contributor we don’t create a new author in the system for every single article. Contributor is the banner, for outside iput…and ‘their name’ is noted in the article’. Wehoville presents stories posts, be it a press release or other which is like contributor noted in the article, could include parts of various inputs., Hope that helps clarify the question.

Olen
Olen
2 years ago

very exciting news for a wonderful addition to the community. let them take their time to get everything right so these sad, bored wehoville comment trolls have less to b*tch about. 🙂

Dawn Lacey
Dawn Lacey
2 years ago

Lol. Gavin has Covid after his ninth booster. He should’ve gotten a tenth one and avoided the French laundry. Lol.

Pure Corruption
Pure Corruption
2 years ago

We need a complete and thorough audit of the City’s handling of the park construction. The cost overruns and massive delays are totally unacceptable and the secrecy is telling that someone in City Hall has their hand in the cookie jar. Time to expose the truth behind this boondoggle.

Susan
Susan
2 years ago

Amen. Or they are incompetent

Saul
Saul
2 years ago

LOLing at The City’s PR plants on here. Anyone who has any sense of right and wrong can see that there have been seriously shifty things going on here. After so much incompetence, hiding the truth, kicking the can, greed, wasting tax dollars, etc. for so long, I can only imagine how badly some people have a desperate interest in having this all go away and for residents (paying part of the bill for their salaries and for vanity projects) to get amnesia. Good luck to everyone out there.

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Saul

Plants? You’re being paranoid. Some of us aren’t concerned whether the gents of WeHo have a place to stare at each other in Speedos, whilst pretending to be on a “swim team”.

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago

I think everyone needs to take a step back on this issue, and remember that we’re extremely fortunate to be getting a brand new facility like this. I doubt that many other cities have something as nice as this. So you have to wait a couple of extra months? You’ll survive. How is this ruining your life? Don’t like the design because you’re stuck in the 1990s? Stay home. It will open at some point, and until then, enjoy the rest of park. There are better places to look for scandals than this.

Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Patronizingly uninformed, ignorant or simply a stone wall……..
All of these can be true.

Susan
Susan
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Here’s the problem. It’s not “a few months“. I believe the pool was originally supposed to open in September 2020. My apologies if I’m wrong and it was September 2021 – – but I don’t think I am. The cost overruns are ridiculous. While I have not stay in the pool deck yet, I have seen pictures and been told enough to already wonder if any swimmer was consulted on the architecture and specific needs. Throughout the pandemic and now swimmers who used the pool are now traveling to Santa Monica, Burbank, Pasadena, Glendale, and Culver City. All of these… Read more »

Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  Susan

All of these remarks are realistic. From the start the city should have be clear and direct about this “Community Capital Project”. Pieces of the long saga are available on Weho.org but one would have to have a silent signal to look under City Manager to find the successive evolutions. Not a place where one would ordinarily consult.

Aspects of the plan appear but the first glimpse of potential trouble appeared during the presentation of LPA and its muddled message. Following, there was no consistent or illuminating timeline to inform anyone.

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Susan

Dear Susan, It’s a swimming pool, it’s not saving anyone’s life. I’m more concerned with whether we have law enforcement or not. If you’re missing a pool, you can go to LA Fitness in Hollywood, Universal City, Culver City etc. the one in Universal City is outdoors and pleasant. The cost to join this gym is very low, and there are other options as well. Don’t listen to your sources, I’m sure it will be great once it opens. Remember that people are always resistant to change, even in West Hollywood, and probably miss the old pool. People in West… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by WeHo Mary!
Susan
Susan
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Weho Mary. I don’t think you read my comments. You’ve made a point of telling us how lucky we are that we’re getting such a nice swimming pool. I have been swimming through the pandemic. In Pasadena and Glendale and in Burbank. They were all lovely pools. The West Hollywood pool was supposed to be opened quite a while ago. The question is why the construction delays and what is the final cost. I don’t think those are questions about privilege. Those are questions about how much money was spent on that park which is yet to be completed

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Susan

Ok, sure Susan. So tell me how you’re going to evaluate whether the schedule delays or final project costs are reasonable or not? Why don’t you hire Civilytics to analyze all of the costs using their infinite wisdom? Better yet, take a deep breath, before you know it, the pool will be open, and you can swim until your arms pop off.

Get Over It
Get Over It
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Why don’t you attempt to find a source to ameliorate your apparently deep seeded hostilities and antagonism against anyone asking a legitimate question or seeking rational transparency from the city.

Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Your remark closely resembles the current platitudinous upgrade given by Governor Abbott about the Texas school carnage. Bringing up his team voicing benevolence inching them selves away from the elephant in the room. West Hollywood has a Community Capital Project elephant lost in the jungle. When that actually happens in real life Sheldrick Trust rides to the rescue to sort it out by exercising elementary common sense and skills without the platitudes. No elephant minders on the City Council while this was exponentially going off track. John Heilman awaiting his crown and John d’Amico an actual manager, of course were… Read more »

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Truth

I think this is the craziest comment I’ve ever seen on my beloved Wehoville. Please, please take a walk, have a cup of tea, get some fresh air.

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

As you have pointed out, this project had dragged on for years, so what is a few more months? I think the issues are the frustration with the never ending delays and cost of the project, (and cost over runs) and those issues should not be dismissed. We are fortunate to be able to have this project and once it is open we will be appreciative, but it the lack of transparency that is irksome.

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Martin

Completely agree with you here. It’s so frustrating, and unfortunately, finding out exactly what happened will be a difficult process. It might be a complex combination of factors that caused all of these delays. One of my concerns is that all of this anger will take away from the accomplishments of others involved with the project.

Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

No anger here, just tragically amusing. This was fairly predictable, despite the manner in which you write otherwise. Unsure who you are defending but accomplishments generally speak for themselves and so do mistakes or malfeasance. Time will tell.

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Truth

Whom am I defending? All of the people in architecture, and construction who work hard. This includes people back at the office who are working 60 hour weeks with no overtime pay, struggling to pay their student debt. It also includes the men and women in construction whose health and safety isn’t always a priority to the people who run the show. While we should respectfully ask for transparency, we should also be grateful and acknowledge hard work.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-17/architects-push-to-unionize-over-salary-hours-and-student-debt

Last edited 2 years ago by WeHo Mary!
Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Got it. Entrenched and frustrated however the merits of handling the project or mishandling stand on their own. Organizational clarity reduces the mystery for a questioning public that deserves answers rather than obfuscation.

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Truth

Do you? Why don’t you look through your rolodex (I’m sure you still have yours), and see if some old colleagues can answer some of your questions, if they’re still alive. In the meantime, stop pontificating about industries that you’re not part of.

Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Despite your multiple, wild suppositions Mr. Mary, you have no idea what I am part of and have not offered a single acceptable rationale for a project that has exhibited many apparent issues to folks inside the architectural/landscape design community as well as residents. Your lack of expertise regarding unique projects conceived and delivered is evident as well as the obsession to insert yourself into numerous conversations ad nauseam. Best of luck finding a genuine endeavor that offers measurable success.

WeHo Mary!
WeHo Mary!
2 years ago
Reply to  Truth

Thanks for the kind thoughts, I’m very busy with multiple endeavors in the architectural community. Things are going very well at the moment. I won’t bother you with any more replies so you can go back to watching your reruns or Fox News or whatever you watch. I have more fun things to do this weekend.

Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  WeHo Mary!

Very tedious this has become. If you were actually part of the legitimate “architectural community’ one would think you might have contributed more reasonable comments rather than inflammatory statements. Thanks for the Fox News tip but I have never seen it. Always anxious to stretch my horizons I find it infinitely better to obtain new information about the world around me both locally and globally by a variety of means.

Susan
Susan
2 years ago

This is a joke. The people I know who used to swim at the Weho Pool all roll their eyes when ever the aquatics staff or City Hall tells us the next supposed opening date. We’re taking bets on if it’s gonna happen in 2025 or 2026
I would love if it’s possible to get a public audit of the finances Paid to the incompetent people who have been taking care of this matter

Truth
Truth
2 years ago
Reply to  Susan

Has the city offered any cooperative arrangements with area pools during this period? Many folks depend on swimming as part of their exercise program of maintenance or recovery from injury rather than fun and play poolside. Does the city take this into account?

Susan
Susan
2 years ago
Reply to  Truth

Can’t say re swim team. No for individual swimmers. I’ve been paying regular rates per pool. there’s also travel time etc.

During pandemic some city pools gave preference to residents. Understandably. But locked nonresidents out due to high demand.

Latishia Jones
Latishia Jones
2 years ago

The homeless are going to love their new park!

BrownEyedBoy
BrownEyedBoy
2 years ago

I wish Shyne/ Horvath/Erikson (S.H.E.) would spend as much time training up #WeHo lifeguards, hiring parks & rec. staff & ensuring the safety & timeliness of the park re-opening as they focus on hotel workers in West Hollywood.

Imagine if they spent their efforts in getting our park open after years of shut-down. Instead they are on the picket lines at our local hospitals and hotels. Such a shame for those of us who live here.

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago

This issue came into the open when I ran into Larry Block at the bank and reminded him that the WeHo Park dedication was supposed to happen in April and that I had heard there were structural defects in the building, including leaks in the roof top pools. Larry whipped out his cell phone and said he could confirm it immediately with a quick text to City Hall. Within minutes he got a reply: Make a Public Records Request. Things are petty paranoid at City Hall when the City forces the press to jump thru hoops to get what should… Read more »

Havenhurst
Havenhurst
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Martin

Thank you and Larry for trying to get to the bottom of this. The consent calendars are a treasure trove and the increases in taxpayer dollars being squandered without debate is chilling. It is extremely disturbing that city staff has repeatedly recommended that problematic entities be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars more. City staff should be STOPPING/EXPOSING these bloated overpayments, not recommending them. Also, why on earth are problems being discovered by outside inspectors at the last minute? Is no one at the city qualified to oversee the project and catch problems before them become complete roadblocks? Ridiculous.

Forensic Inquiry Needed
Forensic Inquiry Needed
2 years ago
Reply to  Havenhurst

The absolute inexcusable conclusion seems to be the ignorance , incompetence and possible complicity evident by the city council, particularly Heilman and d’Amico who should have had intimate knowledge of this project in terms of future acclamation and/or professional expertise.

We now have “ PARK-GATE which deserves a full investigation. Early sudpuciins if this type of behavior began with the confounding Robo-Garage which appeared to be an unnecessary project but a convenient opportunity to funnel money to points known and unknown. It has continued on unabated incrementally by frequent requests for additional funding based on no substantive evidence. Check please!

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  Havenhurst

It took less time to completely rebuild Santa Monica Blvd. But then we had a super competent City Engineer, Sharon Pearlstein, who rode shot gun on the project, that was full of unexpected (buried) surprises. None the less the project was done on budget and only six or eights weeks over the original time estimate.

Curtis
Curtis
2 years ago

How much did the cost??????

Vin
Vin
2 years ago

Nothing new here. Just trying to distract the public from discussing and getting answers from The City and City Council about the obvious mismanagement of this project and accompanying misuse of funds. Why isn’t Miss Hamant addressing the repeated mind-boggling increases in construction management and attorney fees? Any actual adult going to do the right and honest thing? Ever?