Recently I went Griffith Park to take some more photos of the hydromulching and to get some small amount of exercise (which I have been woefully lacking recently) by walking up to the observatory. I took the photos, but today Blogger seems to be having some problems uploading any photos, so just the news until I can get the photos posted.
I spoke to an employee of the city Recreation and Parks department and heard some interesting things.
First of all, the roads leading up to the Griffith Observatory will be re-opening in two or three weeks, and the shuttle bus will stop operating around that time. During the press event in October 2006 for the re-opening of the observatory, Recreation and Parks head Jon Kirk Mukri said that the shuttle was expected to run for about one year, depending on how quickly the surge in visitor attendance died down as the novelty of the re-opening died down. Well, mid-November will be almost exactly one year, so it seems the city thinks that the observatory will be able to handle the anticipated traffic load by next month.
The upshot: no more fees to visit the Griffith Observatory!
I mentioned to the Recreation and Parks employee that it seemed like there were a lot more people working at the observatory compared to before the refurbishment, and asked if the observatory's parking lot would be able to handle the load. He said that most of the employees actually parked their cars near Fern Dell and took an employee shuttle up to the observatory. Also, that only the higher-level staff were allowed to park near the building, but they all parked on the streets a little bit down from the observatory.
I also asked about the progress of the hydromulching. The parks employee said that the hydromulching was finished on the south and southeast sections of the park as far as the helicopter drops were concerned, and soon the city would be spreading the hydromulch by truck. He said they wanted to finish the less accessible areas of the park first, which is why the helicopter was used.
He said that there have been a lot of complaints to the city about lack of access to Griffith Park as far as hiking trails and roads closed, but the hydromulching was neccesary to prevent erosion of the hillsides once the rainy season starts.
