Halloween at the Los Angeles Zoo

Our family made its annual trip today to the Los Angeles Zoo's annual Halloween event Boo at the Zoo. Most everything I want to say about the event is at last year's post, but I do have some new photos to post today.


I don't know if it was the cool weather this morning and possibility of rain, but the zoo seemed considerably less crowded than last year.

Some notes on the photos:


The pumpkins were being carved by a professional pumpkin carver (who knew such things existed?). Among his tools were a power drill and maybe eight different sized drills.

The guy in the stormtrooper costume was not a zoo employee or a promotion by LucasFilm, as I first thought. Later I noticed a woman standing nearby dressed as Princess Leia, circa Return of the Jedi (the Endor forest costume, not the metallic bikini) and their baby, so it appears to have been a family dressed in a common theme.

Griffith Park update

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.

The Grove is coming to Glendale

In case you haven't been to downtown Glendale lately, a huge construction project is underway between the Glendale Galleria and Brand Boulevard. The developer is Rick Caruso, creator of the hugely popular The Grove next door to The Farmers Market in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.

After Glendale voters approved the project in September 2004, the last of several lawsuits trying to block the project was defeated in December 2005. The pace of construction really picked up this summer, and the project is progressing at full speed, with a promised completion in April of next year.

According to publicity by Caruso's company,

The Americana at Brand is a $264.2 million mixed-use project set on 15.5 acres that includes a two-acre park surrounded by a pedestrian promenade, fountains and outdoor seating and gathering places. It will feature 475,000 square feet for retail, dining and entertainment uses with 338 residential units.

I was walking from the Glendale Central Library to a restaurant just south of the construction site (about four short blocks) a few weeks ago, and access along Colorado Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the city of Glendale, has become a nightmare for both pedestrians and for vehicle traffic.

My fellow blogger Tim McGarry wrote in January about his experience visiting The Grove for an evening out.

This is the “urban fortress” approach to retailing, with a barrier erected against the street and the surrounding neighborhood.

[snip]

This is an island, an enclave, an imposition on a neighborhood, a walled and guarded traffic magnet that stands apart.

When I was trying to navigate my way around the Glendale project a few weeks ago, these observations seemed even more true in Glendale, with high walls and no visible entry point along Central Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, and minimal effort to integrate into the downtown Glendale neighborhood where the project will be located.

Caruso's newest version of the Grove is coming to Glendale next year, and no doubt it will be as wildly successful as his version in the Fairfax district. But I really hope that most visitors don't arrive in their cars, park in Caruso's parking lot, and never venture out into the streets of Glendale beyond, where they will find locally-owned shops, theaters like The Alex, and remnants of a small-town atmosphere.

Hydro-Mulching Griffith Park

A few days ago, I noticed an artificial green coloring on some of the hillsides in the southeast portion of Griffith Park. I went out today to take some photos, but it seems that Friday night's heavy rains had washed away the obvious coloring.

According to a story by KABC-TV's Sid Garcia,

Hydromulch is going to be spread over 480 acres of the burn area. The hope is that will be good enough to keep the hillsides from sliding when the rains finally do come.

It was last May when fire broke out, burning more than 1,000 acres or about 25 percent of Griffith Park. After the fire was put out, plans were developed to deal with the erosion hazards brought on by the fire.

It's called hydromulch. It's environmentally friendly and the city has tons of it ready to spread over nearly 500 acres of the burn area. Here's what the mulch is supposed to do.

"Essentially it puts a blanket over the soil and essentially what it does is it holds the sediment in place instead of washing it down off the hillsides. Not only will it help stabilize the slopes but it will help keep some of those native seeds that were probably still buried there that probably still survived the fire, and help them germinate when we do get some rain," Mike Shull, of the L.A. Recreation & Parks, said.

According to City Councilman Tom LaBonge, $2 million has been budgeted for this project. He says there will be some inconveniences to park visitors and area residents as helicopters and ground crews spread the mulch.

Recreation and Parks people don't want to see a repeat of the mudslide that occurred recently near Forest Lawn. That mudslide caused quite a mess.

The mulch will hopefully avoid this. So while the mulch is being spread, the burn area of Griffith Park is off limits to the general public.

"For the short term, it will be a little bit painful for us to not be able to hike in these areas, not be able to run and walk, and ride our horses, but for the long term it's well worth the wait to keep this area closed and it's for everyone's safety," Chief Albert Torres, of the L.A. Park Rangers, said.