SAVE LA PARKS !!

the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve 4,000 layoffs of City Workers as a solution to the city budget short fall. What does this mean to you with just recreation and parks?

In Recreation & Parks (RAP) they are proposing 1,100 layoffs based on the report of 8,000 employees in the department. There are in fact only 1,300 full time employees so this proposal will wipe out the recreation division. The remaining 6,000 plus employees are mainly seasonal workers who come home from college and high school and work in the summer camp programs run at our centers. These programs will be cut which means they will have no work either. The idea is to contract out private companies to mow the grass in parks and another to pick up trash and THAT IS IT! The buildings will be boarded up which will only create an invitation for vandalism and other crime.

No staff will be available to deal with squatters and homeless people who will move in to the unsupervised parks. Gang members and drug dealers will move back into parks which will mean a huge spike in crime and communities will lose their open space. The last time there were layoffs in the early 80s, parks were closed "dead parks." There were a record number of homicides in Los Angeles (over 900) and drive by shootings began and most were in and around parks.

Recreation professionals are a vital part of the emergency response system in Los Angeles. In the event of a natural disaster, RAP employees are mandated to report to work to set up and provide shelter for displaced families and those that flee their homes in fear. We provide activities for children during these times to assist parents with the stress of the situation. Homeowners then have time to deal with insurance companies and adjusters without the worry of their young ones. We also coordinate the families in the parks to maintain order, working closely with law enforcement to deal with potential issues. LAPD will not be able to station officers at these sites, so without trained professionals, chaos would surely ensue.

There will be no sports programs, no camps, no classes for young ones to seniors, no after school programs, no gang reduction and intervention programs. Youth and teens will not have activities to keep them busy. Affordable programs will not be available for families which will create an even larger financial hardship on families. 

Working families did not start the recession, but if the City of LA has its way, they will be the ultimate victims of it. These cuts will only make matters worse! Please show up to City Hall next Wednesday if you can and let the city council know that these proposed cuts are not good for the city of LA. 

In 2008 we told the city leaders how to save money as well as where unpaid tax dollars are and to go after these funds. They have not done it. The city pays 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS annually to private contracts and concessions. If the city tells these companies "to keep our business, you will need to give us 10 to 20 percent on the contracts," it would save tax payers 500 MILLION DOLLARS which equals NO CITY SERVICES WOULD BE CUT. Your tax dollars will continue to support the services you have been receiving all these years and not all go into the pockets of big business. Prestige Parking Lots in downtown LA owes the city 78 million dollars in unpaid tax revenues they have collected from vehicle owners. These were once PUBLIC PARKING LOTS. Why has this happened? Why are our parks now being privatized?

We cannot let this happen to our parks! Help us save Los Angeles parks!