New Sports Field by Lake Balboa for children with disabilities

Children with mental and physical disabilities soon will have their very own sports field in Encino. A new “All Access Sports Field” will open on the SE corner of Lake Balboa by mid-July 2012. It will be the first of its kind in Los Angeles.

The Sports Field is situated near the Universal Access Playground by the lake because then families will have easy access to both facilities. Trained staff have been hired to supervise “mixed use” programming and their goal is to encourage eligible families from all around Los Angeles to participate. Initially, however, it will be by permit only.

According to Charles Singer, Valley Region Superintendent for L.A. Dept of Recreation and Parks, the model is the strikingly successful Miracle League of San Diego (website), which is:

dedicated to helping children with physical and mental disabilities to develop and achieve their full potential: mentally, socially and physically. We accomplish this through America’s favorite pastime — baseball, providing an opportunity for children with disabilities to play baseball as part of a team in an organized league.

I will post further information about how to participate once the Sports Field is completed.

Funding for the project has been provided by The Los Angeles Parks Foundation (website) and matching grants from the Annenberg, Weingart and LA84 Foundations.

The Habit - please lose those black plastic trays

The Habit is our family’s fast food restaurant of choice in Encino (sorry, Johnny Rockets) and I am partial to the albacore tuna sandwich myself. But those black plastic trays have got to go. They may be recyclable but the reality is that they go into landfills.

Like many companies with the best of intentions, The Habit ensures these thick plastic trays are made from recycled materials, which in turn can be recycled. The problem is that customers dump everything in the trash and in Los Angeles we do not sort our trash. It ends up in the landfill where it never biodegrades. It is true that some other cities and counties sort their trash, but The Habit is a California company with many restaurants in LA , so they really ought to be using the biodegradable and compostable options now available. That is what the other chains do.

It turns out, of course, that the owners of The Habit last year opened a more upscale chain called Hook Burger (there are three so far, in Oxnard, Burbank and Pasadena) and they claim “And we only use 100% biodegradable and compostable packaging and containers.” If that is the case then why not do the same at The Habit restaurants? I understand the financial reasons (meals at The Habit are ridiculously inexpensive), but sometimes you just have to do the right thing.

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School gardens: Portola Middle School

Portola Middle School began its garden this year. By September it should be ready to handle the first after-school enrichment classes - watering, weeding and planting. Currently there is one plot of 75’x25’ which is almost filled with flowers, sages, tomatoes, jalapeño, artichokes and other plants that can handle the summer sun. Next year, if all goes well, 8 more plots will be filled.

The garden is a vast area on the Crebs side of the school, across the road from Wilbur Elementary. It used to be an ag (agricultural) garden until the 1980’s and it still has sprinklers, a shed and some fruit trees. Back then the trade, tech and ag programs were closed down in the belief that everyone should go to a 4-year university or college. It was done with the best of intentions but it was foolish. The goal at Portola is to restore the garden to what it once was, plot by plot, and integrate it into the curriculum.

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Schools and solar panels

Schools all across Los Angeles are receiving solar panels to lower their energy bills, provide cover for their parking lots and electricity to light them at night. There is only one school in Encino receiving them – Hesby Oaks - but you can see the panels now at Taft (photo) and Reseda. This is a really positive sign. If there is one place that should be using solar, it is the San Fernando Valley.

This effort will provide a massive boost in public awareness about the merits of solar. Other schools in the Valley receiving them include Canoga Park HS (completed February 2011), Cleveland HS, Chatsworth HS, and Valley Region HS #9 and East Valley Area New Middle School #2, both in Van Nuys. There are currently 63 campuses District-wide slated to have solar panels, according to Shannon Haber, a LAUSD spokesperson. There are 5 vendors, 3 of whom are working in the Valley. Chevron Energy Solutions is doing Taft; Solar City is doing Reseda; the other is SunPower.

I have read criticisms of course.

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