Is Los Angeles About to Fix one of its Biggest Park Mistakes?
Plus, a backcountry iPhone upgrade, how to make your city swimmable, plan for the Perseids, Sequoia seedlings need your help, new trails, and more
The Big Story
Something to talk about
As a long-time Angeleno who cares deeply about public spaces, writing books about public spaces in L.A. was always a bit of a challenge. The city has some incredible spots, but it also made some truly bone-headed anti-park decisions that it’s still reeling from generations later.
In my opinion, the city has a number of “original sins” when it comes to public spaces, parks, and the environment, but one of the worst ideas Los Angeles ever had was looking at its fledgling system of public parks and thinking “hey, we should put a giant road through that.” Central Park (Pershing Square), Elysian Park, Hollenbeck Park, Griffith Park, Echo Park, Westlake (MacArthur Park), and many others fell victim to pavement … and the effects are still being felt today.
But, that might be changing …
L.A. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez recently kicked off a multi-year planning effort called Reconnecting MacArthur Park, which aims to close the multi-lane, half-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard that slices the park in two. The project would restore the park to its original 1880s size, adding two acres of usable space and drastically reducing vehicle noise and pollution for park-goers in a park-poor neighborhood that also happens to be one of the most densely-populated areas in the country.
Wilshire Boulevard is a major thoroughfare, and this is L.A. so they can expect people to go absolutely bonkers at the suggestion of ceding even an inch of road space to anything that isn’t a car, but it can be done—and it can even be done in L.A. It took the tragic death of a cyclist in 2022 to galvanize the city, but they closed a stretch of road in Griffith Park to vehicles, making a huge section of the park significantly calmer for hikers, bikers, pedestrians, and equestrians.
I know this is going to take a long time, but I truly applaud everyone who is working to make this happen for MacArthur Park. This is a boldness you really don’t see very often in Angeleno officials, and I look forward to the next time I can spend some time in the park and then go grab a #19 from the fine folks at Langer’s.
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
I know it’s hot out there in SoCal, and when the June Gloom is burned off it can be tough to motivate to go hiking … but you can still get some miles in if you get up early enough, and this week Justin Shults added a very off-the-beaten-path route on the Phantom Trail. You’ll not only probably have the whole trail to yourself, and the ability to stretch out in many different directions, but you’ll also get a great view of the ongoing work on the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing, too!
Your Parks
Your Places
More Swimmable Cities
After I wrote about enjoying Portland’s Willamette River in last week’s newsletter, the founder of Human Access Project dropped me a line to clue me in on some exciting developments in other cities around the world. Melbourne, Australia’s Regeneration Projects consultancy group is spearheading a program in the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration called Swimmable Cities, which aims to get 300 cities around the world on their “journey toward swimmability by 2030.”
Their Swimmable Cities Alliance is a network of local groups sharing their resources, stories, and successes, and they are looking at using the Paris Olympics’ spotlight on the Seine River cleanup to inspire new projects to kick off (and probably grab some media attention, too).
If you are interested in learning more, or maybe even making your own city more swimmable, you can download the free Swimmable Cities Handbook to kickstart meetings, proposals for local officials, or just brainstorming sessions. Earlier this week, France’s Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra hopped into the Seine, along with Paralympic athlete Alexis Hanquinquant.
RELATED: 100 people swam 11 miles under all of Portland’s 12 bridges recently on the aptly-named Portland Bridge Swim. Yes, Portland has a lot of bridges.
Plan for the Perseids
The annual Perseid meteor shower is about a month away from hitting its peak, but that means now is the time to start planning your stargazing trips—ideally to dry, open, elevated terrain far away from marine clouds and urban light pollution.
Of course, one of the best ways to find such a spot near you is by finding an International Dark Sky Place near you, which you can do by browsing their map to see what’s nearby.
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
Will iPhone Satellite Texting Replace GPS Beacons?
In the next update to Apple’s mobile phone operating system iOS18, iPhones will be able to send messages via satellite to both emergency services and to other, everyday users. Details are still scarce, but according to early reports, users will be able to send text messages in the backcountry without a cellular signal, and there will not be a limit to how many messages a user can send or a charge for the service (at least through late 2025). The service will not support calls or data.
Outside wondered whether or not this new functionality would put an end to satellite messengers like the Garmin inReach or Spot beacons. As you might expect, they’re excited Apple is rolling out this functionality but at least for now, note that the dedicated satellite messaging devices may be more expensive, but they’re also significantly more reliable, with rugged construction and batteries that can—in some cases—last 28 days without a charge.
RELATED: Check out GearJunkie’s Best Satellite Messengers of 2024
Leafing Out
Plants!
Sequoia Seedlings Can’t Take the Heat
While it had previously been reported that giant sequoia trees were faring better than expected in the face of increasing fires and droughts, a group of new scientific studies announced by the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition has some bad news for the next generation of towering trees. In a pair of studies done with the USGS’s Western Ecological Research Center, the group has announced that without assistance, the trees may not recover in areas affected by mega-fires in 2020 and 2021.
A full 20% of giant sequoias were killed in wildfires since 2015, and those fires have burned longer and hotter than the trees are used to enduring. Researchers found these fires have killed seed-producing mature trees and also created conditions that are more difficult for new seedlings to get established in the soil. The group suggested that without human intervention, the next generation of giant sequoias may not exist.
You can read the study on Science Direct, as well as about the Coalition’s efforts to help the seedlings get established in their Progress Report for Saving the Sequoias.
Cactus Succumbs to Sea-Rise
Scientists believe the Key Largo tree cactus—a towering cactus with wooly hair and fragrant night blossoms—is the first vascular plant to go extinct in the wild in the United States due to rising sea levels. Now to clarify, this is just in the United States—the plant still survives in other parts of the Caribbean—but after increasing hurricanes and higher storm surges brought more salt water into their habitat, the remaining six Key Largo tree cactuses were dug up by botanists and moved to nurseries in Florida. Today, about 60 Key Largo tree cactuses survive in these nurseries, and seeds are being kept at a seed bank in Colorado.
The botanists who rescued the remaining plants hope to reintroduce the species back into the wild at higher elevations in the future, which may help protect them against the rising salt water.
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
There won’t be a newsletter next week, as I’ll be attending the Napa Valley Writers Conference to study and workshop poetry. I also most definitely will not be reading news of any kind, including outdoor news, so we’ll see if it takes me more than a few days to shift back into my newsletter mindset. Thanks in advance for the patience—I’ve been trying to get into this conference for years, so I want to make sure I’m giving it my full attention!
Until next time, enjoy the outdoors and Happy Trails.
Oh and if you have any good Napa food, wine, or trail suggestions, send ‘em my way. It has been a very long time since I’ve been there. Thanks!
