The Lonely Kaboom Park
About a week and a half a go the Fullerton Observer ran an update on their earlier propaganda about the rebuilding of the Union Pacific Park. You may remember the slight-of-hand article that mischaracterized the history of the park. FFFF pointed out that it wasn’t the toxic soil issue that closed the park. Rather it was the derelict state of the majority of the park that hadn’t been closed at all.
Truslow residents will surely remember that the park had become a magnet for drunks, druggies, and FTT gang members who claimed it as their own turf. The City Manager, Joe “Wild Ride” Felz decided to put up a fence around the whole disaster, and forget about it. And it’s been that way ever since.
On September 13th a horde of volunteers showed up to install a “Kaboom Park” – prefab plastic kiddie equipment surrounded by what look like wood chips to cushion the fall of the young children. Three pitiable sycamore saplings were planted.
The whole thing was an exercise in political, public mobilization since a little crew could have done the job in a few hours, but that would have missed the point: a bountiful opportunity for speeches, selfless volunteering, photo ops, demonstrations, and of course the usual liberal hosannas about “public health” and “underserved communities.”
Two weeks later the Kaboom park sits there alone, still fenced off from the community who is said by the Kennedy Sisters to have longingly waited for the park’s re-opening. When is the fence coming down? I bet nobody has asked. Sometime in the near future the rest of the park is supposed to be worked on. Will it be after that? Was the Kaboom operation just an empty feel-good gesture to show that something, anything was happening?
It seems to me that this little playground assembly should have been the last thing to go in, not the first. But what do I know about parks? Surely not as much as City Hall does.
Anyway, several local politicians showed up to get their picture taken, including Ahmad Zahra of course, who never misses a self-promotional opportunity. He reportedly didn’t stay to actually do any work – not even to claw at the dirt with a rake or to give moral support. He supposedly left after the pictures were taken.
The future of the re-opened park, whenever the fence comes down, doesn’t look promising. Nobody has asked about the condition and influence of the social pathologies that caused the park to be closed by Felz in the first place. Everyone has decided to conveniently forget the true history of the park
The rundown “Trail Phase 1” hasn’t been cleaned up and is usually occupied by somebody selling drugs of some sort. The Harbor bridge leading to the park from the east is a disgusting mess of graffiti, trash and broken light fixtures. Fullerton Tokers Town is still around, still marking its territory with regularity.
I draw the same conclusion. This was just a feel good pageant. The concrete curb/gravity wall around the playground was built beforehand by professionals.
The clean up and planting could have been done by a landscape crew in a couple hours.
If those are wood chips they won’t last the winter.
The whole park should have been done at the same time by a contractor. There was zero reason to do this first and several good reasons to wait until the park was complete. This was all about virtue signaling and what we used to call “volunteer futility.”
Hot Take: it’s good to have community events that encourage use of projects my tax dollars are being spent on.
I take it you’re a software engineer, not a real one?
No, Mr. Hot Take I’m a professional construction guy. I’ve worked hundreds of public works jobs – unlike anybody in our City Hall. Search my FFFF posts on the second elevator at the depot debacle.
I’m not surprised you confuse “use and “waste.”
There was no reason for doing this silly little thing apart from the main project except to give you and your friends something to feel good about.
Thanks for confirming our suspicion that this was really just a political City Hall “event.” A stunt to please the uncritical.
Of course it was just a politcal rally. Why else the signs and slogans. Pathetic.
Don’t waste a lot of time with this one. All the four comments that just popped up are from the same disinformed (or disingenuous) individual who Zahra appointed to follow us.
Hey don’t knock the arbols and the cielo azul! So what if there’s a fence around it? The importance is in the gesture and the more costly the gesture the better your self-esteem!
Maybe they’ll take the fence down when they’re done with the park? I don’t know, just a thought.
I feel like there’s a lot of dumb commenters here
Then why do Part B before Part A? You have increased dumb commentary geometrically. But thanks for the four comments, Elijah.
I love how you guys always attack projects near Bushala’s properties, nowhere else. It’s so blatant and pathetic.
The bloggers here should grow a pair and stop debasing themselves for Tony
Hmm. Please explain why the park will succeed this time when it failed last time. Please be specific.
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Oh the horror! They’re building a park? How will Tony Bushala continue hoarding all the land in South Fullerton? What an injustice!
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Can we sell UP Park? Surplus Land Act says nah. Would anyone want to buy UP Park? Environmental report says nah. Guess it’s a pickleball court.