Protest of Plummer Park Closure Planned for Sunday

A rally protesting the two-year closure of Plummer Park for a is planned for Sunday afternoon. “Occupy Plummer Park” is scheduled to take place in the grassy area just north of Fiesta Hall at 1 p.m.

“It’s an old-fashioned protest with an au courant name,” organizer Cathy Blaivas told Patch. “There won’t be any tents or people camping out. It’s a picnic where people can come and voice their opinions about what the city plans to do to the park.”

People are being asked to bring food to share with their neighbors for the picnic, as well as guitars and musical instruments. Organizers will have a bullhorn so people can speak about the park closure.

The Occupy Plummer Park protest is to be held in , rather than at , because many residents are still unaware of the upcoming renovations scheduled to close most of the park starting in early 2012, Blaivas said.

“We want to have direct access to the people who will be most affected by the closure,” Blaivas said. “Just today, we were talking to people who hadn’t heard about the closure. There are still people who don’t know about it, and it’s just around the corner.”

Blaivas feels that the park closure will impact residents severely, noting that going to the park plays a central role in the social lives of many people in the area, especially Russian residents living nearby.

“People use Plummer Park much differently than they use ,” she said. “They won’t have a place to go to meet their friends. They won’t have a place to bring their children to play for two years while the park is closed.” 

Occupy Plummer Park organizers met in the park on Oct. 30 to make protest signs. They plan to carry those signs at the on Santa Monica Boulevard and plant themselves near news crews covering the street festival in hopes of being seen on TV.  

They also plan to show up Saturday morning at the Annual Congress of the Boards and Commissions, where the City Council, along with all members of the city’s various boards and commissions, will meet to discuss plans for the upcoming year.

Park renovation plan

A majority of Plummer Park is scheduled to close for two years while a $10-million, 179-space underground parking garage is constructed in the central portion of the park.

As a result of digging the garage, Great Hall, Long Hall and the Tiny Tots preschool building are to be demolished. The dig would also mean that most of the trees in the center of the park would be removed during construction.

Additionally, the park’s master plan calls for Fiesta Hall to be remodeled into a state-of-the-art performing arts center and a new playground area to be built.

A to discuss the park overhaul attracted about 175 angry residents. The saw about 20 people speak against the plan during the public comment period. Another 14 spoke out at the and 10 more spoke at the Oct. 27 Rent Stabilization Commission meeting.

In response to residents' opposition, the city announced on Oct. 19 that it will  

Just prior to making that announcement, the city sent out a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to potential contractors. The RFQ, due on Nov. 2, is a way of prescreening contractors who wish to bid on the Plummer Park construction project.

While a RFQ is standard for any construction project, it also contains a timetable that gives no indication of slowing the project down. That timetable shows a Request for Bids (RFB) will go out on Dec. 6 with a deadline for retuning the bid of Jan. 17, 2012. The firm selected will be notified by Feb. 7, 2012. Construction would likely begin a few weeks after that.

Should city officials decide to slow down the project, that timetable could be altered. 

“They’re still not listening to us. We want them to stop this project,” said Stephanie Harker, who has spearheaded the Plummer Park protests. “We don’t want mitigation plans. We don’t want to hear how they think they can get around us. We want them to stop this project.”

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