Peck Park - the Last of San Pedro’s Canyons
Breathing Life Into Peck Park Canyon
By Terelle Jerricks, Editor

     Like a valuable family jewel re-discovered after being hidden away for ages, everybody seems to know just what to do with Peck Park. Some want it developed for use as a cross-country practice site, others for camping grounds or a site for rock climbing. Perhaps one of the ideas being pushed most vigorously is the creation of a preserve populated by goats.
     On July 6, the City Council voted to set aside $80,000 for studies on what to do with the 31 acres of undeveloped Peck Park land ($10,000 of which came from The Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council). The Los Angeles Neighborhood Improvement project manager, Shannon Jaax, led a hike through Peck Park Canyon a few weeks ago, pointing out dumping sites, litter, erosion, brush fire, and security issues for the 15-member steering committee, members of the NWSP- Neighborhood Council, and Mia Lehrer and Associates, the City-hired landscape architecture firm conducting the study.
     Hiking along the least-traveled trails, the group spotted rusted shopping carts being reclaimed by dense thickets of brush. Neighboring backyard fences surround much of the park’s perimeter, and along occasional stretches, the perimeter is dotted with cement posts that once held up wire fences. Dump sites were also visible from the trail, revealing the tracks left behind by trucks relieving their beds full of junk from people’s yards and garages. At points, the ground gave way to steep cliff sides with the canyon bottom covered with vines and brush thick enough to hide car wrecks and bodies.
     Peck Park Canyon was once known as the Mira Flores Canyon of Peck Park—home to a dairy farm and a horse ranch under the administration of two successive families, headed by Mary Ruggero and later Albert Hernandez. For years, Ruggero operated Liberty Dairy Farm, while also boarding and training horses, often allowing neighborhood kids to ride and graze the steeds in the lush terrain. Before Ruggero passed away, she passed the reigns of the ranch to Hernandez, who continued the ranch’s traditions for over 30 years.
     In 1999, the Department of Recreation and Parks tried to evict Hernandez, citing liability concerns. San Pedran residents rose to his defense, forcing then-Councilman Rudy Svorinich to intervene. Ultimately, Hernandez was allowed to continue operating the ranch on a one-dollar-per-year lease until he passed away. (See “Last Rancho in ‘Pedro,” RLN, April 2-15, 1999.)
     Ray Patricio, member of the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council (NWSPNC) Steering Committee, has been lobbying for some time for the park to become a game preserve (populated by goats) with a multipurpose complex. It’s a vision seemingly inspired by this period, when brush was kept tamed, the soil aerated and fertilized, and most importantly—because the land was occupied by a fulltime tenant—relatively free of dumped debris.
     “There is enough pressure now to get the project going,” Patricio said. “They got the money, they have people on the payroll to make it happen.”
     Patricio proposes the fencing off of the entire park, leaving only one main access route so as to prevent middle-of-the-night dumping and transients staking out territory in wooded areas with attack dogs and shopping carts.
     “A lot of people don’t want fences, but there are already fences, particularly when you look at the old north entrance that is now blocked in by the Park Western homes and school. On the south side of the park, where I live, there is no fence and yet that’s where all of the trash is.
     “The beauty of having a fence is it stops the trash from coming in and the animals eat the grass,” Patricio said. Essentially the park becomes a self-sustaining and maintaining environment.
     Others suggest adding another access route for hikers who get trapped in parts of the canyon with challenging terrain and adding restroom facilities for camping grounds. However, those proposals could present problems in fresh water delivery and sewage disposal. There are already parts of the canyon being eroded by inappropriately placed drainage pipes. The lack of fencing around some of these areas could lead to tragic consequences for residents.
     NWSPNC has been working on developing Peck Park Canyon for the last five years, raising community awareness and lobbying City Council. When asked about potential obstacles the project faces, Jaax said “a lot of people from the community must stay involved and committed to keep the momentum going forward.” Community residents have pushed the project this far, it’s not likely they’ll rest till the project is finished.