CITY UNLEASHING NEW VALLEY DOG PARK TODAY.Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A crime-plagued stretch of land along Whitnall Highway is going to the dogs today Dogs Today magazine was launched in 1990 by Burlington Publishing Company Ltd, part of Associated Newspapers. It was the brainchild of Daily Mail newspaper proprietor the late Viscount Rothermere. as the city opens its seventh public park for canines to run free. Whitnall Off-Leash Dog Park, the third in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , is set for a formal dedication at 9:30 a.m. today to show off what really is two dog parks: a 50,000-square-foot area for big dogs Big Dogs, based in Santa Barbara, California, is a chain of stores in the United States which features clothing and apparel holding the "Big Dogs" brand name. The Company and a 22,000- square-foot area for smaller canines. In its former incarnation as a barren strip under power lines in between the split Whitnall Highway and Cahuenga Boulevard, the land was a target for illegal trash dumping, drug dealing and other unsavory business. Harvey Drut, spokesman for the city's Recreation and Parks Department, said the dog park sits on a Department of Water and Power easement easement, in law, the right to use the land of another for a specified purpose, as distinguished from the right to possess that land. If the easement benefits the holder personally and is not associated with any land he owns, it is an easement in gross (e.g. . City officials had been trying for years to think of a way to improve the spot and kick out the bad element. Since dog parks are highly used, they figured it would be just the solution. ``It was an area identified as a high-nuisance area where gangs would congregate,'' said Matt Szabo, spokesman for City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel Wendy Greuel is President Pro Tempore of the Los Angeles City Council representing the 2nd District. Greuel was elected in 2002 to fill the remainder of the term of Councilman Joel Wachs. She was elected in her own right in 2003 and reelected in 2007. , who worked to get the park built. ``There was gang activity, there was criminal activity, so the city, starting with (former Councilman) Joel Wachs' office and then our office, thought it was great place to have a park; that it would really clean up the area.'' The $300,000 project was funded with federal Community Development Block Grant funds. Although redistricting redistricting: see legislative apportionment. of City Council districts earlier this summer shifted the park into Councilman Tom LaBonge's district, Greuel has continued to work on the project. Greuel, LaBonge and other city dignitaries and a pack of dogs are expected at the dedication ceremony. Although Mayor James Hahn For the Iowa politician, see . James Kenneth "Jim" Hahn (born July 3, 1950) is an American politician from the Democratic Party. He was the Deputy City Attorney (1975-1979), City Controller (1981-1985), City Attorney (1985-2001) and Mayor of Los Angeles, California will not attend the ceremony because of a scheduling conflict, his spokeswoman Julie Wong said he backs the project. The other two city dog parks in the Valley are the Sepulveda Basin Off- Leash Dog Park in Encino, and Laurel Canyon Park on Mulholland Drive near Laurel Canyon Boulevard Laurel Canyon Boulevard is a major street in the city of Los Angeles, California. It starts off at Polk Street in Sylmar in the northern San Fernando Valley near the junction of the San Diego (Interstate 405) and the Golden State Freeways (Interstate 5). in Studio City. Calabasas, Thousand Oaks and a number of other cities also have dog parks. CAPTION(S): photo, map Photo: City workers Tom Leveque, left, and Keith Smith install a box at the new off-leash dog park in North Hollywood. David Sprague/Staff Photographer Map: Dog park opening |
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