Group Sees Threat to Park

Would the state dare sell Exposition Park?

A group of South Los Angeles residents concerned about the possibility gathered Saturday morning to organize against it -- just in case.

“There has been a lot of progress made in fixing up the park and we don’t want this public asset being reduced by selling it to the private sector,” said Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), who organized a forum on the park.

Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review included a survey of state-owned land that could be sold or remade into more profitable enterprises.

Prominent on the list was 152 acres of Exposition Park, which includes the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, California Science Center and Sports Arena.

According to the proposal, the entire property could command a price of $400 million and a small slice of the land could be suitable for residential development.

“There have not been any sales of large parcels similar to this in a long time,” the performance review said. “ ... This would be an unprecedented property sale.”

Although Schwarzenegger has not endorsed the plan, the community members who gathered Saturday at Orthopedic Medical Magnet High School in South Los Angeles remain concerned that selling the land could be attractive to a state with serious fiscal woes.

They said there are more questions than answers in the plan, especially concerning what would happen to such structures as the Coliseum and science center.

“The state has very little investment in our community, and this is one that they do have,” said Guy Leemhuis, who works with the local neighborhood council. “Are they selling Yosemite or the beaches? I think the governator needs a reality check.”

Others at the forum believe there are many reasons that a sale wouldn’t work.

Some of the facilities are historical properties that couldn’t be changed or torn down. And, a buyer might see little profit in buying the land and having to lease those facilities back to the various entities that run them.

Still, the group decided to form a watchdog group to monitor the plan. By the end of a 45-minute session, they had decided to enlist the help of schools and groups that use the park.

“In the suburbs you have people protecting open space,” said Shelby Jordan, 53, a developer in the area who in the 1980s played in the Coliseum as a member of the Los Angeles Raiders. “We don’t have that luxury in the urban areas -- we’re landlocked. We have to use what we have, improve them and not shrink them under any circumstances.”