Op-ed: Finding the value in LA’s emptiest parks

Planetizen is a place for all planners — current and future — to exchange ideas. This piece is part of an ongoing Planetizen series written by high-school students with an interest in planning issues.

The recreational needs of the Los Angeles community, whether two-legged or four-legged, are not being met. Los Angeles faces a persistent shortage and mismanagement of its parks: in the Trust for Public Land’s annual Park Score index, which measures public parks’ acreage, accessibility, investment, amenities and space equity in the 100 most populated cities in the United States, Los Angeles ranked 93rd. L.A. also faces a less recognized challenge: many of its existing green spaces are poorly matched to the needs of the surrounding communities. Rather than acquiring expensive new land, the city should look towards adaptive reuse: reconfiguring underutilized park assets to better serve current neighborhood needs. 

One area where this mismatch between community needs and available parks is particularly apparent is dog recreation. Los Angeles is home to the country’s largest dog population, and yet has a measly 14 dog parks. The Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department’s  stated goal is increasing dog parks from 0.4 to 2.0 per 100,000 residents, a 400% increase. In an urban setting like L.A., finding the space for these new park assets is a huge challenge. 

Despite the city’s shortage of park space, many existing parks remain underutilized, in particular smaller “pocket parks” that are often designed for passive recreation and do not match the needs of the surrounding neighborhood. A great example is Hart Park in West Hollywood, which sat neglected for 43 years before the city developed it into a dog park: The city created separate fenced-in play areas for large and small dogs, and added biodegradable wood chips as ground cover. After Hart Park’s transformation into a haven for dogs and owners, it “exploded to life” according to former West Hollywood Mayor and City Council Member Steve Martin. 

The tragedy — and potential — of Selma Park

My field observations of Selma Park in Hollywood mirror this phenomenon. I decided for my high school Capstone project to "reactivate" this small, underutilized park that sits next door to my middle school campus. I reached out to a UCLA Urban Planning PhD candidate for advice, who suggested I approach the project from an Ethnographic angle by immersing myself in the culture of the park. 

 After conducting over a dozen hours of observation across more than 20 visits, I recorded zero child users. The park's most consistent users in past years have been individuals experiencing homelessness, until Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe program provided alternate accommodations for 61 unhoused people from the site in 2023. Now, the playground sits empty except for a few monitors from the Hollywood Partnership. Neighborhoods change, demographics shift, yet our parks stay stagnant.

Selma Park would better serve its community as a dog park, and is my proposed pilot for a park-centered adaptive reuse program in Los Angeles. The park is already fenced, already has a secondary internal fence that allows for large and small dog separation and serves a neighborhood where the under-5 population has significantly declined since 1990. If the park was adapted into a dog park, it could explode to life in much the same way Hart Park did.

The human benefits of dog parks

Converting unused parks to off-leash dog areas is not about pandering to dogs over people. Dog parks strengthen our communities and social bonds by allowing people of different ages, genders, races and incomes to mingle and form bonds that may have never existed otherwise.  Dog parks also address a practical reality: dog owners will exercise their dogs regardless of whether a designated space exists. As dog owners and non-owners alike struggle to find recreation space, clashes abound over owners flaunting leash laws and dogs showing up in inappropriate places. Providing safe off-leash dog parks improves compliance and lowers the risk of conflict and safety issues for everyone. 

Just as planning experts call for larger underutilized areas like former landfills, airports and utility corridors to be converted into regional park attractions, underutilized pocket parks are prime targets for adaptive reuse closer to home. Los Angeles can identify pocket parks and playgrounds in neighborhoods with low child populations and high dog ownership, and convert them to off-leash dog areas using existing fencing and minimal modifications. 

If the pilot works in Selma Park, the same model can be applied to underutilized parks citywide, and doesn't need to be limited to dog recreation. In neighborhoods with larger adult populations, underused playgrounds could be reconfigured into other much-needed amenities such as pickleball courts or community gardens, matching evolving community needs instead of trying to serve a population that no longer exists. Los Angeles has already set a goal, and adaptive reuse is the lowest-cost option to meet it. 

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Aysie Bower is a senior at Larchmont Charter School who conducted field research on Selma Park and authored a policy brief on adaptive park use. She hopes to study Public Policy and Urban Studies in the future.