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Plantidote of the Day 2012-03-27

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 7:30am

park

Pine trees

Franklin Canyon Park, Los Angeles

Franklin Canyon is a sekrit park, so don't tell anyone. Seriously, I don't think most people who live in LA even know it's there. This is where you go when you want to be surrounded by acres and acres of enormous old pines, sycamores and oaks, or hike up to the top of a mountain and hang out with the hawks. The duck ponds are pretty great, too. But the best thing is that there's absolutely nothing to do there -- except be part of it. No hot dog vendors, food trucks, swing sets or teeter totters (yes, I'm turning into a curmudgeon). In other words, the perfect park!

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Comments

JoeInSF's picture
Submitted by JoeInSF on

I lived in LA for 35 years and never heard of the place. Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret. It's sorta like my grandfather's fishing hole at Lake Cachuma.

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

It's very secluded, even though it's right in the middle of the city. If you know where Tree People is (Coldwater and Mulholland), it's just a bit west, but situated so it can't be seen just by driving past.

Maybe next time you're in town you can check it out. It's actually a National Park, with some structures built by WPA way back when. The trails around the pond/lake thing in the picture were used in the opening shot of "Andy of Mayberry," when Opie is walking to the fishing hole or something along those lines. So if you have deja vu, that might be why.

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

You can almost feel your whole body breathe a sigh of relief in the park. The air smells like pine needles (not what we normally smell in LA's so-called "air"), and there's very little traffic noise, no rowdy soccer players, screaming children, or picnickers who apparently must turn their portable radios on max volume in order to eat. (Sorry to everyone I just offended. It's not your fault, I just have a BIG problem with noise pollution!)

And -- bonus! -- you can hike for miles with nothing but wilderness, city and ocean views all in one place. It's like magic!

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

It's very rare for a photograph to have that sort of "whole body sigh" effect on me. Very nice!

* * *

On noise pollution: It's assymetrical. A quiet person doesn't disturb a noisy person by being quiet. But a noisy person does disturb a quiet person by being noisy. Rather like violence vs. non-violence, if you come to think about it. Another way of saying this is that a prefigurative movement would be reducing power imbalances and not reinforcing them.

twig's picture
Submitted by twig on

and I'm going to get a shot of the WPA plaque, if no one has stolen it yet.

Good point on the noise issue. And it is like violence/non-violence or even secondhand smoke, with actual health consequences. Noise raises blood pressure, increases heart rate, etc. I think you've posted on the Department of Death's noise weapons that can be used for crowd control. From what I've read the effect is horrific -- you literally cannot stand the sound it makes. Scary stuff!

Turlock