Porta-Potties at the Park

I went outside the other day to be greeted by the business end of 25 porta-potties where there was once the beautiful Warner Park. The park had been fenced in and admission was being charged for the Pacifica fair.

When I and the others purchased around the park, we assumed that it would not be turned into the San Fernando fairgrounds, with admission being charged and thousands of non-Woodland Hills residents coming over to relieve themselves in facilities across from our front doors. What is next? Will we have the hog and pig blue-ribbon contests next week? We didn’t realize that the Woodland Hills Cultural Center would be culturing this type of bacteria.

We residents like the park the way it is, with lots of green space to lie in the sun, to jog around, to play games in, etc. With so little parkland available in this area--and several thousand residents in the nearby condominium complexes--it doesn’t make sense to destroy this park and force the children to play in the streets.

We know that a “cultural foundation” has been set up to put concrete where beautiful trees now grow, and that its intentions are honorable. However, cultural centers are notoriously hard to keep occupied and invariably lose money for their operators (leaving the taxpayers to pick up the tab). Warner Park, on the other hand, is used to capacity every day, and there does not appear to be any purpose to be served by destroying this resource. If the Cultural Foundation wants to have an excuse for fancy parties, let them find some other excuse and leave our park alone.

HENRY G. BAKER

Woodland Hills