| Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area | |
|---|---|
 Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area view from western Baldwin Hills; the bridge crossesLa Cienega Boulevard and is part of the 13 mi (21 km)Park-to-Playa Trail | |
   | |
| Location | Los Angeles County, California, United States |
| Nearest city | Los Angeles, California |
| Coordinates | 34°0′31″N118°21′55″W / 34.00861°N 118.36528°W /34.00861; -118.36528 |
| Area | 401 acres (1.62 km2) |
| Established | 1984 |
| Governing body | California Department of Parks and Recreation |
Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, orKenneth Hahn Park, is astate park unit ofCalifornia in theBaldwin Hills Mountains ofLos Angeles. The park is managed by theLos Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.[1] As one of the largest urban parks and regional open spaces in theGreater Los Angeles Area, many have called it "L.A.'sCentral Park".[2] The 401-acre (1.62 km2) park was established in 1984.[3] The land was previously the Baldwin Hills Reservoir, which failed catastrophically in the 1963Baldwin Hills Dam disaster.
In 1988, four years after it opened, theLos Angeles Times noted that:
Few Southern Californians seem to know about a park in Baldwin Hills, but the clean, well-developed park is no secret to nearby residents, who enjoy weekend picnics and barbecues on the expansive lawns.[4]
Hahn Park offers walking and hiking trails with some of the area's best scenic vistas.[4]
The park is a destination for picnics and family gatherings, having 100picnic tables in various picnic grounds around the park. The park also has fourplaygrounds, a halfbasketball court, a multi-purpose field, and a sand volleyball court. Garden areas include aJapanese garden with a lotus pond andwaterfall.[1] In 2017, a 9-holedisc golf course was added along the north bowl.
There are six sets of bathrooms for visitors.[1] Restrooms are locked at 5:30 p.m. daily.[5]
There is a lake for fishing,stocked monthly with trout or catfish, depending on the weather season.[6]
Since 2004, the park, primarily the bowl, has been the site of the Southern CaliforniaUSATFCross Country Championships.[7][failed verification]
There are at least 7 mi (11 km) of walking paths through the park.[1] LA County Trails app for Android and iPhone has detailed maps and route guides.[8]
Admission is charged for cars entering the park on weekends and holidays only (weekdays free). Transferable annual passes are available.[9]
While there may be a fee for entry by vehicle, there isno charge to visitors using transit or hikers and cyclists entering the park. The county operates a circuit bus that visits the park every half hour on weekends and holidays,[10] and a map of nearby bus routes and bike paths is available.[11]
Kenneth Hahn SRA is one of the fewCalifornia State Parks that does not accept the "annual day use pass".[1]
The park is home tourban coyotes,California ground squirrel, elusivegray foxes,raccoons,striped skunk,desert cottontail rabbits,opossums, andCalifornia quail, among other animals.[4]
"Hummingbirds, hawks,northern mockingbirds andblue scrub-jays flock to Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area," and the park is a nexus for theBlack Birders movement.[12] The Baldwin Hills area is the nesting grounds for 41 species of birds, and theAudubon Society offers monthlybirdwatching walks.[13]
The park is immediately adjacent to the 1,000-acre (4.0 km2)Inglewood Oil Field, which, when combined with the parkland, provides an unusually large habit range for Los Angeles urban wildlife. Kenneth Hahn and adjacent Baldwin Hills parks host four species of snakes:gopher snake,California kingsnake,ring-necked snake andred coachwhip. Warning signs to the contrary, rattlesnakes "don’t fare well in urban areas"[14] and there are norattlesnakes in the Baldwin Hills at this time.[15]
The park'snative habitat is theCoastal sage scrubplant community, withoak woodlands in northern arroyos andbunch grassgrasslands on the southwestern windy and exposed terrain. Native plants present in the park includeCalifornia sagebrush,coyote brush andprickly pear. Invasive species in the park include black mustard, castor bean, milk thistle, agave, ice plant, nasturtium, and lantana.[4]
"The native plant community has been greatly altered by the hand of man, so much so that botanists describe Baldwin Hills flora as being in a condition calleddisclimax," reported theL.A. Times in 1988.
To serve as a monument to Los Angeles’ role in theOlympic movement, 140 trees have been planted together on the hills where the 1932 Olympic Village was located, with each tree representing a nation that took part in the1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[16]
The Olympic Forest includes "sea hibiscus from Seychelles, oleander from Algeria, sweet bay from Greece, Cajeput from Papua New Guinea…the paper mulberry from Toga, the carob from Cyprus, the date palm from Egypt".[4]
The Baldwin Hills were part of the homeland of theTongva people, inhabited by them for over 8,000 years.[17] In the 19th century the area was part of the Spanish and MexicanRanchos of California era, with theRancho Rincon de los Bueyes andRancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera in and around the present day park.[18] As Los Angeles quickly grew during the 20th century, only the rugged terrain of this section of the Baldwin Hills protected it from being developed.
In 1932 the area east of the park was used as the site of the firstOlympic Village ever built, for the1932 Summer Olympics in the 10th Olympiad, which Los Angeles hosted.[19]
In the late 1940s the city transportation master plan included building a new north–south freeway, theLaurel Canyon Freeway-SR-170, that would have bisected the Baldwin Hills and park site whereLa Cienega Boulevard currently crosses the hills.
Between 1947 and 1951, the Baldwin Hills Reservoir was built here. In the 1963Baldwin Hills Dam disaster, the reservoir's dam suffered a catastrophic collapse, washing away residences in the canyon, flooding the landmark Baldwin Hills Village (nowVillage Green), and killing five residents who had not evacuated. The news coverage of the disaster was the first time aerial footage was televised live.[20] Before the county demolished the ruined reservoir bowl and converted the land into parking and picnic areas circa 1990s, "Fennel, chamise and dandelion pushed through the cracked cement bottom of the reservoir" and it was overlooked by an "observation tower" that resembled "a castle from the Middle Ages".[4]
The bowl of the reservoir (now called Janice's Green Valley) has been planted with grass and trees but remains visible and is the site of a popular jogging track.[14]
Los Angeles County Supervisors began negotiations to acquire the site of theBaldwin Hills Dam disaster in 1976.[21] It opened in 1983 as the '''Baldwin Hills State Recreational Area''', and was renamed in 1988 to honor Supervisor Hahn and his preservation efforts there.[22]
At the time the area was also a very popular spot for the then-new sport ofmotocross, locals calling it "Motorcycle Hill". An abandoned oil well at the top of the hill was decorated with sparkle lights during the holiday season and looked like a giant Christmas tree at night.[21]
The park is named afterLos Angeles County Board of Supervisors member Kenneth Hahn, also the father ofJames Hahn, former Los Angeles mayor, andJanice Hahn, formerU.S. Representative and now one of the five County Supervisors.
The park is home to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Tree Grove.[23]
The park, which is part of the greaterBallona Creek watershed, is now connected to nearby open spaces acrossLa Cienega Blvd. via the Park to Playa Bridge. Hahn Park is a keystone segment of thePark to Playa Trail, completed 2020.[24]
Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).