Rev. Jeff Carr, Executive Director of Bresee Foundation; Councilmemeber Eric Garcetti; Lois Arkin of LA Eco-Village

How often do you hear the term "state-of-the-art" applied to a park? The newly opened Bimini Slough Ecology Park is being referred to as a state-of-the-art "e-park" because of a surprising hi-tech feature and a brilliant lo-tech ecological feature.

If you own a laptop with wireless networking capabilities you can sit in the park, feed the pigeons, AND be online.  The park features a wireless network that lets you connect to the Internet while sunning yourself on a park bench.  As CD13 Councilmember Eric Garcetti said in his comments at the Grand Opening, perhaps the inspiration of nature will inspire a new generation of laptop Thoreaus.

The Bimini Slough Ecology Park also demonstrates one simple, natural and inexpensive solution to the costly water pollution problems facing the City of Los Angeles.

A major, visually pleasing component of the park is a stream-like feature surrounded by a landscape of boulders.  This streambed is called a "bio-swale" because it performs an important ecological function.  The bio-swale is lined with an open lattice of cement bricks and plantings of indigenous plants in the open spaces.  At the west end of the swale, a storm drain from the street opens into it.

Storm water is strained for trash as it enters the slough. Water can seep into the ground and is filtered by plant-life before re-entering the storm drain system.

During rainstorms, storm water from the street drainage system pours out and passes through a metal strainer to capture large pieces of trash before the water flows into the swale.  The open spaces of the cement lattice in the swale allow water to soak into the ground and the plants act as a natural filtration system before the water flows back into the city storm drain system at the east end of the swale.

Simple, elegant, inexpensive, and no processing plant required.  The park and the bio-swale provide a model for this type of technology which will help the city meet new, demanding and potentially expensive clean water standards for storm water run-off headed for the ocean.

Bimini Slough Ecology Park is located next to the Bresee Community Center on Bimini Place just north of Third Street and just east of Vermont in Council District 13.  It is located on the former site of the Bimini Baths which was built in 1902 and at what was then the far western edge of the city.  It was a place where people could come and enjoy the 112-degree natural water from the hot springs below the site.  The Baths closed in 1951.

slough Pronunciation: slew (like "chew") or slou (like "ouch") Function: noun 1 a : a place of deep mud or mire b (1) : SWAMP (2) : an inlet on a river; also : BACKWATER (3) : a creek in a marsh or tide flat 2 : a state of moral degradation or spiritual dejection In the US (except New England), the pronunciation slew is usual for sense 1 with those to whom the sense is familiar; For British speakers, usually the pronunciation slou is used for both senses.

The park is a welcome new green space in one of the most densely populated and most park-poor parts of LA.  It occupies 20,000 square feet of a former block of Second Street.  In her last week of office as Councilmember for District 13, Jackie Goldberg finalized the closing of the that section of 2nd street to make way for the new park.  Its funding and development has been avidly supported by Councilmember Eric Garcetti as well as numerous departments of the City.

The park is owned and operated by the Bresee Foundation.  The Foundation is a non-profit organization that serves of Koreatown, Pico Union, Westlake and South Los Angeles, which are some of the poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods of the city.  The Bresee Community Center offers health and education services to residents of these neighborhoods including a access to computers and the training to use them.  Their programs also provide career preparation and employment opportunities.

The Bresee Foundation
www.bresee.org
The homepage includes a video of the construction of the park.