Huizar to Outline Plans for a Public Park on York and Avenue 50

Community members are invited to celebrate plans by the City of Los Angeles to convert a vacant quarter-acre lot into a public park on the southwest corner of Avenue 50 and York Boulevard, adjacent to Café de Leche in Highland Park.

At 10 a.m., Councilmember José Huizar will announce a timeline for community meetings aimed at determining what the proposed park will look like, Huizar’s Communications Director Rick Coca said, adding that community members will also be encouraged to share their ideas for the park’s designs in a workshop setting.

The fenced lot is owned by the city and was once the site of a gas station. Community members will be allowed to walk around the enclosed space during the York Park celebration.

Huizar will be accompanied by officials from the Department of Recreation & Parks as well as Highland Park community members.

The City of Los Angeles received $2.875 million in funding from Proposition 84 last year through the York Vision plan, a series of community improvement workshops that Huizar sponsored.

It was community members associated with the York Vision Plan who proposed that the vacant lot on Avenue 50 and York be turned into a public park. Community members were also instrumental in the construction of a parklet on 5030 York Blvd., one of the city’s first spaces of its kind, according to Coca.

The scheduled York Park celebration assumes particular importance because it comes close on the heels of Huizar’s announcement in Eagle Rock Monday that bicycle lanes would be installed along Colorado Boulevard.

Hoping for a similar park along Colorado Boulevard, the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council is urging ER residents and stakeholders on its official website to attend the York Park celebration.

“Yes, it’s in Highland Park, but it’s also a big deal—the City is buying an empty lot and turning it into a park,” a message on the ERNC site says, adding: “That hasn’t happened in Los Angeles in ages, and if it can happen in the HP, it can happen in the ER, too.”