CESAR E. CHAVEZ PARK & PLAYGROUND

Groundbreaking for the new South L.A. location

Los Angeles - The Department of Recreation and Parks, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and First Lady Maria Shriver broke ground on the new Cesar E. Chavez park and playground in South Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 19, 2008.

The new pocket park will feature a 3,000-square-foot playground (with a rubberized surface), landscaping, a community garden and mural of Cesar Chavez. Over 200 volunteers helped prepare the playground equipment and plant the gardens.

KaBOOM! provided the playground equipment at no cost to the City, through a donation from the California Volunteers. KaBOOM! is a non-profit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. The Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust also contributed $10,000 to the project and will be responsible for the maintenance and operations of the new quarter-acre park.

The neighborhood park represents a new type of public-private partnership in the City that will be the basis to help reach the goal of providing 35 new parks over the next five years. The corner site was going unused until the Department identified the location as an ideal pocket park and formed a partnership with KaBOOM!

The Department's General Manager Jon Kirk Mukri was also in attendance, along with the California Secretary of Service and Volunteer Karen Baker, KaBOOM! CEO/Founder Darrell Hammond and Cesar Chavez's son and Chair of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation Paul Chavez.

The new pocket park will provide South Los Angeles with much needed green and open space.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Jane Kolb: (213) 928-9294

Harvey Drut: (213) 928-9296