Santa Monica Airport Ride followup and an invitation

     from Michael Brodsky and Frank Gruber

Thank you to everyone who came out to join in on our Sunday, September 15th Santa Monica Airport Ride! We had a great turn out of about 50-60 riders who were interested in exploring the Santa Monica Airport property by bike in order to learn more about a number of important issues that are confronting the airport space.

We gathered at the Southwest corner of Clover Park where the park touches the airport fence – the comparison couldn’t be more different. The park side was green and already filed with hundreds of people Sunday morning. Every bench and playing field was filled with soccer, baseball, two different soccer camps, joggers, tennis matches, playground kids, and a religious gathering. Across the fence on the airport land not a person in sight, nothing but concrete, oil stains and jets and planes parked less than 25′ from a children’s playground.

The ride started with introductory remarks on the airport concerning, health, noise, pollution, and sustainability then we were off on our ride around the property. We started the ride along the jogging path, then rode around the playground to the road that runs parallel to the runway.
Read a more extensive followup of the ride here

    

As a follow up to this successful Santa Monica Airport Bike ride lead by Santa Monica Spoke Airport2Park.org has formed a new coalition to help turn Santa Monica Airport into a great park. They would like to invite you to explore this new initiative at a gathering for everyone to envision what this space could be in place of the current Santa Monica Airport.
Airport 2 park is  hosting a public workshop.

From Airport to Park: Turning Santa Monica Airport into a Park for Everyone

Community Vision Workshop
Date:       Thursday , Oct. 3rd
Time:       6pm – 9pm
Where:    Mount Olive Church – Ocean Park and 14th
Everyone Invited. Free. Refreshments will be served.

We hope that concepts that emerge from the Oct. 3 workshop will help generate new ideas for park use at Santa Monica Airport.

At the workshop noted landscape architect Mark Rios, who recently designed Grand Park in downtown L.A., will give a talk about other great parks around the world that have taken the place of airports and other previously industrial landscapes. Mark’s talk will be followed by breakout sessions where members of the public can share their ideas about what a park at the airport could be. We will also be discussing financing options for the park.