Jorell Singfield Superblog 3- Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area

This is a map view of the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. 

This view includes multiple smaller parks and a recreation center. The map shows how central this park is to multiple different walks of life. View Park, Windsor Hills, and Baldwin Hills are historically black neighborhoods however in the past 50 years they have become black upper class neighborhoods. On the other side of the park however, lies Crenshaw and Culver City. Two lower class minority neighborhoods that featured more brownspaces than greenspaces and had a distinct lack of well maintained parks. This image will be the central piece of my project/ presentation. The aerial view of the park map shows how large the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area is. I love how it outlines each individual park as well as the surrounding landmarks like Holy Cross Cemetery, West LA College, and Crenshaw Plaza. 


The Baldwin Hills Dam Disaster of 1963

This was very interesting to find involving the backstory behind the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. The Baldwin Hills Dam was built in 1951 and served primarily as a water supply for the people of South Los Angeles. It was surrounded on 3 sides by earth dikes and the dam on the fourth side. In December of 1963, the dam breached and the majority of it's 250 million gallons of water rushed into the neighborhood below, killing 5 people and causing 11 million dollars in property damage. Though there were casualties, the work of the inspection and detection teams did well to notice the signs and evacuate as many people as possible, saving thousands of lives. Kenneth Hahn came a few years later and where many saw a disaster site, he saw potential for a massive park. Today the park stands on what remains of the dam. The reservoir is known today as Janice's green valley and is a beautiful green grass field. I saw this as a very interesting piece of history involving the history of the park that is largely not mentioned in all of the articles I found regarding the park. 

Baldwin Hills Dam (California, 1963) | Case Study | ASDSO Lessons Learned 

A view from inside the reservoir looking out towards the city

Comments

  1. Kevin Francisco PenaMarch 2, 2021 at 8:03 PM

    I really liked the historical analysis behind the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation area which I believe provides some context to the project you are working on. The insight you gave on the surrounding areas around your park was also very interesting since it provides the history of the communities around the area. Also showing the other cities around the park which displays the lack of green spaces as you've mentioned provides in more detail about the issues you are presenting within your project.

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