News of the Arroyo
Title: | Open state of mind |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2007-11-27 |
Summary: | November 27, 2007 - Citizen groups battling for open space protection have won a battle, as Edison changes policy. |
Author: | Editorial |
Publication: | Pasadena Star-News |
Content: | PERHAPS a full-blown corporate embrace of open space for open space\'s sake would have been nicer. But whatever the announced reasoning behind Southern California Edison\'s policy reversal last week on what kind of development it will favor in the huge expanses of land beneath its power lines, the result is the same. The power giant has gone from looking favorably upon public-storage facilities and other infrastructure-heavy uses to sticking with its old, green, low-impact ways: nurseries, tree farms and, it is to be hoped, more public access for trails and recreation. Part of the reasoning, it\'s said, involves about the only upside we can imagine to the recent wildfires that have engulfed so much of the Southland this fall. Downed power lines were to blame for several of the blazes, and SCE sees less chance for contributing to structure fires if there are, well, fewer structures in harm\'s way. Although the company is not allowing as much, it\'s hard to believe that ongoing battles by citizen groups trying to protect some of the last open space in the region didn\'t have at least some impact on its decision. Granted - the fairly narrow and very long strips of land beneath the high-power towers is an odd kind of open space. The Yosemite Valley it\'s not. But there has been a growing recognition that since suburban sprawl has all but swallowed every last vacant lot from Santa Monica to San Bernardino, from Sierra Madre to Santa Fe Springs, you have to take your open space where you find it. Over the last four years, neighbors, customers and friends of Persson\'s and Present Perfect nurseries, longtime tenants in Edison right-of-way land in east Pasadena, have fought to keep the nurseries intact. Sometimes it seemed like a lost cause. A citizen\'s group was formed to lobby for open space in general in response to the fight. So, whatever the cause or the announced reason, this policy reversal by SCE is a victory for the nurseries, the citizens and the open-space activists of Southern California. And this victory should be built upon. It\'s a critical milestone akin to the realization that even paved-over urban waterways such as the Rio Hondo, the Arroyo Seco and the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers should be valued and reclaimed for wildlife and for people. Once such a psychic shift in point of view is made, almost anything is possible in the fight to keep Southern California a liveable place. |
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