Kenneth Hahn: A Brief History Told By Neighbors and Visitors

By Alejandra Rubalcava

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area opened its doors to the community 29 years ago. It has since grown to offer its visitors a natural oasis in the middle of a populated area where they can enjoy a nice day in the 387-acre parkland.

The park is a popular destination for picnics, family gatherings, and people looking for a place to exercise. In fact, Juana Navarro, 48, takes advantage of these facilities on weekdays when she brings the kids she babysits from Beverly Hills to run around and play. However, Navarro, who has lived in the neighborhood for 24 years, has only been bringing them to this area for a couple of months due to how insecure the neighborhood once was. “It’s gotten a lot better. There used to be a lot of violence and you could hear shootings go off all the time. It’s a lot calmer now because the police have patrolled the area a lot more. The park has also been expanding so the kids have a lot more to play with now,” she adds. Navarro vividly remembers how bad the security used to be, and how everyone would rush to try to get home before dawn. Now, “the police are the ones kicking us out of the park and sending us home because we don’t want to leave,” she chuckles.

There have been several noticeable changes occurring around the park over the last few years. Besides its new running pathway extension, and a few extra picnic tables, the most evident is the diverse groups of people who visit and live around the community now. Navarro recalls how up until the last two years, the community surrounding Kenneth Park was mostly African-American and Latino, but that now, white Americans are beginning to settle down in the area as well. “It makes me happy to know that there are white people moving here because that means it’s getting safer and nicer,” she said. However, it worries her that over the next few years, these people might want to start kicking low-income Latinos like her out of the community. “It’s exciting to know that they want to integrate with us, but hopefully they won’t start kicking us out any time soon,” she adds.

Still, whites are not the only thing groundskeeper Tharis King has recently seen around the park and community. King, who has been living in the community for over 20 years, and has worked at the Kenneth Park facility for 4 doing ground maintenance, says that, “We’ve begun to see more diversity in this park. It’s just a mixture: whites, black, Asians, all sorts of people come and are welcome.” King expressed that although the neighborhood was once very dangerous, inside of the park, “sheriffs patrol the facility. We also patrol because being that we are ground maintenance, we can help patrol as we look out for the facility.” Yet, throughout his years living in the area, he’s noticed how “particular” the people who live here are. “There are a lot of politicians. There are a lot of political things we have to deal with. If something is not to their particular liking, they know congressmen; they know politicians that can make us move. So it’s very political and you have to do and act accordingly,” he adds. Nevertheless, King enjoys his job and says that there are many perks to working with the Los Angeles County. One of them is that, “there is always work and a tree or animal that is in need.” He also likes that his job, “allows [him] to take care of a family, buy a house and a car.”

Nonetheless, the Kenneth Hahn State Recreating Area has not always been a community’s gathering spot. Before its establishment in 1984, the current park site was a reservoir built in the Baldwin Hills. However, in 1963, it broke and caused water to come flooding down the Hills, killing at lest three people. Oscar Brashear, 69, who has lived next to the park in Baldwin Hills for 36 years, recalls how different the site looked when he first arrived. “When I came up here, I could still see the cracks… sometimes people would just drive up around there and hang out, but that wasn’t a good idea so they started locking the gate and then nobody had access. This was in 1977, so they decided to have a mark up there in the mid 80’s, which was a great idea and it’s what we have right now,” he adds. The neighborhood however, has not changed much. In fact, during the parks construction, not one property was affected and, “they just improved that area (the park), in place of the cracked reservoir… it was good all the way around.” Since his house is next to the park, Brashear and his neighbors all have a key for easy access.

Brashear says that living in the Hills is isolated, quiet, safe, and peaceful. However, he likes that he’s still in the middle of the city and a short distance away from Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica.

Today, the park continues to be a popular spot for families who come to celebrate their children’s birthday, quinceañeras, couples, and fishermen like Adam Preskill who discovered this place six months ago and has since, visited the park at least twice a week. “It’s great! I love coming here. Everyone is really nice and it’s a beautiful spot sort of tucked away in the middle of LA,” he adds happily.