Here is an opportunity to go mano y mano with the lady and gentlemen of the City Council, well away from the encumbrances and formalities of Council Chambers.
Casual, the style will be.
Tuesday evening at 7, at Syd Kronenthal Park in East Culver City, Council members will meet with complaining neighbors – parents, to be specific.
Complainers will look a City Hall gift horse in the mouth, not to mention its 10 keen eyes. They will beef about how a well-intentioned gesture slid south — to the perceived detriment of their children.
“This was a true learning experience,” Mayor Mehaul O’Leary said this afternoon of the mess that has spread like floodwaters across six-acre Kronenthal Park.
With a grant last winter that fell short of the desired/needed amount, the city replaced the older kids’ equipment at Kronenthal Park. They did not have enough money to cover the whole playground.
Mr. O’Leary takes up the narrative.
“Equipment for the 3- to 5-year-olds was not changed,” he said. “And so they were attracted to equipment for older kids.
“Now that the old equipment for bigger kids has been changed, the new is beyond their capabilities. And the younger kids’ equipment is ‘way below them.”
What do five ostensibly wise persons do to resolve this thorny social dilemma?
“There has been an outpouring (of gripes) from parents of these 3- to 5-year-olds,” said Mayor O’Leary.
“Not only is there a big group of them over there, they are even organized.”
He sighed.
“This has been a great learning experience in politics for me,” said the Irishman, in his final year on the Council.
“We obviously acted without getting opinions from the neighbors.
“This is a lesson we have learned for the future,” Mr. O’Leary said.
