A Message from BEEP's President Rex Frankel:
About Our Lawsuit...
In 1985 I started fighting to save West LA's Ballona Wetlands, which I grew playing in. Since then we have doubled the size of the preserve, now 625 acres in public hands and another 100 acres of bluffs privately preserved and publicly accessible.
For the last 11 years, I have led educational hikes at Ballona Wetlands for the LA Hiking Meetup Group. My most recent hike at Ballona was April 9th: https://www.meetup.com/los-angeles-hiking-group/events/285089962/
In January of 2021, the Ballona wetlands advocacy group that I have run since 1993, called the Ballona Ecosystem Education Project, or BEEP, filed suit against the State of California which has owned the Ballona Wetlands since 2003. In December of 2020, the State bureaucracy approved a ten year bulldozing plan to allegedly “restore' this natural area to its former state before the area was colonized by European settlers. BEEP's lawsuit to overturn the ten year plan seeks a more community-friendly project.
BEEP needs tax-deductible donations to help pay our attorney and court costs. Please email me at rexfrankel@yahoo.com or text me at 310-738-0861 if you'd like to donate.
WHAT BEEP IS FIGHTING FOR:
Comparing the State Plan to BEEP's Plan
--DO WE REPAIR BALLONA IN 10 YEARS OR 1 YEAR?
--DO WE CONVERT IT INTO SOMETHING IT NEVER WAS? OR DO WE “RESTORE” IT ?
--SHOULD IT BE 1 HABITAT TYPE OR 3?
--SHOULD THE PUBLIC BE BLOCKED FROM HIKING TRAILS FOR TEN YEARS OR SHOULD THE TRAILS BE OPENED NOW?
--SHOULD IT COST $200 MILLION OR AN AFFORDABLE PRICE?
--MUST ALL WILDLIFE AND PLANTS AND ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES BE WIPED OUT
OR CAN WE JUST CLEAN UP TRASH, PULL WEEDS, DO MINOR PLUMBING REPAIRS, AND
ADD CLEAN FRESH WATER?
The next court hearing is August 2nd at 1:30PM in Dept 85 at Downtown LA Superior Court. For the status of BEEP's Ballona lawsuit, search here: https://www.lacourt.org/casesummary/ui/ with this Case Number: 21STCV03657
see the 6th story in this blog post: https://playavistapeople.com/?fbclid=IwAR0zWkCwG-7cQWHDCMJz-M_bgCNmdbKK3W_BD4T7M6c4JKZPwUg1bs7sIsk
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VIDEOS AND OTHER INFO:
BEEP's Websites are:
http://ballona-news.blogspot.com/
http://DontBulldozeBallona.com
Ballona is not so degraded to require a 10 year bulldozing remake, 11/10/2021
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10227846249368664 11/11/2021
UCLA-USC STUDY CONTRADICTS BULLDOZER PLAN:
On the USC and UCLA scientists’ Ballona Historical Ecology Study, which concluded that a historically accurate restoration is the opposite of the State's plan.
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10228160487504421
Need for industrial scale bulldozing plan is fake; 1/23/2022
SMMC board won't endorse Ballona bulldozing, 1/23/2018
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10228274424152766
the issues in BEEP's lawsuit (5 min) 11/8/2017
https://youtu.be/rRfBRG1OBZo same video with captions
government agencies systematically drying the Ballona Wetlands (4 min) Coastal Commission hearing 12/14/2017
5/08/2019 Coastal Commission hearing on Ballona restoration (see 40:10, need for historically accurate restoration plan)
10/18/2017 to Sierra Club (EDIT) BEEP's President explaining why the Ballona bulldozing project is not a restoration (3 min.)
10/18/2017 full Sierra Club presentation (58 min, 0-29 speech, 29-58 audience questions)
OTHER ISSUES:
BEEP's website on Native plants of the Ballona Wetlands, is linked to Google image search, so you can ID what you see, or even better, choose plants for your garden that make it a haven for local wildlife
http://ballonaplants.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rex.frankel/posts/10228578171066249
proposed Ballona bluffs donation to BEEP, 3/18/2022
