When I moved here 13 years ago, I wanted to be part of the community, so I responded to an ad in the paper for a cleanup day at Bartlett Park. My kids now just call it the dirt park. When we arrived for cleanup day, we began to learn about this little bit of open space in the "walled city" of HB. Lots of homeless people live in the park. They were given time to clear out their personal belongings and the suckers brought in had the lovely chore of clearing out their garbage. The next day, the homeless were allowed back in. Just great. Hey, I realize the homeless need to be able to sleep somewhere, but I don't want to be the one to clean up their crap and welcome them back home with open arms.
I started studying about the history of this park. Most know about the historic Newland House and Newland Barn in the rear of the Newland Center mall. But the lower portion, the undeveloped area is quite a mess. The area behind the main mall, the upper portion, is owned by the city and the lower portion, down near Adams Ave. is owned by the county. The city portion is a protected Indian burial ground, tree sanctuary and home to some kinds of protected insects, as well as home to a bunch of coyotes. The lower area is similar but is also a flood control channel, formerly operated by the county. Recent development has rendered the flood control useless but it still fills up with water and produces some lovely moss covered mosquito breeding grounds.
Kids use the open space for various unsanctioned activities. There have been bmx bike jumps and ramps dug into the ground with shovels, paintball and pellet ball areas and there is a big nightlife in here for teenagers to do what teenagers do. The sound of helicopters in the area remind us about this activity and folks know cat burglars forage for goods in cars and open garages and stash them in the unpatroled park.
Its actually a great area for folks to walk their dogs during daylight and people are generally cool about picking up after them. They have a few trash bins and a dog waste bag dispenser.
There was a study conducted years ago about potential development. The most popular thing neighbors wanted was a golf course, to replace a closed down course on PCH 20 years ago. The least wanted thing neighbors wanted was also a golf course. Pretty funny. Ball field or soccer fields are sorely needed but the city has decided to create some walking trails, a tot-lot park, some picnic areas and leave it relatively undeveloped. Since this was voted on, 3 years ago, next to nothing has happened yet. We will see what the future holds. read more