City estimates Occupy LA's damage to lawn to be $400K, Councilman says he could re-sod it himself

[Liberal_in_LA]

Repairing Occupy L.A. damage to City Hall lawn could cost $400,000

Los Angeles officials say repairing damage to the City Hall lawn where hundreds of Occupy L.A. protesters are camped out could cost the city up to $400,000.

In the three weeks since the demonstration began, city crews have been unable to maintain the two acres of grass and tile walkways surrounding City Hall, said Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. The neglect can be seen in the lawn's brownish hue.

Reviving the grass could require sod replacement and repair to some of the more than 350 sprinklers on the lawn, Mukri said. He noted that $400,000 was just an estimate because the growing encampment has kept city crews from inspecting for damage.

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Zine, who grew up pulling weeds with his father, a gardener, said he doesn’t think the lawn will have to be resodded.

“All you have to do is throw seed and fertilizer,” he said. “Give me a grant and I can go to Home Depot and do it myself.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/occupy-la-los-angeles-city-hall.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29

[hobbit709]

1. Just like those ridiculous damage claims in Wisconsin.

[RufusTFirefly]

9. Exactly!

They are shockingly unoriginal.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. Get this info to Occupy L.A. and I'll bet they will start re-seeding tomorrow

Occupy values the peoples property!

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. not tomorrow. Look at the pic at the link. Tents totally cover the lawn. They'll have to fix it

when occupy ends.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

6. I'm guessing they will. I would., In fact, if this needs to be done

at Armory park in Tucson, you can bet your ass I will be there.

[Snotcicles]

3. They have grass in LA? nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. lol. yes, lots of it.

[robertpaulsen]

7. Reminds me of something similar at Occupy Portland.

From the comments section:

A very important, ongoing battle is going in Portland OR. I'm not aware of a bigger actual "occupation" of public space then that which is occurring here. City officials have begun murmuring about "damage to the park". My tweeted response - "Grass grows back easily, freedom and equality, not so much."

http://www.collapsenet.com/free-resources/collapsenet-public-access/news-alerts/item/4552-occupy-together-takes-shape-ows-co-organizer-and-facilitator-dave-degraw-on-dylan-ratigan

[msongs]

8. or they could replace "lawn" with drought resistant SoCal natives and save gobs of $$ nt

[robinlynne]

10. We're not supposed to use grass anymore anyway. It uses too much water.

This is the desert. There are alternatives to grass, many.

[Earth_First]

11. Again, as someone who is in the landscape industry, I'm calling bullshit.

Just like the $150,000 worth of damage to the shrubs in Boston...

I'd also like to see a picture of $400,000 worth of lawn damage to 80,000 sq. feet...

[flamingdem]

12. I'LL FIX IT FOR $300,00! nt

[Viking12]

13. $400K? What are they going to do, grant a no-bid contract to Haliburton?

[Earth_First]

14. Are there ever any high-traffic festivals held on this lawn?

Arts, crafts, concerts, marathon/5K races, etc?

How ever did the lawn recover then?

Or do they spend $400K every time a group steps on the City Hall lawn?

[WinkyDink]

15. TFB. Ask a billionaire to fix it.

[gratuitous]

16. They're saying this in Portland, too

The number there is $19,000 for the damage done to Chapman and Lownsdale Squares. It kinda took the wind out of the sails, though, when the local news interviewed one of the Occupiers who said basically that Occupy fully intends to repair any damage, and that they could raise $19,000 for that purpose pretty quick (think hours or days, not weeks or months).

It's touching to see all the new found concern for public parks and spaces from folks who until recently were in favor of strip mining Yellowstone National Park.

[Safetykitten]

17. 400 grand? Are they fucking kidding? That's 4.60 a square foot!

You can fucking put in a new irrigation system AND re-sod for that.

[Earth_First]

18. No kidding...

In the contract bid world, it's less than $1 sq. ft.

[Riftaxe]

19. That's pretty cool of you to cough up the

$87k then :)