Augustus F. Hawkins Park

Augustus F. Hawkins Park is a 8.5-acre (3.4 ha) public park south of downtown Los Angeles, California in the United States.[1] The park includes a nature center and plantings donated by the Huntington Gardens in San Marino.[2] Full-size oak trees were trucked to the site from Ramona.[3] Plantings native to California are prioritized, including sycamores and willows adjacent to the constructed wetland.[4]

Augustus F. Hawkins Park
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Location5790 Compton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90011
Coordinates33°59′25″N 118°14′48″W / 33.99028°N 118.24667°W / 33.99028; -118.24667
Area8.5 acres
Created2000
Operated byL.A. City Parks, SM Mountains Conservancy
Public transit accessA Line  Slauson station

The park attracts up to 5,000 visitors a week from the surrounding highly diverse neighborhood.[5] Community and educational programs are hosted in the nature center.[5] A park ranger lives on site.[6]

The park was built in 2000 at a cost of $4.5 million.[3] The location had previously been a municipal storage yard classified as a brownfield.[3][7] The land was formerly fenced off with barbed wire, which has been replaced by stone walls and hand-made artistic metal gates.[6] The land is on long-term lease from the LADWP.[3]

August F. Haw, California

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August F. Haw [sic] is the shortened placename designated by the United States Postal Service for a South Los Angeles area associated with ZIP codes 90002, 90044, 90051, 90059, and 90061.[8]

It is a corruption of the name of the Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park, which was recently built in a highly urbanized area of south LA.[9] The park itself is named after former Congressman Augustus Freeman "Gus" Hawkins.[10]

This corrupted name is recognized on an information pass-through basis by a variety of government agencies, including state agencies such as the Southern California Air Quality Management District[11] and the Medical Board of California,[12] and the federal government.[13]

The name is also widely used in commercial databases.[14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park". City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. 2014-07-30. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  2. ^ "The Los Angeles Times 10 Apr 2003, page Page 61". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  3. ^ a b c d "A Little Piece of the Country Comes to the Heart of the Big City". The Los Angeles Times. 2000-12-17. p. 49. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  4. ^ "A Little Piece of the Country Comes to the Heart of the Big City". The Los Angeles Times. 2000-12-17. p. 49. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  5. ^ a b Roberts, Nina S. (2010). Serving Culturally Diverse Visitors to Forests in California: A Resource Guide. DIANE Publishing. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4379-2618-7.
  6. ^ a b Rosenfeld, Hank (May 2001). Green peace a tip is the hat to the urban park ranger Los Angeles Magazine. Emmis Communications. pp. 32–34.
  7. ^ Loehrlein, Marietta (2013-09-26). Sustainable Landscaping: Principles and Practices. CRC Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-4665-9321-3.
  8. ^ Find a ZIP + 4 code By City Results, United States Postal Service
  9. ^ Proposition O Call for Projects, City of Los Angeles - Proposition O Citizens Oversight Advisory Committee, p. 3, 2005 Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Johnson, Robert Lee (2017-01-23). Notable Southern Californians in Black History. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-62585-115-4.
  11. ^ Air Quality Management District, ZIPCODES WITHIN THE SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT, 2007 Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Medical Board of California, 2008 Cultural Background Survey Statistics by Zip Code/County Archived January 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Alexander Daumit, White House - Office of Management and Budget, List of Valid US Cities, 2007
  14. ^ See, for example, Google search for "August F. Haw"