A group of women blasted Buena Vista Park in Santa Maria with yarn art to spotlight their objections to plans to remove trees during a renovation project.
The yarn blasting began Saturday and continued Sunday to coincide with the Concert in the Park.
Buena Vista Beautifiers continue to object to city plans for the park’s makeover, especially the removal of older trees.
“It’s a ridiculous plan and it’s real insulting to the neighborhood,” said Virginia Perry Souza, from Buena Vista Beautifiers.
The organization hired arborists to assess the health of the trees, and learned the main problem with the majestic sycamore is a lack of water and need for pruning, Perry Souza said.
Earlier this year, the park supporters lobbied the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Commission to keep many of the existing features, but city officials said the renovation plan had been approved and play structure had been purchased.
Speakers also urged the city to protect the trees, many of which were planted by the Minerva Club, the nation’s oldest women’s club formerly known as the Ladies Literary Society. The park is listed as a Santa Maria landmark.
“One has a good chance of going away,” Recreation and Parks Director Alex Posada said, identifying that one as the sycamore tree. “It will take a little bit of jerry-rigging the improvement because that’s where the basketball courts will go.”
He added parks officials are trying to keep the trees, including the sycamore which park supporters say may be 100 years old, but he believes is younger.
“We want to give the community a nice park. We want to give them something they can be proud of and ultimately use,” Posada said.
But feeling their concerns have been unheard, frustrated park supporters wrapped several trees in colorful year in a collaboration with fiber artist Karen Luckett of Santa Barbara.
“As Karen says, when you yarn blast you bring attention to something people see every day and have them take a closer look at it and see it in a different way,” Perry Souza said.
“We don’t think the community really understands that this park is going to be leveled and redone and over a million dollars of taxpayer money is going to be spent. When really, just some care would be the most healing thing for this neighborhood because we’ve seen homelessness, addition, poverty illiteracy — it’s all right here in our most historic park.”
Luckett, who spearheaded last year’s installation of the “Dormant Dreams” project in the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden and more recently served as design consultant for the Carpinteria Arts Center Yarn Blast this summer, objected to replacing older trees with saplings.
“Meanwhile, this tree that’s breathing and giving us fresh oxygen and beauty and shade is going to be cut down at the cost of how many thousands of dollars,” Luckett said. “This is so anti-environmental of the city to allow this. It’s so anti-park, anti-nature, anti-environment, it’s appalling.”
During Sunday’s Concert in the Park, Buena Vista Beautifiers helped youths make pom-poms to attach to trees with notes while a gigantic yarn-made poppy stood nearby.
Organizers say the Buena Vista Park yarn blasting will remain in place through Sept.18.
Buena Vista Beautifiers plan to present their concerns to the City Council at the Sept. 20. meeting.
The park represents the city’s formation because the Minerva Club members planted the first trees. In the course of getting water for the park, the city became incorporated.
“So it has a terrifically important part to play in the history of our city and to just wipe it clean and rebuild it with a generic park that could be in Anytown, USA, is insulting to the city,” Perry Souza said. “We want to publicize the fact that we’re not happy.”
Buena Vista Beautifiers formed three years ago and has surveyed users to get ideas for the park makeover. The organization includes local residents, businesses and nonprofit groups located near the park.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
