City Officials Respond to Mount Washington Plea for Water

When Albert Winn asks for water, the city listens--eventually.

Though city officials said on Wednesday that while there are some technical challenges to bringing water back to the Oneonta-Ochancla stairs in Mount Washington, they are committed to turning the dreams of a group of local volunteers into reality.

Oneonta Inferno

Last Friday, Mount Washington residents Albert Winn and Cheri Uno met with Kai Newkirk, Field Deputy for Council District 14, which includes Mount Washington, at the Oneonta-Olancha stairs in the northeastern area of the neighborhood.  The original wooden stairway, one of many constructed in the 1920’s and 1930’s to connect hillside residents with then-abundant public transportation, was badly damaged in a fire and rebuilt in 1996 as a concrete, brick and steel edifice with funds supplied by then-representative Jackie Goldberg.   A sprinkler system was installed to water the plants bordering the steep staircase.

New Staircase, No Water

A second fire damaged the sprinkler system’s plastic PVC pipe, but water continued to flow until it was abruptly turned off in 2004.  On Friday, Winn told Newkirk he’d been trying to get the water turned back on but neither the DWP nor the Streets Department would claim “ownership” of Oneonta-Olancha staircase, which is officially an easement owned by the City of Los Angeles.

113 Stairs on the Hill

Winn and other residents have taken on the maintenance of the heavily trafficked staircase including the care of the California native plants.  Winn has been watering the drought tolerant greenery by hand, hauling a hose owned by nearby resident Eliot Sekuler up and down the 113 stairs.

The last watering took Winn five hours.

After clarifying that the residents planned to finance a new, “rudimentary” watering system with donations from neighbors and neighborhood associations and “just” wanted help getting the water turned on, Newkirk promised to investigate and to get someone out to the site.

The Government Responds

The “someone” turned out to be a veritable crowd of government representatives. Councilman José Huizar’s area director Zenay Loera accompanied Newkirk.  Also present were: Hector Banuelos, Acting Superintendent of Streets and Trees in the Urban Forestry Division; Jeffrey Childers, DWP Government & Neighborhood Relations Liaison; Denise Gardiner, Civil Engineering Associate and two DWP workers.  Gardiner said she first found out about the Oneonta-Olancha problem from Monday's Patch article and contacted Childers who “spent an hour and half” trying to locate the information on the stairs.

Mystery Solved

According to Childers and Banuelos, Winn was unable to get results because of the “odd arrangement” struck after the stair reconstruction--an arrangement that Newkirk confirmed was never on record.  Banuelos examined the watering system and expressed disappointment that a non-operational controller and one or more leaky valves prevented an immediate “happy ending."  The superintendent also told the residents there had to be a “maintenance arrangement on paper” before the city could proceed.

Newkirk pointed out that a formal contract between the Oneonta-Olancha caretakers and the city would also prevent a recurrence of the water shut-off in the future. Neighbor, lawyer, and long-time stair advocate Gwen Poindexter said she planned to look over the agreement to make sure residents won't be assuming liability for accidents on city-owned property.

A Happy Ending

Winn, cautiously optimistic because of the prospect of imminent water, discussed possible plant replacements with local landscape designer/horticulturist Katherine Parra.

“Once we get flowers, we get volunteers,” confirmed Winn.  “No one likes maintenance.  But everyone likes gardening.”