Potrero Canyon Park To Be Named After George Wolfberg

PACIFIC PALISADES, CA — Potrero Canyon Park will officially be named George Wolfberg Park at Potrero Canyon, in honor of the late civil servant who died of cancer in February 2020. The Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks approved the name on January 21.

The 46-acre park has been in the works since 1986, when the Department of Recreation and Parks instructed a group to look at possible ways to stabilize the canyon and create a park. Fill grading began in 1988, but stopped in 2004 due to a lack of funding.

City Council would later adopt a motion instructing Department of Recreation and Parks to finish the stabilization efforts. The grading phase was eventually finished in August 2020, with crews now working on the necessary landscaping and irrigation to complete the park.

Born in 1938, Wolfberg was a longtime city employee who contributed much to the Palisades. Wolfberg prepared the city's bid to host the 1984, and oversaw Los Angeles' plan to divest from the apartheid-stricken South Africa, for which Nelson Mandela flew out to thank him.

Wolfberg later served on the Pacific Palisades Community Council board for 16 years, including two seperate terms as president.

Councilmember Mike Bonin submitted a motion in February 2020 to name the forthcoming park after the longtime servant of the Palisades.

"Mr. Wolfberg’s legacy of accomplishment and dedication to the community will continue to live on for generations to come," he said. "Given his substantial contributions to the City of Los Angeles, especially in the creation of Potrero Canyon, it is appropriate that the park be named in his honor."

As you know, the [Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee] was formed by the City Council and approved by the Mayor in 2004," PPCC said when the motion was first introduced. "Its respected Chair, appointed by then-Councilmember Cindy Miscikowski, was George Wolfberg – the esteemed three-term, past Chair of PPCC and a pillar of the Palisades community for many years. Ever since the PCCAC completed its report in 2008 containing recommendations for the proposed park’s development, Mr. Wolfberg continued to be an unswerving advocate for the park (now expected to be completed in 2021)."