“Just before I visited Los Angeles in the summer of 2008, I read an article in the Los Angeles Times announcing the opening of the first public park in over 100 years in downtown Los Angeles. I was intrigued by the description: the park was being built on former oil field land, where low-income residents were less likely to have access to a free public park. I remember being amazed on my first visit to see how what had been described as a dusty, overgrown area had been beautifully transformed into an urban oasis with spectacular views of downtown LA.
Christy Serratos at Vista Hermosa Park in April 2022, photographed by her husband, John Sowell.
(John Sowell)
“I love that Vista Hermosa Park is free for everyone to enter, whether on foot, bike or in a car. It’s so much fun watching kids of all different ethnicities climbing the rocks, playing in the ponds and short waterfalls, and playing on the stuffed snakes and turtles. I like walking the paths looking at the flowers and various trees in the park. The trees have grown quite a bit since Vista Hermosa opened, which means the views of downtown are a little obscured.”
“I got married two years ago and introduced my wife, Christy, to the park on our last visit in 2022. It was fun to match it with the scene from Fitz and the Tantrums’ 2013 music video, ‘The Walker,’ where the characters walk across the lawn to the city skyscrapers in the background. When I first saw the video, there was no doubt that the scene took place here.”
— John Sowell, Boise, Idaho