hopkins wilderness park

Shame on the City of Redondo Beach for what they are doing to ruin this park! There is a nice little pond with duck and turtles in it, fed by a short creek that rushes down a little hill. Kids have a great time using whatever they can find (stick, pine cone, etc.) to race down the stream. Also food available to feed the ducks and turtles for a quarter. But the koi others mentioned apparently died due to some mis-handling of the pond (which is a now a very dark green opaque color). There used to be a second pond in the back end of the park, with a longer stream running down a larger hill to feed it. We were told by a park ranger that Redondo Beach Public Works decided to save a little money by closing the pond and stream, and that Redondo Beach City Council ignored repeated entreaties by park users to reverse this foolish decision. Before, the nice pond in the back gave the kids a reason to take a short little hike back there. Now your kids may just gripe about being bored if you try to take them past the little pond right in the front. As a typical family making a day visit to the park, there's really nothing of interest beyond the little pond in the front. What a waste! How much $$$ is Redondo Beach saving by closing the rear pond, at the expense of greatly diminishing the appeal of one of the few reasons to ever come to the city (we came over from Long Beach to check out this park and had lunch in the city, but won't be back...not worth the trip just for the little pond, which was also the opinion of our 6 year old). Guess it's still an OK diversion for 15-30 min if you live down the street, but otherwise nothing of interest left here. (By the way, every adult at the park the day I was there had a similar response when they heard about the foolish decision to close the rear pond).