With the Palisades Rec Center Under Construction, Where Does the Neighborhood Gather This Fall?

"This place is the hub of this community," JJ Redick said on September 15. He was standing on the site of the Palisades Recreation Center at its groundbreaking, recalling a July Saturday when he and his family first visited and saw that the park was "not just a collection of buildings and fields and courts."

For now, that hub is a construction site. The Palisadian-Post reported the project at $40 million. It is paid for entirely by private philanthropy, led by Rick Caruso's Steadfast LA and Redick's LA Strong Sports Foundation alongside the City, and officials called it the largest public-private partnership in the history of the Department of Recreation and Parks. The fire destroyed the modern gym built in 2000 and the tennis pro shop. The original 1950 gym was demolished earlier this year.

While the work goes on, community life in the Palisades has split between two places. Organized programs moved to Rustic Canyon. The informal side of the season, from pumpkins and picnics to tournaments and wellness fairs, moved to Simon Meadow at the mouth of Temescal Canyon. The fall calendar now runs through these two spots.

Rustic Canyon Is Doing the Rec Center's Job

The handoff began before the groundbreaking. In July, the Park Advisory Board met at Rustic Canyon Recreation Center. There, Department of Recreation and Parks Senior Facility Director Jasmine Dowlatshahi said local basketball leagues, flag football, senior kickball and crocheting classes had been moved to Rustic Canyon Park and Penmar Park. Council District 11's September update confirmed that Palisades Recreation Center staff are temporarily based at Rustic Canyon.

The clearest result is this year's Halloween Carnival. The Palisades and Rustic Canyon Recreation Centers, which now share staff at Rustic Canyon, are hosting it together on Saturday, October 31, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with games, costumes, arts and crafts, and face painting. In a normal year, Pali Rec would host its own event.

The Palisades Tennis Center is the one piece of the old campus still in steady use. Palisades Charter High School played its tennis season opener there in September.

Simon Meadow Has Become the Town Green

Rustic Canyon took the scheduled programs. The open-ended gatherings went to Simon Meadow, and the reason has more to do with the Lowe Family YMCA than with the City.

The fire destroyed the YMCA's building on Via de la Paz, and the organization now calls itself a "YMCA without walls." In late summer, the Palisadian-Post reported that its exercise classes and swimming were running at Pali High while the new building is pending. Its long-term plan is a $43 million project covering a new facility at 821 Via de la Paz and improvements to Simon Meadow. The May report that unveiled the renderings gave no completion date. In the meantime, the meadow is the YMCA's main public space, and it has been busy:

• The pumpkin patch opened October 1 and runs through the month, from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. It is a fundraiser for the YMCA's rebuild. There is a hay maze, and Palisadian artist Cindy Simon has set up upcycled scarecrows, webs and other Halloween pieces along the meadow's Winding Way.
• The California Cup Bocce Ball Invitational, in its third year, was scheduled for October 3 with 12 teams. Cassidy Athletics was to build six temporary courts, and the field included defending champions Friends & Neighbors, along with Pali Dad Bods and Untouchaballs. Founder Memo Macalpin described the day this way: "After everything the Palisades has been through, having a day where people can come out, compete, laugh, enjoy a cookout, enjoy the pumpkin patch and meadow, plus just be together is incredibly special."
• The Santa Monica College glass pumpkin sale is set for Saturday, October 10, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Proceeds go to the college's Art Department, the YMCA and local artists.
• The Fall Community Picnic, with local food trucks, is on Saturday, October 17.

The same Saturday as the glass pumpkin sale, the Mayor's Office is holding its 3rd Community Care Day at Temescal Meadow from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It offers wellness services and resources for all ages, plus a free tree giveaway. The YMCA lists the same event on its Simon Meadow calendar, which gives the meadow's October 10 schedule a city wellness fair and a college art sale on the same day, with the pumpkin patch as the setting.

The tournament also gives a preview of what comes next. Once the new Lowe Family YMCA complex is finished, the plan calls for permanent bocce courts at Simon Meadow for local leagues and youth programs.

The Canyon Around the Meadow Is Only Partly Open

Simon Meadow sits inside a canyon that is still recovering. Temescal Gateway Park reopened July 17 with the Rivas Trail, the Sunset Trail toward Topanga State Park, access to the Temescal Ridge Trail, and the Sycamore Grove and Rubell picnic areas. The Temescal Canyon Trail to the waterfall is still closed until further notice because fire damage left hazardous conditions. Dash Stolarz of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority told the Palisadian-Post that the park saw about 1,000 visitors a day before the fire.

The meadow also has a utility yard next door. In July, the MRCA board approved a lease that lets LADWP use about 65,000 square feet north of Simon Meadow and south of the former YMCA pool site, which closed in 2008. LADWP will stage the rebuilding and undergrounding of power lines damaged in the fire there. The first term runs up to three years and can be extended. LADWP's lease payments go back into park operations, and the utility must restore the area when the work is done. The meadow will be hosting community events next to infrastructure work for the foreseeable future.

Will Rogers Had Its Weekend, and the Polo Season Is Over

Will Rogers State Historic Park drew the biggest crowd of the early fall. The 18th annual Polo in the Palisades fundraiser on September 19 was the polo field's first return since the fire. The event benefited Miriam's House, and the William and Anita Newman Foundation team beat the McMillen Family Foundation team 5–2.

The season ended soon after. In the Will Rogers Memorial Tournament final, Pasadena beat L.A. Polo 8–6. The club's 74th season is expected to begin in late April or early May 2027. The park's visitor center is also undergoing a full restoration. With polo done until spring, Will Rogers has no regular weekend event this fall, and that leaves more of the October and November calendar to the meadow and Rustic Canyon.

The Rest of the Calendar Through Mid-November

The smaller venues pick up the rest, many of them also running in temporary form:

1. Today, Sunday, October 4: The Longest Table returns to Pampas Ricas Boulevard from noon to 2 p.m. for a free community lunch.
2. Wednesday, October 21: Theatre Palisades and its Actors' Troupe present a one-night "Dracula: The Radio Play" at the Pacific Palisades Woman's Club, 901 Haverford Avenue. Refreshments start at 7 p.m., the show at 7:30, and tickets are $13.
3. Sunday, October 25: Halloween Pali Veg Fest runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Palisades Village Green, 15280 Sunset Boulevard. It is free, with food, children's activities and a costume contest.
4. Friday, October 30: Día de los Muertos crafts from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the temporary Palisades Branch Library. The library operates in its own parking lot at 861 Alma Real Drive, Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.
5. Saturday, October 31: The Halloween Carnival, hosted jointly by the Palisades and Rustic Canyon Recreation Centers, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
6. November 5, 12, 13 and 14: The Pali High VAPA fall play at Mercer Hall, 7 p.m. each night.
7. Thursday, November 19: Family Storytime at the branch library at 3:30 p.m.

When the Hub Comes Back

The timeline has gotten shorter. At the July advisory board meeting, Steadfast LA's Nick Geller estimated 15 to 18 months of construction and a cost of $45 to $50 million. The groundbreaking coverage two months later put the cost at $40 million and the schedule at 12 to 15 months. Counting from September 15, 2026, that points to completion between roughly September and December 2027.

One piece is planned to come back sooner. Geller said crews will try to rebuild the baseball fields first so the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association can play its season there in March 2027, while work continues on the rest of the park. He also said the partnership's role ends with construction. The finished park will be donated back to the City, which will run it as before the fire. Until then, scheduled programs stay at Rustic Canyon, and the YMCA's events and the City's community days are on Simon Meadow's calendar.

Over the next year, Palisades homeowners will be making plans around these rebuild timelines, from the Rec Center and the YMCA to the LADWP undergrounding work. If the recovery calendar is part of your decision about when to rebuild, return or sell, Susan Stark Homes can talk it through with you confidentially. Request a Private Consultation.