A pair of parents laughed as they tried out the exercise equipment at one corner of Goleta's newest park, while their kids seemed bemused at the sight of their parents messing around on a stair stepper. Another family picnicked next to San Jose Creek on the black-topped bicycle path, a short piece that will one day connect the beach bikeway to Calle Real, on the other side of the 101. It was Saturday afternoon at 170 South Kellogg Avenue, four acres of land that narrowly escaped capture by the state Redevelopment Agency boondoggle, on the first day it officially transformed to the Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park.
"No one would have been happier to see the new park opening," said Kitty Bednar, Wallis's longtime partner. "Jonny would have been the first to thank everyone who worked so hard to make that possible." Wallis, voted onto the city's first council in 2002 and one of the city mothers, had advocated for Old Town parks, gaining Armitos Park during her 45 years in Old Town before her death in 2013.
Bednar said she'd been on a walk the week before and had been pleased to hear one of her neighbors at the park telling his children, "We'll be able to play there next week. It's opening!"