City Council President Herb Wesson has announced funding of $1 million in improvements at the Leslie N. Shaw Park in the Jefferson Park community.

The funding was provided by the state of California’s Housing Related Parks program (HRP).

“This park has become an important asset in the Jefferson Park area,” said Wesson. “I am pleased that we were able to bring substantial new resources to invest in the renovation of this park.”

The park is named after Leslie N. Shaw, who served as the first African American Postmaster of Los Angeles from 1963 until 1969, becoming the first African American Postmaster of a major American city. He later was a prominent savings and loan executive and was very active in the civic life of Los Angeles.

The HRP Program is managed by the State Department of Housing and Community Development and funded through Proposition 1C. The HRP Program provides funds to Cities and Counties for the creation and renovation of parks and park facilities. The HRP Program awards funds to Cities based on the issuance of building permits for units affordable to lower-income households and for permits for affordable housing units that are substantially rehabilitated, converted and preserved during certain time periods

Key to the success of this funding was the work Council President Wesson and his staff did in facilitating the development of two new affordable housing projects in the Jefferson Park area; the Mercy Housing project off Western, and the recently opened Safran project on Jefferson Boulevard.

“We were able to leverage the success of those developments to meet the affordable housing criteria,” said Wesson. “The community deserves a beautiful park, and I proud to have played a role in making that happen.”

The project is expected to be completed in June of 2016.