Calif. parks, NYC neighborhood on most-endangered sites list

— -- The entire California State Parks system, New York's Lower East Side, and a Topeka, Kan., elementary school that help foment the Civil Rights Movement are on the 2008 list of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places," issued today by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

California's parks made the list in light of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal in January to close 48 parks due to the state budget crunch. He reversed that position last week, however, requesting funding that would allow the parks to remain open. Regardless, National Trust president Richard Moe reiterated Monday that the parks still are suffering from $1 billion in deferred maintenance. The group's concern lies primarily with conditions in California's 51 historic parks, which, Moe said, is indicative of circumstances in other states.

"State historic sites are chronically underfunded. We're trying to dramatize what's happening in so many state park systems," he said.

This marks the 21st year the organization has compiled its endangered list, which targets architecturally and culturally significant sites. Though individual buildings, or urban and rural landscapes deemed threatened by demolition or neglect, typically are chosen by nominating groups and individuals, the National Trust occasionally aims at a wider swath. In 1993 and again in 2004, for example, the whole state of Vermont landed on the list, thanks to development pressures from the likes of Wal-Mart.

The 2008 list includes a number of neighborhoods, including the New York's Lower East Side, where buildings that figure significantly into the country's immigration history are in danger of yielding to development. They include former tenements, which the trust says, "had an impact on more Americans than any other form of urban housing."

Also on the list; Sumner Elementary School in Topeka. Now vacant and the target of vandals, the National Historic Landmark that figured prominently in the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling is slated for demolition.