As a teenager, Jimmy Kim’s family worried that he was hanging out with the “wrong people” growing up in Koreatown. As the first generation child of Korean immigrants, his family wanted more for him. His older sister helped him get a a summer job through a program with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.
In many ways, he has stayed on the job ever since then.
He worked his way up the ranks, from a locker room attendant to a lifeguard, to an emergency manager, and eventually the first Asian American to lead the department.
Kim, 47, has watched as Koreatown has changed and knows firsthand the importance of green spaces in a densely populated neighborhood. He attended LA High School and as a child visited Ardmore Park, which is now Seoul International Park.
“I would walk to Ardmore with my grandmother a lot. And as I got older, when we would go to the park, we would jump the fence and play baskeball,” Kim said.
As Recreation and Parks’ General Manager, Kim is one of the chief architects for determining how the city will grapple with climate change and how Angelenos will grapple with extreme heat, poor air quality, flooding and other natural disasters.
“I’ve known this throughout my life, but when we talk about Covid, and how many people came out into the parks and the mental health relief they got from just being outdoors, I think it’s telling how important parks are,” Kim said. “I would love for more people to be able to access it. So there’s things that we’re doing as a department to say, how do we bring the people that aren’t already there into the parks.”
Kim spoke with students Terin Lee and Sebastian Mecinas as part of the oral history program with the Koreatown Storytelling Program and The LA Local.
The interview has been edited for space and clarity.
Growing up, were you aware of your Korean identity?
You know, I think, up until I was in the sixth maybe seventh grade, there were a lot of Koreans around me. And as I got into eighth and ninth,a lot of my Korean friends were moving away. They were moving to different parts of the city. And there were a Latinos, a lot of Latinos moving in. And so around eighth and ninth, I would say, my friends shifted from being Korean to being Latino. And so literally, from eighth grade on, I feel like I was kind of ingrained in Latino culture. I would go with my friends to quinceañeras. I was one of the very few Asian kids that was able to dance.
What was your parent’s story?
My dad immigrated to the US somewhere around 1958 and my mom immigrated in 1973 and so their story, I think, is a little bit different from other Korean people that have immigrated to the US in that they actually met here in the US. When my dad immigrated here [he said] he had about $40 in his pocket. And the only place he knew where Asian people were was in Little Tokyo. And so he actually went to Little Tokyo, got a job in one of the restaurants there, and lived above the restaurant. He said that he worked there doing dishes and then eventually he started working for a bakery called Dolly Madison.
My mom, like a lot of Korean immigrants, came to the US to work and send money back to Korea to help their families. And so the story I heard was that my Mom was going to leave for New York, because she wasn’t really making a lot of money here. She found a job in New York to do housekeeping, but it was going to be a lot more money. And so she was going to go to New York. And my dad really was in love with her and said and [told her] to stay here and so they got married, and the rest is history.
Are there any experiences that helped shape your interest in recreation and parks?
I think the reason why I got into Recreation and Parks or just the city, was really by necessity. I grew up in a time in LA when we were all in the streets and there were a lot of bad elements- whether it be tagging gang elements and things like that. For a minute there I was associating with the bad crowd. And my sister, who’s three years older than me, had gotten a job with the city. When she came back [from college],I had gotten in trouble with the law. And she’s like, you need to figure something out and do something that’ll get you out of that type of environment.
My sister, at the time, was working as a pool clerk at Griffith Park pool and she [told me about] a program called the Summer Youth Employment Program, which is through LAUSD.
I applied through that, and I got into the Department of Recreational parks as a junior lifeguard back then, we were getting paid $4.25 an hour. But that was a lot for me. I got started in the summer of 1995 and literally, I immersed myself. And that really kind of got me into the department.
What are some of the most meaningful lessons that you’ve had throughout this career journey?
I think the community impacts and the ability to change lives. I remember when I was a pool manager that was part of my career trajectory. You know, I oversaw a pool in Glassel Park, and there were a lot of youth in the park that were kind of like me, kind of involved with the wrong people. And I remember getting them to participate in our programs. And then eventually I was like, you guys all can become lifeguards, you guys all can have jobs for the city. And so literally, I remember pulling them all in.That’s the impact. You took a kid that could have gone down a different path and now they’re in a whole different trajectory.
How did it feel to become the first Asian American general manager of the department?
You know, I think the impact wasn’t really about how I felt. It was more [about] the hard work that I put in that brought me to this point. But as I started realizing my background, right, I felt as though, like this gives me an opportunity, a platform to really, you know, show what, what city service, what community service looks like, because tradition. Traditionally, I think in our Korean culture, like Asian culture in general, our parents want us to be doctors. They want us to be lawyers. They don’t really think about city government. And I think being of Korean descent, I now have this opportunity to say, look at the amazing things that city government can provide right, not only community service, but I owe my life to this department. I provide for my family because of this department. And so I think that moment wasn’t about, oh, I’m the first Korean American. It was more like, oh, I made it. And then as I started talking to other Korean organizations, and as I started meeting more Korean people in our kind of sphere, I was like, wow. I have this opportunity to really provide a different look into city government, to our Asian community.
What do you see as the biggest environmental challenges facing parks right now, like today?
We could talk about climate change, infrastructure, and aging infrastructure. Traditionally, those are things that we would kind of think about. But at least for me, from a parks/recreation perspective, I look at it from a perspective of global warming. The different impacts to our green space, the impact of green space as it relates to environmental impacts. Because I was an emergency manager, I saw firsthand how climate change has impacted our communities, especially our communities of color. I think how does this department help address that? As we confront environmental climate issues, how are we preparing for climate impacts like extreme heat, drought or poor air quality?
We’ve opened air refuge sites within recreational parks’ facilities. But more importantly, we just finished a park needs assessment. We haven’t done a park needs assessment in over a decade, and this park needs assessment was really at the community level. We gathered a lot of information in terms of where our neediest communities are right and how it’ll help us define as we look into the future and how we shift our resources to make sure that we’re addressing some of the issues and the impacts of climate change, air quality, and just park access. Because I think ultimately, the goal of our department is that every Angeleno has access to a park within walking distance.
Can you talk more about the role parks play in environmental justice and public health? Especially for communities with limited green space, such as KTown.
I think the way we address that is, is really working with the community. [People] that live in LA understand the very high price of real estate. So it’s very difficult to obtain parklands. We’re looking at working with our community partners, working with different advocates within our community, to say, how do we leverage the spaces that we have so that we could provide more access. One of the things that we’ve done in the last five years is that we started a community school boards program, which is opening up some of the LAUSD campuses on the weekends to provide green space access. So we’re working on that and looking at different ways of funding those types of opportunities, and obviously working with different community groups that have spaces where they do want to turn into green space, and then that way we could come in and support and provide programs.
How do you approach making parks more inclusive, safe and welcoming for all Angelenos?
I really do think it’s a partnership, right, and collaboration, because, you know, we as a city department, it’s really difficult because I’m not at every single park. But community [members] are. And so it’s listening to the community, listening to youth. There’s a lot of kids that are part of our program and so I like to hear from them and [ask] what [their] experience was. It’s great to hear from the parents, but how about the youth experience? So it’s really collaborative. We have park advisory boards, neighborhood councils, and so one of the things that I’ve done is, as part because we oversee our park advisory board, is to ensure that each of our boards has youth representation, because we want to hear from the youth as well and their experiences.
What gives you hope about the future of LA’s environment and public spaces?
There’s just very much a big interest in green space, in parks. I think, through [programs] like play LA, and reaching out to youth like yourselves, and then educating them in what, what there is in the park system. I really do believe our children are our future. It’s the youth that come in that get energized and get motivated, and they get inspired by the things that they can do that’ll really move the city forward- whether it be environmental, whether it be park space, but really getting involved. I’m excited to have these types of conversations so other youth can hear that there’s opportunity in giving back to your community and making a difference.
And for the younger generation, what advice would you give to those who want to make a difference in their communities?
I would say get out there and participate in community activities, whether it be through the park system, whether it be through organizations within our community that provide for the community- it’s just really get out there. I see more and more of that, which is really inspiring to me. If there’s youth that are out there, teenagers and those in the preteens, that are kind of leading the way, you know, it really makes a difference. So I would say, whether it be through volunteerism, whether it be working for the city, really just get out there and just give back to our communities, because we make our communities better. We make our parks better.
