Lawsuit Filed to Halt Memorial

Groups Want Medal of Honor Monument at El Pueblo Stopped

by Richard Guzmán, City Editor
Published Friday, December 4, 2009 3:24 PM PST Downtown News
http://m.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2009/12/04/mobile/news/doc4b199a3188c8d569293944.txt

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES -

Just before a $1 million monument in honor of Congressional Medal of Honor winners is to be unveiled, a Downtown-based advocacy organization and other groups have filed a lawsuit to halt the final phase of the project and move the monument, including an existing structure, to a different location.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday afternoon by The City Project; JohnTommy Rosas, a Tongva tribal member; El Pueblo Park Association; and Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles, a nonprofit community advocacy group, will be heard Monday morning in the Los Angeles Superior Court building at First and Hill streets.

It demands that the city stop all work on the project that includes an already-built Wall of Honor with more than 3,000 names of Medal of Honor Recipients that is scheduled to be unveiled Saturday, Dec. 5. A future 20-foot high structure near the wall would pay tribute to the 40 Latino recipients of the medal. The project is at Father Serra Park at the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. It is called the Eugene A. Obregon Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial in honor of Obregon, a 19-year-old Marine who died in 1950 while saving a fellow soldier during a battle against a North Korean platoon.

Robert Garcia, president of The City Project, said the memorial has not received proper legal reviews and approval by government agencies and the public. He said, in particular, that the project has not received an Environmental Impact Report, and that it would also take away parkland.

He said the project would also affect a site that has historical significance to the city’s Native, Chinese American and other ethnic communities.

“[The lawsuit] seeks to preserve historical integrity and green space at Father Serra Park in El Pueblo and to move the project for the Medal of Honor recipients to an appropriate site,” he said.

City officials have previously stated that an EIR would be completed for the final phase of the project since the first phase, which includes the Wall of Honor, did not constitute a big enough footprint to warrant a study.

Contact Richard Guzmán at richard@downtownnews.com.