Preserve History and Green Space at Father Serra Park in El Pueblo the Struggle Never Ends
Posted: December 7th, 2009After a hearing on diverse allies’ motion for a temporary restraining order to immediately stop the City of Los Angeles and the war memorial proponent from doing any more physical work on the wall phase of the Project at Father Serra Park in El Pueblo, Judge James Chalfant of the Los Angeles Superior Court denied the request on December 7, 2009, because the only work left on that phase is to place tiles on the wall’s north face. “The City’s work on the wall has been finished,” according to papers filed by the City Attorney.
The diverse allies, including El Pueblo Park Association, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles, Tongva Ancestral Territorial Tribal Nation, JohnTommy Rosas, a Tongva tribal nation member and a descendent of one of the original Poblador families who founded Los Angeles will continue to work together with The City Project to:
- prepare for trial;
- require a full environmental impact report (“EIR”),
- stop the full war memorial that includes not only the 30 foot wall but also a 20 foot high pyramid
- move the war memorial to the right place,
- commemorate the Tongva Gabrielino Sacred Site, burial ground and village of Yaangna,
- commemorate the history of Old Chinatown and the Chinatown Massacre of 1871, and
- return El Pueblo Historic Monument to the state to benefit all the people of California and the nation.
Department of Public Work’s president Cynthia Ruiz has conceded that the Project requires a EIR, no EIR has been prepared, and the Project is being built in phases. “Ruiz said the current phase of construction is allowed, and that the future, larger memorial will require an EIR” because “’the final phase is a much bigger footprint,’” according to the Downtown News. The City Attorney in court papers concedes “no approvals have been given yet to authorize” the Project, and concedes that the bogus “Notice of Exemption” purportedly covering the Project wall has not been publicly filed. That notice contains a false and misleading description of and justification for the Project that ignores impacts on historical integrity and park space. The Project is being erected piecemeal without necessary review under environmental and other applicable laws.
Father Serra Park, a one acre oasis of grass and trees in the park starved heart of Los Angeles, is the rich historical site of (1) the Native American Tongva/Gabrieleño village of Yaangna; (2) the birthplace of Los Angeles; (3) the Lugo Adobe; (4) Old Chinatown; (5) the Chinatown Massacre of 1871; and (6) the first institution of higher learning in Southern California, St. Vincent’s College (now Loyola Marymount University).
There are better alternative sites for the Project, including the concrete expanse at the Western Gateway of the 16 acre Los Angeles National Veterans’ Park and the 115 acre Veterans’ National Cemetery on Veterans’ Parkway across from the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Wilshire Boulevard at Federal Avenue. Other alternatives include Fort Moore, Pershing Square (which the city has already drowned in concrete), and the 97 acre Veterans’ Memorial Community Regional Park.
Download the December 3, 2009, demand letter from diverse allies here.
The struggle to preserve historical integrity and green space at Father Serra Park in El Pueblo reflects the power of place: “The power of ordinary urban landscapes to nurture citizens’ public memory, to encompass shared time in the form of shared territory . . . . And even bitter experiences and fights communities have lost need to be remembered—so as not to diminish their importance.” Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (1995).
