Strawberry Bulletin Volume II, Number 4 Serving the 500,000 Veterans Living in Greater Los Angeles OCTOBER 2012 THE GOPHER PLAN TAKES ITS MESSAGE TO THE PRESIDENT The Metabolic Studio, a nonprofit Los An- geles art studio that publishes this newspaper for military veterans and the arts community, is taking a traveling musical puppet show, The Gopher Plan, on the road in an effort to enforce the Deed of 1888. By that deed, hun- dreds of acres in West Los Angeles were given to the federal government by private donors with a deed restriction that the land be used to permanently maintain a home for veter- ans. Yet this largest VA property in the nation today provides no permanent housing in the county with the nation’s largest population of homeless veterans. The theme of the show is an appeal to the President to enforce the deed and provide housing for homeless vets on the property. Army veteran Curtis Bailey leads a procession of vehicles as the Metabolic Studio team prepares to leave the West L.A. VA and take The Gopher Plan on the road. A map of the team’s intended route is on pages 4 and 5. Gophers are ubiquitous to the land at the West L.A. VA: they have lived in the prairie meadow environment there for 12 million Water Wheel Will Connect years, they operate underground, and they are impossible to get rid of. So the Studio has ad- Los Angeles to Its River This story is reprinted, with permission, from the website of Los Angeles opted the gopher as a mascot for its mission County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. where it was posted August 8, 2012. Angeles history when William Mulholland to return the land as a home for veterans. www.zev.lacounty.gov. first watched Owens Valley water from the The Gopher Plan tour will be in Times Lauren Bon planted green rows of corn on 233-mile aqueduct gush into the San Fernan- Square, New York City on Friday and Satur- a once-forsaken brown field in downtown Los do Valley and famously declared, “There it is. day, October 12 and 13, with stops across the Angeles. She enlisted military veterans to help Take it.” country along the way. her cultivate strawberries hydroponically on While the aqueduct’s legacy has been seen Both the show and this newspaper evolved the VA grounds in West L.A. And now she’s variously—and often simultaneously—as an out of a 2009–2010 artwork, Strawberry Flag, preparing to make another big statement—in environmental tragedy, a monumental rip-off, that Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio the form of a massive, working water wheel and an essential step in enabling the growth installed on the grounds of the West Los An- intended to reconnect Los Angeles with its that created modern-day Los Angeles, the wa- geles VA. During the course of that project, river, its history, and its current environmental ter wheel project seeks less to judge than to Bon and the Studio learned about the Deed of realities. inspire fresh thinking about the future. 1888 and its restriction that the land be used The water wheel is the central element of “I think it’s really critical for us to take a to permanently maintain a home for veterans. an ambitious artwork/environmental project pause and think about our definition of the Though Strawberry Flag came down in Oc- to be created next year on a sliver of land be- city,” Bon says. “My position is that it’s time tober 2010, the Studio artists and veterans side the Broadway bridge over the L.A. River. to look at the next hundred years. This work still publish this Strawberry Bulletin (1888. The site is right next to the Los Angeles State is about saying we need to do a lot better very metabolicstudio.org) and still work to enforce Historic Park at the edge of Chinatown, where quickly with figuring out two things: how to the Deed of 1888 in an effort to get the VA to Bon’s Not a Cornfield transformed the land- retain our water and how to send the rest of it house veterans on the property. Together with scape in 2005. out to sea cleaner.” Les Figues Press, the Studio recently pub- Drawing on the historic water wheels that Indeed, the water wheel—to be known by lished a book, Preserving a Home for Veterans, dotted Los Angeles from 1854 to 1900, this its Spanish name, La Noria—is expected to that makes the case that the VA is in breach of latest endeavor is being timed to coincide play a hard-working role that goes well be- its fiduciary duties under the deed. with the 100th anniversary of the dedication yond its aesthetics. Powered by the flow of the The subject of the use/misuse of the West of the Los Angeles Aqueduct—November 5, L.A. River, the turning wheel would lift river L.A. VA land has gone national in an extraor- 2013. The project seems destined to spur new water in buckets high above the ground. The dinary way in just the last thirty days. (See the discussion of the landmark moment in Los lifted water would be filtered, transported via Continued on page 7 Continued on page 6 OPINION IN THE BULLETIN PAGE 2 Editorial (Exodus) and Bldg. 257 (DDTP along with New Directions dual diagnosis pro- September Morn gram; in the basement is the ADTP out- The subject of the use and misuse of the patient and Methadone Program)…. land at the West Los Angeles VA has gone na- There are plenty of patients who tional in an extraordinary way in just the last come here on a regular basis, and I feel thirty days. On September 10, National Pub- they would also like to have a voice…. lic Radio ran a piece entitled “Los Angeles VA What I propose is the formation of a Vet- Has Made Millions on Rental Deals,” saying eran Consumer Council that meets once that VA plans to create housing for disabled a month with representation from each homeless vets “have gone nowhere.” NPR program on the grounds and any Veteran that added, “Meanwhile, government documents receives services at GLAHS. Representatives show that the VA has made millions of dollars will collect from their program issues, ques- renting out chunks of the property to private tions, and concerns and other outpatient Vet- enterprises.” erans. Those will be presented at this meeting On September 20, The New York Times for discussion of possible recommendations ran an editorial entitled “Veterans in Los Letters to remedy there at the meeting, and the points Angeles, Still in the Cold,” asking, “When that fall outside the council’s parameters will is the Veterans Affairs Department going To the Editor: be prioritized and presented in a formal let- to meet its responsibility to house chroni- It was awesome to meet [Metabolic Stu- ter that will presented in person the two Con- cally homeless veterans in Los Angeles… ?” dio’s Garden of Defiance juicing] crew; what an sumer Councils here at the hospital. First the Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez awesome juice bar you have started with the Mental Health Consumer Advocacy Council wrote on September 26 that the VA’s West Los soldiers. Many people do not understand how and then the Consumer Advisory Council, to Angeles land misuse has become an issue in important this is for the many military [veter- be addressed by them to the proper depart- the Waxman/Bloomfield Congressional elec- ans]. I would love to be a part of this in any way ments, supervisors, and administration if tion, saying that Congressman Henry Wax- that I can be. I see how my son Jesse lights up necessary. The letter will also be cc’d to Con- man called the VA exasperatingly dysfunc- when he is talking about his garden spot. Hav- gressmen, Senators, County Supervisors, and tional and an aide to County Supervisor Zev ing a focus is so important. I really thank you local government officials to help with the Yaroslavsky said the VA’s actions were “un- and everyone involved for caring. issues. conscionable.” —Mom of two great soldiers I feel the only way for us, Veterans, to be And The New York Times on September 29 Bakersfield, California heard loudly is to be united. Thank you for ran letters from the national coordinator of your forum to voice our concerns. the Congressional Black Caucus and the Vet- To the Editor: Sincerely, erans Braintrust (“the dispiriting lack of ur- There seems to be a myriad of problems —pc, Veteran gency in housing homeless veterans in Los affecting the Veterans here at the [VA GLAHS] Angeles”) and two of the lawyers for the plain- (West L.A. Hospital). If you listen closely The Strawberry Bulletin invites letters from readers on any tiffs in the Valentini class action suit against and have been around the hospital long subject. All letters must include the writer’s name and a phone number and address through which the writer the VA (“government lawyers have repeatedly enough, it becomes evident that the problems can be reached. Address and phone number will not be stated that the VA has neither the obligation repeat themselves and always from a differ- published; name may be withheld upon request. Letters are subject to editing by the Bulletin for reasons including nor the authority to provide housing desper- ent source. The Veterans here feel powerless length or questionable expression.