FEATURES IN THE BULLETIN Page 12 Our Town Strawberry Bulletin Volume I, Number 6 Serving the 500,000 Veterans Living in Greater Los Angeles November 2011 This regular feature of the Strawberry Bulletin generally records current events that occur in the lives of some of the citizens of the place we claim as Our Town: the West Los Angeles Soldiers Home held in trust as a home for veterans in perpetuity. It is currently managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second largest cabinet department in the United States, smaller only than the Department of Defense. In this special Veterans Day issue, distributed in Washington D.C. as well as the Los Angeles area, we devote this space to an overview of events concerning veterans, housing, and Los Angeles since World War Two. Sep 1, 1939: World War Two (WW2) begins in Europe. Mis-ter President you Can Can Dec 7, 1941: The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and the U.S. enters WW2. Jun 22, 1944: GI Bill provides WW2 veterans Give them back their Land Land with college funds, unemployment insurance, Guy Hatzvi, of the Metabolic Studio’s Optics Division, on Governor’s Island. The Liminal Camera is pointed at lower Manhattan’s skyline on 9/11. housing, and a new VA mortgage program. If you order change: it’s simple to arrange 1945: Germany surrenders in May and Japan 1 1 in September. 16 million U.S. citizens serving in the military begin to return home. A Homecoming Strategy Enforce the Deed of 88 and Nov 1, 1945: Homeless Marine corporal There is no question in my mind that the we manage for veterans on the campus. By being David Mizrahi (23), his wife Sophie (23), and thirteen empty buildings located on well- here we have continued to learn about the VA their son Bobby (2) camp in L.A.’s Pershing irrigated lawns on the north side of the West of WLA, about how the property is managed, You can change their fate and Square. Los Angeles campus of the Department of where the water systems are, what happens Jan 5, 1946: Army trailers for homeless Veterans Affairs (VA of WLA) will once again, to which buildings when it rains—all the very You will be a first rate Head of State! veterans are delivered to a Burbank site. in the not too distant future, be a home for practical things that large, centrally managed Feb 7, 1946: U.S. government: “2,900,000 veterans. bureaucracies operate. married veterans will need housing by the end Strawberry Flag was a deployable aquaponic The Garden of Defiance has been the wildest Court Focuses on Breach of Trust October 7 filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, of the year.” strawberry farm operated by a team of of the mavericks in our Metabolic Studio stable. claiming that the plaintiffs have no legal standing The federal judge hearing the class action suit activity of the Annenberg Foundation, led 1946: Government-guaranteed mortgages veterans who worked for the Metabolic Studio “Maverick” because its presence has been a and the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. challenging land use at the West Los Angeles VA by artist Lauren Bon, entitled ‘Preserving a prompt private commercial builders to start as part of the VA of WLA’s Compensated Work key unlocking the gates of the north side of the This motion argues that even if the plaintiffs’ has directed the parties to file additional briefs Home for Veterans.’” “allegations about discrimination, breach of 937,000 new homes. Therapy (CWT) program. A whole culture campus, a place we at the Studio call “Our Town.” “pertaining specifically to the arguments about The complaint seeks an injunction trust, and procedural error” are all true, “this Feb 15, 1946: California validates use of grew to surround the object of the farm. Daily Co-managed by Andrew Douglas and Korean the creation of a charitable trust.” The court directing the VA to provide permanent case must be dismissed.” Although the motion public parkland for temporary housing. “Tea at Three” and a vibrant kitchen were keys War veteran Bobby Shelton, who also managed continued the pending hearing on the VA’s supportive housing on the West L.A. VA says the VA “has as a top priority the resolution of Apr 27, 1946: Rodger Young Village (RYV) to de-alienating the site. A Veterans’ Print intensive care for our weakest strawberries motion to dismiss the case, Valentini v. Shinseki, campus, an order mandating the VA to the housing needs of homeless Veterans,” it also opens in Griffith Park to house homeless Studio was created and became a go-to place at Strawberry Flag, the Garden of Defiance has faithfully execute its obligations under the says that actually providing that housing is not its from November 14 to December 5 to allow for the veterans. 750 Quonset huts each house two for veterans in treatment on the VA campus turned a median strip between the western edge 1888 deed to use the donated land solely to responsibility. filing of the additional briefs. families, with over 5000 people at peak. and others who came through word of mouth. of the property and the back roadway of the new provide a home for disabled veterans, and a In opposition to the motion, plaintiffs’ This follows the first round of briefing in which Feb 4, 1952: RYV residents ask L.A. to keep Stories were told around the kitchen table, on CalVets Home into a productive garden. declaration that the land transferred under lawyers argued that federal district courts “have the court received written arguments not only RYV open. It remains until Feb 1954. The site is the farm, and in the Print Studio, and we put Like Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, our the 1888 deed created a charitable trust and jurisdiction to review challenges, like Plaintiffs’, from the parties, but also from the Metabolic now the L.A. Zoo. them into a newspaper. The very paper you story is influenced by the ghosts of the past. the VA is in breach of that trust. to ‘systemic failures’ in [VA] service-delivery Studio and the City of Santa Monica who filed Oct 28, 1952: McCarthyism positions are reading emerged from the conversations Through the vigil her family members continue While the case was still in its infancy, systems, and that the limitation on federal- friend-of-the-court briefs in support of plaintiffs’ Judge S. James Otero pushed the VA court jurisdiction … on which the Government public services as socialist. The L.A. Housing we had at Strawberry Flag and our desire to keep for their ancestor Arcadia, we touch the claims against the VA. toward settlement talks, appointed a relies here, applies only to attacks on ‘individual Authority’s (LA-HA) Frank Wilkinson refuses to to communicate with the more than half residual heyday of the National Soldiers’ Home. The suit was filed June 8 against VA personnel mediation officer to handle the case, and Continued on page 4 testify before the Committee on Un-American a million veterans who live in Los Angeles Over a century ago Arcadia intended that the by the ACLU of Southern California and other ordered government lawyers to name a VA Activities, and he is fired and jailed. County. land would provide a home for veterans, and by prominent lawyers, including Harvard Law official with the authority to participate Sep 1971: West L.A. VA property’s function Since our second Memorandum of “home” she meant a real home with color and in settlement negotiations. Judge Otero 11/11/11 (a.k.a. 11-11-11); Friday, November 11, 2011: Mathematics School professor Laurence H. Tribe, on behalf of changes. Chief of Staff for VA Extended Care: Understanding (MOU) with the VA of WLA warmth. Her family has tried to steward the land ignored protests from the VA’s Justice The number eleven is the sixth prime number. disabled homeless veterans in order to enforce “The original intention of the donor…was ended in October last year and we were denied along Arcadia’s vision, but real contingencies Department lawyer, who argued that the 1888 deed restrictions. The plaintiffs in the The base numeric number system lends itself to some to establish a home for disabled veterans. a third, Strawberry Flag has had to leave the relating to the immense financial value of the appointing a mediation officer and having case have charged that “the VA has eliminated interesting peculiarities as relates to the number eleven. However, now as an actual hospital, the quad between WLA-VA Buildings 205, 208, property have arisen. settlement negotiations at this early stage of permanent housing for disabled veterans, many admission requirements … [are] not only and 209. However, while you can take away Several generations of VA asset managers the litigation was premature. In response, of whom now literally sleep outside its walls, and Base 10 for example: that he be a veteran, but he must have an an MOU, you cannot take away the spirit of have not, for example, always served the deed’s Judge Otero said that he was not going to it now leases portions of the property to private let the federal government hide behind (2 digits) 11 x 11 = 121 identifiable medical condition which needs Strawberry Flag and the culture it stimulated. requirement that the land now occupied by (6 digits) 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321 companies.” bureaucracy, stressing the case’s potential attention in a hospital … ” The form that spirit has taken can be read, in the VA of WLA be used for the sole benefit of (9 digits) 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321 A statement issued by plaintiffs’ counsel importance to needy veterans.