Marina del Rey has the best guest facilities but the worst staff of all the harbors. I hope King Harbor folks are more friendly. I will move tomorrow. My stay at MdR has involved daily meetings at the burton chace park, just a few yards from my boat. I’m also catching up on hot showers with two a day. I had none at Paradise cove or santa cruz island.
While in Los Angeles I had VA appointments and wanted to research some things I had heard about a veterans park or land grab etc.
After my ortho appointment, which got me a cortisone injection, I met with public relations and asset management at vamc wla and they seemed well informed and eager to inform me. The public service professionals I spoke with are also willing to share their version of the facts if you visit at Buildiing 220 or call them at (310) 268-3789….ask, listen and understand more. Waxman is really not very involved and has let assets management run things. Asset management is the group that halted the interrment of dead vets in the cemetary as a misuse of the property.
Misinformation HAS been involved in the Veterans Park Conservancy efforts and protests but I do not pretend to know what is correct. The asset management rep thought that Land Grab was at best misleading and at worst delusional. It is why noone wants to talk to the protesters. VAMC WLA is an open campus and the park will be open to vets although it is paid for by VPC. Thought is that the protesters have lost credibility with everyone at the VA since they never tried to get the facts or sit down with assets mgmt. I personally think the VFP and VVAW should stop protesting and start listening and negotiating.
I also learned that VAMC WLA has a veterans garden and that all the rehabs send people to learn gardening. They even have their own farmers market.
I got lost today looking for the VAMC WLA Veterans Gardens
http://www.losangeles.va.gov/patients/vetsgarden.asp
and found instead the Strawberry Flag Project
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-11-10-StrawberryFlag10_ST_N.htm
My efforts at understanding what goes on at the VAMC WLA led to many discussions on that 388 acre campus. VAMC WLA uses sharing partners to house homeless veterans and promote recovery and integration. One revealing project is Strawberry Flag
Because it is new years eve I am unable to find out a lot about it but signs mention the stationary bicycles with generators and solar panel shade canopies charge car batteries that pump reclaimed Los Angeles River water through fish bins for cleansing and ammonia charging and then up into elevated pvc pipes that form a flag from above and have reclaimed strawberry plants in holes in the pvc. Music also powered by the bicycles serenades the strawberries.
Profits from strawberries are used for retraining projects and individuals in rehab with New Directions, the Haven, the PRC and many other rehab and housing projects at the VAMC WLA help both at the Vets Garden and Strawberry Flag. Walking around the open campus today I realize there are hundreds of vets housed and in rehab on the property. Odd that after more than thirty years of VAMC WLA being my health care center, I am just learning this. VAMC WLA has got some really good programs that are well kept secrets.
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