L.A. Cancels Memorial Hearing

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks has called off its public hearing on a memorial to Korean War veterans proposed for San Pedro, saying the Cultural Affairs Commission’s recent rejection of the project makes the hearing moot.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Cultural Affairs Department and the memorial’s proponents are trying to come up with a design and a site that the commission would likely approve.

Jack Stites, who heads the International Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee, said the group will study options presented by the city before deciding whether to take their project elsewhere.

“Moving the entire thing to another city is certainly not something we want to do because we have invested all our resources in putting the monument here,” he said. “But we have thought about it.”

Adolfo Nodal, general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department, said, “It’s an open game at this point, but basically we’re all committed to having a monument here in L.A.”

The recreation and parks hearing, which had been scheduled for tonight, was to focus on the environmental impact of the memorial. It will not be rescheduled until the veterans decide on a new plan, according to David Connetta, the recreation and parks official who is handling the project.

The veterans wanted to build their monument adjacent to the Korean Friendship Bell at San Pedro’s Angels Gate Park. But the cultural affairs commissioners ruled last week that the monument’s centerpiece--a bronze sculpture of a dozen larger-than-life soldiers in battle--was inappropriate for that site.

Stites said his group will stage a rally at 7 p.m. tonight at the Cabrillo Beach Museum to demonstrate against the Cultural Affairs Commission’s rejection of the project.