Developers Set Sights on VA Hospital Grounds
The West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs property must not be turned over to developers (“Battle to Control VA Turf Escalates,” June 23). It belongs to the public and must be used for something that benefits the public in perpetuity, not something that makes a few developers and entrepreneurs rich. I propose that it be either turned over to UCLA to increase its size or be turned into a park, or a combination of the two. The medical center should be moved to the south campus where Wadsworth Hospital is now. The present UCLA Medical Center would then be used for other university purposes. Veterans’ medical care would be blended into the UCLA Medical Center. Over the next couple of decades there should be no need for a special veterans’ medical center.
The north campus of the VA property should then be used for an additional UCLA campus and/or park space. Any commercial use is simply theft from the American people.
Robert M. Miller MD
Sherman Oaks
I note with approval City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski’s and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s protest against the VA’s plan to commercialize its hospital grounds in West Los Angeles. Too often, city and county elected officials have failed, to the point of irresponsibility, to discern potential problems until past the corrective stage (subway construction, school building sites, police scandals).
The best use of this property is as a public park, a sadly scarce amenity in Los Angeles due to past city/county complicity in the greed of generations of developers.
David Dart
Los Angeles
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