With a band of traditional Korean drummers, a Latin dance group and a martial arts exhibition, city officials broke ground Wednesday on a small urban "pocket park" at the site where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 40 years ago.
Few in the group of more than 200 people who turned out to witness the event seemed to know much about Kennedy, other than that he was shot to death at the site of the old Ambassador Hotel after winning 1968's California presidential primary.
But many said they thought a park would be a fitting tribute to the late senator and a valuable resource to the crowded, multiethnic community where public schools are in short supply and public spaces so hard to find that people breaking for lunch in the area often have to sit on sidewalks or lean against buildings as they eat.
"I'm too young to remember, but I thought the words said about him today were very touching," said Dore Burry, who works at the nearby Koreatown Youth and Community Center.
Most of those words came from Damian Carroll of the political group San Fernando Valley Young Democrats, who said one of the organization's goals was to carry forth Kennedy's commitment to ending poverty, promoting civil rights and rebuilding inner city areas like the one where the park is going up.
Carroll, the last of nearly a dozen speakers at the groundbreaking was also one of the few to actually mention Kennedy by name. He quoted from a 1966 speech the senator gave in South Africa when he was one of the few U.S. politicians of his time to publicly oppose that country's apartheid system of racial segregation.
"Few will have the greatness to bend history but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation," Kennedy said. "Each time a person stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Those words will be etched in stone near the park's entrance.
(...)
Few in the group of more than 200 people who turned out to witness the event seemed to know much about Kennedy, other than that he was shot to death at the site of the old Ambassador Hotel after winning 1968's California presidential primary.
But many said they thought a park would be a fitting tribute to the late senator and a valuable resource to the crowded, multiethnic community where public schools are in short supply and public spaces so hard to find that people breaking for lunch in the area often have to sit on sidewalks or lean against buildings as they eat.
"I'm too young to remember, but I thought the words said about him today were very touching," said Dore Burry, who works at the nearby Koreatown Youth and Community Center.
Most of those words came from Damian Carroll of the political group San Fernando Valley Young Democrats, who said one of the organization's goals was to carry forth Kennedy's commitment to ending poverty, promoting civil rights and rebuilding inner city areas like the one where the park is going up.
Carroll, the last of nearly a dozen speakers at the groundbreaking was also one of the few to actually mention Kennedy by name. He quoted from a 1966 speech the senator gave in South Africa when he was one of the few U.S. politicians of his time to publicly oppose that country's apartheid system of racial segregation.
"Few will have the greatness to bend history but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation," Kennedy said. "Each time a person stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Those words will be etched in stone near the park's entrance.
(...)
Over subsequent years, the hotel, whose visitors once included every president from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon, fell on increasingly hard times, as did the neighborhood. When the hotel was demolished in 2006 to make way for schools it had been closed for several years.
As part of a neighborhood overhaul, three new public schools serving students from kindergarten through 12th grade are going up on the site where the hotel once stood. The park will serve as one of the entrances to the schools, with a portrait of Kennedy carved in marble and the words to his speech welcoming visitors.
The park hasn't been formally named yet, but a model put on display at the site Wednesday proclaimed it "Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park," and Paul Schrade, a Kennedy family friend, said that is what the family would like.
The park comprises only a third of an acre, not much larger than a moderate-sized residential home lot. That has led to some complaints from nearby residents, including one anonymous blogger who sarcastically thanked officials "for sparing a driveway."
But Carlos Smith, who lives across the street in another L.A. landmark, the venerable Gaylord Apartments, said he was satisfied.
"You don't want it too big," he said. "It's for the neighborhood. Bigger brings in too much traffic and too many drug guys."
Like others in the neighborhood, Smith, 52, said he knew little about Kennedy.
"I know Robert Kennedy got shot there, of course," he said gesturing to the skeleton of a school building going up where the hotel once stood.
"That was a sad thing," he added. "But it's a nice thing that a park has come out of it."
As part of a neighborhood overhaul, three new public schools serving students from kindergarten through 12th grade are going up on the site where the hotel once stood. The park will serve as one of the entrances to the schools, with a portrait of Kennedy carved in marble and the words to his speech welcoming visitors.
The park hasn't been formally named yet, but a model put on display at the site Wednesday proclaimed it "Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park," and Paul Schrade, a Kennedy family friend, said that is what the family would like.
The park comprises only a third of an acre, not much larger than a moderate-sized residential home lot. That has led to some complaints from nearby residents, including one anonymous blogger who sarcastically thanked officials "for sparing a driveway."
But Carlos Smith, who lives across the street in another L.A. landmark, the venerable Gaylord Apartments, said he was satisfied.
"You don't want it too big," he said. "It's for the neighborhood. Bigger brings in too much traffic and too many drug guys."
Like others in the neighborhood, Smith, 52, said he knew little about Kennedy.
"I know Robert Kennedy got shot there, of course," he said gesturing to the skeleton of a school building going up where the hotel once stood.
"That was a sad thing," he added. "But it's a nice thing that a park has come out of it."
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