The Verdugo Hills Golf Course runs along Tujunga Canyon Blvd. in Tujunga. Filmmaker John Newcombe says before the fairways, there was Camp Tuna, housing for the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.
"It was originally a CCC camp, and then within 24 hours of Pearl Harbor, the government turned it into what was supposed to be a temporary internment camp for pretty much all the Japanese workers that, who worked in the San Pedro fisheries."
After the war, the camp became a juvenile detention center. And then in 1960, a golf course was built on the site. Today, community activists are fighting to turn the Verdugo Hills Golf Course into a regional park rather than a condo project.
(Airdate: 5/3/2009)
Comments (1)
Unlike it's sister cities, the City of Los Angeles' seems to value the fees collected from a single developer more than quality of life and history currently enjoyed by thousands.
Preserving this little golf course would be easy for the City - simply refer to its OPEN SPACE plan that clearly features the current Golf Course as an important recreation area in a park poor district.
It's hard to believe LA planners still refer to the project as a cure for the housing shortage in today's glut of foreclosures, but see no downside in converting parkland to pavement.
It's hard to figure.
Posted by Mary Benson | on May 9, 2009 7:57 AM