Checking In on the Bunk

Time to check in on the bunk!  Now, bunk is not a word you hear often—bunk being short for bunkum. Bunkum means foolish claptrap and lemme tellya, our silly world of Los Angeles is all-fire replete with that.

Plus, you know, bunk, Bunker Hill, it all ties together.  Lately I’ve taken to task the bunk-ridden establishment narratives about Bunker Hill-related topics like Cooper Donuts, Chavez Ravine, and Pershing Square, and I thought it would be fun to “check in” on these subjects and see how the ruling class is conducting itself of late.

Why do I care? Some of you might say “well, you’re an old meanie, just trying to tear down the stories of marginalized people!” and of course the opposite is true. I’m all for the stories of marginalized people, but those stories have to be accurate. Inaccuracy makes me angry and offended in general, but particularly when it bleeds into Los Angeles history. Don’t believe me? I once played LA Noire for an hour and the next day wrote five thousand words about its inaccuracies. I saw Ask the Dust and nitpicked the living hell out of it. And those are fictional/fictionalized depictions—stuff like Coopers/Chavez/Pershing is the government and other unethical folk telling us “we now provide you the true version of actual historical events, which you know to be true because…we say so” when they are, knowingly or not (spoiler alert: knowingly) peddling blatant untruths.

So! Without further ado, let’s poke our noses into what’s new around town—

***COOPER DONUTS***

As you are undoubtedly aware, it has been conclusively proven that there was never a Cooper Donuts riot (the only person who ever claimed an unverifiable kerfuffle even happened and/or was a witness to said event, stated it did not happen at a Cooper’s) AND it has been conclusively proven there was never a Cooper Donuts anywhere near the famed gay bars on the 500 block of Main Street (e.g., Harold’s at 555 South Main…and no, before you say “well it happened at Second and Main which is nearby and has to be true because Kevin de León put a plaque there” be advised that is, as well, false, because there was no Cooper Donuts anywhere near that corner in either the spring of 1958 or 1959, when said lone witness claimed the event occurred).

And yet, these simple facts didn’t stop muralist Judy Baca, who depicted the myth on a mural at LACMA. 

In her cynically dishonest artwork, Cooper’s—represented as sited adjacent Harold’s—was the location where trans POC battered LAPD with pink donuts.  Let’s agree it’s a nice picture and is uplifting for the LGBTQ+ community, and isn’t that the point, stories that fill us with pride? In which case it’s no different from, say, a grand salon painting of Napoleon’s triumph at Waterloo.  Let’s pretend for a moment that a monumental nineteenth-century canvas called Napoleon’s Triumph at Waterloo hangs in the Louvre, and that picture is a magnificent source of emotional and spiritual uplift for the citizens of France, I suppose, despite it being based on absolute horseshit.  A French reverence for that painting wouldn’t make the French look strong and proud; it would make them look foolish.

Any mention of Baca’s work will tell you she consulted historians and scholars, but of course I don’t have to tell you, painting a fanciful image of something that didn’t happen is the opposite of history.  It’s ironic that what she is painting is assuredly not history, despite the mural’s official title being The History of California. 

***CHAVEZ RAVINE***

The reparations bill—made up mostly of nonsense, but at least it contains some half-truths—is working its way up the governmental ladder and (having been passed by the Senate Judiciary) is on its way to the Governor’s desk. 

Buried Under the Blue, who triumphantly exclaimed “we did it!” when the bill was announced, have since become really cranky about the bill, and critical of the bill’s author, Councilmember Wendy Carrillo.  Apparently all BUtB really wanted to do is go after the Dodgers (guess they figure it’s better optics to go after the deep pockets of a corporation, than the deep pockets of taxpayers).  But, to Carrillo’s credit, since the Dodgers had nothing to do with the depopulation of Chavez Ravine, Carrillo left them out of the bill.  BUtB’s frothing hatred of the Dodgers being so pronounced, they have since, therefore, branded Carrillo a traitor to La Raza. 

In other news, BUtB has recently posted a couple shots of an anomalous 1950s self-published newsletter that’s online at UCLA.  BUtB again attempts some gaslighty slight-of-hand by putting a screengrab on social media and then claiming “look!  This archival document PROVES all sorts of malicious Dodger forethought and diabolical political activity!” when, of course, a study of the actual material doesn’t bear that out at all.  (BUtB has done this sort of thing before, like when they posted a shot of a letter and said “look!  Here’s PROOF the Dodgers knew about La Loma, Palo Verde and Bishop years before they came to Los Angeles and were working actively to destroy the communities!” when of course should you actually read the letter, it says nothing of the sort.)  

In this case BUtB at last discovered the 14-page newsletter (in my day we’d have called it a ‘zine) online at UCLA, called the Torch Reporter, printed in September 1957.  According to BUtB, it was put out by “residents and supporters.”

True, it was put out by a supporter—a lone woman named Tara Joyce, who lived in Hollywood.  The September ’57 Torch Reporter is full of Chavez Ravine (Joyce subsequently dropped Chavez Ravine and turned her attention, in the next issue, to the question should West Hollywood incorporate as a municipality?) and exists as a minor, but interesting, piece of Chavez curiosa:  Joyce was all worked into a froth, especially, because she worried about oil.  Yes, back in the day, the big question was who was getting the mineral rights?  According to the Torch Reporter, there was never a plan to build public housing; that was all misdirection in the greater scheme to steal Chavez residents’ precious oil—which only residents of Chavez Ravine should be allowed to drill. Drill, baby, drill! 

In any event, BUtB discovered the Torch Reporter online and said “this proves” City Hall and the Dodgers were at work to knowingly and specifically destroy La Loma, Palo Verde, and Bishop. 

See the Instagram screengrab above, claiming here exists “proof” the mayor was working to “take our homes”? Yeahhhh, so, if you actually read this page of the Torch Reporter, it only discusses how that, during one of Mayor Poulson’s speeches, Poulson didn’t mention Chavez Ravine, and Tara Joyce is irked because she thinks he should have. (A similar conversation— Joe: “Did you know Eisenhower used ray guns to kill all the Portuguese? I have proof!” Bob: “How do you have proof of that?” Joe: “Because Eisenhower gave a speech, and made no mention of it!”)

Besides being largely about retaining mineral rights, Joyce’s Torch Reporter contains all sorts of wild claims:  for example, that 7,500 families were removed (um, nooooo).  It claims the Church of Santo Niño, at 1034 Effie, was “built by the evicted families of Chavez Ravine” (it was built by the Diocese).  And so forth.  The first-person accounts by Glenn Walters and Alice Martin are exceptionally interesting and valuable, though.  Read it all for yourself by clicking here.

***PERSHING SQUARE***

Not a lot going on with the renaming of Pershing Square; it’s still pending in committee (the Neighborhoods and Community Enrichment Committee, to be precise). I submitted a comment to the City Clerk, which you may read here, but it’s annoying that when one submits, their bot converts your message to a single paragraph. I’m not smart enough to figure out attaching PDFs, as Bob Wolfe did in his excellent “Communication from Public.” Therefore, here are my comments with the proper paragraph breaks:

The big news, though, about Biddy Mason Memorial Park, is that the water features have been restored—

—as reported by Esotouric, here.

************

Those being the updates on that which falls under the “debunking Bunker” umbrella. One of these days I’ll tuck into some of the other juicy Los Angeles stories that so desperately need to be disproven…until then, then!

In the meantime, remember—