{"id":1096,"date":"2017-11-14T01:52:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T01:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/redesigned-park-plaza-honors-fallen-vetsveterans\/"},"modified":"2017-11-14T01:52:35","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T01:52:35","slug":"redesigned-park-plaza-honors-fallen-vetsveterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/redesigned-park-plaza-honors-fallen-vetsveterans","title":{"rendered":"Redesigned Valor Plaza at Houghton Park Honors Fallen Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"20171111<\/p>\n

Photos by Michael Garcia.<\/em><\/p>\n

The fences have been removed from Valor Plaza at Houghton Park, where an Army helicopter known as the Huey is perched high and a memorial lists the names of the 108 local area men killed in the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to celebrate our veterans and thank them for their service,\u201d Mayor Robert Garcia said at the ceremony. \u201cLong Beach has a strong history of veterans in our community and a great tradition of honoring and supporting our veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valor Plaza now has new landscaping, benches and lights, following community feedback about which projects needed improvements the most. A walkway now connects the sidewalk to the plaza allowing, passersby to see the Huey and memorial up close<\/p>\n

\"20171111<\/p>\n

The memorial, installed in 2000, was designed by Long Beach City College art student Christopher Umana, and features an actual Huey that flew over two thousand combat hours in Vietnam. It was dedicated on Veteran\u2019s Day of that year, after an effort spearheaded by Long Beach Vietnam Veterans of America<\/a>, Chapter 756.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong Beach started off as a navy town and was the Pacific headquarters back in the 1900s,\u201d thirty-year navy veteran Bob Uribe told the Post<\/em>. \u201cAnd here we are still honoring our veterans, carrying on that culture and heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a navy town, ships were built on the Long Beach harbors and thousands of sailors living on naval bases called the city their home.<\/p>\n

\"20171111<\/p>\n

Mayor Garcia added that he will continue to honor veterans in the community and that more projects are on the way with members of the Long Beach Veterans Commission working on the projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our Boston Common,\u201d Vice Mayor Rex richardson said at the ceremony. \u201cEverything takes place at the park and we’ve really tried to pull people in and help them understand what\u2019s happening in our park and city.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new digital sign also stands high at the park, displaying information about events and projects happening around the grounds.<\/p>\n

\"20171111<\/p>\n

After the ceremonies, Long Beach Poly High\u2019s band marched the streets and decorated classic cars and Humvees slowly drove by from the Michelle Obama Library to the park as spectators cheered and said \u201cthank-you\u201d to those who served along the Veteran\u2019s Day Parade route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe want to celebrate our veterans and thank them for their service,\u201d Mayor Robert Garcia said at the ceremony. \u201cLong Beach has a strong history of veterans in our community and a great tradition of honoring and supporting our veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":66561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[519,243],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-veterans","tag-veterans-day","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}