Years of litigation now comes down to a brutal choice: To make room for shelter and housing to get thousands of veterans off the streets, should a judge tear up the lease that allows UCLA to operate its Jackie Robinson baseball stadium on veteran land? And the sports complex of an exclusive private school in Brentwood? Or a Los Angeles city park with two baseball fields and a dog-free area?
As the plaintiffs’ case neared its conclusion in the sprawling lawsuit against the Department of Veteran Affairs, U.S District Judge David O. Carter wrestled out loud over what to do about leases the federal government signed for land on the VA’s West L.A. campus that was bequeathed more than a century ago for the use of veterans.
“I’m going to make a tough decision in a while, and you’re going to help me,” Carter told a plaintiffs’ expert witness on real estate development.
To see exactly what the consequences of his ultimate ruling could mean, the judge, an 80-year-old ex-Marine, led a gaggle of lawyers, law clerks and news media last week on a nearly 10-mile march exploring every corner of the 388-acre campus.
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