Family fights 'ghoulish' bid to save scene of Bobby Kennedy's murder

[emad]

The Independent
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
11 October 2004


Aficionados of American assassinations can tour Dealey Plaza in Dallas, where John F Kennedy was shot in 1963, or the Ford Theatre in Washington where Abraham Lincoln met his end. Whether they can continue to see the Los Angeles hotel where Kennedy's brother Bobby was gunned down is nowhere near so certain.

Just days before the fate of the defunct Ambassador Hotel is due to go to a final vote, a furious row has pitted a group of local conservationists against the Kennedy family. The conservationists want to maintain the kitchen pantry where Bobby was shot on the night of the California primary in 1968, along with other signature features.

But the Kennedys find the idea "ghoulish", and say the best way to honour Bobby's memory is to tear the whole place down and replace it with a school for inner-city kids.

In their 11th-hour petition to the Los Angeles school district, which now owns the site, Bobby's widow, Ethel, and several other family members described the Ambassador as a "reminder of anger, fear and hate". They threatened to withdraw their permission to name any future school on the site after RFK.

More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=570728

[Kimber Scott]

1. Tear it down. I don't think we need to keep glorifying violence in this

country. Celebrate the lives lost in more constructive ways like the Kennedy's have suggested.

[rfkrocks]

2. Bobby was about compassion and fighting the good fight-

his legacy is in the dream of a nonviolent compassionate america-where he died is just another place but his spirit is everywhere-tear it down and build a school

[MadHound]

3. I heard an extended discussion on this on NPR a couple of weeks ago

And apparently the idea of building a school on the site, while initially attractive, is upon further review, impractical and expensive. Also, the Ambassador has been, and still is, a fine filming site for movies and television. Appparently several important movies had scenes shot there during the '50s-'90s, though for the life of me, I can't remember the titles.

And right now, the Ambassador is being used as office space, and I think that that is probably the best use that can be made of it.

[flamingyouth]

4. I'd like to see the Ambassador Hotel saved

Mostly because it's a landmark on its own. As an old movie buff, to me that place is loaded with history. And the LAUSD hasn't come up with a very good plan for demolishing the hotel and rebuilding a new school on the site (frankly, they have a lousy track record, if you recall the Belmont fiasco).

[Minstrel Boy]

5. The LAPD tore out and destroyed the door jambs and ceiling tiles

that had been struck by bullets that couldn't possibly have been fired by Sirhan's gun, so there's not much point to preserving the rest.

[QC]

6. The Ambassador Hotel has historical and cultural significance

far beyond being the site of Kennedy's assassination. It should be saved. Whether or not to preserve the place where the killing took place is another matter, and I would be inclined to respect the Kennedy family's wishes on that.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. LA not very competent at building new schools

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20000605&s=anderson

also, the door that was ripped out and burned by the LAPD as mentioned above, contained more bullet holes than Sirhan could have possibly fired.