Serving those who’ve served

These days, I spend much of my time exploring Redwood City and writing about my findings. I pay close attention to the city’s many development projects, some of which have me thinking about our local veterans. For instance, the project, now well underway, to build a new Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center in Red Morton Park.

While this new Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center’s primary function will be to serve the older members of our community, as the name clearly indicates, it will also act as a memorial to our veterans, honoring them through exhibits and displays within the building. As for our seniors, having served in our armed forces or not, thanks to the building’s “theater, catering kitchen, multipurpose rooms, senior club room, wellness/adaptive physical education rooms, nonprofit partner officers, gardening space and mini-gym” the center will surely provide myriad ways for those folks to stay healthy and interact with others.

For those eager to experience this building for themselves, the city anticipates that it will be completed by next summer. If all goes well, sometime after that the existing Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center (which is adjacent to the project site) will be torn down, and the proposal to build Redwood City’s new YMCA will commence.

Although lacking the word “veteran” in its name, there is another development project working its way through Redwood City’s approval process that will directly serve both veterans and the community at large: the proposed project to replace the single-story American Legion Post 105 hall at 651 El Camino Real with an eight-story, 300-unit apartment building. That building, in addition to having the usual amenities one associates with such a building, would also contain a 3,600-square-foot American Legion hall, with offices, meeting rooms, a commercial kitchen and a replacement for the current hall’s bar/cocktail lounge, enabling Post 105 to continue hosting the type of gatherings and events that take place in today’s hall while providing housing for both veterans and non-veterans alike.

Of the proposed building’s 300 apartments (ranging in size from 301-square-foot “micro studios” up to 1,046-square-foot two-bedroom units), 232 would be market-rate apartments available to the general public. The remaining 68, however, would be priced for those earning at the very low or low income levels, with preference being given to those who have served in our armed forces.

Sixty-eight units may not sound like a lot, but apparently that would be enough to make this the largest housing project designated for veterans along the mid-Peninsula. Since the building would concentrate a number of veterans in one place, the plans include a Veterans Service Office with at least one full-time staff member dedicated to helping veterans understand and obtain the benefits to which they are entitled.

The project site is a short walk from Redwood City’s transit center, a walk made even shorter if the transit center gets shifted north of Broadway as the city hopes it will be. As well, it would be a fairly easy walk to downtown Redwood City and to Sequoia Station.

Our veterans have sacrificed a lot so that we can enjoy the many freedoms we have today. Honoring them each Nov. 11 seems the least we can do to thank them. I’m delighted to see that some are doing more, creating projects that honor and assist the former armed forces members who’ve done so much for us.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.