Sochi Friendship Grove

Sochi Friendship Grove is on the southeast corner of 7th Street and um, I do not know though I walked and drove that block many a time. It is not Park Avenue which runs adjacent to the park. Could easily look it up, but telling it thus, is part of who I am. Selective memory is what I told someone I have. Prior to 1998 head injury had an excellent memory. Selective, but excellent.


I would stop at Sochi Friendship Grove en route to Belmont Shore or to Rec Park. Some days I would put a plastic bag on the wet benches and sit at a table. I like trees and could pass time simply staring at them. I have no recollection of speaking to any of the homeless that hung 'round the park. They slept in the shade on the grass. 2004/2005 there was a regular, a man who I saw there every time I passed through. Today I see one or two homeless sleeping in the park every time I pass through.


Do not know if those homeless are among the "bottom ten", those most vulnerable to death. A goal of that Homeless Survey was to locate and find housing for those ten. But the survey did not look as far east as Sochi Friendship Grove. Nor did it include Martin Luther King Park, El Dorado Park or the Bixby Knolls area.