That Was Then, This is Now — Four Junes Plus a September

The Featured Image Dated September 28, 2015, is an Iconic View That Belongs to the Ages,

Now and again, it is good for one to pause and take stock of the changes that have occurred around us. These changes may have been imperceptible, gradual with markers, serendipitous, or abrupt. Change — whether it occurred within the family, the job, the campus, the church, the community, or the nation — can affect us in different ways and cause an array of different emotions. They may cause (just to name a few) stress, frustration. ambivalence, wonderment, satisfaction, exuberance, and determination.

Certainly, this is the case for those who have been around the Loma Linda University Health campus since 2015, when the make-ready work for the replacement hospitals began. At first, there was a sense of wonderment as the surveyors crisscrossing the east side of the Medical Center from Barton Road, Anderson Street, and Prospect Avenue spraying strange symbols on the pavement and driving stakes into the ground. By the time traffic around the Medical Center Drive was being rerouted, and parking spaces became scarce, the sense of wonderment turned into frustration. Once the parking was sorted out, and the main entrance to the Medical Center was permanently closed in favor of the new entrance off of Prospect Avenue, the patients and visitors began to accept the new normal.

The sense of wonderment soon returned as the safety walls were erected around the construction site. The sense of wonderment quickly begat frustration when it was realized by the community that it would be many months before they could witness what was going on behind the walls. Thankfully, the University solved the problem by installing webcams around the site, which allowed one to watch the construction with a slight buffering every five seconds. The inability for the cameras to zero in on specific areas of the construction was the raison d’ê·tre for this website.

Fast forward to 2019: The reactions and emotions that I have received from talking with people who are standing on the sidewalk craning their necks with a hand shielding their eyes have been varied. As they look up at the huge structure rising high above the existing Medical Center, the word wonderment returns once again. Pride, satisfaction, amazement, and exuberance have been expressed in different ways over and over again. The word unbelief has crept into the conversation (not in a pejorative way, mind you) more than once, i.e. “I can’t believe the building is so tall!”, “It is unbelievable how large this complex is!” One of my favorites: “My wife and I can’t believe they would build a hospital bigger than the Medical Center!”

And so, it is with great pleasure that I continue to update this website to keep the visitor informed about the change that continues to occur behind the safety wall that surrounds the replacement hospitals.