Flag-raising fracas: Political fight brews over who grants access to SJ’s Vietnamese garden

SOME LITTLE SAIGON activists are in uproar after a San Jose councilmember’s office changed the locks and the rules for reserving events at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden.

Councilmember Bien Doan announced those new rules last month after becoming the center of political divide over anticommunism earlier this summer among older Vietnamese Americans. The divide has partly played out during the garden’s monthly flag raising ceremonies, which have become an emotional symbol for Vietnam War refugees and a publicity tool for local politicians. Now Doan wants to limit one private group’s hold over the event.