To the editor: I am frustrated to read about Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez's proposal to spend valuable city resources closing Wilshire Boulevard through MacArthur Park.
This is a distraction from the real and pressing problems of the MacArthur Park/Westlake neighborhood. The neighborhood has some of the worst poverty and violence in the city. Instead of diverting limited public resources to grand, symbolic gestures that will have no meaningful impact on the people who live there, the council member should focus on providing the neighborhood with at least some of the basic services it seems to be almost entirely lacking: police protection, trash collection, public health services, clean spaces for street vendors, street sweeping, and graffiti removal.
I agree that green spaces are very important to every community, but rather than expanding a poorly maintained and dangerous space that we already have a hard time managing, perhaps we should focus on removing encampments, litter, and graffiti, preventing open use of fentanyl and methamphetamine, and even providing an occasional police patrol within the park we already have.
Marc Young, Los Angeles
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To the editor: The proposed closure of Wilshire Boulevard at MacArthur Park is as ill-advised as the cable car to Dodger Stadium and the high-speed rail that no one wanted. If the intent is to “dream bigger and better” for the community, consider what this closure could do: one, force traffic onto smaller side streets, causing congestion for local businesses and residents; two, increase usable space for drug dealers and users; three, remove easy access to bus lines and disrupt bus routes; four, eliminate a wide lane for emergency vehicles.
Instead of closing Wilshire Boulevard, why not build a park above it, like New York City’s High Line? That would link both sides of the avenue, increase usable park space, and allow vital traffic flow underneath.
Arthur Payson, Beverly Hills
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To the editor: The problem is not a lack of park space in MacArthur Park, but rather the city's total neglect. Creating more parks by removing part of Los Angeles's main street will not dilute the palpable urban rot in and around MacArthur Park. Where are the police, housing inspectors, sanitation workers, and code enforcers?
I own a building nearby on Alvarado Street and never see enough of the city's presence. Why does Hancock Park next door have clean, safe streets, but not here? “Boldness” without substance is just more harm. Los Angeles should follow what some major cities in Mexico do: close off major thoroughfares on Sundays for use by all people of good will, then clean up after them immediately.
Richard Stanley, Los Feliz
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To the editor: Reading about the removal of Wilshire Boulevard from the area separating sections of MacArthur Park reminded me that, just after I was born in 1947, my first home was a house on Rampart Boulevard that still stands near the park.
My mother used to take me in my stroller twice a day to MacArthur Park to tour the lake, where we happily fed the birds and watched the small motor boats that children and their parents could rent at the old marina. At the time, the area was considered a crown jewel of the Los Angeles park system.
In the years since, MacArthur Park has become what Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez described as the “overdose epicenter of the city of Los Angeles” and a haven for homeless encampments. Ambitious plans to expand the park by eliminating Wilshire Boulevard as a thoroughfare will fail to attract young mothers, as my mother did in 1947.
Until our leaders plan to place 24-hour foot patrols inside MacArthur Park to enforce the law, all that eliminating vehicular traffic on nearby Wilshire Boulevard will accomplish is making more room for drug dealers, addicts, and homeless tents, while causing more traffic jams downtown.
Douglas Weiskopf, Burbank
