LA’s $2.5 million plan to close road in MacArthur Park raises local eyebrows

The plan is meant to boost local access to the park, but some residents say drug use, not car use, is the real problem

City leaders are channeling $2.5 million into plans to close the road running through MacArthur Park to boost local access to green space, but some residents would rather the leaders first focus on tackling the rampant drug use and homelessness in the park.

On Tuesday morning, Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez held a press conference to announce the launch of the “Reconnecting MacArthur Park” project, which seeks to close Wilshire Boulevard to vehicular traffic and reconnect the two sides of the park. The goal is to create more pedestrian-friendly park space in the low-income, majority immigrant neighborhood of Westlake.

While residents are happy the city is focused on improving the park, some say that widespread fentanyl use in the park, not cars on Wilshire Boulevard, is the biggest barrier to using the park.

“I don’t see Wilshire Boulevard crossing and splitting the park as really a problem that needs a solution,” said Ruben Hornillo-Rodriguez, a local resident and secretary of the MacArthur Park Neighborhood Council. “The priority should be making all of the park accessible to all people, specifically the part near Alvarado Street, which is not very accessible because it has been overtaken by drug users.”

MacArthur Park sits at the epicenter of Los Angeles’ overdose epidemic. In 2022, there were 84 fentanyl deaths recorded in the 0.9 square mile ZIP code surrounding the park — more than any other ZIP in L.A. County.

See: Map of LA’s fentanyl hot spots reveals where critical resources are missing

City Councilmember Hernandez is no stranger to the neighborhood’s drug and homelessness crisis. Last month she secured $3 million to open a respite center near the park, which will provide sterile drug supplies, the overdose reversing spray naloxone, and referrals to housing and other services.

While that is welcome news, the respite center is at least a year away from opening and many residents want urgent attention to exploding drug use in the area.

“I applaud all the people that came here today,” said resident and local business owner Ab Saloj, who grew up in the neighborhood. “But what are we doing to clean out the park, clean out the fentanyl use? Because that’s a real problem. We don’t want to see any more people dying.”

Edgar Chaj owns a nearby Guatemalan restaurant and said he’s upset that local kids have to see adults defecating, smoking fentanyl and using needles in the park on a daily basis. Chaj is skeptical about the impact of the Reconnecting MacArthur Park project.

“For us as a community who lives in this area, what we feel is they (city leaders) just want to give us something so we feel they are doing something, but it’s not something that we want or that impacts the health of the community who lives here and small businesses,” he said.

Councilmember Hernandez believes that the community will see positive benefits from the project.

“Having open green spaces available to the public is what builds climate resilience, improves public health and the safety of our neighborhoods, and ultimately produces and sustains thriving communities,” said Hernandez at the press conference. “That’s what the Reconnecting MacArthur Park project is all about.”

The project also has the enthusiastic backing of Mayor Karen Bass, regional LAUSD School Board member Rocío Rivas and L.A. Department of Transportation General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo.

“Reconnecting MacArthur Park would return nearly two acres of parkland back to the local Westlake community, while limiting car traffic on streets adjacent to the park in order to enhance traffic, bike and pedestrian safety and connectivity,” Bass said at the press conference. “Angelenos deserve a healthy park.”

Funding for the planning stages of the project comes from a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program as well as $500,000 from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)’s Sustainable Communities Program.

The first step is a traffic analysis and community outreach study to examine the impact that closing this section of roadway will have on traffic patterns and residents’ quality of life. The research is scheduled to begin in August 2024 and conclude in the winter of 2025.

Neighborhood Councilmember Hornillo-Rodriguez said he is excited that the city is investing in the community and willing to work with city leaders to develop solutions.

Neither he nor any other member of the neighborhood council attended the press conference on Tuesday morning. While the event was mentioned by a city representative in a recent neighborhood council meeting, Hornillo-Rodriguez said he never saw formal information with the date or time of the press conference.

Chaj, the local business owner, said he only received word of Tuesday morning’s press conference late Monday afternoon.

“To truly involve the community they should at least give them notice one week before,” said Chaj, adding that in a working-class neighborhood it is very hard for most residents to make last-minute changes to attend an event during the work day.

While the press conference may not have been thoroughly advertised to residents, Hernandez has promised a robust community engagement campaign as part of advancing the Connecting MacArthur Park project.

“We really believe that the people who are closest to the problems are closest to the solutions, and our team wants to be a pathway for our community to share with the city what they want to see in their neighborhoods,” she said.

The engagement will include multilingual outreach, neighborhood meetings and temporary closures of Wilshire Boulevard to gauge the local response, she added.