Crime is down, but drugs still plague MacArthur Park in Los Angeles

from Jim NewtonCalMatters

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A year ago, vendors had set up shop across from MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. They were dealing in drugs and stolen goods from under makeshift tables at their stalls.

Langer’s, the neighborhood’s historic deli, was threatening to leave for good. And the attacks in the area became more frequent.

Today, crime is down in MacArthur Park, Langer’s remains, and the drug dealers are gone—or at least displaced.

That’s the good news for the city’s year-long effort to ensure safety and tranquility in MacArthur Park and its surrounding neighborhoods. There is progress.

The bad news is that the area remains desolate and dirty.

A walk around the park Monday morning revealed evidence of progress: Most areas were relatively clean, and several young boys were walking around on playground equipment, their watchful fathers nearby.

But there were also painful reminders of how far the field has to go.

The shops along Alvarado Street were open, but customers were rare. Waste-filled spaces where fences protect street vendors. Water from recent rains had solidified under an underpass, forming a wet, dirty pool. And young men lay glassy-eyed on the benches, staring blankly, mouths agape.

The city’s campaign to restore MacArthur Park to some of its long-faded glory contains some elements of the larger job facing Los Angeles itself. The park is a gathering place for homeless men and women, it’s a place to sell drugs, and it’s located in one of the city’s most migrant communities.

In all these respects, this is Los Angeles in microcosm. That’s it the struggles are those of the larger cityand of urban America itself.

Realizing this, city leaders turned their attention to MacArthur Park in 2025, pouring money and resources into the area. Councilwoman Eunice Hernandez, whose district includes the park, cited $27 million in city investments in what she described as “care first” programs that address drug overdoses, housing crises and gang conflict.

These investments have produced quantifiable results: the removal of more than 36,000 pieces of hazardous waste, including needles and other drug paraphernalia; distribution of more than 17,000 doses of Narcan; cleaned sidewalks; painted curbs and accommodated dozens of residents.

In some cases, these interventions have literally saved lives. The council member’s office said 138 overdoses were averted by teams assigned to walk the parks and be alert for danger.

So it is encouraging to see at least glimmers of progress.

The fences installed at the beginning of 2025 managed to box out the sellers who used the neighborhood to sell drugs and stolen goods. Increased police patrols have helped drive out some local dealers and pushed some of the open drug use outside the park’s perimeters.

These successes are directly attributable to the urban interventions of Hernández and others. But the larger goal remains elusive.

It is not a community at peace, nor has it turned the corner from defeat to prosperity.

The streets smell of urine and the air smells of weed and other drugs. The litter is decomposing.

The overall effect is exhaustion. Warehouse keepers do not view drug users with compassion or willingness to help. They drive them out of the windows, tired of their smell and dirt.

All of this serves as a reminder that this is hard work, that solutions to drugs or homelessness don’t come off the shelf and spread to neighborhoods, that even $27 million in city investment doesn’t change a community overnight.

Money and effort are essential to progress, but they do not guarantee it. Only commitment, work and time can be truly transformative.

Sledding is difficult under the best of circumstances, and these are hardly the best. This is at least in part because the federal government – which could have been a useful partner in this work – chose to be an active subversive in it.

It was here that President Donald Trump and his favorite, Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem, chose to launch their summer raid on immigrants. On July 7, ICE agents, along with a Blackhawk helicopter and horses (yes, horses), raced through and over the park, flashing their faux military gear and yells at pedestrians.

The resulting theater accomplished absolutely nothing in terms of ICE’s stated goals — rounding up the “worst of the worst” and sending them back to their home countries — but it did have two other results: it chased the migrants indoors, where they’ve been hiding ever since, and it smoothed the political path for Mayor Karen Bass, who failed until then but has since redefined her political identity as the city’s bulwark against Trump and his vile nonsense.

And so the work to make MacArthur Park safer has suddenly become a showcase for city and national politics, not to mention a preview of the riots Trump spent the rest of the year provoking in other cities — Washington, D.C.; Portland; Chicago; New Orleans. Everyone has experienced a barrel roll, and everyone can point to Los Angeles as a testing ground for the new authoritarianism that Trump has brought to America’s cities.

In the meantime, however, the sight of ICE agents stomping into the park was enough to chase some immigrants and others who simply “looked illegal” indoors. This left the neighborhoods feeling tense and desolate. Last week, the usually busy health clinic on the corner of Westlake and 6th^th Street had only one family in the waiting room.

Looking back on the year, neither Bass nor Police Chief Jim McDonnell were inclined to declare victory at MacArthur Park. In separate interviews, they each acknowledged that the chain-link fences that prevent illegal sales have become unsightly and should be seen as temporary structures rather than permanent installations.

“They served their purpose,” Bass said, adding that the city intends to replace them with planters or other fixtures soon.

Both the mayor and the chief were pleased to see a decrease in crime in the area, but both admit the park is a work in progress. “Overall it’s been good,” Bass said, “but it’s up and down.”

Next year may bring a new emphasis on design solutions. In addition to the planters along Alvarado, Hernandez proposed blocking off Wilshire Boulevard as it passes through the park, restoring the area to its original configuration.

Both the council member and the mayor jointly approved a proposal to develop a fence that would surround all of MacArthur Park, regulating the flow in and out, rather than simply causing park-goers to spill onto the sidewalks, as many drug users do today.

Not all neighbors like the idea — there are very few things everyone in this community agrees on — but it offers a chance for some decorative improvement in an area that lacks much. The fence is currently being designed and could be erected next year. If so, this will be the last effort in this difficult work.

“It’s a long process,” Bass said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.