To the editor: After I examine plans for a $2.3-million fence for MacArthur Park, I couldn’t assist however surprise: Did anybody ask an city planner (“Medication, crime and homelessness plague MacArthur Park. Can a multimillion-dollar fence rescue it?,” Oct. 25)? We might let you know that making the park secure requires growing entry, not stopping it.
As Jane Jacobs defined in 1961 in “The Demise and Lifetime of Nice American Cities,” foot site visitors and eyes on the road are what create a secure surroundings. Limiting entry to the park will scale back the quantity of people that stroll via it and is more likely to make it even much less secure.
A much better strategy could be to make use of that cash to license close by avenue distributors and co-locate them in a secure, central location throughout the park. This is able to supply extra causes for individuals to stroll via the park commonly. Even higher, it might present incentives for different pop-up companies (and elevated safety personnel) throughout the park or on the perimeter — which, once more, would encourage extra foot site visitors. Maybe the Los Angeles Division of Recreation and Parks ought to discuss to town planning division extra typically?
Joshua Schank, Studio Metropolis
This author has a doctorate in city planning from Columbia College and works as a transportation planning advisor.
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To the editor: The opening paragraph of this text tells the readers all they should know concerning the unhappy state of lawlessness in Los Angeles. It states “an open-air drug market operated close by” MacArthur Park. So long as our metropolis permits individuals who break the regulation to stay unaccountable, MacArthur Park will stay a hazard as an alternative of a refuge. No fence can repair lawlessness.
It needs to be apparent to anybody who lives in Council District 1 that Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez has failed her constituents. From Highland Park’s burgeoning homeless encampments, to the filth and litter alongside the 110 southbound, to MacArthur Park’s notoriety, her misguided efforts to place optionally available outreach over the equal safety of the rule of regulation have destroyed her law-abiding constituents’ high quality of life. Her unavailability for an interview for this front-page article additional highlights her ineptitude.
Raul Claros, who can be operating for Metropolis Council, stands for deeper neighborhood funding, rule of regulation and, if crucial, armed park rangers to safe MacArthur Park. Claros understands that we’re a rustic based mostly on equal safety beneath the regulation.
Even Rick Caruso has requested, “Why isn’t our metropolis imposing the legal guidelines?” Certainly, why not? A fence isn’t any substitute for the rule of regulation.
Victoria Stover Mordecai, San Marino
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To the editor: Take a stroll round Los Angeles State Historic Park downtown: stunning trails, native vegetation, fruit bushes, clear and accessible restrooms, and nice areas for actions. Like MacArthur Park, it has an important view of downtown. It feels secure, clear and well-maintained. And it has a fence, with outlined open hours. It’s a stunning fence that doesn’t detract from the view; it simply limits entry when not open.
As Hernandez mentioned, everybody deserves a park like this.
Rana Parker, Pasadena
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To the editor: Westlake neighborhood residents deserve a stupendous inexperienced house that’s secure, accessible and fosters neighborhood enjoyment and satisfaction. A current unanimous vote accredited the conceptual part to handle park crime and security considerations, together with a proposed $2.3-million fence.
I can hear my dad’s response to options like this one: “Locks and fences solely maintain the sincere individuals out.” This prompts consideration of other allocations for the funds. Quite than investing in a perceived treatment with questionable efficacy, it could be extra prudent to allocate the $2.3 million towards sustaining outreach staff and applications that deal with homelessness, dependancy and psychological sickness, whereas collaborating with regulation enforcement on points like drug trafficking and violence.
Moreover, outreach staff might empower succesful members of the homeless neighborhood to take part in initiatives (with compensation) like park beautification, litter elimination and neighborhood watch, cultivating a way of neighborhood possession and duty.
Karen Schetina, Los Angeles
