To the editor: After I examine plans for a $2.3-million fence for MacArthur Park, I couldn’t assist however marvel: Did anybody ask an city planner (“Medicine, crime and homelessness plague MacArthur Park. Can a multimillion-dollar fence rescue it?,” Oct. 25)? We might inform you that making the park protected 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 protected surroundings. Limiting entry to the park will cut back the quantity of people that stroll by it and is prone to make it even much less protected.
A much better strategy can be to make use of that cash to license close by road distributors and co-locate them in a protected, central location throughout the park. This may provide extra causes for folks to stroll by the park repeatedly. 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 speak 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 guide.
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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 legislation to stay unaccountable, MacArthur Park will stay a hazard as a substitute of a refuge. No fence can repair lawlessness.
It must 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 non-compulsory outreach over the equal safety of the rule of legislation 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 working for Metropolis Council, stands for deeper neighborhood funding, rule of legislation and, if crucial, armed park rangers to safe MacArthur Park. Claros understands that we’re a rustic primarily based on equal safety beneath the legislation.
Even Rick Caruso has requested, “Why isn’t our metropolis implementing the legal guidelines?” Certainly, why not? A fence isn’t any substitute for the rule of legislation.
Victoria Stover Mordecai, San Marino
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To the editor: Take a stroll round Los Angeles State Historic Park downtown: lovely trails, native vegetation, fruit bushes, clear and accessible restrooms, and nice areas for actions. Like MacArthur Park, it has a terrific view of downtown. It feels protected, clear and well-maintained. And it has a fence, with outlined open hours. It’s a lovely 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 an attractive inexperienced house that’s protected, accessible and fosters neighborhood enjoyment and satisfaction. A current unanimous vote accredited the conceptual part to deal with park crime and security issues, together with a proposed $2.3-million fence.
I can hear my dad’s response to options like this one: “Locks and fences solely preserve the sincere folks out.” This prompts consideration of other allocations for the funds. Moderately than investing in a perceived treatment with questionable efficacy, it could be extra prudent to allocate the $2.3 million towards sustaining outreach employees and applications that tackle homelessness, dependancy and psychological sickness, whereas collaborating with legislation enforcement on points like drug trafficking and violence.
Moreover, outreach employees might empower succesful members of the homeless neighborhood to take part in initiatives (with compensation) like park beautification, litter removing and neighborhood watch, cultivating a way of neighborhood possession and duty.
Karen Schetina, Los Angeles
