The Demise of McArthur Park?

[DontTreadOnMe]

I bet a lot of the older members of DI remember the song McArthur Park.
And for those who don't remember



The park has fallen on hard times in the last decade or so.
It's kept alive my millions from LA to keep the homeless druggies happier.

The price tag isn’t astronomical on paper — but it’s piling up fast. Along with the latest spending, city officials have already funneled $27 million into efforts to stabilize MacArthur Park.

“When you just sustain and enable, and make everybody comfortable, you get the reverse effect,” said Claros. “These [homeless] folks have come from all across the world, all across the country, from Skid Row, because they have a better place here.”

https://nypost.com/2025/12/07/us-news/ho...layground/

A better approach is needed.  Residents surrounding the park are afraid to go out.

“This is an international embarrassment,” Claros said

[ANNEE]

Ahhhhhhh -- I used to go there as a child.

The weather and beach attract the homeless.

The area has been kind of gentrified.  Today beach areas are highly desirable -- but in the past beach areas were more slum-like.  The area is a mix of old and new.

[DontTreadOnMe]

The area has been kind of gentrified.  Today beach areas are highly desirable -- but in the past beach areas were more slum-like.  The area is a mix of old and new.

Must be a work in progress.
From the OP source:

The area surrounding MacArthur Park is a dense, working-class neighborhood where most residents are low-income Spanish-speaking tenants.

[ANNEE]

Los Angeles is very mixed.  

You see it's right near Wilshire Blvd.  Wilshire will take you straight to Brentwood or Hollywood depending on direction.

Sad though 

[KrustyKrab]

Been there many times, my ex fiancé worked in the diamond/jewelry district which is right next to it. It was a sketchy place in the 80’s, can’t imagine now.  We sat and had lunch there many times, doubt I’d being doing that today.

[DontTreadOnMe]

Then add to the mess that is already McArthur Park this gem:

California not only permits those with violent histories like Bill Gene Hobbs to be released from mental hospitals while still severely ill, it can require it.
 

California law doesn’t just permit offenders with violent histories to be released from mental hospitals despite still being severely ill and potentially dangerous. In some cases, it requires this to happen. And the state has few protocols to ensure these individuals, once released, safely reenter society — leaving local communities to suffer the consequences. 
.........
 
There are six criteria to be considered an Offender with a Mental Health Disorder, and they manage to be dense and vague at the same time:
1) The prisoner has a severe mental health disorder that, among other things, “substantially impairs” their thoughts, perception of reality or judgment,
2) has been sentenced to a potentially qualifying crime,
3) their mental illness was a cause of or aggravating factor in that crime,
4) their disorder is not in remission or can’t be kept in remission without treatment,
5) the prisoner has been treated for that disorder for at least 90 days within the year before parole, and
6) because of the disorder, the prisoner represents a substantial danger of physical harm to others.
.........
 
Offenders have the right to appeal this classification, and if the state prison department’s Board of Parole Hearings upholds it, they can take their appeal to a court. 
 
If the court finds someone doesn’t meet even one of the six criteria, the law says they must be released within 30 days.  

I can just see some of the newly released people finding McArthur Park ideal.  Drugs, paraphernalia, and food are available.
And the weather ain't bad.

[argentus]

I used to work at what is now called City National Plaza and would take a bus down Wilshire to where I lived in West Hollywood off La Cienega.   Often stopped at MacArthur Park to play.   Back then -- 1978 or so -- it was safe to be there almost any time of night, and it wasn't filled with druggies, or at least not dangerous druggies.   Back then, it was one of many places of gathering of folk to do whatever felt good.   There were frequent important cultural speakers.   

I remember hearing Julian Bond speak at MacArthur Park in '79 or '80.  At the time, I'd never heard of him, but saw a flyer on the bus.   Since then, I've read all of his works that I could lay my hands on -- more than 20.   It was a place of political and cultural gathering.   

I saw Donna Summer perform MacArthur Park at the Hollywood Bowl in 1978.   I was so in love with her.  Or perhaps the center of my attraction was lower than my heart.  Later on in the concert, she slid up and down the mic stand and most of the men and women nearly lost their shit, myself included.   I consider her version to be more....  *cough* enticing, no disrespect to Richard Harris.

[ANNEE]

San Francisco is San Francisco. 

That area might as well be its own
state. 

It doesn’t really represent California.


I don’t think many people realize California is an agricultural state. 

California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state, with its Central Valley being one of the most productive agricultural regions on Earth, growing over half the country's fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

[ANNEE]

I used to work at what is now called City National Plaza and would take a bus down Wilshire to where I lived in West Hollywood off La Cienega.

I worked next door to the Tar Pits in 1965 I think. 

Hung out with the dinosaurs for lunch.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Right... and now someone leaves the syringe out in the grass. 

I dont think LA has as much motivation. They allow skid row to stay unchecked, Chinese built residential towers get covered in grafitti, but AIG gets anything to build the most expensive stadium ever.

And LAX also needs to redo all the terminals before the Olympics. They have priorities. Theyll get the parks right before the games. 

MacArthur Park is merely the park on Wilshire in Westlake that you have to drive through to get between Downtown and Central LA. 

I haven't been to it since 2017, but Westlake is still the barrio before Koreatown and is probably still sketchy.

At least they can say it was never as bad as Central Park in 1991?

That happened here with Balboa Park until Bill Walton (RIP) called out the mayor and said he was ashamed of the city.  It got major Press and within 2 months there were no more encampments near the Zoo where Bill Walton rode his Bike and was threatened by drug addicts.

Up there there are too many celebrity opinions. Like theres too much ambient noise to register. If South Park couldnt shame the city, I dont think anyone can.