Of all of the locations in Los Angeles the place it is sensible to shut a avenue to automobiles, the half-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard by means of MacArthur Park tops the record.
The place else might L.A. immediately add greater than two acres of public open area in a park-poor neighborhood that can also be one of the densely populated communities within the nation? By merely rerouting autos across the park and reclaiming the highway for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Los Angeles could also be catching as much as different main cities, equivalent to New York and San Francisco, which have closed main roads by means of public parks to present folks more room to recreate safely. The metropolis closed a portion of the highway by means of Griffith Park Drive to a lot success in 2022.
Now Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez has launched Reconnecting MacArthur Park, the metropolis’s most bold effort but to completely pedestrianize a serious avenue. Together with Mayor Karen Bass and a number of other metropolis division heads, Hernandez introduced this week the primary section of the undertaking, which is able to embrace neighborhood enter, draft environmental paperwork and check closures. Don’t anticipate the highway to shut completely any time quickly. Hernandez’s workplace mentioned the undertaking is a piece in progress and can take years to develop.
The undertaking is being funded partially by a $2-million grant from the U.S. Division of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, which is geared toward undoing or repairing the hurt attributable to transportation building selections of the previous.
Greater than a century in the past, MacArthur Park was a serene paradise with a sprawling lake in a quickly urbanizing metropolis. However civic boosters wished Wilshire Boulevard to proceed, uninterrupted from the ocean to downtown. So the town constructed the highway by means of the center of the park turning the area into extra of a “drive-through” reasonably than a “vacation spot park,” Jose A. Gardea wrote in his historical past of MacArthur Park.
In the present day Wilshire Boulevard is among the metropolis’s important arterials serving motorists and transit riders. To make sure, closing the highway and diverting autos across the park could be inconvenient. However Los Angeles is a built-out metropolis and leaders must make powerful decisions about tips on how to divvy up area. On this neighborhood, open area is desperately wanted, and if there’s neighborhood help, the upper precedence ought to be restoring the park reasonably than the comfort of automobiles.
Some close by residents and enterprise house owners query why the town is spending money and time finding out the highway closure when there are extra speedy issues that must be addressed — specifically open drug use and homeless encampments that make folks really feel unsafe utilizing sections of the park. Their complaints are legitimate. However residents shouldn’t have to decide on between extra park area and secure park area. Town has an obligation to do each.
Park area is simply too treasured to cede to motorists. The place potential, Los Angeles ought to reclaim extra roads for the needs of recreation, well being and pleasure. MacArthur Park is a good place to start out.
