The neighborhoods of Pico-Union and Westlake near MacArthur Park are among the most densely populated in the country, with more than 40,000 residents per square mile. Creating more open space is a challenge.
Councilman Ed Reyes said the area is primed for rooftop parks and gardens. He applauded the message the activists were trying to send but noted that cultural and economic barriers had to be overcome on both sides.
"The beauty of it is it begins bridge building between different cultures," Reyes said.
As Michelle Espinoza-Coulter, 34, of Livable Places held a spot for her fellow activists, Santos, the store owner, hesitated, hoping that she would move. Santos then drove away, looking confused.
She found a parking space a few minutes later and, looking at the new "park," commented that there was a need for both parking spaces and open spaces.
"Imagine if there was no parking here, with so many people," she said.
Minutes later, about 11:30 a.m., the bicyclists showed up. They set up orange pylons and then benches and chairs on artificial turf.
Aurisha Smolarski, 34, an activist with various groups, wore a shirt with a rendering of a Hummer and the word "Dummer."
Watching them transport potted trees with mini-trailers, passerby Angel Mendoza deduced that they were "going to plant another little tree." Asked what he thought about their cause, Mendoza shrugged and said, "Esta bien (It's good)."
But others, like Lewis, were harder to persuade.
Activist Beth Steckler, a Highland Park resident who is the affordable-housing developer for Livable Places, invited him to sit in the park. Lewis declined, reiterating that he thought they had their priorities wrong. Lewis, who is black, had lived in the largely Latino neighborhood for decades, one of the few places he could afford, he said. He barely had money too eat.
The pair walked to a lunch truck, where Steckler took care of Lewis' most pressing need at the moment. She bought him a burrito.
"When people are as poor as he is," Steckler said later, "this feels frivolous. His basic needs are not being fulfilled, and we're talking about a park. But we're working on those other needs too."
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hector.becerra@latimes.com
