Tony Flamenco has taken his share of risks when he ends a day at the office with a game of chess at MacArthur Park.
Over six years, he's been shaken down and forced to pay $10 "rent" to gang members, witnessed a stabbing and an assault, and seen the everyday transactions of gamblers and drug dealers who linger near South Park View and West 7th streets.
But the 50-year-old accountant from San Dimas has continued to ignore his wife's warnings to stay away from the park. For Flamenco, who works nearby, the park remains an oasis among the trees and grassy slopes, a place where he can gather with friends to huddle over chessboards and play games for a quarter or a cup of coffee while he waits out the traffic to go home.
He was one of many regular park users who cheered when the Los Angeles Police Department and city officials began a major crackdown in the notorious park and began several projects to make the area more family-friendly.
Authorities installed surveillance video cameras in the park in 2004 and redoubled those efforts last year by placing six cameras along the 6th Street corridor. They also boosted patrols and recently opened a police station nearby. But about a month ago, in the name of fighting crime, the city removed the tables Flamenco and his friends used to play chess. City authorities said they pulled out the tables at the request of the MacArthur Park advisory board, the local neighborhood council and the LAPD because gangs were using them in extortion schemes.
Flamenco and others say the crackdown has gone too far.
"Those tables belong to the public, not the government," Flamenco said.
The debate over the tables underscores the tricky balance authorities face between stopping crime in the park and ensuring that park users can enjoy themselves.
Jose Maciel, an employee of the Department of Recreation and Parks and senior director for MacArthur Park, said the area where chess players had their matches had become a gambling haven for other games.
"According to LAPD, you have kind of gangsters that are in charge of each table. They're putting up blackjack tables, poker tables, they allow that to go on. There's no money that's handled there on the spot, but they have a person taking notes on who's winning or losing," Maciel said.
"You also have the bigger gangs, and they're going down there and basically taxing those individuals. . . . They can see a chess game going on and they'll charge anywhere between $10 and $20 a head," he said.
