CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 18, 1995
Thank you for your article ("A Park, Once Saved, Stumbles Again" by Jane Spiller, Nov. 4) about conditions in MacArthur Park. To one who has lived in the neighborhood for many years, this is an important topic. Less than 10 years ago, I used to walk to nearby Lafayette Park. There was a wonderful little public library in a charming brick building. I would check out a book or magazine and then sit in the shade of big trees reading, taking in the sights and just enjoying being out of doors.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
July 14, 1989
Despite a massive police crackdown on drug dealing in MacArthur Park, you reported that on one recent afternoon "young men brazenly peddled bags of marijuana," and others openly offered crack cocaine for sale (Metro, June 25). Park problems are complicated by "scores of homeless people, runaways and other street people who are themselves either drug addicts or merely destitute." Later in the article you note that the area around the park is "the most densely populated in the city" and is "the entry point for poor immigrants from Central America," and that "60% of the drug arrests at or around the park are of Central Americans."
NEWS
February 3, 1988 | LEON WHITESON, Whiteson is a L.A.-based design writer. and
When Al Nodal, director of the Otis/Parsons Gallery, helped launch the MacArthur Park Public Art Program in late 1983, his aims were clear: "I want to alter the boring and formal art-in-the-plaza tradition to one with a social function, while changing the current bad image of the park. And I want to knit the community into the process with as much intimacy as possible."
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
September 29, 2006
Sept. 29, 1957: More than 100 musicians performed before a crowd of 6,000 as Los Angeles dedicated a new band shell at MacArthur Park. They played "music by Romberg, Schubert, Elgar, Verdi, Sousa and other composers," The Times reported. The "wood and plaster shell, 45 feet deep and 71 feet wide," was "set in a natural amphitheater" and cost $40,000, the newspaper said.
OPINION
December 22, 2001
"MacArthur Park Crime Troubles Neighbors" (Dec. 17) brought back memories of a different time. I remember sailing my model boat (my best-ever Christmas present) on the lake as a 10-year-old boy in 1925. The park was quiet, peaceful and beautiful, with couples rowing quietly on the lake on weekend afternoons. I see myself putting my boat in the water, giving it a gentle push and watching the wind catch it and having it keel over as it started its trip across the lake, while I ran around to the other side to meet it at the end of its voyage.
NEWS
November 29, 1992 | JAKE DOHERTY
A small store has opened across the street from MacArthur Park, and success has seldom tasted so sweet. Operating in the employee lounge of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health offices at 2415 W. 6th St., Corporate Cookie offers cookies, fruit drinks, yogurt and other sweets. Compared to other sweet shops, Corporate Cookie is cut from a different mold, said Dr. Areta Crowell, director of the county mental health department.