Macarthur Park

THERE'S a scruffy brick apartment building at the corner of 7th and South Park View streets in Westlake that hints at the history and possible future of the neighborhood. On the ground floor, a pharmacy and health clinic with signs in Spanish sit next door to an inexpensive Honduran restaurant.

The 1st District City Council race has garnered more than four times the money of previous races there, buoyed by the deep pockets and independent spending of labor and business leaders. In the runoff to replace council member Ed Reyes in the district near downtown Los Angeles, a combined $1.97 million has been raised on behalf of former Sacramento lawmaker Gil Cedillo and Reyes' chief of staff, Jose Gardea, according to campaign finance reports. The election almost ended in the primary: Cedillo received 49.32%, less than 1% shy of winning outright.

As dusk fell over the Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park one recent Friday, Eddie Cota drank in the scene with quiet satisfaction. On the lawn, kids and adults executed Brazilian capoeira moves while an impromptu drumming coterie tapped out muscular rhythms. Nearby, vendors selling tamales and pupusas did a brisk trade with Central American and Mexican families who were popping open picnic coolers, while clumps of twentysomethings spread blankets and snogged under the trees.

A 44-year-old youth soccer coach convicted of molesting six boys in 2010 and 2011 was sentenced Tuesday to 225 years to life in prison. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Henry Hall handed down the sentence to Jose Duarte after hearing four of the coach's victims read statements to the court. Duarte molested the boys, who were ages 11 to 14 at the time of the attacks. A jury on Feb. 14 deliberated less than a day before finding the coach guilty of 20 counts of child molestation and five counts of sending harmful material.

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.

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."

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."

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.

"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.

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.

Enjoy some of the city's best neighborhood destinations on foot, skates or a bike without the threat or hassle of traffic during the next CicLAvia. CicLAvia's newest car-free, fun-filled route will take participants through MacArthur Park, Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, Chinatown and more. Various locations. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sun. Free. (213) 365-0605. http://www.ciclavia.org.

As dusk fell over the Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park one recent Friday, Eddie Cota drank in the scene with quiet satisfaction. On the lawn, kids and adults executed Brazilian capoeira moves while an impromptu drumming coterie tapped out muscular rhythms. Nearby, vendors selling tamales and pupusas did a brisk trade with Central American and Mexican families who were popping open picnic coolers, while clumps of twentysomethings spread blankets and snogged under the trees.

In 2005, leaders of a gang that sold crack and other drugs near MacArthur Park decided to add a new business venture: extorting the vendors who crowd the streets each evening, selling clothes, pirated DVDs and electronics to supplement a hardscrabble existence. The new effort led to a bloody consequence in September 2007, when an 18-year-old tasked with gunning down a defiant vendor accidentally shot to death a 3-week-old infant. The baby's death triggered a large-scale crackdown on the clique that culminated with a two-month trial that began in March.

Los Angeles' civic argument over billboards covers many nuanced positions and attitudes, but stripped to the bare essentials, it often seems to come down to these two competing worldviews: One side sees Los Angeles as a city up for bid. It sees advertisers ready to cover every public space with garish billboards — lighted, digitized, turning every commute to work and every drive to the grocery store into a succession of pitches for movies, cut-rate...

Bombino Where: Levitt Pavilion, Pasadena When: 8 p.m. Thursday Price: free Info: http://www.levittpavilionpasadena.org Where: Levitt Pavilion, MacArthur Park, L.A. When: 7 p.m. Friday Price: Free Info: http://www.levittla.org

Four years ago, Eddie Cota had a problem. The then-24-year-old concert promoter and booker was hired to take the musically staid Pasadena and energize its live music scene. This was an enormous undertaking for the new booker of Pasadena's Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts. The free summertime shows were a reliable local draw, but the bookings had begun to feel uninspired. Though he'd thrived at internships at Capitol Records, Interscope Records and several radio stations, the nonprofit entertainment world was new to Cota, and he had to quickly instantly grow competent in a range of genres.

Wilshire Boulevard, the most heavily used bus corridor in Los Angeles with lines running every couple of minutes and tens of thousands of passengers enduring lengthy and crowded rides, is about to get a facelift designed to bring riders some relief. To streamline and speed commutes from MacArthur Park to Centinela Avenue at the eastern edge of Santa Monica, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to construct bus-only lanes along 7.7 miles of that stretch. Officials estimate that it will shave 11 minutes off a nearly one-hour trip.

Los Angeles City Council members called on transit officials Wednesday to study a shorter bus lane project for Wilshire Boulevard, but they refused to officially support the 5.4-mile option, which would eliminate the Westside leg of the planned route. Council members voted 11 to 2 to add the alternative to an ongoing environmental review of a 7.7-mile busway system planned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.