For more than a century, MacArthur Park, just west of Downtown Los Angeles, has been an urban oasis for residents of the surrounding Westlake District and the wider city. But in recent years, MacArthur Park has also become synonymous with fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that can be 50 times more powerful than heroin. Open fentanyl abuse is now so common, the drug might as well be an unofficial symbol of the park.
Scenes of fentanyl abuse, and what it does to the body and mind, are everywhere, with people passed out or staring dead-eyed as they clutch drug pipes and small containers of fentanyl residue.
Those who use fentanyl in MacArthur Park say they come because of the drug’s easy availability in the area. Photo by Saul Gonzalez.
Drug casualties make the LA Fire Department station closest to MacArthur Park one of the busiest in the country, with its personnel responding to hundreds of drug-related emergency calls a year in and around the park.
And where are the police? The LAPD frequently patrols MacArthur Park, and you do see officers cracking down on violations like illegal camping.
But in the park, like a woman who identified herself only as Rebecca, say that when it comes to the open abuse of hard drugs, the cops often appear to have a hands-off, drive-by policy.
“When I first came here and I was seeing people standing on the corner smoking meth, and cops were sitting at a red light and waved to them … that blew my mind,” says Rebecca, who doesn’t want her last name used because of her addiction.
Eunisses Hernandez, the LA City Councilmember and political progressive who represents the MacArthur Park area, says she doesn’t support more aggressive policing as a solution to the park’s problems. Hernadez says that’s been tried in the past and failed.
“I would hope it does not look like a re-creation of the war on drugs because we have lived it,” says Hernandez. “All that’s done is fill our prisons and jails, and it has not made it any safer.”
Despite its problems, MacArthur Park is a vital green space for one of the densest neighborhoods in the country. Residents in the Westlake District come to the park to exercise, play soccer, and fish in the lake that’s stocked with carp. Photo by Saul Gonzalez.
Meanwhile, residents in the MacArthur Park area, many of whom are poorer immigrants from Mexico and Central America, try to coexist with MacArthur Park’s drug scene, but it’s not easy.
“I think it’s the fear more than anything, because we don’t have security in this community,” says Savina, who has lived in MacArthur Park since the early 1990s and declined to give her last name because of crime fears.
Savina says the neighborhood has long had its dangers, like street gangs, but they’ve gotten much worse because of the booming local fentanyl trade.
One of the loudest critics of MacArthur Park’s problems is Norm Langer, the owner of Langer’s Delicatessen, the legendary LA restaurant right across the street from the park.
A weary Langer, whose parents founded the deli, says if things don’t change around the park, he’ll be forced to take drastic action.
Norm Langer, the owner of Langer’s Delicatessen, says the spread of fentanyl use in the MacArthur Park neighborhood has him thinking about closing his business. Langer’s parents opened the restaurant in 1947. Photo by Saul Gonzalez.
“I’m going to wind up closing,” says Langer. “I’m tired of pushing this cart uphill. I don’t need to come down here every day and fight this battle.”
But after months of negative stories in the media about MacArthur Park, maybe conditions could change.
On a patch of the park that was spruced up for a big press event, Councilmember Hernandez recently announced a series of initiatives centered on improving the park. Her emphasis is on social service and violence prevention outreach, as well as improved clean-up efforts.