To the editor: Steve Lopez’s coverage of the carnage at MacArthur Park west of downtown Los Angeles is important.
If the area surrounding the park is the “Ellis Island of the West Coast,” as City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez claims, why has MacArthur Park been turned over, in effect, to groups of people who can and do terrorize this immigrant population? When immigrant children cannot safely use a public park, it is the c ouncil member’s responsibility to take action that will rectify these unsafe conditions.
Hernandez, who took her seat on the City Council almost two years ago, claims that “others waited too long to do something about it.” This position is comparable to, “The dog ate my homework.”
Leaders such as Hernandez and Mayor Karen Bass must realize that allowing anti-social and criminal behavior should not be an acceptable component of their outreach programs. The photo showing a reclining street camper holding a 24-ounce can of beer very clearly reflects the conditions that area residents are made to accept.
Lee Meister, San Pedro
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To the editor: Unfortunately, the “trash abatement” and “peace ambassadors” proposed by Councilmember Hernandez to address the crisis around MacArthur Park would be laughable if the situation were not so serious.
The city clearly has a rampant drugs-on-the-street problem. Why do police sit back as neighborhoods deteriorate in plain sight? Why do they not enforce existing laws? Is this city policy, Mayor Bass?
The city should adopt Lopez’s excellent suggestion to temporarily direct existing resources from other sectors to quadruple outreach and enforce existing laws to clean up the dangerous open-air drug bazaars on our streets and in our homeless encampments.
This would be a good, practical start in the right direction.
Mary M. Emmons, Los Angeles