RTD Asked to Pay Rent at Park

Angry over plans to drain MacArthur Park lake during construction of Metro Rail, community leaders on Tuesday urged the RTD to pay millions of dollars in rent to enhance other park attractions during a work period that could last two years.

Members of the MacArthur Park Foundation, a group promoting efforts to reclaim the historic park from drug dealers and other criminals, asked the transit agency at a public hearing to pay the city’s Parks and Recreation Department prevailing commercial-rate rents for the parkland.

During the three-hour hearing, the RTD board also heard repeated testimony from Hollywood business representatives and residents urging that plans to elevate Metro Rail through parts of Hollywood be abandoned in favor of an all-subway line. And several members of the First Southern Baptist Church of Hollywood spoke out against any route that would force relocation of their church.

The Southern California Rapid Transit District board is expected to pick one of six proposed Hollywood routes at a meeting on July 14. The north-south portions of the proposed alignments essentially follow either Vermont or Western avenues, and the east-west sections roughly parallel Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.

Under all proposed alignments, the second phase of Metro Rail will pass beneath the lake before turning north on Vermont or Western. Engineers said the lake must be drained.

In a series of polite addresses to the RTD board, members of the foundation, as well as an aide to City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, who represents the area, called for sensitive treatment of construction through the park and the surrounding community.

In later interviews, however, community leaders expressed anger. Foundation director Al Nodal labeled an RTD environmental impact report a whitewash.

That report states that construction would involve only about 5% of the park area. But, Nodal said, fully 50% would be rendered useless because of plans to drain the lake that dominates the southern half of the park. The lake is roughly the size of a city block and is used by paddle boats.

Metro Rail, Nodal said, poses a “double whammy” for the community. Completion of the first phase--beginning at Union Station, passing through downtown and terminating at Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street, just across from the eastern edge of the park--will create more traffic and parking problems in what is already one of the most congested neighborhoods of the city. City officials say that 85,000 people live within half a mile of the park.

Nodal and foundation chairman George Herms voiced fears that insensitive handling of the Metro Rail project could reverse progress at MacArthur Park. Over the last five years, they said, a program of public art displays and cultural affairs events have helped bring about a 49% drop in crime.

Kathleen Maguire, a real estate marketing manager, said that at current commercial rates on Wilshire Boulevard the Parks and Recreation Department should be compensated about $60 monthly per square foot. The city could receive about $9 million, which could be used to enhance other park services, she said.