Public Places : A Park, Once Saved, Stumbles Again

MacArthur Park looks good. As riders ascend the escalator of the MTA Red Line subway, the refurbished park unfolds. A powerful jet of water shoots skyward and falls back on the shimmering lake. The park is in historic Westlake, a beautiful neighborhood of old Los Angeles that lives on in buildings such as the elegant 1920s Park Plaza Hotel that fronts the park.

The neighborhood has changed dramatically since the days when Charlie Chaplin shot movies in the park. It is now home to a burgeoning population of immigrants, including large numbers from Central America and Asia.

Despite its multimillion-dollar face lift, MacArthur Park is not well. It suffers many problems common to parks in poor urban areas, including drugs being dealt and used inside the park and the control of certain areas by gangs. JANE SPILLER talked with Los Angeles Police Capt. NICK SALICOS, commanding officer of the Rampart Division, about some of those problems.

Question: As you leave the boundaries of MacArthur Park and enter the business district there are signs that say “Entering Narcotics/Vice Enforcement Zone.” What does that mean?

Answer: Westlake has a reputation as the place to go to buy crack cocaine. We’re trying to disrupt the drug dealing. If you arrest street dealers, the gang members who orchestrate narcotics trafficking find somebody to take their place. It’s like stepping on ants at a picnic--you just get more. We’re trying to reduce sales by reducing demand, [arresting buyers and users]. We spread the word, “don’t come to Rampart to buy dope because you’ll get arrested.”

Q: Are you seeing results?

A: Yes. Crime is down in that area. I have some people saying, “Thank you,” but then I’m also hearing people in other areas say, “Hey, they’ve moved over here.”

I just spoke to [City Councilman] Mike Hernandez’ office about getting a major business watch going on Alvarado by the park. We’ve had people concerned about taking the MTA train there. I’m trying to get the area cleaned up so people feel good about coming to Rampart.

Q: Businesses are good at exerting pressure to keep drug dealing off sidewalks in front of their businesses. But what about parks? Does that make nearby parks a dumping ground for crime problems?

A: Not a dumping ground. But it’s almost a, I don’t want to say free zone, but there are less police officers in the parks than on the street. You can sit on a grassy knoll by a tree and smoke a marijuana cigarette and the chance of a cop coming by and arresting you is a whole lot slimmer than if you did it on a sidewalk. We do not have enough officers to patrol all the areas we’d like to. Counting every breathing body, we have 325 to 330 people, 220 of those in uniform, in the Rampart Division. There are more than 400,000 people in Rampart area’s eight square miles.

Q: What is the patrol of the park currently?

A: It’s shared. Park rangers go there, but should unarmed rangers approach gang members? I wouldn’t. L.A. police officers drive through once in a while on paved roads where police cars can go up over the sidewalk. But it doesn’t get as much attention as I’d like it to.

Q: MacArthur and nearby Lafayette Park are what’s known as unsupervised parks, without the professional staff and organized sports and play programs of recreation areas. Does that sort of “open park” make sense in urban areas?

A: It’s possible for a park to be taken over by a criminal element. When I came to Rampart two years ago, MacArthur Park had been overtaken by dope dealers, gamblers, prostitutes and gangs. We moved some units around and enforced a zero tolerance zone and made about 55 arrests. The park’s been pretty quiet lately. But it’s costly to redeploy officers because you’re just taking them from somewhere else.

Q: Walking through MacArthur Park recently, I saw two instances of people injecting themselves with hypodermic needles.

A: Over a year ago I proposed we turn the boathouse into a police substation and put an officer there. Then if somebody saw someone injecting themselves with a needle they could let us know and we could dispatch the cavalry. But we can’t get the city to put in a parking lot--10 parking stalls for residents and police. We have “don’t give up any grass” people. We’re trying to say you need to give up a little so that we can work on the crime problem or there won’t be anybody there to use the park.

Inner city kids do not have the alternatives to crime and narcotics and gang membership that kids in the suburbs have. Parks are areas for them to get involved in sports and play. It’s one of the things the city really has to work on.

Public Places columnist Jane Spiller welcomes suggestions for places of interest. Contact her c/o VOICES or by e-mail at jane.spiller@latimes.com