Public Peril in City Hall’s Shadow : Squalor and drug crime on county-state lot must be dealt with

One grandiose development scheme after another has been proposed for the downtown lot bordered by City Hall, the Criminal Courts Building and the Los Angeles Times. Plans for office towers, shopping centers, outdoor cafes and more have been offered up by developers eager for an interest in this prime piece of real estate, once the site of a state office building. But financing for each plan has disintegrated amid the regional recession.

After the most recent deal fell apart last year, the county, which owns the lot along with the state, fenced the site off from public view, for the most part. Commuters and pedestrians who hurry by the gray wooden fence along 1st Street no longer see the rubble and weeds. Neither do they see the 20 ramshackle shelters put up by the homeless, most of them men, nor the drug use and trafficking.

Long an eyesore and embarrassment, this lot, literally in the shadow City Hall, has now become a public health menace. The homeless encampments there are illegal, as are the drug use and sales. There is no running water, no plumbing. Beneath the surface is a parking garage. The first level down is now used as a latrine; rats have claimed the second level.

After a report appeared in Monday’s Times, many residents of this village of the homeless fled within hours. Social service advocates who visited the site persuaded a few among those who remained to accept help. The Civic Center Authority, a group composed of representatives of the city, county and state, plans to take up the legal and health code violations on the lot at a meeting today. Quick action to clear and clean up the site should follow.

The only permanent solution, however, is to make productive use of the lot. Development that will enrich the county’s coffers simply will not occur soon. An interim solution--one that involves taking down the fence and the lean-tos, then landscaping, lighting and patrolling this property to provide open space for concrete-weary downtown workers--could help much.