Boyhood Memories of MacArthur Park

“MacArthur Park Crime Troubles Neighbors” (Dec. 17) brought back memories of a different time. I remember sailing my model boat (my best-ever Christmas present) on the lake as a 10-year-old boy in 1925. The park was quiet, peaceful and beautiful, with couples rowing quietly on the lake on weekend afternoons.

I see myself putting my boat in the water, giving it a gentle push and watching the wind catch it and having it keel over as it started its trip across the lake, while I ran around to the other side to meet it at the end of its voyage. (I still make model boats.)

There was an old sea captain who sat on a bench by the lake and whittled small boats from little pieces of pine; boats with two masts and square paper sails. They cost 25 cents (my weekly allowance).

At the west end of the park near 7th Street was a large empty metal trough which had once been a watering trough for dray horses. At the northwest corner of the park was a sign which stated that the park was named in honor of Gen. Arthur MacArthur (father of Douglas). Has the honoree been changed? What a deceptive telescope of time is our memory!

Carson Thomson

Playa del Rey

*

For God’s sakes, just how difficult is it to clean up MacArthur Park? All the police have to do is get off their behinds, go into the park in force and get the vagrants, dope dealers and prostitutes out of there. I could get that place cleaned up within three weeks. All it takes is determination and enforcement of ordinances and laws.

Last year I contacted several so-called L.A. higher-ups and supervisors who supposedly take care of the park. This was while I worked for the L.A. Housing Authority. I was trying to get the lake water cleaned up. It is such a beautiful little lake and a wonderful park. However, there is a variety of everything known to man in the water. In response to my telephone calls, I received a lot of “blah, blah, blah” letters from commissioners and park supervisors about how “difficult” it is to clean up the water.

Frankly, those responses only perpetuated L.A.’s poor reputation as a city. If city employees did their jobs, the park would be great. The city of Los Angeles has a bunch of whiny, lazy and “I could not care less” bureaucrats and employees--that is why the park is not a thing of beauty, but is instead a disgrace.

Cathy O’Dell

Oceanside

*

Partly because our own Echo Park neighborhood is organizing to fight to revive the beauty, facilities and health of Echo Park Lake, your article on MacArthur Park is of particular interest. It’s up to each neighborhood to fight for its own betterment: Department of Recreation and Parks will not do it for you. Our city is seriously divided by class, and the MacArthur Park area suffers the ills of being densely populated, with some of the city’s least powerful residents, even though many are the same people who work the hardest and the longest for the least amount of wages.

It is neighborhood leadership that must emerge to fight for what MacArthur Park should have: a safe place for the many families there who desperately need recreation and a sense of beauty in their lives.

If all the money quickly spent on flags was matched to grow a bigger parks fund, we could buy security, capital improvements and maintenance for our parks. In our quest to feel “united,” an improved parks system is something we can do for each other.

Judith Markoff Hansen

Los Angeles