The Brief

One of Los Angeles’ oldest green spaces, MacArthur Park, is on its way to being made whole again.

A multi-year effort has started to reconnect the 35-acre recreation area that’s currently bisected by Wilshire Boulevard. But why was the park split in half nearly a century ago?

MacArthur Park origins

Before it was public parkland, today’s MacArthur Park wasn’t a popular place. In the early days of L.A., in the 1800s, it was a marshy wetland that was dismissed as an undesirable swamp, according to historian Nathan Masters, as the land occupied a saddle-shaped depression.

The body of water was a natural alkali lake, which created a very productive ecosystem with plenty of waterfowl. That evaporated for a time in the extended 1860s drought, giving the area a bad reputation, and it prompted the public to dub the space the “Dead Sea,” according to a city planning survey.

The city tried to sell it off for a bottom-barrel price, but it failed to draw any interest. The land then went from swamp to dump as people piled trash and animal carcasses rotted away. But after Angelenos began to move to the Westlake neighborhood around it, they campaigned for improvements, and it transformed over the years.

In 1886, the area was designated as public parkland, first named Westlake Park, which took it from an eyesore to an oasis (or at least as nice as you can get for a city), complete with buggy paths, boating facilities, a bandstand for Sunday concerts, and a seal pool! (Yes, actual living seals to gawk at.)

Fresh water was pumped into the lake from the city’s Zanja Madre water system, which reduced its alkalinity.

In 1942, the city of Los Angeles changed Westlake Park’s name to what we know today, in honor of General Douglas MacArthur.

Split in two

An aerial view of Westlake Park in 1921.

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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This aerial view, dated in 1929, shows Westlake Park with the proposed Wilshire Boulevard extension over the lake. The road extension has been artistically rendered, showing the boulevard curving across the north side of the lake.

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Spence Air Photos/Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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As L.A. grew through the decades, so did our transportation routes.

One proposal had a 70-foot boulevard-width roadway and 6-foot sidewalks, which would curve across the park and an arm of the lake. The plan, which was submitted by the Wilshire Boulevard Association around the early 1930s, would've cost approximately $250,000.

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Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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At that time, Wilshire Boulevard, a major east-west artery, dead-ended 1.5 miles west of downtown at the park. It was millionaire Gaylord Wilshire’s dream for his namesake boulevard to connect downtown to Santa Monica, so the city had been looking for ways around the park into downtown since the late 1920s.

There were proposals drawn up to achieve this through other means, like a $250,000 plan to build a bridge over the lake, but in the end, the city chose a cheaper option — simply extending the road, at $93,000 (equivalent to $2.1 million today).

Aerial view of MacArthur Park in 1956. The park's smaller lake, created by the split, was filled in sometime after the extension was completed.

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Howard D. Kelly/Kelly-Holiday Mid-Century Aerial Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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The cut-through change wasn’t welcomed by all, however. The Wilshire Community Council protested the move in 1932 and residents organized to urge city leaders to stop. In October of that year, 300 residents went before the Public Works Committee of the City Council to voice a unanimous dissent.

Speakers felt the change was an unnecessary one that would destroy the park, bring traffic hazards closer to visitors, and be a “drain on the public purse.”

But the city moved forward, and in 1934, they constructed the road that took Wilshire Boulevard into the park, through the lake, to the other side. The lake was drained temporarily as teams filled in the dirt foundation.

At the time, the road it connected to was Orange Street, but it was all renamed to Wilshire later.

Today's concerns

The contentious history mirrors issues with the management of MacArthur Park today, with concerns that it isn’t well taken care of.

In 2021, the park closed down for a million-dollar repair, displacing the unhoused people living there. And there are also crime worries. Just recently in June, a body was found in the lake.

The city leaders spearheading the merging of the two park sides believe that closing the causeway will bring a refreshed effort to improving the park after “years of neglect.”

Four million acres of California’s wildest backcountry could soon be opened to paving roads and logging.

The Trump administration announced last week that it’s pushing forward with a proposal to scrap a 2001 rule that blocks logging, road building and other construction in parts of national forests. The administration argues repealing the so-called “roadless rule” is key to managing vegetation to better prevent wildfires on public lands.

Environmental advocates and other groups worry rescinding the rule would harm pristine habitat and the wildlife it supports, and open up more public land to industrial activities and human access that can cause more wildfires.

And locals are worried about losing access to some of the last protected natural lands in the region.

“What we're dealing with here in the roadless rule is the protection of the backcountry,” said David Browning, president of the Orange County Mountain Bike Association, “where you can actually go out and be having an experience where you don't hear traffic, where you don't see buildings, where you actually remember what it was like before all of us got here.”

In Southern California, large swaths of the Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland national forests would lose protections.

Browning, who spoke with All Things Considered host Julia Paskin on Monday, said he’s particularly concerned about the Santa Ana Mountains, where much of Orange County’s backcountry biking trails exist within a roadless area that could be opened to construction.

“Our mission is to protect and expand trail access, and so our entire agenda is to make sure that in a highly populated county, like Orange, that we have available the outdoors to be able to go and enjoy,” he said.

Browning takes issue with the wildfire argument — he pointed to the 2024 Airport Fire, which was sparked when heavy equipment operated by Orange County employees struck a rock. They were moving large boulders that day to, in part, block vehicles from getting into a dry brush area and potentially starting a fire. Browning said the “roadless rule” prevents such access that could increase the risk of fire. A recent peer-reviewed study supports that, finding that although roads are important for managing a fire once it ignites, they’re also more likely to be a place where a fire starts.

Though addressing wildfires and protecting public lands have become heavily politicized under the Trump administration, Browning thinks most locals probably aren’t as divided.

“ I don't think this is a party issue,” he said. “We want to hold onto the outdoors and protect them as best we can.”

There unfortunately isn’t much respite in sight for heat-weary Southern Californians.

Forecasters say this week’s heat wave is likely to be the hottest so far this summer. Extreme heat warnings will be in effect from the National Weather Service for almost the entire region from Tuesday morning through Friday evening.

Temperatures will peak between Tuesday and Thursday.

Highs in downtown Los Angeles are expected to reach around 100 degrees, and the warmest inland valleys will get up to 112. L.A. County beaches will hit the high 80s.

Forecasters have also issued Red Flag Warnings for the interior mountains and foothills of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Gusty winds and low humidity at higher elevations mean fires could spark and spread quickly.

At lower elevations, humidity continues to make the heat feel more sweltering and make it harder to cool down, especially at night. Nighttime temperatures will only get down to the 70s in most places, including along the coast.

A slight cooldown is expected this weekend, though forecasters say temperatures will stay above normal into next week.

The extreme heat this week poses an especially high risk of heat-related illness for people over 65, young children, people who work or spend a lot of time outside and those without access to air conditioning.

Driving the heat

Several factors are behind this week’s heat wave, many of which have also been behind the rest of this summer’s consistently hot weather.

The main driver is a high pressure air system hovering over the southwestern U.S., trapping warm air, compressing it and warming it further, and blocking cooler air from entering the region.

Offshore winds are also pushing warm inland air toward the coast, preventing cooler onshore winds from blowing inland.

“That blocks our natural air conditioning off the ocean from coming in as early as it normally does,” said Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford. “So as long as that cool air stays offshore, it heats up on land.”

The offshore winds are not strong enough, however, to significantly dry out the air in the L.A. Basin and cut down on the humidity.

“That's probably going to be around for the whole summer because you’ve got all this warm ocean water that's feeding into that,” Wofford said.

Warmer seawater evaporates faster, adding to moisture in the air and increasing humidity across the region, especially along the coasts.

Air quality warnings

Along with the heat this week, many Southern Californians also have smog to worry about.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued an ozone advisory on Monday for inland areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties, much of Riverside County and parts of San Bernardino County. It will remain in effect through Friday evening.

The multi-day smog event is in part driven by the heatwave.

Officials say ozone pollution may reach unhealthy levels or higher in the Santa Clarita Valley, parts of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino valleys, and portions of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Under unhealthy levels, it’s possible for anyone to experience adverse health effects like difficulty breathing and throat irritation. Sensitive populations could experience more serious effects.

Levels are expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in the San Fernando Valley, Perris Valley, Mission Viejo, Lake Elsinore, Corona, Hemet, Riverside and Pasadena.

Officials advise certain vulnerable groups — including people with heart or lung disease, those with asthma, pregnant women, children and people over 65 — to limit their time outdoors.

Officials predict that ozone levels will be lower along the coast.