The Brief

After eight days of being closed, traffic is once again flowing in both directions of the 10 Freeway through downtown Los Angeles.

The 10 Freeway from Alameda Street to the East L.A. interchange reopened Sunday evening, far ahead of schedule. Last week, officials announced that repairs could take up to five weeks.

At a news conference Sunday, Mayor Karen Bass, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vice-President Kamala Harris and Senator Alex Padilla offered thanks for a speedy reopening of a key artery which typically handles 300,000 vehicles a day.

Some surface street and on-ramp closures were expected to linger as longer term repairs remained ongoing.

The 10 Freeway opened lanes to vehicles Sunday night ahead of a Monday morning commute.

(

Yusra Farzan

/

LAist

)

Vice President Kamala Harris, right, walks on the 10 Freeway Sunday morning with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass before a news conference announcing the freeway was just hours away from opening.

(

Alex Gallardo

/

AP

)

Local businesses that have had to deal with the closure are welcoming its reopening.

Edgar Jimenez’s Mexican food truck, Quesadillas Ja Ja Ja on 8th and Alameda streets, is close to where the fire erupted and said his otherwise regular customers were reluctant to stand in line or brave the traffic, which also affected his operations.

“Even if it's around the corner it will take half an hour to get back to where I am,” he said. “It impacted me, like, really bad.”

The Shell gas station on Alameda and 14th streets that provides a vantage point to the repair work saw an 80% drop in gasoline sales last week, said morning manager Alexander Shenouda.

“We just relied on the construction workers coming to our market,” he said.

A resource center for businesses also opened Monday on Central Avenue, where people can learn about city and county programs, including grants, that can help offset some of the financial effects of the closure.

According to the Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District, some businesses lost 40% to 50% of their revenue during the shut down.

How we got here

After initial fears that the bridge near downtown L.A. would need to be demolished and rebuilt — a process which would have taken months — structural testing instead pointed toward repairs. Still, that work was thought would take three to five weeks.

Instead, Sunday morning, authorities said the freeway would open within hours, in time for the Monday morning commute.

In all, that means the freeway was back in operation eight days after a devastating fire began last Saturday, burning through pallets, vehicles and other flammable material store under the roadway.

"The good news is there was more good news," said Gov. Gavin Newsom at an early morning news conference.

Vice President Kamala Harris joined the group making the announcement. Harris said she was "acutely aware" of how serious the shutdown of the 10 Freeway was for the city and region.

"The work that happened here was extraordinary," she said praising the union contractors who worked around the clock. "Tomorrow the commute is back on."

Where things stand

• The Alameda Street off-ramp, as well as Lawrence Street between 10th Street and 14th Street, will still be closed.
  
• Newsom said on Sunday that permanent repairs will continue, during episodic closures that will take place likely at night.
  
• Bass said Metro ridership jumped 10% during the closure.
  
• Authorities are seeking a person of interest in connection to the arson investigation.
  

• Newsom said Thursday that the fire damaged 10 Freeway was “in better shape than anticipated” and will open no later than Nov. 21, far sooner than initially expected and before the busy Thanksgiving holiday.

  “What a gift for Los Angeles to have right before a holiday to know that your commute will be better," said Bass, who joined Newsom at the burn site to make the announcement.
  

• On Thursday, the L.A. Department of Transportation added an additional left turn lane in each direction along the Alameda corridor to improve traffic flow. 
  
• Additional white-glove traffic officers continue to be stationed throughout the closure area. And With rain expected through the end of the week, Bass directed the Department of Transportation to increase the amount of white-glove traffic officers in the downtown area so commuters can get through intersections faster.
  
• The Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration made $3 million of emergency relief funding immediately available to Caltrans on Wednesday to help repair the freeway. The “quick release” federal funding will go towards traffic control, removing hazardous waste, and temporary shoring of the damaged structure.
  
• On Wednesday, Metro added additional buses to Line 66, which runs along Olympic Boulevard, and Line 251 along Soto Street. These lines saw the most delays Tuesday.

• LAFD is now inspecting all state property under freeways for fire hazard material to make sure they’re safe and that the 10 Freeway “tragedy will not be repeated,” Bass said.
  
• Newsom also said crew would install cameras so that the public can monitor the project's progress, on fixthe10.ca.gov (which currently appears to have photos and a highlight-reel video of repairs.)

The following reporting preceded the reopening.

Why drivers were asked to stay off surface streets

Bass and other top officials had pleaded with drivers to stay off surface streets if they’re trying to get around the 10 Freeway closure.

After taking a helicopter ride over the damaged freeway, Bass said all the surface streets around downtown look like parking lots as people try to find their own detours. Officials are still encouraging commuters to stay on the freeways, or take public transit whenever possible.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley added that fire trucks and ambulances have been having trouble getting through the congestion.

“Every second counts when it comes to our emergency responders,” she said. “So please keep that in mind when you are trying to make that decision of where you're going to go.”

What we know so far

• We learned Monday that the fire was likely started by arson. Newsom said CalFire — which finished its investigation 12 hours early — made a preliminary determination that there was malice intent. “That it was arson, and that it was done and set intentionally," Newsom said. "That determination of who is responsible is an investigation that is ongoing.”
  

• While the fire remains under investigation, Mayor Bass told LAist 89.3’s AirTalk earlier this week that speculation on social media and elsewhere is not helpful.

  "There's a lot of accusations against the homeless people that were in the area,” she said. “There is no reason, at this point in time, to associate the encampment with the fire that took place there.”
  

• The company that leased the space under the freeway from CalTrans, Apex Development Inc., is facing lawsuits for subleasing the site to at least five other tenants without authorization, according to Newsom. Officials are now checking to see if the Calabasas-based company is out of compliance with the other leases it holds in the area.

  "So to say the whole thing is a mess is an understatement," Bass said Tuesday, "but this company is going to have its date in court at the beginning of the year."
  

• As for why flammable material was stored under a major freeway in the first place, Bass said: "It's not just flammable materials, it's materials, period and it's also oversight and accountability and all of that I think is going to come the question now because — just in our city alone — you were talking about miles and miles of property underneath the freeways that the state leases out.

  "And so all of that needs to be scrutinized and the governor has assured us that it will be, I mean, especially pallet storage of all things, given the number of pallet fires we have in pallet yards each year in Southern California."
  

The backstory

An aerial view of cleanup crews working beneath the closed 10 Freeway Monday.

(

Mario Tama

/

Getty Images

)

The massive fire that shut down both directions of the 10 Freeway between the East L.A. connector and Alameda Street was sparked over the weekend.

Los Angeles city leaders immediately warned of major traffic congestion after "extensive damage" to the bridge near downtown. Before this shutdown, the key regional connector handled about 300,000 vehicles a day — a number that underscores the dramatic effect of the closure.

Crews have been shoring the bridge — adding in temporary supports — and determined by Tuesday that the bridge could be repaired, rather than demolished and rebuilt. That's a major relief to authorities and the commuting public, with more relief coming Thursday when the reopening timeline was greatly accelerated.

Initial timeline on reopening was 3 to 5 weeks

Authorities say work will continue 24/7 until repairs allow the reopening of the stretch of the 10 Freeway that typically handles 300,000 vehicles a day.

(

Mario Tama

/

Getty Images

)

On Sunday, Bass called for patience from Los Angeles drivers — a call she made again Monday and Tuesday. The mayor invoked the Northridge earthquake in 1994 in terms of the severity and consequences of Saturday's damage.

"For those of you that remember the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Caltrans worked around the clock to complete emergency repairs to the freeways," said Bass. "And this structural damage calls for the same level of urgency and effort."

"Unfortunately, there's no reason to think that this is going to be over in a couple of days," she said.

Newsom said Tuesday that with 24/7 work on repairs, the timeline to reopening would be three to five weeks. Officials were greatly relieved that it wasn't longer — and even more pleased when word came that the major freeway would be opened before the Thanksgiving holiday.

When the 10 Freeway was damaged in the Northridge earthquake, a private construction firm — operating with generous incentives in place — was able to rebuild two bridges in just over two months — 74 days earlier than projected.

Newsom, who declared a state of emergency on Saturday to help with cleanup and repairs, had said Sunday that incentives could come into play.

“The state is mobilizing resources and taking steps to ensure any necessary repairs are completed as soon as possible to minimize the impact on those traveling in and around Los Angeles,” Newsom said.

"We are approaching this issue with absolute urgency," Bass said.

How Caltrans assessed damage

This photo provided by the California Department of Transportation shows an early morning fire along Interstate 10 near downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023.

(

Richard Vogel

/

Caltrans District 7 via AP

)

Damage under the I-10 overpass after a huge fire on Saturday morning in downtown.

(

Courtesy Caltrans

)

An emergency contract to begin restoration of the structure has been secured by Caltrans, according to Toks Omishakin, California's secretary of transportation.

What we know about the assessment so far:

• Crews took hazardous material samples for lab analysis and then removed debris from under the overpass.
• At that point, structural engineers from the department were able perform a thorough assessment.

"I want to emphasize that our efforts on this are going to have to be 24/7 to get this roadway back open. But I'm not going to understate the challenge here. It is significant," Omishakin said.

About the fire

The fire started at a pallet yard just north of the 10 Freeway near the intersection of East 14th Street and South Alameda Street at around 12:22 a.m. Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The blaze quickly spread to a second pallet yard, affecting nearly eight acres of the area at one point.

More than 164 firefighters fought the blaze, which was largely contained within three hours. But some hotspots remained in hard-to-reach areas underneath the freeway and robotic equipment was brought in. The fire was fully knocked down later Sunday.

On Monday, officials provided more detail about the damaged infrastructure: About 450 feet of the freeway was affected by the fire, said John Yang, deputy district director for construction for Caltrans District 7. He said that includes more than 90 concrete support columns, each 3 feet in diameter and nearly 16 feet tall.

“We’re inspecting every aspect of it,” he said.

Omishakin said inspectors had been able to take concrete and rebar samples from the underside of the bridge and columns, which they then analyzed.

“Once we analyze these samples, we will get a clearer idea of our repair strategy,” he said.

There were no reported injuries to firefighters — or to others. The cause of the fire is under active investigation.

Officials at Sunday's news conference described treacherous conditions that made getting the fire under control a challenge. At one point, after electrical lines were knocked down by the fire, authorities at the scene were concerned that the water being used to knock down flames could be electrified. That forced them to pull firefighters back and turn to heavy equipment.

Newsom said that the state has begun litigation with the lessee of the pallet yard where the fire started.

"In fact, our inspectors have been out there on a consistent basis with citations," Newsom said at the press conference. "Their lease has expired, they're in arrears, we believe they've been subleasing the space, and we actually have a court date in the early part of the new calendar year."

Newsom said that he could not provide further details on any violations the lessees of the lot may have incurred, but that more updates would be forthcoming.

How to commute

Traffic backed up along a closed Interstate 10 after a fire that severely damaged the freeway in downtown Los Angeles.

(

Richard Vogel

/

AP

)

California Highway Patrol warns that traffic diverted from the 10 Freeway closure will impact the 5 Freeway, the 60, and the 101.

Drivers

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation said it is working to establish dedicated detours on surface streets.

"If you are driving on the freeway through downtown, we ask that you do not exit the freeway onto surface streets to bypass the affected area," said Laura Rubio-Cornejo, general manager of LADOT, adding that drivers should stay on the freeway and transfer to the 5, 110, or the 101.

The city has more information on alternate routes here.

Public transportation

The LADOT announced Tuesday that commuter express buses are now free. Commuter express buses connect areas like Northeast Valley, Thousand Oaks, the South Bay and Long Beach with downtown Los Angeles. DASH buses that provide short local trips continue to be free. Riders do not need a tap card.

Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said public transit users can take the E line from Santa Monica through downtown Los Angeles to the San Gabriel Valley. The J line parallels a portion of the 110 Freeway completely avoiding the closure area. Another option is the A line from Long Beach all the way to downtown Los Angeles.

Metrolink, Wiggins said, is increasing service from Covina all the way to downtown.
 
“There will now be 30-minute service all day, additional trips, six round trips in total that Metrolink has added starting this morning to give people more choices to ride,” she said.

Remote work

Transportation and city officials also asked anyone who works in downtown L.A. to work from home if at all possible — at least for now.

City officials are also hoping businesses in downtown L.A. will lean into work from home policies for the time being to help alleviate traffic.

“I know we've spent this time trying to encourage people to come back downtown, back into their offices,” Bass said at a news conference. “But while we are going through this crisis, we would like for employers who can have their staff work remotely to do so.”

Schools impact

All LAUSD schools were open Monday, but Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said parents and employees should expect delays. Carvalho said in a statement that families who have questions about district transportation should call (800) 522-8737 (1-800-LA-BUSES).

The district said the following schools may be “significantly impacted” by the closure:

• Para Los Niños Elementary
• 9th Street/Para Los Niños Middle
• Inner City Arts
• St. Turibius Catholic
• Metropolitan High  
• 20th Street Elementary
• 28th Street Elementary

Carvalho said Monday that about 42 bus routes felt the impact, out of 1,300; the average delay was anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes. The delays affected 13 schools.

St. Turibius Catholic School is blocks away from the now-closed section of the 10 Freeway. Principal Audrey Blanchette said her commute from Montebello tripled from 15 to 45 minutes.

“There's just a lot of big rigs on the regular streets that we usually see on the freeway,” Blanchette said. She got off the 60 at Whittier Boulevard and crossed the 6th Street Bridge to get to Central Avenue.

Blanchette said most of the school’s nearly 100 students live nearby and walk or take public transportation. Most of her staff and students made it to school on time Monday, but she’s bracing herself and staff to expect delays for weeks to come.

How we're reporting on this

Reporter Yusra Farzan is reporting from Union Station on commuter experiences. Susanne Whatley, who hosts Morning Edition for LAist 89.3, interviewed Mayor Karen Bass Monday morning and Karina Gacad is our AM Editor. Our AirTalk show has a number of experts on Monday morning's show that will be added as that information becomes available. Over the weekend, Associate Producer Kevin Tidmarsh and Weekend Host Julia Paskin anchored coverage with contributions from Weekend Editor Fiona Ng, PM Editor Tiffany Ujiiye Reporter Makenna Sieverston and Nick Roman, who hosted special coverage Sunday afternoon. Additional reporting Monday by Mariana Dale and Frank Stoltze. Additional editing by Ross Brenneman, Redmond Carolipio, Megan Garvey, Jason Wells and Tony Marcano.

This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think fire, police, government officials and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes and/or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.

What questions we asked

• What is the timeline for rebuilding?
• Can the freeway segment be repaired or do we need to demolish and start over?
• How does this compare to the damage and rebuilding efforts following the 1994 Northridge earthquake?
• What are the environmental impacts of the smoke and debris?

Your questions or ideas

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

California regulators ordered Health Net to fix how it’s handling the termination of assisted living services for low-income residents after the insurer’s abrupt decision left patients and providers scrambling. The state’s corrective action plan requires Health Net to extend services for all members until the end of the year, rather than stopping some as soon as October.

Health Net, one of the largest Medicaid insurers in the country, notified providers several months ago that it was ending its assisted living and home care services contracts. The services are optional under Medi-Cal — California’s version of Medicaid — meaning an insurer can decide annually whether it will continue coverage. Providers and family members said they got little or no warning, leaving them confused and panicked about finding other arrangements.

In an August letter to Health Net, the Department of Health Care Services cited eight deficiencies in the insurer’s handling of the change, including failure to submit transition plans for members, failure to move members to other medically appropriate care, and denying services to members. Regulators wrote that violations “jeopardize member safety, disrupt continuity of care, and endanger medically vulnerable members.”

If Health Net does not extend benefits and create individualized transition plans for each affected member, the state may fine them $25,000 per member per day of violation, the letter states.

Advocates and providers estimate about 3,500 Medi-Cal patients rely on Health Net to pay for assisted living costs. Most are elderly, and many have cognitive issues like dementia. Health Net operates Medi-Cal plans in 10 counties: Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare.

In a statement to CalMatters, Health Net spokesperson Beatriz Lopez said the company still plans to end the services next year, but will now cover all members through the end of the year.

“Health Net and DHCS share a commitment to advancing the health and well-being of Medi-Cal members,” Lopez said.

Health Net has previously told CalMatters the assisted living benefit “has not led to better care” in terms of fewer emergency room visits or days hospitalized. The benefit is part of CalAIM, a broad state initiative to improve Medi-Cal services and save money by stabilizing high-cost users who frequently end up in emergency rooms. Lopez said Health Net would continue analyzing data and supporting services that result in better health outcomes.

Providers confirmed to CalMatters that their contracts would run through the end of the year.

Thousands still face January deadline

Hagar Dickman, director of long-term services and supports at Justice In Aging, said the state’s corrective action plan resolves the immediate crisis but fails to address the long-term problem: “Thousands of older Californians are still set to lose their housing on January 1st.”

Allowing health insurers to cancel housing-related benefits creates problems, Dickman said, because most assisted living residents have no other home to return to. Additionally, the Department of Health Care Services has stated that if a member moves to another insurer that still covers assisted living, continuity of care protections would no longer apply, meaning the new insurer might not approve the member's assisted living costs.

"It’s disingenuous to say there are protections and then say the protections don’t apply,” Dickman said. "So the option is skilled nursing or homelessness.”

Pauline Shatara, deputy director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, agreed that state protections are inadequate.

“It doesn’t sound like we found a solution to help pay for these people to remain where they are,” Shatara said.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

Long Beach will make a slew of parking tickets more expensive and charge higher cannabis taxes to avoid cutting library hours and some specialized police officers. The last-minute change, proposed hours before a City Council vote, reversed a controversial plan city leaders laid out in June to lay off nearly a dozen library employees to help balance its budget.

Facing a $58 million shortfall, the city will still lay off roughly 180 other employees and cut hundreds more vacant positions. But it will spare library staffing and hours, after the original budget — which would have cut Monday hours at five city libraries, the only ones open that day — prompted fierce public backlash.

Long Beach City Council members voted 7 to 2 on Tuesday for the revised $4-billion city budget.

Councilmember Cindy Allen, who objected, called the increased parking fines “predatory fees,” arguing that library funding shouldn’t come at the expense of unfairly targeting people already struggling financially. Allen represents a district that includes the densely populated Alamitos Beach and Rose Park neighborhoods, where parking is already scarce. “We don’t have driveways,” she said.

Kristina Duggan, who represents southeast Long Beach neighborhoods like Belmont Shore, also voted against the budget because it cut Fire Engine 14 near Colorado Lagoon, a move that’s expected to save $3.88 million but drive up response times.

Duggan and Allen both tried but failed to delay the budget vote, with Allen saying the changes were put together in a “slapdash manner” without a chance for the public to weigh in.

She warned her colleagues before the vote that if they approved the budget “without substantial discussion” then they were “complicit in rubber-stamping” a plan that would “affect people’s livelihoods.”

Under the plan, 18 categories of parking citations — including for blocking bike lanes, hydrants, double parking and crosswalks — will rise to a flat $100, up from $74 or $90, to generate $1.5 million. Street sweeping tickets would also get a $5 bump, to $80 — a difference that raises $700,000 in revenue.

In the last fiscal year, which ran Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, the city issued more than 100,000 parking citations and 201,000 street-sweeping tickets, Public Works Director Josh Hickman said. More than a fifth of street-sweeping tickets were written in Allen’s district, and more than half of all parking tickets citywide were issued in the first two council districts, which include downtown and Alamitos Beach.

John Edmond, a local lobbyist who sits on the board for the Library Foundation and spoke in support of the plan, said the $100 rates are on par with cities like San Francisco ($108), Oakland ($110), San Diego ($117). He argued this applies to the “most serious parking violations.”

“We can’t say we’re serious about pedestrian and bicycle safety without accountability,” he said.

The budget also raises the city’s cannabis retail tax from 7% to 8% and increases the cultivation tax to more than $15 per square foot, changes expected to bring in roughly $1.15 million.

The proposals came from Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie, who chairs the city’s Budget Oversight Committee. Ricks-Oddie said earlier Tuesday she had spent weeks preparing these and dozens of other recommendations in concert with city staff, continuously updating them to accommodate new requests that came in from the public and fellow council members.

“If we can’t do this … then we can’t fund the libraries,” Ricks-Oddie said in response to Allen’s concerns about pricier parking citations. “If we reject that, we’re saying no to our library hours on a Monday.”

The budget also sets aside $1 million for the city’s immigration legal defense fund, the Long Beach Justice Fund. That’s well short of the $2.2 million immigration attorneys and local immigrant rights groups say is needed to sustain it amid rising caseloads. Gina Amato Lough of Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project said “the need has never been greater,” citing prolonged detentions, warrantless raids and difficulty accessing counsel.

Since Public Counsel’s $919,000, one-year contract to provide legal services began in November, the group has taken on more than 55 consultations and 46 full-scope cases through the Justice Fund.

After hearing repeated pleas for more money Tuesday, Allen proposed reallocating all the funding for Long Beach’s new Vibe City marketing campaign — which some have derided as a waste of money — to the Justice Fund. She was quickly shot down, with a representative from the City Attorney’s office saying they’re not sure that would be legal, considering the Vibe City campaign is funded by tax revenue earmarked for advertising and promoting the city.

City Council leaders called the budget cuts a necessary, if painful, step toward stabilizing Long Beach’s finances after years of instability papered over with one-time cash — a bet that higher fees now will spare deeper cuts later.

“It’s hard, and it’s personal for everyone, and it will be really difficult on families across this community,” said Councilmember Megan Kerr.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Colorful parade floats, charros on horseback and live music will take over Cesar E. Chavez Avenue on Sunday for the 80th East L.A. Mexican Independence Day Parade.

For decades, organizers have brought together community leaders, performers, businesses and organizations to celebrate culture, community and tradition. This year, the parade will culminate in a festival with family-friendly activations, including live music, local vendors and lucha libre. 

This year’s co-grand marshals are singer and actor Dasahev López Saavedra, better known as El Dasa, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis.

Here’s everything you need to know.

When is the parade and festival?

The parade runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 13. The festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on First Street and Mednik Avenue. 

What’s the parade route? 

The 1.5-mile route will run along Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, starting at Mednik Avenue and ending on Gage Avenue. You can find a map of the parade route and other festivities on the festival’s webpage here. Early arrival is suggested to secure a viewing spot for the parade. 

A map of the East LA Mexican Independence Day Parade route.

(

Courtesy of the organizers

)

What streets will be closed?

• Mednik Avenue: Between 1st Street and Cesar E. Chavez from 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 to 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.
• Cesar E. Chavez Avenue: Between Vancouver Avenue and Gage Avenue from 6  a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.

What can I expect at the festivities?

The parade will feature floats, show cars, representatives from Eastside organizations, equestrian teams, marching bands and folklórico dancers. 

The festival will include vendors, musical performances, resource booths, a pop-up from local boutique The Goddess Mercado, a free pet vaccination clinic that will administer free vaccines for the first 200 pets, and a free lucha libre showcase by East Los Lucha. 

Where can I park? 

Limited free parking will be available at the East L.A. Civic Center lot located on E. 3rd Street and Civic Center Way. Attendees can also find street parking in the surrounding area. 

Can I take public transit to the event? 

The Metro E Line’s East L.A. Civic Center station is just a short walk from the event. 

What if I don’t want to attend in person? 

If you’re unable to attend or want to watch the parade from home, you can tune in to the live broadcast on ABC7. 

For more information, check out the website here. 

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Robbie Hall has a record of the people she has treated for overdoses at MacArthur Park.

The photos of many of the people she has treated are saved on her phone. She can scroll through them and remember each one.

Hall, an ambassador with the nonprofit Five Keys, has been doing this work for about four years and is at the park almost every day, carrying Naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.

She typically responds when someone stops breathing.

“I stopped counting when I got up in my 40s, because it started being gradually three of them, four of them,” Hall said. 

On a recent September morning at the park, Hall said she found a 14-year-old girl in a bathroom who was experiencing an overdose. Tears welled up as she talked about the people she encounters at the park.

“They need help, they need help,” she said. “This is every day.” 

She believes the city needs to address the problem. When asked about the plans to fence the park, she said she sees the fence as one way to improve the conditions she sees on the ground.

“They need to put something up here,” she said.

For Hall and others who work around the park, the fence is less a solution than a stopgap, something concrete to try amid problems that have proven harder to solve.

The Department of Recreation and Parks says the fence will be temporary and is still on track for construction this fall, but has not provided a specific date, cost estimate or explained what conditions would need to change before the fence comes down.

Marco Pacheco, president of the MacArthur Park Park Advisory Board, does not believe the fence will be temporary. 

“I think this is going to be permanent,” Pacheco said. “This is going to be a permanent fixture of some sort because first of all, you don’t put up a fence that costs millions of dollars to take it down. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Pacheco isn’t the only one who has doubts.

Richard Barron, who served on the Cultural Heritage Commission for 22 years before departing in July, also questioned whether the city would follow through on its promise to remove the fence.

“I doubt that the fence is going to come down,” Barron said, “especially when they’ve spent all that money. Even taking it down costs a lot of money, you know, and you’re going to throw all that material away?”

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners approved $2.3 million in funding for the project. The city has not said how much money will ultimately be spent on the fence.

Everyone has a different idea of what the fence will do

The city’s consultants have described a fence that would be transparent, reversible and designed to blend into the park.

Leila Hamroun, a senior preservation architect with Tetra Tech, the consulting firm working with the city on the project’s design, said the fence won’t be a dominant feature.

“The whole intent here is to guarantee that it just blends in, that it’s seamless,” Hamroun said. “It’s reversible, transparent, minimalist, consistent with the evolution of urban parks over time.”

A rendering shows the proposed green metal fence around MacArthur Park.

(

Courtesy L.A. Recreation and Parks

)

The fence is expected to be about 8 feet tall, with gates at eight existing entrances. Decorative elements would be considered separately, with community input expected next year.

For Michelle Garcia, who has been a vendor around MacArthur Park since 2015, it could help distinguish vendors from the people living in the park.

“I support it if they could get the homeless people out,” Garcia said. “They are the ones that make MacArthur Park look bad. But they also make us look bad, because we sell around the area, so they think we’re like them, which we’re not.”

Garcia was among a group of vendors at MacArthur Park who held a Sept. 2 press conference to call attention to what they described as police harassment and citations that pushed vendors away from the park.

“Like us, we’re trying to work and get money for our bills, our rent,” she said.

Police have their own expectations for what a fenced park could accomplish.

The Los Angeles Police Department has stepped up enforcement around the park through a joint task force with the Drug Enforcement Administration focused on drug dealing in the area. In July, Rampart Division Capt. Benedict Fernandes said the operation had significantly disrupted the drug trade, but that drug users were spreading into surrounding neighborhoods in search of narcotics.

“We know that all the communities around have been impacted because it got spread this way, sort of like a shotgun blast,” he said. “It went south, it went east, it went north, it went west.”

Fernandes said the next phase of the enforcement effort would focus on connecting unhoused people and drug users with shelter and recovery services.

The fence, he said, is meant to make the park less convenient for drug activity and “prevent crime” inside the park.

“Because that’s the problem,” Fernandes said. “The Alvarado corridor at MacArthur Park has been convenient for drug users for years. We’re just trying to make those things stop.”

Fernandes said the temporary fence along Alvarado and now the orange bollards installed in the area, have worked to disrupt that activity. 

But Hall, the outreach worker administering Narcan at the park, has not seen those types of improvements on the ground.

“Since they did that big bust? No, it got worse,” Hall said when asked whether she had seen fewer overdoses in the area.

She said people wait for police to leave the park before returning.

“If it wasn’t for Five Keys, there would be a lot more dead bodies here,” she said.

Some residents say that adding a fence around MacArthur Park would change the makeup of the neighborhood. Others welcome a change to the troubled park.

(

Gary Coronado

/

The LA Local

)

How the fence is supposed to work

The plan calls for the park to remain open during the day, with eight entry points, and close overnight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. LAPD would close the gates at night, and Recreation and Parks maintenance workers would reopen them each morning.

The department says the fence is intended to make the park easier to maintain. Illegal dumping, littering, vandalism and graffiti have made routine maintenance difficult, according to the department, which has said MacArthur Park generates more graffiti cleanup requests than nearby Lafayette Park.

The city has pointed to nearby Lafayette Park, which is fenced and closed at night, as a model for MacArthur Park.

Pacheco, the president of the park’s advisory board, said he has heard general support for the fence among community members. 

“In many cases, community members alluded to Lafayette Park having been fenced for a long time, the difference between the two parks, Lafayette being a lot safer and a lot cleaner and less of a problem than MacArthur Park,” he said. 

The fence still needs final approval from the five-person commission that approved the project’s conceptual phase in October. The commission has not yet set a date to consider the final plans.