The Brief

Most L.A. residents agree that their neighborhoods could use more parks, but the lack of green spaces in Los Angeles is nowhere more glaring than in Koreatown.

Parks appear like postage stamps on neighborhood maps, surrounded by apartment towers and busy corridors. When parents want to take their kids to play outside, they often have to leave their immediate neighborhood. The city has even put a number to it: About 18,000 residents in Koreatown live further than half a mile from a park, according to a recent report on park needs, which also notes that access to green space is key to mental and physical health.

“One of the things that makes this neighborhood amazing is the fact that it’s so active and vibrant,” said Adriane Hoff, parks advocate and a longtime Koreatown resident. “But then there’s also the flip side of it, that we don’t have that place where we can sit back and recharge.”

And yet, officials have done little to address the problem over the decades. So, The LA Local is digging into why it’s been so difficult to develop green spaces in Koreatown, Pico Union and Westlake — some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in LA and made up predominantly of renters.

It has been about a decade since the city announced and approved the Pío Pico Library Pocket Park, Koreatown’s first new park since the 1920s. The 0.6-acre space would transform a parking lot into a park on top of an underground structure. It is expected to open in early 2027 with a budget of $26 million.

An aerial view of Liberty Park in Koreatown.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

For The LA Local

)

Right around the corner is Liberty Park, a privately owned green space that has only escaped development into a 36-story tower because residents rallied for it to be designated a historic-cultural monument in 2018. The simple lawn, without any of the amenities you might expect to see in a park, has hosted street fairs and World Cup viewing parties, as well as being a mecca for dog walkers and yoga classes.

“As the community has become much more dense, much more residential in nature, this park has taken on even more importance,” Adrian Fine, president and CEO of the LA Conservancy, said about Liberty Park.

Overall, Los Angeles has not prioritized its investment in park spaces, according to the Park Needs Assessment report from the Department of Recreation and Parks.

L.A.’s per-capita investment is dramatically lower than other cities of similar size, population and density. The city invests $92 per capita, versus the average of $283 in other cities.

And it’s the city’s poorest residents who feel that the most. Many residents who live in areas identified as needing parks the most earn less than 80% of what the median household earns in the state, according to the latest available data from the city.

Delfino Chocoj plays soccer at Seoul International Park in Koreatown.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

For The LA Local

)

There are bright spots in Koreatown, Pico Union and Westlake. Efforts are underway to renovate or expand existing park spaces, updating outdated facilities or expanding the footprint of the green space, like at Seoul International Park.

Then there’s the question of MacArthur Park.

The 30 acres in Westlake, replete with lake, soccer field and playground, has been described as an open-air drug market with a growing unhoused population. City officials want to install a fence to address “safety concerns” — a move at odds with proposals to instead open up the park to more people by making Wilshire Boulevard a car-free zone.

Harm reduction outreach workers have in particular raised concerns about the impact of a fence. They say if the park is closed off, then many of the unhoused people who need services will be forced out of the area and likely will not receive the services they need.

On one recent morning, people dozed off on the grass, ducks argued on the lake and a pickup soccer game played out in a nearby field. A police cruiser drove onto the park grounds and a pair of officers spoke to a group of people.

“To me, it feels like the city tries to make it better and then doesn’t go far enough,” said Lidia Reyes, who took a 5-minute bus ride to the park with her daughters.

“It’s nice in the day,” said Reyes as her daughters played nearby. “And not so nice at night.”

L.A. Rep. Jimmy Gomez said he was “impressed” last month when the lawmaker was able to visit the downtown immigration holding facility known as B-18 without a hassle and without giving advance notice. Prior to that, when the government ramped up its deportation campaign last summer, he had been denied entry because he hadn’t given advance notice.

He and fellow Congressional Democrats sued and won a ruling in December. But the window of unfettered visitation rights didn’t last long.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new set of rules, again requiring a week’s notice ahead of Congressional oversight visits.

An emergency hearing is being held Wednesday morning in Washington, D.C., to determine whether the new rules are legal.

Gomez and others say they can’t properly monitor the spending of taxpayer money without being able to do surprise oversight visits.

“The drop-in visits allow us to document what the true conditions are, not when they're getting ready for an inspection,” he said.

Congress members became aware of the government’s new advance-notice rules after several Minnesota representatives tried to visit an ICE facility in Minneapolis last week, a day after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. They were denied entry.

In an internal memo dated Jan. 8, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem wrote that the new visitation rules did not violate the court ruling because they came from a different funding stream than the one requiring unfettered access for Congressional oversight.

“I think that they’re just  grasping at straws,” said Gomez, who represents the 34th Congressional district, including downtown and East L.A.

U.S. Congressman Jimmy Gomez walks out of the Roybal Federal Building on Dec. 19, 2025, after inspecting the immigration detention facility inside.

(

Jordan Rynning

/

LAist

)

What Gomez saw on his visit to B-18

Gomez visited B-18, located in the basement of the downtown federal building, Dec. 19. He said there were no beds or blankets, no kitchen facilities and no medical personnel for the 120 people being held there at the time.

“So if something happens, they might not be able to get somebody the treatment they need quickly enough to deal with an emergency,” Gomez said.

As a temporary immigration processing facility, B-18 is normally supposed to hold detainees for no more than 12 hours, per federal rules. But immigration officials waived that time limit at the height of the raids in L.A. last year, allowing people to be detained there for up to 72 hours. That rule is still in effect.

“The problem is that they're still keeping people there way too long for the type of facility it is, endangering their lives,” Gomez said.

At least 20 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the highest number in two decades. That includes two Orange County residents, both of whom were being held at the ICE detention center in Adelanto. No deaths have been reported at B-18.

What’s the big deal about advanced notice?

In her Jan. 8 memo, Sec. Noem said advance notice of congressional visits was necessary to ensure the safety of ICE employees, detainees and Congress members and staff. She also wrote that there was “an increasing trend of replacing legitimate oversight activities with circus-like publicity stunts.”

Media and pro-immigration activists have accompanied Congress members on some of their attempts to visit ICE facilities, including last week in Minneapolis.

How to watchdog your local government

Corruption and scandals are disheartening to read about when it comes to your local government. But one of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is to pay attention.

Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

Thinking of attending for the first time? Here are some tips to get you started.

Dig into any local code and you’ll inevitably find something quirky.

We’ve got weirdly specific rules, like Los Angeles County’s law barring rollerblading at Compton’s courthouse and library for example, but there are also old ones on the books that don’t make much sense.

One of those is the city of L.A.’s prohibition of playing sports with a ball in the park (yes, you read that right) and other areas. The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to start the repeal process, but it’s got us wondering… why is that even a thing?

What the law does

Under L.A. Municipal Code section 56.16 it’s technically illegal to play catch or other sports on some city property, like on the sidewalk with your kids in front of your own house.

The motion comes from councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who says it’s an “uncommonly silly law.” The code reads:

Don’t worry, the repeal won’t make the more serious parts legal. (The ones about bullets and arrows.) Those are covered in LAMC section 55.0 and 55.06.

On paper, violating this strange law comes with a six-month stint in jail or a $1,000 fine, according to the motion, but it’s largely been ignored.

“LAPD records show maybe one or two tickets but it is fair to say it is not regularly enforced,” said Jake Flynn, a spokesperson for Blumenfield.

To repeal the law, the City Council has to pass an ordinance removing it. That’s what the city attorney will draft next.

Why is it there?

We don’t know when 56.16 was added to the city’s municipal code, but it’s traceable to at least 1945.

It’s not unusual for weird laws like this to stick around. Old codes aren’t deleted often, according to Zev Yaroslavsky, a former county supervisor and director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

As for the reason it started? The original intent appears to be lost to time, according to Flynn.

It could’ve been a way to keep the public right-of-way clear. The publication Van Nuys News printed the law in 1948 because they got complaints about children playing games in the street. “Risk to life, limb and property is cited by most persons who make complaints,” said the newspaper.

For the park rule, though, your best guess is as good as mine.

Do you know why it started? Send me an email at chernandez@laist.com.

The Los Angeles City Council is asking the private nonprofit organizing the 2028 Olympics to provide more information on the role the federal government will play in policing the Games.

The council unanimously passed a motion Tuesday requesting that LA28 produce a detailed report on the federal Olympics task force on security that President Donald Trump announced last year.

"We all have increasing concerns about their involvement and their influence around what policing will look like," Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said of the federal government, citing the ICE agents that have descended on the streets of Los Angeles and other U.S. cities since summer.

The federal government is overseeing security planning for the Olympic Games. The agency leading that effort is the Secret Service, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. That set-up is not atypical, but it has sparked criticism from immigrants rights advocates and community members concerned that the Games may bring more federal agents to the streets of L.A.

LA28 also caught flak when it quietly added a number of Trump allies to its board of directors last year. The new additions mean Trump allies have nearly the same representation on the board as the city's six appointees.

The motion passed Tuesday asks LA28 to report to the council how the federal security task force will affect the city's planning for the Olympics. It also directs LA28 to "include guidance on what guardrails the City can enact to ensure that the City's most vulnerable communities are protected."

In a statement, LA28 did not say how it would respond to the council’s request, or respond to the concerns raised by Councilmember Rodriguez.

A spokesperson said in an email that the White House task force “plays an important role in facilitating coordination across federal departments and agencies,” but did not offer more details on what that coordination entails.

It appears that the City Council can do little to enforce its motion.

The city's contract with the Olympics organizers requires LA28 to update the city on engagement with federal authorities that "relates materially to the City," and to periodically update the city on the event's national security designation. But the council's request for more information on the federal task force doesn't fit neatly into any category spelled out in that agreement.

Gabriel Avalos, a spokesperson for Rodriguez, acknowledged via text that the City Council could not compel the private Olympics organizers to respond to the motion, and that the council's request was just that: a request.

"Now the ball is simply in their court," Avalos added.

If you feel a lift after exercise, you're in good company. Movement can boost mood, and according to the results of a new study, it can also help relieve symptoms of depression.

As part of a review of evidence by the Cochrane collaboration — an independent network of researchers — scientists evaluated 73 randomized controlled trials that included about 5,000 people with depression, many of whom also tried antidepressant medication.

"We found that exercise was as effective as pharmacological treatments or psychological therapies as well," says Andrew Clegg, a professor at the University of Lancashire in the U.K.

The findings are not a surprise to psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Mateka, medical director of psychiatry at Inspira Health. "This new Cochrane review reinforces the evidence that exercise is one of the most evidence-based tools for improving mood," says Mateka.

He explains how it mirrors some of the effects of medication. "Exercise can help improve neurotransmitter function, like serotonin as well as dopamine and endorphins. So there is certainly overlap between exercise and how antidepressants offer relief," Mateka says.

In other words, exercise helps release chemicals in the body that are known to boost mood.

And there's another powerful effect too. Exercise can trigger the release of brain growth factors, explains Dr. Nicholas Fabiano of the University of Ottawa. He says depression can decrease neuroplasticity, making it harder for the brain to adapt and change.

"The brain in depression is thought to be less plastic. So there's less what we call neurotrophic factors, or BDNF," Fabiano explains. He calls it the Miracle-Gro for the brain. "And we know that exercise can also boost it. So I think exercise is a fundamental pillar we really need to counsel patients on," he says.

And while medications and therapy are important tools, Fabiano says exercise is recognized as a preferred treatment for depression.

"Exercise has been adopted as a first-line treatment in guidelines for depression globally with good acceptability and safety," he writes. Yet he says it remains underappreciated and underutilized.

"It's much easier for a primary care physician to prescribe medication to a patient. You just write it on a pad," Fabiano says. It's harder to prescribe exercise, which takes time and effort and can be difficult to start for people who are depressed.

Fabiano says exercise can work best as part of a combination of treatments. "We can start someone on an antidepressant — maybe that improves their mood, and they're able to engage in therapy. And from there, maybe now they're more interested in starting some of these lifestyle habits like exercise," Fabiano says.

How much exercise is enough?

The evidence shows light to moderate exercise — where you get your heart rate up enough to feel slightly winded — can be as beneficial as vigorous or intense exercise, at least early on. And Fabiano says it's OK to start with a "low dose."

"Ultimately you want to work your way up. But going from completely sedentary to even just going for a walk every day, that's where you start seeing those exponential gains," he says, stressing the importance of getting started with modest amounts.

The study found that a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training appears to be more effective than aerobic alone. The meta-analysis found between 13 and 36 workouts led to improvements in depressive symptoms, though long-term follow-up was rare. Researchers say there's more to learn about how regular exercise may help stave off depression.

Mateka says there are lots of options. "When it comes to exercise, it's about just finding the exercise that works for you, such as something like yoga or tai chi versus something like walking and jogging," he says. For some, group activity can add to the psychosocial benefits.

At the end of the day, it's best to pick something you enjoy or go back to an activity or sport you liked as a child.

"Exercise is something that is extremely low cost. It's very accessible. It has very minimal side effects. And it has the opportunity to impact you positively, mentally, emotionally, socially and physically," Mateka says.
Copyright 2026 NPR