Debate rages on over Echo Park Lake fence

Two years in the past, building crews labored deep into the evening across the perimeter of Echo Park Lake, placing up section after section of chain-link fence as protesters confronted off towards law enforcement officials not far-off.

On the time, that fence was described as a short lived barrier, one that will permit town to filter a large homeless encampment, then begin the work of cleansing, repairing and restoring the park.

Now, Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez is making ready to take that fence down, simply as town reaches the second anniversary of the controversial encampment operation. However the neighborhood stays not less than partly divided over the fence — and the way forward for the park, one of many metropolis’s most scenic locales.

Soto-Martinez, who promised to take away the fence throughout final 12 months’s election marketing campaign, has described it as a logo of town’s “largest coverage failure on homelessness.” However he’s going through criticism from some within the neighborhood, who say the fence was important to restoring order inside the park, permitting households and seniors to return.

Gil Mangaoang, a retired social employee, stated he and his neighbors had a front-row view of the chaos that usually erupted contained in the park between 2019 and 2021, together with shootings, fires and bodily fights. Residents close to the park, Mangaoang stated, had their sleep repeatedly interrupted by late-night partying, amplified music and screaming from the encampment.

4 folks died within the park, together with an 18-year-old from San Diego County who overdosed on medicine.

“Councilmember Soto-Martinez’s marketing campaign promise was to take away the fence. However you realize what? The marketing campaign is over,” stated Mangaoang, who lives in an residence throughout from the lake. “Now he has to control and symbolize all of his constituents.”

Mangaoang, 76, and several other different longtime parkgoers have known as on Soto-Martinez to put in a everlasting fence, much like these discovered at Los Angeles State Historic Park in Chinatown and Leimert Park in South L.A. They’ve described a few of the incidents that occurred when the encampment was at its peak.

At one level, Mangaoang stated, he noticed a person outdoors a tent throw punches at one other man. “He was attempting to hit the man within the abdomen, and the opposite man tried to kick him within the crotch,” he stated. “I did a U-turn and walked out of the park.”

Nancy Ochoa, 34, stated she hustled her two youngsters out of the park two years in the past after seeing a person screaming and waving a gun. Andrea Martinez Gonzalez, 73, stated she noticed a bodily combat between two ladies, one in all them partially clothed.

“I finished strolling within the park due to the encampment,” she stated. “And it was fantastic to get it again.”

Soto-Martinez has sought to handle these fears, promising to ship homeless outreach employees into the park seven days per week, whereas having a staff of unarmed responders accessible at evening. Final week, he and Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Protected program moved 64 unhoused folks, lots of them from streets close to the lake, into momentary housing.

Forty-five went into the Lodge Silver Lake, practically two miles away, whereas 14 others went to the downtown L.A. Grand Lodge, in accordance with a Bass aide. 5 are in a motel that has not been named, the aide stated.

Guests to Echo Park Lake stroll their canine in early March. Some who assist the fence say it has restored security and calm to the park.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Instances)

Soto-Martinez highlighted that work at two latest city corridor conferences, each dedicated to the fence’s removing. He has positioned blame for the park’s prior public security woes on his predecessor, former Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who misplaced to Soto-Martinez final 12 months.

“The previous council member let the park fall into this place,” Soto-Martinez instructed one group. “The council member is the boss, the one in cost. He let it occur. I gained’t let it occur.”

O’Farrell had no remark when reached by The Instances. Final 12 months, whereas working for reelection, he stated the park had grow to be a “harmful, lethal atmosphere” for encampment residents, requiring an enormous relocation effort.

Homeless advocacy teams have lengthy pushed again towards that narrative. In 2021, these teams issued a press release calling the encampment a “lovely and far lauded homeless-run outside group,” one which supplied safety, stability and “therapeutic for drug dependancy and psychological sickness.” Since then, they’ve asserted that violence within the space was dedicated by police, who fired projectiles and injured demonstrators against the encampment operation.

L.A. has poured sources into Echo Park Lake in latest many years, finishing up a $45-million renovation of the park that added 4 acres of wetlands and different enhancements. The park was mounted up once more within the wake of the encampment operation in 2021, with repairs estimated at $600,000. Since its reopening, the fenced-off park has supplied about six totally different areas the place guests can enter every day.

Soto-Martinez has repeatedly declined to provide an actual date for the fence’s removing, saying it would come down when there are enough sources accessible to the park. He stated residents of the district, which stretches from Echo Park to Hollywood, forged their vote to take away the fence in November, after they ousted O’Farrell.

“The group decided after they elected me,” Soto-Martinez stated. “I used to be very clear about that being a marketing campaign promise.”

Santos Davila, a 43-year-old avenue vendor, supplied a unique take. Davila, who lives in Echo Park, stated he’s seen much less trash and legal exercise for the reason that fence went up. He lately took his 8-year-old daughter, Sonia, on a motorcycle journey by the park — an exercise that “would have been not possible two years in the past,” he stated.

“I voted for Hugo,” stated Davila, showing at one of many city corridor conferences. “I really feel like he’s one in all us, and he is aware of this space. And I can’t imagine after seeing all this variation the final couple of years, he’s fascinated with eliminating the fence.”

Soto-Martinez continues to be working to win folks over. He has recruited volunteers, together with some from Democratic Socialists of America’s L.A. chapter, to inform residents in regards to the work being executed within the park. These volunteers discovered that fifty% assist the fence’s removing, 18% oppose it and the rest are both undecided or don’t care, a Soto-Martinez aide stated.

Marissa Ayala, who has been knocking on doorways for Soto-Martinez, stated the fence has executed nothing to handle homelessness, psychological well being or substance abuse points in L.A. Supporters of the fence, she stated, are “a small however very vocal contingent” of residents.

“The fence does much more hurt, and actually has no positives,” stated the Mid-Metropolis resident, who belongs to DSA-LA’s electoral politics committee.

Some Echo Park residents haven’t wanted convincing.

Bruce Embry, who has lived within the neighborhood since 1958, identified that Echo Park Lake didn’t have a fence for the overwhelming majority of its existence.

“This has been an open park for many of its life,” he stated. “It must return to that.”

Soto-Martinez’s plan additionally has assist from Valerie Zeller, one of many final of the unhoused folks to go away Echo Park Lake when it was cleared in 2021.

Valerie Zeller organizes her belongings as she prepares to go away the encampment at Echo Park Lake in 2021. Zeller, who lately agreed to maneuver right into a tiny residence, says the fence wants to come back down.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Instances)

Zeller lately agreed to maneuver into one of many metropolis’s tiny residence villages, a facility opened by O’Farrell. Standing outdoors a van simply north of the lake, she stated the fence’s removing is lengthy overdue.

“It’s a park. You shouldn’t really feel such as you’re in jail,” she stated. “Once they fence in parks, it appears like they’re excluding folks, or don’t belief folks to not comply with guidelines.”

Whether or not the park’s guidelines will probably be enforced, and even wanted, is unclear. The town’s legal guidelines prohibit folks from placing up tents in parks, whatever the time of day. Metropolis park rangers enforced that regulation up to now.

Enforcement was largely suspended in Echo Park following the outbreak of COVID-19. On the time, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention warned that dispersing homeless encampments might improve the unfold of COVID-19.

In February 2021, as vaccines had been being distributed, O’Farrell and then-Mayor Eric Garcetti moved forward with the encampment operation, sending outreach employees to steer folks to maneuver into motels, motels and homeless shelters.

At one level, Garcetti’s workplace reported that almost 200 folks had accepted interim housing, with about two-thirds agreeing to maneuver into the L.A. Grand and the Mayfair motels. These efforts had been overshadowed by late-night clashes between protesters and police, who arrested about 180 folks, together with journalists.

A 12 months later, UCLA’s Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy concluded that solely a tiny fraction of these moved from the lake obtained long-term housing. Soto-Martinez has denounced the fence since then, calling it a “stain on town’s historical past.”

In the meantime, some within the neighborhood are ambivalent about what’s subsequent.

Jackelyn Valladares, who lives close to the positioning, stated she’s “not a fan” of the fence. However she’s relieved that her mom feels secure to stroll within the park once more.

“Echo Park’s been a haven, particularly for folk who stay in residences,” she stated.