MacArthur Park

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MacArthur Park (formerly Westlake Park) is a park in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, named after General Douglas MacArthur and designated city of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #100.^[1]

Contents 1 Geography 2 History 2.1 Decline 2.2 Revitalization 3 May Day Mêlée with LAPD 4 Popular culture 5 Emergency services 5.1 Police service 6 Other MacArthur Parks 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Geography

The park is divided in two by Wilshire Boulevard. The southern portion primarily consists of a lake, while the northern half includes an amphitheatre, bandshell, soccer fields, and a children's playground along with a recreation center operated by the city of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. The bandshell, recently renovated as the Levitt Pavilion - MacArthur Park, is once again the host of jazz, big band, salsa music, and world music concerts. During the summers of 2007 and 2008, over 80 evening concerts of family entertainment were performed to over 50,000 people. At least 50 concerts are scheduled each summer, between June and September, totally free to the public, supported by private donations.

The lake in MacArthur Park is fed by natural springs (although an artificial bottom to the lake was laid during the construction of the L.A. Metro Red Line, opened in 1993). In the past, a fountain with a reflecting pool on the northern end was also fed by the springs.

The Metro Red Line runs beneath MacArthur Park, and the train line can be accessed through the adjacent Westlake/MacArthur Park station.^[2]

[edit] History

The park, originally named Westlake Park, was built in the 1880s, along with a similar Eastlake Park, whose lake is artificial, in East Los Angeles. Westlake Park was re-named May 7, 1942; Eastlake Park was re-named Lincoln Park.

In the mid-1800s the area was a swampland; by the 1890s, it was a vacation destination, surrounded by luxury hotels. In the early part of the twentieth century, the MacArthur park area became known as the Champs-Élysées of Los Angeles.

Wilshire Boulevard formerly ended at the lake, but in 1934 a berm was built for it to cross and link up with the existing Orange Street (which ran from Alvarado to Figueroa) into downtown Los Angeles. Orange Street was renamed Wilshire and extended east of Figueroa to Grand Ave. This divided the lake into two halves; the northern one was subsequently drained.

According to a Los Angeles Times news story from 1956, two swans named Rudie and Susie welcomed their five new baby cygnets on the island in MacArthur Park Lake, and according to the park superintendent, these were the first swans born in the park in over a decade.^[3]

[edit] Decline

Despite the rather poetic homage paid to it in the 1968 song, the real MacArthur Park became known for violence after 1985 when drug-dealing, shoot-outs and the occasional rumored drowning became commonplace, with as many as 30 murders in 1990.^[4] The Westlake area also became infamous for the sale of fake identification cards. When the lake was drained during construction of the Red Line tunnel hundreds of handguns and other firearms were found to have been disposed of in the lake.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Revitalization

Beginning in 2002 the Los Angeles Police Department, and business and community leaders led a revitalization effort that has led to the installation of surveillance cameras, the opening of a recreation center, increased business, early-morning drink vendors, a new Metro station, the return of the paddle boats and the fountain, and large community festivals attracting thousands. Most recently, in 2005 the park was celebrated for having the highest reduction of crime statistics per resident in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Gang-on-gang violence still occurs occasionally in and around the park. On September 15 2007 infant Luis Angel Garcia was hit by a stray bullet near the corner of 6th Street and Burlington Avenue. Authorities said the gunmen (part of the 18th Street Gang) were targeting a street vendor who had refused to pay $50 in "rent". The vendor, Francisco Clemente, was also shot, as was the baby's mother and the vendor's girlfriend.^[5]

[edit] May Day Mêlée with LAPD

On May Day May 1, 2007, a rally calling for U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants^[6] took place in MacArthur Park. The incident has been dubbed the May Day Mêlée.

In the evening, eight protesters began throwing rocks and bottles at officers, leading police commanders to declare the gathering an unlawful assembly and give the order to disperse. The police then cleared the park, using what some thought excessive force against those who disobeyed the order. Sanjukta Paul, a National Lawyer's Guild observer was beaten repeatedly by an LAPD officer, including a blow to the kidneys, as she attempted to impede the police's progress. ^[7]

Another police officer was seen throwing a news camera from a cameraman as well as beating news reporters attempting to access their news vans.^[8] Protestors clashed with members of the Los Angeles Police Department, suffering reportedly excessive force, with rubber bullets, property damage, tear gas canisters being used on a mostly peaceful crowd at the hands of police officers equipped in full riot gear.^[6] At a subsequent press conference, LAPD Chief William Bratton said an investigation was underway to "determine if the use of force was appropriate" and that "the vast majority of people who were [at MacArthur Park] were behaving appropriately." ^[6][9]

[edit] Popular culture

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• MacArthur Park is famous for the song named after it, written by Jimmy Webb and first performed by Richard Harris in 1968. The song based on the park was originally performed by Tommy Dorsey.^{[citation needed]} One of the best known covers of this is the Donna Summer disco 1978 hit. Doc Severinsen, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, and Woody Herman all performed dynamic big band jazz versions[1].
• MacArthur Park is featured in the 2008 video game, Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
• In the Simpsons episode "A Fish Called Selma," Troy McClure's agent, voiced by Jeff Goldblum, is named "MacArthur Parker."^[10]
• The MacArthur Park bandshell were painted by local artists and graffiti artists under the direction of Otis Parsons. Some of the artists involved were: Robert Williams, Skill, John "Zender" Estrada, Hector "Hex" Rios, Geo, Exit, Trip, Hate Prime, Relic, Galo "MAKE" Canote, RickOne and others. Various Dates. ^[11][12] Some of the artwork was featured in the book Spray Can Art by Henry Chalfant and Jim Prigoff
• The park was the setting for Joseph Wambaugh's novel, The Choirboys.
• MacArthur Park was featured in the 1997 film, Volcano, as well as the 2005 film, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
• MacArthur Park was also featured in the 2001 Sundance film MacArthur Park.^[13]
• In one episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Carlton Banks decides to take a trip to MacArthur Park after dark in an attempt to win a bet and prove to Will that he can "make it" in Compton, California.
• In the horror novel, World War Z, it is said that MacArthur Park is being used as a potato farm.
• Jimmy Webb's song, MacArthur Park, is referenced in the Michelle Shocked song "Come a Long Way": "I heard the screams of the dying dark / Through the sweet green icing of MacArthur Park."
• The song "Leave It" by the pop group Yes (band), from the album 90125, includes the line "MacArthur Park in the driving snow".
• Other well known people have also sung this song, including Moody Blues singer Justin Hayward with Mike Batt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Classic Blue Album.
• In the Gym Class Heroes music video for Cupid's Chokehold (the As Cruel as School Children version) directed by Alan Ferguson, Travis McCoy and factitious girlfriend Katy Perry meet in MacArthur Park along with dancing cupids
• In the movie Training Day, Jake stops two drug addicts from raping a 14 year old girl near MacArthur Park.
• Rob Dyrdek's MTV show Rob & Big featured MacArthur park in an episode where Rob broke two skateboarding world records bringing his total that day to a total of 21 separate skateboarding world records. (305 - Guinness)
• The song "Lazy Days" by the pop group Shwayze, from the album Shwayze, mentions "walkin' through MacArthur Park."
• In the film Havoc, Allison meets Hector in MacArthur Park the afternoon before she is arrested.
• In the film Money Talks, Chris Tucker's character named Franklin Hatchet goes to a nightspot looking for someone named Aaron. A doorman opens and Franklin proceeds to explain how he knows Aaron."Tell him I was there when he shot Baby Bro at MacArthur Park."
• On the television show The Shield, Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) instructs a Salvadoran gangster Guardo Lima (Luis Antonio Ramos) to place $50,000 in a trash can by the lake.

[edit] Emergency services

[edit] Police service

The Los Angeles Police Department operates the Rampart Community Police Station at 1401 W. 6th Street, serving the neighborhoods around the park [2]. The station had its grand opening September 6, 2008 after many years of effort being made to secure a new facility to replace the outdated station which had served the area since 1966.[3]

[edit] Other MacArthur Parks

There is also a MacArthur Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, where MacArthur was born in 1880.^[14] It is built around the former Little Rock Arsenal and contains MacArthur's birthplace, which now serves as the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.^[15]

[edit] References

"It's General MacArthur Not Westlake Park From Now On," Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1942, 1.

[edit] External links

• Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks - MacArthur Park
• Levitt Pavilion - MacArthur Park

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