On July 7, 2025, more than 100 ICE agents and 90 National Guard troops on horseback swept through MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles. The ICE agents carried rifles and walked beside armored vehicles in a show of force intended to intimidate illegal immigrants frequenting the park. No one was detained or arrested but the incident made national news. MacArthur Park was showcased as an urban nightmare replete with drug use, crime, homelessness, prostitution and illegal immigration.
It wasn’t always this way.
In the 1880s, George S. Patton (father of the future American general) was District Attorney for the city of Los Angeles. He owned a 35-acre mudhole and garbage dump near downtown. He arranged a land swap with Los Angeles mayor William Workman allowing the city to acquire the space. City officials seeded the land with fertilizer, plants and trees. They dredged a 14-foot deep hole that became a lake. In 1890, the former landfill was christened a picturesque city space called Westlake Park. (It was named after Canadian ex-pat doctor Henricus Wallace Westlake who donated property and funds to build the park.)
The park was modeled after world-class European parks featuring Japanese cherry blossoms, glorious flower gardens, a two-story Victorian boathouse and an amphitheater for live performances. The park became known as the Champs-Élysées of Los Angeles. Tourists and local residents visited for picnics, lake boat rentals or cultural events like concerts and theater. Westlake became one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Luxury hotels and restaurants popped up across the street. Notable city figures like Harrison Gray Otis (owner of the Los Angeles Times) and Gaylord Wilshire (local land developer) built Victorian mansions adjacent to the park.
By 1910, half a million people visited the park each year. Many arrived via the Red Car streetcar line. The neighborhood attracted cultural institutions such as the Otis Art Institute, Bullock’s Wilshire department store and the Westlake Theater featuring movies and live Vaudeville shows. In 1922, film producer Joseph Schenck opened the Talmadge Apartments seven blocks from the park. The building was named after his film star wife Norma Talmadge. She resided at the property with other filmmakers including Mack Sennett, theater owner Alexander Pantages, actor Jackie Coogan and comedians W.C. Fields and Fatty Arbuckle.
In the 1921 silent film Hard Luck, Buster Keaton included a scene where he eludes police by posing among park statues dedicated to Harrison Gray Otis (Otis was a Civil War General before buying the Times). Charlie Chaplin featured the park in his 1923 film A Woman of Paris. Writer Raymond Chandler and his wife Cissy made their first home in the area. In an early Chandler short story “Pearls Are a Nuisance,” the main character lives on Carondelet Street across from the park. Years later, Chandler bemoaned how the park deteriorated from a tranquil spot to a “sadly degenerate space” filled with “rattling palms.”
Wilshire Boulevard began at the west edge of the park. The park blocked traffic heading downtown. This became a problem. In the 1930s, LA city planners approved the Wilshire Boulevard road extension. This meant Wilshire Boulevard would cut directly through the park dividing the lake into two sections. The northern lake was drained. The smaller southern lake remained filled with water but the boathouse was destroyed. Visitors were offered electric boat rentals instead of canoes and small sailboats.
Wilshire Boulevard became one of the busiest streets in the city. This changed the park’s aura. The peaceful sounds of nature were replaced by traffic horns, screeching car brakes and car exhaust. Hundreds of migrating birds were displaced. By the end of the 1930s, the neighborhood’s wealthiest denizens moved west to areas like Beverly Hills and Bel Air. The park remained popular among locals but the surrounding neighborhood began a slow decline.
In 1942, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst spearheaded a campaign to change the park’s name to MacArthur Park in honor of Army General Douglas MacArthur. The name change occurred on May 7, 1942. This marked the demise of the park’s glory years. Glamorous hotels closed, stores and restaurants were shuttered, buildings were abandoned. The beautiful rooftop neon signs slowly went dark.
In 1967, Jimmy Webb wrote a song called “MacArthur Park” about a breakup with actress Susie Horton. The song conjures the romantic days of the park in the 1960s when Webb and Horton met for lunch by the lake. Webb’s lyrics recall how he once eyed a cake with green icing melting in the rain. The image of the melting cake was an apt metaphor for the crumbling neighborhood.
By the 1960s, Westlake had become home to some of the poorest denizens of Los Angeles. Immigrants resided in crumbling apartment buildings. The lake became a fetid body of water so foul that local swans stopped birthing cygnets. In 1973, the lake was drained and police discovered hundreds of handguns disposed of in the lake.
Crime and violence became a staple of the area. In 1990, there were more than 30 murders in Westlake. The park became known as a spot to purchase drugs, prostitutes and fake identification cards. Gangs moved into the neighborhood including the Burlington Street Locos and the Crazy Town Locos. In 1995, the rival gangs engaged in a shootout. One gang member was killed and his body was hidden in a garbage bag then tossed into the lake.
By 1997, the neighborhood was so dangerous that Otis College of Art and Design left its original MacArthur Park location and moved to Westchester near LAX. Between 1998–2000, the area was plagued by the LAPD Rampart Division scandal. An anti-gang unit harassed the neighborhood’s largely Hispanic residents with threats of violence, extortion and police brutality. They planted drugs on illegal immigrants leading to the conviction of more than 70 police officers.
Today, MacArthur Park is an epicenter of homelessness and drug use. On May 7, federal authorities arrested 18 people selling fentanyl and methamphetamine in the park. Mayor Karen Bass vowed to clean up the park and make it a safe haven for local families to gather for picnics and weekend activities. City officials announced a $40 million project to beautify the park with new landscaping, walking paths and a newly cleaned lake. But improving the park’s aesthetics will only go so far. Until local officials can determine a way to make the neighborhood safe for citizens, the park will remain a sad testament to the history of the city. As Richard Harris sang in his hit song (written by Webb), “MacArthur Park is melting in the dark… I don’t think I can take it.”