Inside the fentanyl ‘zombie zone’ public park thriving under LA’s DSA regime — where people die daily

MacArthur Park has become Los Angeles’s hot spot for fentanyl overdoses – a place that feels more like a collapsed, law‑less battlefield than a community park. Every hour, people slip into overdose and die, while criminal gangs take control of the drug trade. Once a beloved green space, the park now holds an undetermined number of unhoused residents, usually numbering in the hundreds each day.

The makeshift “inhabitants” live in relative comfort thanks to volunteer groups that hand out food and whole “safe‑smoking kits,” which include free crack pipes. The city has poured tens of millions of dollars into services for those living inside the park.

Along a cramped alley known locals call “Fentanyl Alley,” dead rats litter the ground and people go out in the open, drug‑ridden and in danger. It is one of the park’s deadliest stretches.

The neighborhood surrounding the park is dense and working‑class, largely made up of low‑income Spanish‑speaking tenants. Observers like John Alle, who owns the block next to the park and several buildings across Koreatown, Pico‑Union, and Westlake, have watched the area’s decline over the past decade. “In the last ten years the area has fallen apart, but in the last three years it’s gone off a cliff,” he told The Post. “It’s turned into a drug den and the city’s de facto shelter.”

Alle pointed out the many commercial spaces in the district that have become storage sites for stolen merchandise. On his own rooftop he installed barbed wire and other safety measures – a costly upgrade that totaled tens of thousands of dollars. “We had to put up serpentine wire. That’s the stuff that can’t be broken,” he explained.

He also highlighted a city‑funded nonprofit that distributes syringes and “safer smoking kits,” which contain foil and crack or meth pipes. According to Alle, the organization’s presence has made the park a magnet for people in need of these supplies.

“He says if you hand out free meth pipes and needles, no questions asked, they will come,” Alle told The Post. Several people waiting in line for services admitted they live elsewhere but visit MacArthur daily for the free gear.

Now, facing growing scrutiny, Raul Claros – a 45‑year‑old community organizer who is running to unseat Democratic Socialist councilmember Eunisses Hernandez – is arguing that the city has only kept the problem alive. “When you just sustain and enable, and make everybody comfortable, you get the reverse effect,” he said. “These folks have come from all over the country because they find a better place here.”

Claros’s plan is blunt: if elected, he will live in a trailer inside the park, sleep there every night, hold meetings there daily, and remain until the neighborhood is “cleared out and cleaned up.” “Elect me, and I’ll live right here,” he said, pointing to the park’s ground zero. He added that a 27‑year‑old dog named Sheba would accompany him and that the LAPD would guard the perimeter.

In late October, Hernandez moved a measure to allocate an additional $160,000 to the nonprofit for street‑based harm reduction and overdose prevention around the park. A contract reviewed by The Post showed that the organization distributed 25,000 safer‑smoking kits, 125,000 syringes, 10,000 fentanyl test strips, and 35,000 doses of Narcan in one year, but received only 50,000 of the 125,000 syringes handed out.

The cost is not astronomical on paper, but it is piling up. In addition to the latest disbursement, city officials have already committed about $27 million to stabilize MacArthur Park. In October, the Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners also approved a $2.3 million fence proposal to surround the park, citing public safety and quality‑of‑life concerns.

The city’s representative for Hernandez, when contacted for comment, could not be reached. In earlier statements to the Los Angeles Times, the office said it focuses on delivering results rather than exploiting low‑income neighborhoods for publicity. It pointed to cleaning crews, intervention workers, and the overall $27 million investment.

Claros is not convinced. “The city spent nearly $30 million and this is what we have – fires, overdoses, organized crime, and TikTokers filming fentanyl videos? If it takes a publicity stunt to get results, then fine. This is a disaster zone.”

Alle speaks out about the impact on families and businesses. “40,000 renters live in the immediate area, many crammed into one‑ or two‑bedroom apartments. Without cars they have to walk through drug use and street fires to reach the soccer field,” he explained. Retailers are also feeling the pinch. “The surrounding retail community consisting of retail stores, dress shops, and convenience stores are becoming meth and fentanyl vendors for the transients in the park,” Alle said. A church he rents out regularly is broken into frequently, and Langer’s Deli – an iconic local eatery – has threatened to close over safety concerns and a decline in business.

“We’re losing renters,” Alle warned. “People are terrified. If this [Langer’s] closes, the whole city suffers.”

Last July, Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a raid on the 35‑acre park, which brought national attention to its deteriorating conditions. At the time, ICE and Border Patrol officials told The Post that they were there to help clean up the park, a place long infested with gang activity, homelessness, and fentanyl overdoses. MacArthur is not the only park to draw federal attention; Washington Square Park in New York City has also seen similar sweeps.

Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged the problem, noting that businesses in the area were effectively paying “gang members” to stay open. “I’m not an attorney, but it sounds like extortion to me, and it needs to be addressed immediately,” she said.

Claros criticized Hernandez for skipping two in‑person candidate forums and only agreeing to a virtual one, which he and seven other candidates refused. “She won’t even show up to face the community,” he said. He also slammed her DSA‑aligned record, accusing her of supporting police abolition and weakening basic safety. “How can you fix a disaster zone when you don’t think the LAPD should exist?” he told the Post. Hernandez has voted against the city budget in 2023 and 2024, arguing that the police department receives too much funding. During the Post’s visit, two separate incidents in under an hour required police intervention.

Claros declared, “This is an international embarrassment. We’re going to fix it, or I’m not going home.”

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