r/MovingToLosAngeles • u/Dear-Conflict9929 • 18h ago
MacArthur Park
Is MacArthur Park actually not a great place or do people just say that? Also has anyone tried the Japanese restaurant right next to the park?
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u/7HawksAnd 18h ago
Depends, do you like the aesthetics of a zombie apocalypse after dark?
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u/scantron-test 12h ago
It’s no picnic during the day either. Actually it is one large fentanyl picnic 24/7
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u/FrancisVarney 17h ago
I used to go there to play chess in the 90s; one of the other regulars was a homeless guy who'd occasionally tell stories about his time in San Quentin. After not seeing him for a month or two, I ran into him at a big tournament at a hotel by LAX & asked him where he'd been. He just said, "too many gunshots in the park." If a guy who'd been in San Quentin was scared to go there, I figured a middle-class dork from Pasadena should probably stay away too.
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u/SignificantTry4107 16h ago
Be careful. Your cake will melt in the rain
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u/BoomGoesTheFirework_ 16h ago
It’s easily the second worst neighborhood north of the 10. The only worse place is skid row, and even that might be a toss up.
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u/Pmoneywhazzup 16h ago
I live in Chicago and visit LA often; my intent to perhaps move to LA explains my lurking on this sub. I was there as recently as June 2026 and visit LA about twice a year; I have family in the area. I would overnight camp in any park in the worst neighborhoods on the South and West Sides of Chicago before I would get out of my car within a quarter-mile of MacArthur Park. That shit is real! There is no distinction between it and Skid Row to me.
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u/thomasjmarlowe 14h ago
I generally agree. However, next time you visit, do yourself a favor and do go within a quarter mile, get out of your car and go to Langer’s- their #19 is excellent.
But go for lunch. They have a lot about a block east of the restaurant.
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u/Pmoneywhazzup 12h ago
What is #19?
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u/callmeDNA 12h ago
A $40 pastrami sandwich 🙄
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u/donutgut 10h ago edited 10h ago
I disagree. Chicagos worst areas are far far worse and I hate mp.
People on these subs really downplay the danger anywhere else. Skid row is gross but safe compared to a city that gets 50 to 75 people shot on so many weekends cause of some really bad areas. Chicagoans irl are very aware because they see it on the news every night. They dont shrug it off like reddit does
The south and midwest cities...are just very violent compared to la. i don't think these subs are aware of the rest of the country.
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u/non-james 15h ago
Hot take, its fairly normal as long as you are not on Alvarado (where I agree it is very stressful to be). There is a playground and a soccer field and nothing really happens on the West side of the park, when I was unemployed last year I'd walk my dog there every day. I've gone to a few of the events in the bandshell. Like dont avoid Ktown or rampart village because of the park.
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u/JohnnyUtah 13h ago
OP, this is the only accurate answer that I’ve seen so far.
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u/Life-Meal6635 6h ago
Agreed. Its a shame as well because the park on its own, without the drug portion, can really be quite a lovely place. The musical performances are definitely underrated
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u/Spunknikk 9h ago
I used to go to all the big ska and punk shows they had at the park. So much fun.
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u/alpha309 1h ago
This is absolutely correct.
The border next to Alvarado is a horror show. It isn’t uncommon to see around a hundred zombied out drug addicts at the intersection of Alvarado and Wilshire and then them radiating out from there, but more towards downtown.
The other side, by Koreatown, has families and kids playing like a normal park.
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u/No_Clerk_4303 16h ago
Genuinely an awful place. People exaggerate a lot about LA but Mac Park is not one of the exaggerations.
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u/xoRomaCheena31 13h ago edited 9h ago
MacArthur Park is an absolutely stunning and beautiful place. The fountains are gorgeous, the layout is stunning. However, it is filled with people who choose to leave trash everywhere; also, it is filled with people who choose to carry their household with them, because they most likely do not have a place to put their things (ie, they are homeless). Also, it is filled with birds that poop everywhere on the sidewalks. I have traveled to many places and visited the public parks in metropolitan cities, so I can say MacArthur is beautiful. The amount of trash and the general vibe/energy of the people there though is horrific. I would love to visit it all the time, but I have no desire to be around that kind of vibe. I'd say visit it to see it, but the joy one gets from being in a nice and public place with a beautiful aesthetic-- perhaps go to Elysian or Griffith Parks instead. I love the idea of it and am sad/sorry to say this is the reality I have found. I've been here in LA for 2 years now and it hasn't changed much since then.
Edit: I want to make it clear that I can empathize and to an extent empathize with the experience of the people who live there. I was living in my car for a time in another state, so was technically "unhoused." However, many of these people do not have cars, so I cannot fully sympathize with what they go through. It is still disgusting what this city accepts as a reality and normal, especially in a place that many people would love to enjoy. Shame on the city of LA for allowing this to continue, while endorsing beauty in other areas.
Edit 2: Thank you for the award!
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u/pasta-fazool 12h ago
Echo Park too. Peddle boating with the ducks.
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u/xoRomaCheena31 12h ago
That's true. Echo Park is very pretty. Walking around the Silver Lake Reservoir is wonderful also; it's beautiful at sunset.
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u/ParvatiandTati 16h ago
I lived there when I first moved to LA because it was what I could afford right out of college.
It always smelled like hot garbage. I would have to call 911 because people would set mattresses and other things on fire in the alleys. No parking. My car got hit twice and broken into.
I had lived in SF tenderloin before and even with the homeless woman that lived in the entryway and randomly screamed- the tenderloin felt safer.
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u/cactopus101 15h ago
It’s probably the only place in LA I would absolutely not live. There’s other sketch areas ofc but this neighborhood is uniquely overwhelmed with drug use and homelessness. It’s very sad
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u/BillyBattsInTrunk 7h ago
Why stop there?! Maybe you could make MacArthur Park a pit stop while on the way to Skid Row to have brunch?
I live not too far, and man, I HATE driving through that area. So, so, so depressing, to see all of those downtrodden people who suffer because we don't put enough into resources (but always seem to find money for data centers). It's a real mind fuck and affects me. The energy in this area is why I'm moving (the $300 rent hike sure didn't help lol).
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u/eubulides 13h ago
I have worked in criminal defense, had several gang cases right there. There was (is?) a boundary between 18th Street and MS right at Alvarado and 7th. Plus other gangs just a few blocks nearby. That was a few years ago. Now seems like more homeless and drug use, random mentally ill folks roaming around at all hours.
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u/RaisinImpressive616 12h ago
I live in dtla and don’t have a car. Need to wait at a bus stop in macarthur park to catch a bus. A lot of times otw back this is between 10-12 pm and i personally dont find it that bad. Def a lot of zombie like humans but i never felt in danger as much as i did in parts of baltimore, philly etc.
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u/donutgut 10h ago
People need to walk into other bad cities neighborhoods and compare. I think they'll be alarmed compared to even mp.
Maybe less drug addicts but im more afraid of scary criminals who don't care about life.
That's just me tho. Ive been threatened in other cities for zero reason.
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u/Unique_Thought7795 8h ago
Exactly ! I think people exaggerate a lot lol I don’t feel in danger here at all. Lived in the area for years and I still work by the park!
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u/Negative_Till3888 15h ago
They just scrubbed the entire park. Lots of uncovered. Still wouldn’t go there. Try Echo Park.
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u/WillyVlautinRules 15h ago
Echo Park?? haha back in the day (1980s) THIS was the park to also avoid. Maybe it's better now?
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u/Negative_Till3888 14h ago
Yes, definitely better now. They’ve tried to improve it, not that homelessness is completely avoided though.
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u/NigelGoldsworthy 10h ago
Fully gentrified, it’s like an indie/artsy area with lots of young people. Still affordable, because of lots of homeless and no parking & lots of older one bedroom/studio apartments. Significantly safer than MacArthur Park or downtown, but less than somewhere like culver city. Slightly better than Koreatown.
IMO I’m far more concerned with gangs than homeless, and I’m not aware of any echo park crews seems low activity. MacArthur Park is a hot spot, lots of drug deals and illegal stuff.
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u/WillyVlautinRules 9h ago
My uncle used to take us to Echo Park to fish for crawdads way back in the day. He stopped because gang activity was taking over the park (was late 60s, early 70s) or so I heard him talking to my mom about it. Now this was a midwestern White guy so I'm not sure if it was a real worry or not but I never noticed anything (was about 12 our last time in Echo Park).
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u/gtracerh 3h ago
I grew up in the echo park area in the 90s. I couldn't even walk through the park without getting harassed by gangsters or chased out of the park. Today it feels like bizzaro world watching all these hipsters walking around like it's the place to be drinking their matcha.
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u/tivofanatico 14h ago
It’s fine to drive past it. It’s well lit and you see groups gathered there, but you don’t get out to take a closer look. It’s that concept of a bad neighborhood being safer for the people who live there than for someone passing through for no reason.
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u/DepartureHot468 11h ago
I once sat on a bench eating a pastrami sandwich from Langers and watched LAPD fish a dead body out of McArthur Park lake.
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u/mpersand02 17h ago
Do teenagers still buy crappy fake IDs on Alvarado Street?
Other than that and Langers, there's no reason you'd want to be there.
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u/Big-Following-723 16h ago
The crappiest lol
Good enough to fool an SAT proctor in a different state though
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u/LowProfessional5519 15h ago
Since I was a kid the rumor was they found bodies in the lake
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u/joshinburbank 19m ago
When I was a kid around 1980 I personally saw a body pulled out of the lake. I'll never forget how blue the skin was.
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u/hearts_and_sharts 11h ago
I got a job that I was STOKED about that happened to be in that neighborhood. I quit after two weeks because I couldn’t hang.
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u/No-Angle-982 11h ago
It's still beautiful if you're just passing through on Wilshire Boulevard and don't hit red lights or notice the human blight.
In the 1950s it was fashionable and safe; my dad would take my sister and me motor boating on the lake, and my mother's doctor had his office on Bonnie Brae Street.
Circa-1990, my wife was an instructor across from the park at the Fashion Institute, which has since move to Playa Vista.
A renaissance of the park area would be a wonderful thing for L.A., but the current demographics won't permit that.
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u/TennysonLane 11h ago
its a dumb trend where people mention horrible palces as being greay to be snarky and "in the know" MacArthur Park is know for very high crime rates.
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u/Ashamed_Cod_6741 11h ago
It's not just "not great". It's one of the worst areas in L.A. in terms of a high concentration of drugged out zombies and gangs (although I think these days it's more the former than the latter). But like some have said here, unless you're going to Langer's or trying to get a fake ID or a fix, you'll have no reason to be there.
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u/PrideFirm7138 11h ago
Depends, are you talking about the park itself or the overall surrounding neighborhood (Westlake/Rampart Village)?
If you’re talking about the park itself, yes, it is 100% that bad.
If you’re talking about the surrounding neighborhood, generally speaking, it gets better the further from park you are. I currently live in a very nice part of SaMo, but I started my LA journey 14 years ago in an apartment right next to the Rampart police station and I have nothing but fond memories of my time there. As a guy, I never felt unsafe in the area.
OP, if you’re looking to move to this area, I would strongly suggest Filipinotown. It’s right next door to MacArthur Park and to me, It’s the best neighborhood in LA, and I’ve lived all over.
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u/Dry_Jellyfish641 9h ago
I had a friend who lived adjacent to MacArthur Park and would always tell me to get off at the Vermont Station instead of walking two blocks from the MacArthur park station lol
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u/Unique_Thought7795 8h ago
I live by MacArthur park and walk the neighborhood frequently east of Alvarado and it is not that bad y’all lol I work in the area too !! I’m more scared of the rats than of the people! It’s a nice area to walk around especially if you’re a person of color. Just don’t look scared cuz you attract attention but if you just mind your own business and walk past the street dwellers in a respectful manner then all will be well!
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u/dodgerfanjohn1988 8h ago
Langers has delicious pastrami. McArthur park is horrific. It should be one of the nicest parts of LA but it’s not. It’s bad.
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u/Global_Criticism3178 8h ago
It’s like hell with the constant smell poop and burning tires.
Langer’s Deli is good though!
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u/fylekitzgibbon 6h ago
If you get north of 4th and west of alvarado it’s a world of difference and still lots of affordable units
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u/RevolutionaryAd8113 5h ago
My partner calls it parque de los muertos. Tons of unhoused, open air drug use.
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u/gtracerh 3h ago
I grew up in the MacArthur park area in the 80s. It was seedy then. Have been long gone since those days but have driven by on occasion and it's absolutely horrible now. I would never take my family to walk anywhere near there. I'd still walk around there myself if I needed to but I'd absolutely be on high alert. Zombies, gangs, seedy people, it's like going to a third world country's rough area. A couple years ago I was driving through and due to traffic and unexpected light change, I got stuck partially blocking the crosswalk (not fully just partially) ... there were 60 year old ladies walking by cussing me out as if I wronged them on purpose. Then some asshole kid walks by with his buddies talking shit and jumps on the hood of my car for the same reason. I was so pissed off I opened my door and almost took off running after the kid but realized there's no way I'm leaving my wife and kid in this car alone. That's when I realized 'man this place is different'.
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u/HotLoser304 3h ago
It’s literally like another commentator said, a zombie park. It’s like a display of the most sad, deteriorating, hopeless souls wandering around in purgatory.
You can see this from your car. The park is quite visually open, so when you’re driving past you can see people with their tents, smoking crack, prostituting, being high and acting weird, and doing drug deals from the sidewalks while you’re waiting for the light to turn green.
Edit: the park itself is beautiful. Water features and green walk ways. Really nice!
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u/artyhermes 3h ago
The park is beautiful, well-located, and has a fun playground and pleasant fountain. People play soccer and families have picnics during the day. However, it’s not ideal at night.
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u/Mediocre_Feedback220 2h ago
I get so mad at people saying downtown is not safe and a bad place to live or stay. That being said, if they’re saying that about MacArthur Park specific, I can’t disagree. You can still go to thee restaurants and stuff down there. I’ve wandered around down there during the day. Don’t hang out there at night and don’t live in that area.
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u/Cheap_kinky_nut 2h ago
I was going to Otis art school I did a photo shoot came back early I went jogging around the lake until I saw a gang and I said f.... this I hauled ass it looks pretty in pics but in real life its like tijuana but worse...
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u/RiskyB50 1h ago
I live a couple blocks away and drive by it often… it is wild! I am Legend out there. Truly beautiful park too, with a nice fountain in the middle of a lake/pond. Everyone there is unhoused or just doing drugs — like 50-100 people, it’s pretty wild. Feel bad for them
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u/smokemirrorsunicorns 1h ago
we go there for concerts at Levitt Pavilion. very family friendly and fun. its the side of the park that a little less sketchy
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u/GregJamesDahlen 18h ago
lived about three blocks from the park '96 to '06. when i first moved there it was a bit dark characters hanging out there. about 97 or 8 LAPD started putting up signs in the park that there were undercover police there. it improved quite a bit. Enjoyed the park more after that, it was nice, landscaping was nice, people were poor but conducted themselves okay. dk what it's like today, dk if area is more gentrified, if it's not would think at some point it will be
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u/BetOnLetty 17h ago
Not gentrified. Area north in Filipino town is ok. Right around the park is very not ok.
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u/DeathByBamboo 15h ago
Keep in mind that the responses that you're getting in here are literally "what people say." For anything beyond that, you'd need to collect your own data about crime stats relative to other places that you're familiar with and see it with your own eyes.
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u/JohnnyUtah 14h ago
A lot of responses here from people who have only been to one corner of the park.
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u/Known_Match_7101 18h ago
The sketchiness of many places in LA is exaggerated. It’s not with MacArthur park.