A recent cleanup of LA’s horrific MacArthur Park — complete with cameras, city hall bigwigs and an Instagram victory lap — is already looking like a social media publicity stunt justone week after completion.
Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez posted a video on Instagram touting what she described as a major cleanup effort at the troubled park Sunday March 1. The clip shows Hernandez, as well as Mayor Karen Bass and a lineup of what the councilwoman called the city’s “city family,” as officials celebrated the effort to spruce upthe long-troubled space.
The event, dubbed the “My Community Cleanup”, was promoted by Hernandez as a show of neighborhood pride and city investment in the area.
“I’m proud to represent MacArthur Park because I love MacArthur Park,” Hernandez wrote in the post. “As we saw at last week’s My Community Cleanup, so many neighbors love it too.”
But when The Post returned to MacArthur Park a week later to see how long the progress lasted, the reality on the ground told a very different story.
Trash was scattered across the park again. Encampment debris had crept back in. Drug waste littered the ground.
The scene looked far less like the freshly cleaned public space showcased online — and far more like the same filthy, chaotic landscape residents say has turned the park into a “zombie apocalypse.”
Critics say the cleanup push looks more like election-season optics than lasting change.
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“Sadly, for MacArthur Park, election season comes every four years — which is exactly when you will see Eunisses Hernandez attempt to do her job,” said Raul Claro, who is running against Hernandez for the council seat.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
