Two years ago, construction crews worked late into the night around the perimeter of Echo Park Lake, putting up segment after segment of chain links as protesters took on police officers not far away.

At the time, that fence was described as a temporary barrier, one that would allow the city to clear out a massive homeless camp and then begin cleaning, repairing, and restoring the park.

Now Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez is preparing to tear down that fence just as the city reaches the second anniversary of the controversial camp operation. But the neighborhood remains at least partially divided between the fence and the future of the park, one of the city’s most beautiful spots.

Soto-Martinez, who pledged to remove the fence during last year’s election campaign, has described it

the fence

as a symbol of the city’s “biggest homelessness policy failure”.

policy.”

But he’s drawn criticism from some in the neighborhood who say the fence was essential to restoring order to the park so families and seniors could return.

Gil Mangaoang, a retired social worker, said he and his neighbors had a front-row seat to the chaos that erupted regularly at the park between 2019 and 2021, including shootings, fires and physical fights. Residents near the park, Mangaoang said, were repeatedly interrupted by late-night partying, amplified music and shouting from the encampment.

Four people died in the park, including an 18-year-old from San Diego County who

found dead of A

drug overdose d on drugs.

“Councilman Soto-Martinez’s campaign promise was to remove the fence. But you know what? The campaign is over,” said Mangaoang, who lives in an apartment across the lake. “Now he must govern and represent all his constituents.”

manganese,

76

and several other ancient parks

visitors have called on Soto-Martinez to erect a permanent fence similar to those found at Los Angeles State Historic Park in Chinatown and Leimert Park in South LA. They have described some of the incidents that took place when the encampment was at its peak.

On a certain moment

mangaoang said,

75, said so at one point

he saw a man punching another man outside a tent. “He tried to punch the guy in the stomach and the other guy tried to kick him in the crotch,” he said.

“I made a U-turn and walked out of the park.”

Nancy Ochoa, 34, said she chased her two children out of the park two years ago after seeing a man yelling and brandishing a gun. Andrea Martinez Gonzalez, 73, said she saw a physical fight between two women, one of them partially clothed.

“I stopped walking in the park because of the camp,” she said. “And it was great to get it back.”

Soto-Martinez has tried to allay that fear by promising to send homeless aid workers into the park seven days a week, with a team of unarmed aid workers available at night. Last week, he and Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program moved 64 unhoused, many of them from the streets near the lake, into temporary housing.

Forty-five went to the Hotel Silver Lake, nearly two miles away, while 14 others went to the LA Grand Hotel downtown, according to an assistant for Bass. Five are in a motel that has no name, the assistant said.

Soto-Martinez highlighted that work at two recent town hall meetings, both devoted to removing the fence. He blames his predecessor, former councilman Mitch O’Farrell, for the park’s past public safety problems, who lost to Soto-Martinez last year.

The former councilman dropped the park into this position,” Soto-Martinez told a group. “The councilor is the boss, the one in charge. Hey, make it happen. I’m not letting it happen.

O’Farrell had no comment when The Times reached him. Last year, when he ran for re-election, he said the park had become a “dangerous, deadly environment” for encampment residents, requiring a massive move.

Homeless advocacy groups have long opposed that narrative. In 2021, those groups issued a statement calling the encampment a “beautiful and much acclaimed homeless-led outdoor community,” one that offered security, stability, and “healing for drug addiction and mental illness.” Since then they have

claimed

that violence in the area was perpetrated by police, who fired projectiles and injured protesters opposed to the encampment’s operation.

LA has poured resources into Echo Park Lake over the past several decades, undertaking a $45 million renovation of the park that added four acres of wetlands and other improvements. The park wash

refurbished

again in the aftermath of camp operation in 2021, with repairs

estimated at $600,000

. Since reopening, the gated park offers about six different areas for visitors to visit each day.

Soto-Martinez has repeatedly declined to give an exact date for the fence’s removal, saying it will come when sufficient funds are available for the park. He said residents of the district

stretching from Echo Park to Hollywood,

voted to remove the fence in November, when they ousted O’Farrell.

“The community made a decision when they chose me,” Soto-Martinez said.

“I was very clear that this is a campaign promise.”

Santos Davila, a 43-year-old street vendor, offered a different view. Davila, who lives in Echo Park, said he’s seen less trash and criminal activity since the fence went up. He recently took his 8-year-old daughter, Sonia, on a bike ride through the park, an activity that would have been impossible two years ago, he said.

I voted for Hugo, Davila said, showing up at one of the town hall meetings. I feel like he’s one of us, and he knows this area. And I can’t believe that after seeing all these changes over the years, he’s thinking about getting off the fence.

Soto-Martinez is still winning over people. He has recruited volunteers, including some from the LA chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, to tell residents about the work being done in the park. Those volunteers found that 50% support the removal of the fence, 18% oppose it, and the rest are unsure or don’t care, a Soto-Martinez aide said.

Marissa Ayala, who has knocked on doors for Soto-Martinez, said the fence has done nothing to address homelessness, mental health or substance abuse in LA. Residents.

“The fence does a lot more harm and really has no positives,” said the Mid-City resident who serves on the DSA-LA electoral political committee.

Some Echo Park residents didn’t need convincing.

Bruce Embry, who has lived in the area since 1958, pointed out that Echo Park Lake was unfenced for most of its existence.

This has been in an open park for most of its life,” he said. “It has to return to that.

Soto-Martinez’s plan also has support from Valerie Zeller, one of the last unhoused to leave Echo Park Lake when it was vacated in 2021.

Zeller recently agreed to move to one of the city’s small residential villages, a facility opened by O’Farrell. Standing in front of a van just north of the lake, she said the fence was long overdue.

“It’s a park. You shouldn’t feel like you’re in prison,” she said.

“If they fence parks, it feels like they’re shutting people out or not trusting people to break the rules.”

Whether the park’s rules are enforced or even necessary is unclear. City laws prohibit people from setting up tents in parks, regardless of the time of day. City park rangers enforced that law in the past.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, enforcement was largely suspended in Echo Park. At the time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that spreading homeless camps could increase the spread of COVID-19.

In February 2021, when the vaccines were distributed, O’Farrell and then-mayor Eric Garcetti went ahead with the camp operation, sending field workers to persuade people to move into hotels, motels and homeless shelters.

At one point, Garcetti’s office reported that nearly 200 people had accepted temporary housing, with about two-thirds agreeing to move into the LA Grand and the Mayfair hotels. Those efforts were overshadowed by nighttime clashes between protesters and police, who arrested about 180 people, including journalists.

A year later, UCLA’s Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy

labeled the Echo Park attempt a failure,

that concluded that only a small proportion of those moved from the lake received long-term housing. Soto-Martinez has since denounced the fence, calling it a “blemish on the city’s history.”

Meanwhile, some in the neighborhood are ambivalent about the future.

Jackelyn Valladares, who is near the

web site, park,

said she is “not a fan” of the fence. But she’s relieved that her mom feels safe to walk in

the parakeet

again.

“Echo Park has been a haven, especially for people who live in apartments,” she said.