For Jose Garcia, a tailor who has worked at swap meets across MacArthur Park for the past 12 years, the entrance outside his shop could change once again.
That’s because the city plans to replace the chain link fencing along Alvarado Street with planters, trees and bright bollards. By Wednesday morning, the city had already installed several bollards along Alvarado Street as part of a beautification project around MacArthur Park.
The temporary fences that vendors say pushed them out remain in place.
“I think the security posts and the trees they want to add instead of the fence will change the image of the neighborhood, but I don’t know if they’re going to maintain it,” Garcia said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen after the World Cup.”
Naomi Roochnik, communications director for Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, said “the temporary fencing along Alvarado was originally installed in early 2025 by the Mayor’s Office in an effort to address immediate safety concerns in the area,” which has struggled with drug activity and homelessness.
Still, Garcia said he doesn’t think the changes will solve many of the issues that residents and business owners have raised in the area for years.
“People who come here are afraid because there are a lot of homeless people,” he said. “I think that needs more attention.”
Garcia also worries that once the fencing is removed, street vendors could once again crowd the sidewalks.
“Before they put up the fence last year, there were a lot of vendors and customers couldn’t get through,” Garcia said.
Besides the decline in vendors outside his entrance, Garcia said the fence has also coincided with a noticeable drop in foot traffic.
Diana Vicente, a senior field deputy for Hernandez said that the temporary fencing along Alvarado Street will be replaced soon.
She said construction would begin this week as part of what the city is calling the “Alvarado treescape” project.
“This is to allow for the fences to be taken off and for Alvarado to be given back to the community in a sense that follows with the same level of color that we see with the Mayan corridor with the bridge that is on Sixth Street,” Vicente said during a MacArthur Park neighborhood council meeting. She said the changes are intended to improve ADA accessibility, cooling efforts and create a streetscape that reflects the colorful design elements seen along the nearby Mayan corridor.
Vicente added that the first phase of construction is expected to last about 30 days, with additional work continuing later in the summer as more materials arrive.
She also said there are currently no public renderings available for the project but emphasized that the design is intended to keep sidewalks clear and accessible for pedestrians and wheelchairs.
Local businesses, vendors weigh in
Businesses along Alvarado confirmed that they received notices from the city informing them that construction was scheduled to begin this week.
At Pequeño Mundo, a market selling everything from ice cream to backpacks and clothing, Adielca Gomez, an employee there, said she believes the project could improve the appearance of the corridor.
“I think it’s good because a lot of trash builds up around the fence and it doesn’t make the area look good,” Gomez said. “With the trees and bollards, the street will look prettier. I think more people would come into our business.”
The changes come after a large-scale May 6 operation involving the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles Police Department targeting drug activity and crime in the MacArthur Park area brought attention again to public safety concerns in the neighborhood.
But for some local street vendors, the new street features will mean little if they are unable to return to the areas where they once sold before the fencing went up.
Héctor Rodríguez, a street vendor who used to sell at the MacArthur Park/Westlake Metro station before vendors were displaced, now sells shoes and clothing on Alvarado and 8th Street. Business has collapsed since leaving the station area, where he benefited from heavy Metro foot traffic.
“Of the 100% I used to sell there, now I only sell about 15 to 20%,” Rodríguez said of his sales after he was removed from the station area.
Rodríguez said vendors were removed from one day to the next without being relocated or given much guidance about where to continue working.
“We were left out on the street abandoned, alone,” Rodriguez said. “Many of us are undocumented, we almost don’t even want to come sell anymore because we’re afraid they’re going to deport us.”
Rabi Gaidani, a street vendor who also sells clothing and shoes, said that after the temporary fencing was installed, vendors were no longer allowed to set up in the area and police officers helped enforce the removals.
Gaidani added that some vendors have since received fines for attempting to sell near the fenced-off sections.
Rodriguez added that no one has stepped in to offer support after the losses they suffered.
Roochnik said Council District 1 hosted a vendor meeting on May 12 to share updates and respond to questions on the Alvarado treescape project. She added that their office has connected vendors with resources.
The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the beautification project’s impact on the local vendors or future developments in the neighborhood.
Vendor Rocío Cruz, who sells near Alvarado and 8th Street, said her sales were cut in half after leaving the Metro station area, where she had worked for years.
“Sometimes we don’t sell anything. We don’t even have enough to eat,” Cruz said.
Cruz said many vendors are struggling to pay rent and feed their families as customer traffic continues to decline along the new corridor.
Blanca Michelle González once made about $600 a day in sales near the Metro station. But she said the area was also difficult to work in, with vendors arriving as early as 3 or 4 a.m. to secure a spot while also dealing with safety concerns.
Now, González said, vendors are looking for fair and equal support.
“What I’m saying is they should help all of us,” González said. “Not just give money to some people and not others.”
Now, the area surrounding the station is also slated to eventually become part of the larger Centro Westlake development, a massive mixed-use project planned above the Metro station site that would include housing, retail and hotel space.
The developers Centro Westlake did not respond to requests for comment about how the local vendor’s will fit into the project’s future.
Some vendors said they fear they are being left out of conversations about the future of the neighborhood.
“We want to know what’s going to happen to us,” Rodríguez said. “We were the first ones there.”
