After years of issues involving drugs, gangs and homelessness in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman says enough progress has been made to follow through on his promise to have a family picnic there over the Labor Day weekend.
“We’re reclaiming that park for families,” Hochman told NBC Los Angeles.
The DA hosted the picnic event on Saturday, delivering on a promise he made in June, after law enforcement swarmed the park and arrested drug users and dealers.
“Labor Day this year, 2026, I’m going to come with my family, and I’m going to have a picnic in MacArthur Park because MacArthur Park is going to be safe enough to have that picnic,” Hochman said on June 4.
Dozens of DEA agents and LAPD officers swarmed the area, making arrests and handing out citations to people who were openly using or under the influence of drugs. Darsha Philips reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Thursday, June 4, 2026.
He says the park is now safer because law enforcement and prosecutors are working with elected leaders and community groups to make it happen.
“It’s far from perfect, but we got to the point where it was absolutely safe for me to have a picnic there with my family and friends,” Hochman said. “It was a terrific event.”
While some pockets of the park appeared clean, problems were still obvious in other parts. Dozens of homeless people, some using illegal drugs in public, were seen, especially near the corner of 7th and Alvarado streets.
“It’s been challenging, I guess, as a resident,” a neighbor who only wanted to be identified as Vasquez said. “We’ve seen people doing heroin, all kinds of drugs in plain eyesight in the afternoons, evenings, even during the day.”
It’s not just neighbors seeing the problems at the park, but also tourists.
“Saddened to see so many people like this,” a tourist who only wanted to be identified as Lee said. “We have homeless back in the U.K., but it’s not like this … It’s not like it says in the brochure. It says places to visit in LA, and this is one of them. We’ve been to LA a few times. We’ve never been here, but we wouldn’t come here again.”
Hochman said his Labor Day picnic does not indicate that the park’s problems are fixed.
“We started with a park that had been in a 30-year decline,” he said. “When you have 30 years of drug dealers and drug addicts calling the park home, it’s not going to happen overnight that they are going to wake up one day and decide to go somewhere else.”
He says with hard work and community involvement, they’ll take the park back.
“I will guarantee you. If we keep this focus up, the amount of crime in that park will dwindle to the point where people will feel absolutely safe to enjoy that park with their families,” Hochman said.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli echoed the DA’s comments, saying they have more work to do. He said they’re returning this park from the criminals and drug dealers back to the community.