MacArthur Park

Today Elvis and Suzy and I took a field trip 20 min away into Los Angeles, to a place called MacArthur Park. It's been a place we've been wanting to see firsthand for a while now since it will be the main area of focus for my World Vision internship which starts in just a few weeks. We have also talked about it in some of my classes and it is where one of the organizations we are interested in working with is based. 

 Several years ago, MacArthur Park was the place to buy anything illegal- drugs, green cards, prostitution, etc plus a major area for gang activity. One of my professors, who is an urban planner, was in charge of leading a complete transformation of this part that is located just outside of downtown LA (you can see the downtown buildings in the picture above). He worked together with local leaders, police, and community residents to get rid of the nasty stuff going on and fill this park back with life, including bringing back paddle boats, concerts, and street vendors. Of course there is still some shady stuff that goes on, but you wouldn't necessarily know it just by looking at these park residents:

For those of you that have ever visited Central America, you know how important Pollo Campero is! It's right there at MacArthur Park, so we stopped in for a potty break:

We also went next door to Mama's Hot Tamales to get a snack:

You see, Mama's Hot Tamales is a strategically placed restaurant that was the joint effort of my professor and "Mama" Sandy (pictured below) to offer jobs to Hispanic immigrants and to bring in the flavor of Central America. They also do important community building activities, such as make 12 foot long "Tamales de la Paz" to share with community residents in order to promote solidarity within the community, especially building bridges between the police and community residents which have had conflict in the past.  Mama Sandy came to our class to share her vision of community transformation. 

If you want to see a video about the Tamales de la Paz project and the heart behind breaking tamales together to build community, check this out:

I felt like I was walking down the streets of downtown San Salvador, and I loved that

Just a 10 minute drive away was Chick-Fila, so we stopped in for some lunch. Tamales, Pollo Campero, and Chick-fila in one day....that's LA for you and that's why we love it here.