In the 1980s, residents of the Mid-City neighborhood, driven by gang crime, erected a gate to separate Pico Boulevard from the tree-lined Los Angeles neighborhood.

Today, the gate serves as a barrier between Pico's auto shop, hair salon, and low-rise apartment buildings and Country Club Park, a neighborhood to the north known for its Craftsman and Tudor Revival homes and expansive lawns.

Country Club Park residents say the gates create a welcoming park-like area that attracts dog walkers and strollers from all over town. Carolers take to the sidewalks at Christmas.

The gate is now an issue in the March 5 Los Angeles City Council election, sparking debate about public space and crime.

Some candidates running for District 10, which runs from Crenshaw to Koreatown, support partially opening the gates to allow pedestrians to enter from Pico.

Mobility groups have also criticized the gates, which remain locked at all hours of the day. Representatives from Streets for All, an advocacy group for bus and bike lanes, said cutting off access from Pico would create an “unfair burden and unfair burden on transit users and pedestrians” living in the south. “problems'' will arise, he said.

Some Country Club Park residents are panicking over the proposal to remove the gates. Approximately 300 families live on the gated street. Neighbors say break-ins and vehicle traffic are common in the area, and crime will only get worse if the fence is removed.

Approximately 25 residents of the Country Club Park Neighborhood Assn. I recently met with Times reporters, some of whom said they had been labeled “racists” or “gentrifiers” by others on social media for supporting closed gates.

Others criticized bicycle advocacy groups calling for the gates to be opened, saying they were “privileged.”

“How can you decide what's best for us if you don't live here?” said Najma Brown, a lawyer who grew up in the area.

Councilwoman Heather Hutt, who chairs City Hall's transportation committee and is one of five candidates running in the March election, said she intends to do what the community wants when it comes to the gates. he suggested.

“If there's going to be a change, it's going to be because that's what they want,” Hutt said.

Another candidate in the race, attorney Grace Yu, said in a debate last month that she supports “equal access” to sidewalks.

“I think I'm in favor of opening the pedestrian gates,” Yu declared.

Orla Vasquez, a community activist who described herself as the only candidate in the race who uses public transportation, said during the debate that it was “unbelievable” that Mid-City residents had to struggle with the gates. Told.

“What about people who have mobility issues?” Vasquez said. “What if I'm just late for work?”

Gate heights can reach up to 10 feet in some locations at Country Club Park. This area is also designated as a Historic Preservation District due to its architecturally significant homes.

According to the neighborhood association, prominent black people lived in Country Club Park, including religious leader Thomas Kilgore, lawyer Crispus A. Wright, and singer Mahalia Jackson.

The gate's history dates back to the mid-1980s, when the Country Club Park Neighborhood Association was formed. First, I looked for barriers. Eventually, gates were installed at four of his intersections along Pico: St. Andrews Place, Gramercy Place, Wilton Place, and Van Ness Avenue.

In the 1990s, more neighborhoods across Los Angeles sought to completely or partially close roads due to rising crime, even though city planners and urban theorists criticized the trend. .

“What you guys are doing is destroying democracy in public space,” City of Quartz author Mike Davis told the Times in 1992. Don't you allow everything? Why not strengthen our cities and turn them into living cells connected by highways?”

Around the same time, the Los Angeles Police Department touted its success in reducing drug dealing and drive-by shootings by installing concrete barriers on roads in areas such as the San Fernando Valley. The police department called this operation “Operation Cul-de-Sac.”

Some neighborhoods around Country Club Park now also have gated streets, including Lafayette Park, which is closed off along Venice Boulevard.

In nearby West Adams, gates at Van Buren Place and Adams Boulevard are closed to vehicular traffic, but pedestrian traffic is allowed.

Country Club Park residents said they feel safer with the gates. They described people scavenging their yards and breaking into their homes. Local residents say nearby Western Avenue is a known sex-trafficking area, where prostitutes often park in cars with clients.

“We always feel in danger,” said Lydia Lee, whose home was set on fire by an arsonist last year. “This neighborhood really doesn't want to open its gates.”

Edmond Rodman moved into a Victorian Revival mansion on Gramercy Place in Country Club Park in 1999. Shortly after, he was asked by the homeowners association, which would pay for the gate's maintenance and insurance, to contribute $1,400 to build a new gate on Gramercy Place.

Rodman said the number of cars speeding in the area quickly decreased. The gate “is a good model for other residential areas that want to reduce traffic accidents,” he says.

Mobility organization Streets for All typically supports efforts to create “slow streets” where residents can walk or bike in their neighborhoods.

But a representative for the group said it does not support the fence for several reasons, including that the gate obstructs public right-of-way.

“We understand that residents south of Pico see the gate as a symbol of exclusion from the community,” Adrian Hoff of Streets for All said. “We support consideration of alternative infrastructure that would divert vehicular traffic flow that would have less severe implications for surrounding communities.”

Another mobility group, Open Sidewalks LA; We have started a petition. Open gates to allow pedestrians access to Olympic Boulevard and other streets north of Pico.

Some Pico residents and businesses paint the gates as elitist.

“They don't want us,” says Hector Rebolledo, who lives and manages an apartment near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue.

Hilda Figueroa, who works at a beauty shop on Pico Island, said she understands concerns about crime, but it's “everywhere.”

“If you want to feel safe, you should put gates around your house, not around the street,” Figueroa said in Spanish.

One District 10 candidate, pastor and community organizer Eddie Anderson, suggested the gate's pedestrian door could be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

State Rep. Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who is running for the 10th District seat, said he tried to go to El Cholo restaurant on Western Avenue, but “realized there was a gate. He said there were several times when he had to turn back.

He recently Street for All Candidate Questions He said pedestrian access around the gate “absolutely needs to be restored.”

But he later told the Times that after speaking with neighbors at Country Club Park, he believed he needed more information before taking his side.