#ktownla

Koreatown is the most densely populated section of Los Angeles. Guess how many parks it has…

Exactly zero. No parks in all of K-Town. 

In this booming urban corridor increasingly smothered in concrete and glass, A public outdoor space for respite would be welcome. 

People need parks. That’s what psychologists and urban planners say, anyway. 

And the residents of Koreatown were about to get one at Wilshire and Hobart back in 2011. The requisite millions had been allocated and earmarked. But, as reporter Victoria Kim writes, five years later, a 346-unit luxury apartment building dubbed the Pearl on Wilshire is taking root where Koreatown Central Park was slated to go. 

Will it have even a park bench for the public to sit on? Nope. But, it will have a dog wash, yoga room, putting green and spa – for residents. 

“Where people do not have much political power, they don’t have a strong voice to demand parks.”

— Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, professor of urban planning at UCLA

What went wrong? Council President Herb Wesson’s spokeswoman blames bad timing and the recession. Wesson’s district includes most of Koreatown. 

So what now? The councilman has proposed turning part of the local library branch’s parking lot into a pocket park, with parking underground. 

Photos by Los Angeles Times