After a group of street vendors were forced out from the sidewalks outside of the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station last year, the mayor’s office installed a temporary fence to block vendors from returning for the purported purpose of disrupting illegal drug and weapons sales. In May, the city replaced the fence with large yellow and red bollards.

Now city officials are planning to spend at least $2.3 million to put a fence around MacArthur Park, with LAPD Capt. Ben Fernandes telling LA Local in an article published Oct. 23 that doing so would make it easier for police to arrest people using drugs inside the park.