How a plan to create a much-needed park in Koreatown withered | Sustainable LA Grand Challenge

April 15, 2016

A street view of some buildings located in Koreatown. — Koreatown is a densely packed neighborhood short on green space. A 346-unit luxury apartment building is going up on the spot where a park was proposed. Photo by Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times.

Five years after a parcel of land in populous and urban Koreatown was seeded for a public park, CityView is breaking ground on a 346-unit luxury apartment building. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, a professor in UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs’ department of Urban Planning, laments the disconnect between residents, businessmen, and interest groups, commenting that “where people do not have much political power, they don’t have a strong voice to demand parks.”