The city of Los Angeles is expected to reopen Echo Park Lake by end of May after removing the homeless community and fencing it for construction on March 25.

According to City News Service, 35.7 tons of solid waste have been collected since the park’s closure, as well as 723.5 pounds of biological waste and 300 pounds of hazardous waste such as paint and remnants of drug use.

The $600,000 renovations at the park also went toward playground surfaces, restrooms repairs, drinking fountain replacements, light poles, bridge repairs, turf replacement and  sprinkler systems.

Before the renovation process began, a standoff between LAPD and hundreds of homeless advocates took place.

The protesters felt the homeless community was being purposely displaced and they marched the streets through the night before LAPD began dispersing the crowds, arresting 182 people in the process.

Both Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who represents the 13th district, promised that every person on the Echo Park Lake homeless community would have a hotel room to stay in, but the homeless advocates have said the living conditions in those hotels had “prison-like conditions.”

 

 

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