Los Angeles City Council candidate Raul Claros announced Tuesday that if elected, he will live and work out of a trailer stationed next to MacArthur Park, saying the move is intended to draw attention to the growing crime, homelessness, and drug activity in the area, as reported by the New York Post.
“We need to do something out of the box,” Claros told the Los Angeles Times. “MacArthur Park itself and the immediate area has now become a disaster zone, a multilayered crisis.”
Claros, 45, is a community organizer running against Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez in the District 1 race.
MacArthur Park has come to symbolize some of Los Angeles’ most intractable issues.
Homeless people crowd the park and streets nearby. Drug dealers peddle fentanyl in public. Businesses struggle to stay afloat.Problems with drug dealing and drug use in and around the park… pic.twitter.com/qQaLsu9bhk
— Mike Netter (@nettermike) December 2, 2025
Claros told reporters he would remain in the trailer until the city makes progress in addressing what he described as a deteriorating situation at and around the park.
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He acknowledged that his choice is designed to draw notice to the issues facing the neighborhood. “We definitely do want the attention,” he said. “We want the attention of every department and resource.”
A spokesperson for Hernandez, Naomi Villagomez Roochnik, dismissed the proposal in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, saying, “Our office remains focused on delivering results, not exploiting low-income neighborhoods for publicity stunts or misleading residents about how the city works.”
My close friend and collaborator Raul Claros is taking progressivism to a new level. He will live in city owned housing until the drug dealers and violent vagrants have been dealt with! pic.twitter.com/KOTztEyqs6
— Mike Bonin, King of the DSA (@BonninMike) December 1, 2025
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Claros pushed back on that criticism, arguing that Hernandez has failed to meaningfully address homelessness in the area and noting that two homicides were recorded in MacArthur Park over the last year.
“Councilwoman Hernandez’s office is in disarray,” he said. “She wasn’t able to defund the LAPD. Smarter heads on the city council stopped Eunisses Hernandez from accomplishing the only goal she has set out for herself.
“Now she has eight other candidates who don’t want to defund the LAPD or let crime fester, so she lashes out because by this time next year she won’t have this job anymore.”
MacArthur Park has drawn increased scrutiny in recent months following federal immigration enforcement operations conducted over the summer.
Those operations included federal agents working with members of the National Guard. The surrounding neighborhood has also been identified by federal authorities as an area with significant MS-13 gang activity.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized federal law enforcement for conducting the raids near the park, saying the actions frightened children who were participating in summer activities.
“What happened to the criminals, the drug dealers, the violent individuals?” she asked.
“Who were in the park today were children. It was their summer day camp. Those kids now have no activities. They were ushered inside so that they didn’t get exposed to the troops that were walking in formation across their playground area.”
The District 1 race is one of several competitive contests shaping the debate over public safety and homelessness policies in Los Angeles heading into next year’s municipal elections.
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