LOS ANGELES, CA – The Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council voted 13 to 1 on Oct. 14 to support an anti-camping zone around the future Sixth Street PARC, joining Arts District groups that are urging the city to enforce the restrictions at the park being built beneath the 6th Street Bridge.
The vote followed a petition started by Arts District residents calling on the city to establish a zone under Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.18 for the sidewalks and perimeter around the park. The Arts District Little Tokyo Neighborhood Council and the Downtown Los Angeles Residents Association have also signed on to the effort.
The groups are urging Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents District 14, Mayor Karen Bass and city staff to move ahead with the designation and to coordinate a security plan for the park. The park is expected to open in 2027.
Jurado said her office is confirming the boundaries as they relate to the park. The request comes as the City Council is divided over how and where 41.18 zones should be used.
Neighborhood council votes 13 to 1 in support
Members of the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council voted 13 to 1 on Oct. 14 to sign on as supporters of the petition. The council is the third group to formally back the push, after the neighborhood council that covers the Arts District and Little Tokyo and the downtown residents association.
Residents on both sides of the Los Angeles River have raised concerns for months about the possibility of homeless encampments forming at the park. The park sits between Boyle Heights on the east side of the river and the Arts District on the west.
The neighborhood council vote adds a Boyle Heights voice to a campaign that began with Arts District residents. The petition asks for the zone to cover the sidewalks and perimeter around the park rather than only the bridge itself.
Groups urge Jurado, Bass and city staff to act
The three organizations are asking Jurado, Bass and city staff to move forward with the designation. They are also asking that a security plan for the park be coordinated alongside it.
Jurado’s office is the one that would shepherd any new zone for the area, since the park lies in District 14. Council members must get support from their colleagues before enacting new 41.18 zones.
Bass has not issued a public statement on the Sixth Street PARC zone as of Tuesday.
What Municipal Code 41.18 does
Anti-camping zones established through Los Angeles Municipal Code 41.18 bar people from sitting, lying or sleeping in certain public spaces. The zones are created location by location, and each one depends on the council’s approval.
Supporters of the park zone say the City Council already took a step in this direction in 2024. That year, the council endorsed a 41.18 zone for the 6th Street Bridge, an effort initiated by then-Councilmember Kevin de León.
Proponents believe that zone should extend to the park beneath the bridge. Jurado’s office said it is confirming how the existing boundaries relate to the park.
Jurado says boundaries are being confirmed
Jurado said in a statement to reporters that she is open to “a serious and transparent conversation about how 41.18 is being used and what results it is producing.” She described anti-camping zones as “just one piece of a much larger conversation about keeping this park safe and responding to homelessness.”
She also said: “This park represents a major public investment into equitable park space while bridging two historic neighborhoods. Ensuring its success from day one requires the honest dialogue and difficult decisions needed to address legitimate safety and access concerns while recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.”
Her office is also drafting a formal agreement that would establish responsibility for the park’s security measures, maintenance, programming and day-to-day management before it opens. Jurado said: “Keeping this park safe requires clear accountability, consistent maintenance, regular programming, and a coordinated response when concerns arise.”
Park opening slips to early 2027
The Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering’s project page for the Sixth Street PARC describes it as about 12 acres of open and recreational space in areas underneath and adjacent to the Sixth Street Viaduct. The park spans Boyle Heights and the Arts District on both sides of the river.
Mary Nemick, the bureau’s communications director, said the park’s opening slipped to early 2027 because of “scheduling changes to the installation of playground equipment.”
Security around the bridge is already a subject of city attention. Jurado’s office announced that the engineering firm Tetra Tech would fortify wiring and install a security camera system on the Sixth Street Bridge to deter vandalism and theft.
Once the park opens, the Los Angeles Police Department is expected to provide live camera monitoring, the Department of Recreation and Parks to handle maintenance and the Office of Community Beautification to handle graffiti removal, according to initial reports of the Bureau of Engineering’s plans.
Council rescinded 12 zones in District 13
Efforts to establish or keep anti-camping zones have drawn pushback elsewhere in the city. On Aug. 18, the City Council voted 10 to 3 to rescind 12 anti-camping zones in Council District 13, on a motion by Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez.
The zones covered parts of East Hollywood, Echo Park, Glassell Park, Hollywood and Silver Lake. They were created under former Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, and the vote was described as the first time the council rescinded existing 41.18 zones.
Soto-Martínez said after the vote: “We have always believed that these zones are counterproductive to the work we are doing, and now we have the data and have done the outreach necessary to back that up.” His office said enforcement of 41.18 interferes with efforts to move unhoused residents into housing.
Committee held motion to broaden 41.18
On Oct. 6, the council’s Public Safety Committee voted 3 to 2 to hold a motion by Councilmember Traci Park to expand 41.18. The motion would let council members create zones without a council resolution and add police stations, fire stations and post offices to the covered locations.
Councilmembers Curren Price, Soto-Martínez and Nithya Raman voted to hold the motion. Park and committee Chair John Lee opposed holding it.
The committee asked the City Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Police Department for an analysis of costs, staffing and geographic scope before the next hearing. No new hearing date has been set.
Homeless count frames the debate
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s 2026 count found an estimated 73,040 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County, up 1.2%. In the city, the count rose by “a 3.4% increase to 45,194 people in the City of Los Angeles,” according to the agency’s announcement of the 2026 count results.
Unsheltered homelessness rose 3.3% countywide and 7.9% in the city. The authority attributed the rise to the pause in Time Limited Subsidies enrollments, noting that the number of people newly housed with the subsidies fell from 10,308 in 2024 to 6,590 in 2025.
In a statement on the count, Bass said the city had reduced homelessness by 11% since 2023. She blamed federal and state funding cuts for the increase.
The count does not address the Sixth Street PARC specifically. It is the most recent official figure for homelessness in the city that frames the policy debate over where anti-camping rules should apply.
Park zone boundaries remain under review
Jurado’s office has not announced the outcome of its boundary review, and the city had not announced a new 41.18 designation covering the park. Any new zone would need support from other council members.
For now, the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council, the Arts District Little Tokyo Neighborhood Council and the Downtown Los Angeles Residents Association are on record in support of the zone. Jurado’s office is drafting an agreement on security, maintenance and management ahead of the park’s opening, expected in early 2027.
