Among the many things I loved in my time living in LA was driving by MacArthur Park, and no not really just because of Jimmy Webb. I spent a lot of time at the downtown library, and would drive past MacArthur Park on my leisurely way home, always stopping to watch some goings on in the heavily used public space sitting among gorgeous 1930s highrise apartments decked with multi-story neon signs. Sometimes it was a carnival, or a soccer game, or baseball, or just some musicians playing - I loved the density of types of play (ball fields, playgrounds, fountains) and groups of people hanging out. To me, this it was metropolitan in a way I'd never seen in NYC - a Latino metropolis rivaled only by Flushing Meadows park on a soccer playing afternoon . Only later did I realize this was the locus of so many moments in LA's infamy (the lake being a good way to dispose of handguns) but as a newbie to the area, all I saw was this present. Maybe I could see it better than others, white longtime LAers who were shocked when I'd tell them I would stop there.

I never made it to La Fonda, but here is a lovely elegy for its closing. This is a common staple of the newspaper music writer's trade - the end of the line article. This is a particularly lovely job:

Taps sound for mariachi mecca

The MacArthur Park landmark La Fonda de Los Camperos is closing.
By Agustin Gurza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 13, 2007