Column: Surrounded by violence, drug dealing and overdoses, workers at this Los Angeles restaurant are struggling to hang on

In a sense, Yoshinoya Japanese Kitchen, across from MacArthur Park, couldn’t be in a better location. Thousands of potential customers walk to work, home, shopping, school and the metro station every day.

In another sense he could not be in a worse position. The fentanyl epidemic is often literally on his doorstep, along with a host of public safety issues that have enraged the exasperated owner of a nearby property. Langer Delicatessen He told me in August that he was considering closing down after 77 years in business.

Yoshinoya manager Hortencia Garcia told me that when she heads to the corner restaurant or Wilshire and Alvarado each morning, there’s often work to be done before meal prep begins.

“We have to move all these people and remove all the garbage left behind,” Garcia said.

Security guard Gabriel Sanchez, meanwhile, said he routinely removes people selling or using drugs in front of the restaurant or in its parking lot and carries Narcan in his pocket to revive overdose victims. Arguments are part of the job.

Vendors sell items near Yoshinoya in MacArthur Park.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

“Knives were pulled on me, people tried to stab me with a screwdriver, and the other day I was hit with a wooden stick,” Sanchez said.

Garcia lamented that the fast food establishment’s name is tied to the infamous street that runs behind the restaurant property, which has led to a surprisingly brazen level of drug activity day and night.

“Yoshinoya street,” Garcia said.

People gather in an alley near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood, where drug use is common.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“Unfortunately, the mayor, the LAPD and everyone knows this,” Sanchez said. “So our name” is associated with overdoses and all the craziness going on out there.

The scene on that street doesn’t look very realistic. It’s like a movie set about the darkest corner of hell. I saw several dozen people there, huddled under the mist of fentanyl fumes, their bodies and faces ruined, and each time I wondered why there wasn’t a major relief effort, as you can see in the emergency response. to a natural disaster.

“We must urgently intervene” in the crisis at MacArthur Park, Mayor Karen Bass told me this in August.

It’s almost November and I can’t see it. not for the sake of those who are heavily addicted and we flirt with death every day, and not on behalf of the residents and merchants who need some relief.

Garcia said he frequently complained to city officials about neighborhood conditions and the response was “we have a plan.” Two years later, he said, “I’m still waiting for the plan.” In a statement from his corporate team, Yoshinoya said he is committed to remaining in the community, taking steps to ensure the safety of employees and customers, and participating in neighborhood council meetings with neighbors, city leaders and the LAPD.

Garcia and Sanchez said they call senior officers from the Rampart division when they have a specific problem and can often count on help arriving in a hurry. But Garcia does not understand why routine lawlessness in the region is often tolerated by authorities.

Gang activity and the trafficking of stolen goods have plagued the MacArthur Park area for decades, including when Garcia raised her five children in the neighborhood. But he doesn’t remember there being much homelessness or open drug use at the time, and that “there were consequences” for illegal behavior. “Everyone does what they want now” and nothing is being done about it, he said.

In the early evening of October 9, a middle-aged man overdosed on the sidewalk in front of Yoshinoya. I was working on a column about LA Fire Station Station 11 — one of the busiest people in the country, in part because of overdose calls — and watched as paramedics ran naloxone, an opioid overdose medication, through his IV line and revived him.

One of the most striking things about the scene was how routine it seemed. Unlike the dozens of overdose victims who have died in Westlake over the past few years, people walked without hesitation or stopped to see if this one would succeed.

It was a busy night, Sanchez recalled.

“After that, maybe about an hour later, I saw a girl right here at the door,” he said of a second overdose victim.

Michelangelo prepares to cross the street past Yoshinoya in MacArthur Park.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

He said he called 911 both times. The second person recovered, as did the first person. But overdoses are so frequent that a nonprofit arranged for social workers to regularly deliver him canisters of Narcan, the nasal spray form of naloxone.

I asked him if he had to use it often during his first year on the job.

“Too many to count,” Sanchez said.

He said he kept the doses in his pocket, in the trunk of his car and behind the counter at the restaurant in case a customer had to pay with cash that had traces of fentanyl on it. Fortunately, he said, no employees had an accidental drug experience.

But Garcia told me this job isn’t for everyone. It caused employees to leave because they didn’t feel safe in the neighborhood or because they commuted from the nearby Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station, which often served as a drug cache.

One employee in his 20s lasted about 20 minutes.

“It was very chaotic,” Sanchez said. “I was kicking people out that day. And (employees) were getting yelled at by (customers).”

Sanchez said he often works six or seven 12-hour shifts a week because it is difficult to find a guard to fill in for him on weekends. “There have been a lot of shootings” in the area in the past year, he said. “We had a lunch maybe two months ago. … And a few weeks ago we had a stabbing after hours.”

Sanchez later watched this incident occur on the restaurant’s surveillance system. He said the incident appeared to be related to a drug deal, where a man “went up and stabbed the guy right in the middle of the chest.” … He walked a few steps away, fell near the light pole and died there.”

Garcia said he has been with Yoshinoya for 10 years and was assigned to the Alvarado series about two years ago. He said he told management that a fence was needed to prevent people from wandering around the property. An iron gate about eight feet high was installed at a cost of about $45,000, he said, and sidewalk vendors had to be moved closer to the curb to clear the way in front of the restaurant.

A castle was also needed inside the restaurant. A glass partition was installed to separate kitchen staff from customers.

“Our patrons feel safe,” Sanchez said. “I shake hands with them when they come in. … But others decided to eat somewhere else because it wasn’t worth the headache.”

Garcia said things are going bad, especially among families.

“I feel bad for the residents and the women walking their kids around,” said customer Daniel Leyva. “Have you seen that street? It’s crazy.”

Customer James Wright said he lived nearby years ago and “the police were looking into it” at the time. “It seemed like they gave up a few years ago. “This is worse than downtown Los Angeles.”

Wright wondered why MacArthur Park couldn’t rotate Echo Park Lake the way it has in recent years.

“You gotta get some hipsters in,” Sanchez said. “Let’s be realistic.”

Customer Debbie Wright said she sold heroin in MacArthur Park before going to prison 20 years ago. He said the park wasn’t paradise then, but it’s even worse now.

Emergency medical technicians and paramedics at Los Angeles Fire Station 11 keep an eye on a man they revived from an overdose at the corner of Alvarado Street and Wilshire Boulevard in the MacArthur Park area.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t want to give up on society,” he said, “but this is bad.”

“We hope it gets cleared up before something bad happens,” Sanchez said

I asked why he didn’t consider finding another job.

“The real reason I stay here is the relationship I have with Hortencia,” he said. “But it’s very difficult. “There are some days… I can’t believe this is where I work.”

In August, Mayor Bass did the right thing by going to Langer’s for lunch and listening to the owner, who for now was on hold to see if the city could deliver.

He should do the same with Yoshinoya and take him with him. Councilman Eunisses Hernandez, the chief of police, a county chief or two, and all the city and county department heads in Westlake who need to step up and do their job.

They can meet up with Garcia, Sanchez, and the rest of the team, have lunch, and then get to work.

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