How four iron gates have separated a Mid City neighborhood for 25 years
Whenever Rossana Cambron steps out of her Mid City home, she notices the white gate separating her from the rest of her neighborhood.
"Just a reminder of how it separates us," she said. "This is the problem. I could easily go this way, but I can't because of the gate. I have to go around."
Three other gates block pedestrian and vehicle access to the Country Club neighborhood. Cambron and the organization Open Sidewalks Los Angeles have now launched a petition to open the gates to pedestrians. They say people sometimes have to walk half a mile out of the way to catch buses or head to the store.
"Every so often you see people try to climb the gate, because they don't have access," she said. "They have to go all the way around.
The gates were erected in 1999, when neighborhoods across LA, including Country Club Park, wanted to partially close public streets because of rising crime.
"I'm telling you could see the person running on foot and them people chasing them," long-time resident Courtney Burrell said. "It was a regular thing."
Burrell lived in Country Club Park before the gates were installed. The neighborhood is now a historical preservation zone known for its unique architecture. While living there still has its issues, like homeless encampments, Burrell said the gates do add a layer of security.
"It was just a different neighborhood, but after they went up, it completely changed," she said. "It minimized the amount of traffic. People now drive over here to walk their dogs or get their exercise in."
In the 1990s, the neighborhood association paid for the gates and continued to maintain them 25 years later.
"two things can be true at once right," Burrell said. "I don't think that its negatively impacting people the way they are presenting it."
The neighborhood association says they want to work with residents outside the gates to find a solution. However, for Cambron, the only solution is removing the locks.
"They have no real reason to keep them," she said.
