vendors

They pushed to legalize the work of street vendors, many of whom lack citizenship.

Romero, who hosted neighborhood meetings, recruited local clergy to the cause, and helped park vendors threatened by gang members, orchestrated weekend festivals that included singers, dancers and puppet masters.

“No other place in Los Angeles thrummed with its subversive energy or labored under the weight of so much trauma,” Jesse Katz wrote of MacArthur Park in his critically acclaimed book “The Rent Collectors,” which chronicles the neighborhood’s violent gang wars, shakedowns of vendors, and the daily struggles of a mostly Central American population that has lived for decades with both hope and despair.

That frees you up to dip into the human soup of the boardwalk for people-watching at its finest: pigeon-training, python-handling carnies, vendors who can write your name on a grain of rice or balance your chakras.

But those who really know L.A. can tell you it’s a pleasure to stroll through, replete with blooming bougainvillea, rich history and street vendors and shops.