Hello neighbors,

Today, we have two stories to share about a beloved restaurant shutting its doors and a dangerous intersection that residents have complained about for years.

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Marina Peña/ The LA Local

Los Angeles installed a traffic calming circle at New Hampshire Bouelvard and 4th Street.

Koreatown residents begged the city to make this intersection safer. Then a 9-year-old died.

By Marina Peña

The endless line of traffic that spills over into Koreatown’s side streets is a common headache for residents. But one street kept coming up in conversations about pedestrian safety and bicycle lanes.

It even resulted in a protest installation at the intersection and a memorial painted onto the street.

We’re talking about New Hampshire Avenue and 4th Street. Today, the intersection looks slightly different — but that doesn’t tell the full story of years of frustration among locals and one deadly night over the summer.

New Hampshire Avenue and 4th Street’s temporary traffic circle does little to slow down passing vehicles. Cars, cyclists, pedestrians with children, neighbors with grocery carts, an encampment, spillover traffic from Vermont Avenue and a nearby church all converge at the intersection. The community is always on the move.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation installed the temporary traffic circle on Nov. 13, only after a suspected drunk driver killed 9-year-old Nadir Gavarrete and frustrated residents painted their own crosswalk. Though city officials revealed plans to make the intersection safer more than five years ago, construction on the permanent traffic circle will not begin until 2026.

Koreatown neighbors say even with the interim measures,  the intersection is far from safe.

“The traffic circle is fine, but I think a traffic light should be added as well,” said resident Miguel Contreras, 78. “There’s a lot of traffic here in the morning and afternoon. Drivers who usually use Vermont Avenue come through here because there’s so much congestion over there.” 

Spending even a short time at the intersection shows the interim traffic circle and crosswalks are not working as intended. Drivers routinely speed through the intersection, with some cutting straight over the traffic circle instead of circling around the roundabout.

An undated photo of Nadir Gavarrete at a community memorial in Koreatown.

Contreras, who has lived in the neighborhood for about two years, witnessed the aftermath of Nadir’s death. On July 31, Contreras was coming home from work and saw the boy’s body covered with a blanket. He later saw the memorial that neighbors set up. “All of us here in the neighborhood felt the pain of losing that little boy,” Contreras said.

In a statement to The LA Local, the LA Department of Transportation said  the department “shares the community’s urgency to improve safety on our streets, particularly for its most vulnerable users such as children walking and biking.”

Crashes are fairly common at this intersection, according to neighbors. According to the Department of Transportation, the intersection lies in a “high-injury network” — the small share of streets that account for a disproportionate number of traffic injuries and fatalities. That status is part of why it was selected in 2011 for improvements under the local safety and traffic-calming program.

The intersection has also been designated as a “bike-friendly” or “mobility” street in city planning, meaning it is prioritized for safety improvements for cyclists and pedestrians.

But over the years, the project to make the intersection safer faced delays despite community meetings dating back to 2011, secured funding, concept renderings and even a DIY roundabout demonstration by activists in 2019.

Bianca Cockrell, a traffic safety advocate with the advocacy group Crosswalk Collective, lives near the intersection and organized volunteers to paint a temporary crosswalk after she heard about Nadir’s death. 

The group painted the temporary crosswalk, with a memorial to Nadir, on Aug. 2, but the city scraped away the DIY crosswalk in early November, according to reporting from Streetsblog LA.

The city then installed new crosswalks abruptly, without the memorial.

“I can only imagine how Nadir's father must have felt walking down the street the next day and seeing that the memorial we painted was erased, and all the crosswalks were also erased like that, even though that was a temporary thing, that's still like a very simple gesture,” Cockrell said. 

In 2011, the city received funding from a Metro program for a Bicycle Friendly Streets project, which included safety improvements at four intersections along Fourth Street, including New Hampshire. In 2015, a federal grant under a broader safety and bicycle-friendly funding program was awarded specifically for this intersection, funding a mini-traffic circle and enhanced crosswalks. But construction has not begun.

“This is a site that the city has studied. The city knew something was wrong. But the city didn't do anything,” Cockrell said. “A kid literally died, and then now they're doing stuff, although they've even talked about how the plans they have, they will install next year.”

Credit: Joe Linton / Streetsblog LA

An undated photo of the memorial crosswalk for Nadir Gavarrete placed by residents.

Construction plans for next year for the intersection include installing improved street lighting, clearer signage, a permanent traffic circle and four crosswalks. 

But for now, residents are still facing the risks of a dangerous intersection. Victoria Toscano works in maintenance at an apartment building nearby and sometimes walks in the area with her 4-year-old son. She said she was nearly hit by a car while walking past the intersection in October, and she doesn’t think the new interim traffic circle will slow drivers down anytime soon.

“As a mom, it does worry me. I see people drive right over the traffic circle — speeding, cutting through it, not even stopping sometimes. It really didn’t make a difference at all, in my opinion,” she said. “I don’t think people know how the traffic circle works. They seem confused about what they’re supposed to do because there aren’t many roundabouts in this area.”

WHAT'S GOING ON

🧑‍⚕️  Queens Care Health Alliance will host a holiday health fair at Union Avenue Elementary School on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free community event will include preventative health screenings, dental and vision exams, flu shots, toy giveaways and more. Participants can register for the event.

❄️ Parents rejoice! The Department of Recreation & Parks will offer winter drop-in hours for kids 5-12 for free. Kids will be able to enjoy sports, crafts, cooking and games at Seoul International Park from Dec. 22-26, Dec. 29-Jan. 2 and Jan. 5-9. Lunch or snacks will not be provided, and the program will be closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. More information can be found here.

🥪 No, you’re not imagining things. Sandwich shop Open Market slipped a nice surprise into a lucky customer’s order – three customers to be precise. Every Friday until Christmas, the Koreatown business will hide three Golden Tickets in their sandwich orders. The holder of the tickets will not get a tour of a magical chocolate factory, but will instead get three free sandwiches. Luckily, the sandwich can still be eaten and the tickets never expire.    

🎅On Saturday, the nonprofit Search To Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) is hosting their holiday toy giveaway at 3200 W Temple St. in Historic Filipinotown. Families can stop by from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for free toys for kids, a traditional Filipino breakfast, Filipino crafts, music and community resources. The event is supported by Island Pacific Market and APA Toy Drive. RSVPs are encouraged and can be made here.

DON'T MISS

Hanna Kang / The LA Local

Ham Ji Park will close after 30 years in Koreatown. Here’s what longtime diners will miss.

By Hanna Kang

When word started to spread around online, it was almost too much to bear — Ham Ji Park, the beloved Korean BBQ restaurant that has been serving ribs for three decades, was going to close. 

There were comments and message threads on Reddit speculating about a possible renovation. When an LA Local reporter stopped by the restaurant, an employee refused to talk, only adding to the mystery. 

But on Friday, the restaurant finally put the speculation to rest and said in an Instagram post that they are “closing for now.” 

The 6th Street location closed earlier this month, and the Pico Boulevard location will serve its last gamjatang by the holidays.

“We want to share our sincere gratitude for the years of support, care and love you have given us,” the post said. “Hamjipark has always been more than a restaurant, it has been a gathering place, a familiar comfort and a home for so many of you who have become part of our story.”

The restaurant didn’t provide details about why it was closing but disputed “most” of the rumors. 

“There have been many rumors circulating recently and we want to reassure you that most of them do not reflect the truth. What is true is that we are closing for now and making this announcement is one of the hardest things we have ever had to do.”

The statement reflected on decades of regulars who grew up alongside the restaurant. 

“We have watched families expand, children turn into adults and friends become regulars who feel like family,” they said.

The restaurant added, “We will miss our community more than words can express and we hope our paths will meet again.”

Ham Ji Park opened in 1993 and built its reputation on its pork ribs and gamjatang, a spicy pork neck-bone stew. Late Los Angeles Times critic Jonathan Gold called Ham Ji Park’s ribs “crisp, beautifully caramelized and not too sweet, a massive pile to be snipped into edible mouthfuls at the table with a pair of scissors, and again slightly resinous.” 

Bonnie Sintuvat, 44, said Ham Ji Park holds a special place for nostalgic Korean Americans. 

“It's one of those restaurants where if you talk to anyone who is Korean, they have so many stories of their parents taking them to go eat there. It's just a childhood restaurant that everyone goes to,” she said.

Sintuvat added that even among the many restaurants she tries across Southern California, Ham Ji Park still stood out. 

“I live in Buena Park, where Korean is everywhere, but I would go to Ham Ji Park in K-town for those grilled pork ribs,” Sintuvat said.

Jin Kim, who frequented Ham Ji Park with friends as a young adult, said the homey feel of the restaurant will be sorely missed. 

"What I still vividly remember is the unique setup. Fires at every table in the narrow space, and using aluminum foil to catch the dripping grease,” he said. 

For some longtime customers, the closure lands as another loss in a neighborhood where several legacy restaurants have shuttered in recent years.

“I think with everything closing, like the Dragon closing, Beverly Soondubu closing, Toe Bang closing, like all of our staples of K-town are kind of going one by one," said Alice Han, a longtime Koreatown resident. 

Han, who’s lived in Koreatown for close to three decades, is taking Ham Ji Park’s closure as a reminder to visit other old-school eateries run by the ajummas in the neighborhood, like Olympic Noodle and Jun Won Dak.

"During COVID, I would buy a lot of Ham Ji Park to give out to my friends. It was an easy food to give them to introduce them to Korean food,” she said. “So it was kind of like breaking bread with friends, I guess.” 

Please take care, and remember to pace yourself this holiday season.

Ándale pues, 

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