The Shed in Alma Park

According to some neighbors, the shed in Alma Park used to be public bathrooms. But most neighbors don’t remember that because the bathrooms have been closed so long. No one seems to know for sure, but it’s possible the bathrooms haven’t been opened in over 60 years. Since whenever the bathrooms closed, the building has stood completely empty. All the plumbing has been stripped out. The building is not used for storage, or for any other useful purpose.

Public Safety Issues

However, the shed is used by gang members to tag and mark their territory. Since 2021, Alma Park Neighbors has documented all acts of vandalism within the park, and have found that the shed has been vandalized 20 times per year.

Here, three different groups (identified from their different colored spray paints, black, blue, and green) vandalized the shed within one day (February 20, 2026).

The shed attracts these gangs to the park, serving as a billboard on which they mark their territory. We have witness families gather up their small children and evacuate the park in fear as gang members drive in during broad daylight to tag the shed. We have also witnessed rival gangs meet in the park to tag the shed and fire guns at each other.

The shed now represents a real public safety issue.

Community Response

Neighbors have spent countless hours repainting the shed or requesting remediation from the city, which is often slow and sometimes requires multiple calls and follow ups. We’ve also spent years trying to figure out how to deter the vandalism, including the exploration of a community mural.

Our group has come to the unfortunately belief that putting a mural on the shed would actually be worse for the community because we’ve found murals don’t deter vandalism, and also the intricate details of a mural make remediation more challenging. We haven’t come up with any realistic ideas to either make the shed useful or deter further vandalism.

Surveying the Neighbors

Over the years, we have asked our meeting attendees what they would like to see done with the shed. Often, the conversation turns to aspirational visions of turning the shed into something that can be used by the community. Recently, however, sentiment regarding the shed has shifted toward fatigue and uncertainty, and enthusiasm for brainstorming future possibilities has waned.

To ensure community input, in March of 2026 we distributed a survey to our neighbors asking what they thought about the idea of removing the shed.

We posted the survey on our Facebook group and sent it out to our mailing list of about 200 people). 50 neighbors responded.

As one can tell from the results, the majority of neighbors who responded to the survey would like to see the shed removed. One neighbor who left a comment in the survey said:

Unless The Shed can be adapted to a full service restroom for Alma Park visitors, it would be a good idea to remove it if all it does is attract graffiti and vandals with too much time on their hands to get into mischief with.

About a quarter of respondents did not have a strong opinion:

I am 63 and played in Alma park as a very young child and now take my grandson there to play. I do not have an opinion strong enough to voice here and will gladly respect whatever decision is made.

16% of our neighbors objected to the removal of the shed, and hearing their voices is important. Here is one neighbor’s thoughts on the shed’s removal:

I love the shed even though it gets tagged. It's been a part of the park, it should remain a part of the park.

Response from City Officials

Both the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and City Council 15’s office recommend the removal of the shed. And in fact, the Los Angeles Recreations and Parks (LARAP) department had promised our former Park Advisory Board (PAB) in 2017 that the shed would be removed, after years of neighbors advocating for removal.

March 19, 2026 Presentation to Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners

The President and Treasurer of Alma Park Neighbors presented prepared statements to the governing board of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP) during a meeting at Peck Park.

Alma Park Neighbors’ President described the public safety concerns associated with the shed and shared the results of the neighborhood survey. She concluded by requesting the shed’s immediate removal.

The Treasurer addressed the financial impact of repeatedly remediating vandalism. Since 1998, Alma Park Neighbors estimates that repainting and repairing vandalism on the shed has cost taxpayers more than $325,000, averaging approximately $10,000 per year. He also explained that these repeated remediation efforts divert limited resources from other services needed to maintain local parks, while the shed’s continued presence contributes to public safety concerns by attracting gang-related tagging and activity.

He also noted that Alma Park Neighbors has records of correspondence between Recreation and Parks and the former Park Advisory Board requesting removal of the shed as far back as 2014, as well as records from 2016 and 2017 indicating that the department had agreed to remove it.

Following the presentation by Alma Park Neighbors, Councilmember Tim McOsker addressed the Board and affirmed the concerns raised by the organization, expressing his support for removal of the shed.

Where We are Now

Neighbors are working with Tim McOsker’s office in an effort to get the shed removed, however the Los Angeles Recreations and Parks department will not commit to a date and continues to provide reasons the shed cannot be removed.