The iconic Langer’s Deli in downtown Los Angeles is considering closing its doors after 76 years as rising crime and homelessness in the area continues to plague local residents and businessowners.
"It's not safe," Norm Langer, who owns the famed establishment, told FOX 11. "It's too many needles. Too much fentanyl. Too much drugs."
MacArthur Park, which sits just outside the restaurant, is reportedly riddled with trash, drug use, and homelessness, FOX 11 reported. Police reportedly investigated a homicide earlier this year outside the deli after a dead body was believed to be thrown in the lake by a homeless man, according to the outlet.
Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso takes a photo with a supporter while making a post election stop at Langer's Deli in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on November 9, 2022. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Langer said his customers regularly see "people walking around here taking their clothes off, walking around naked. It's nuts," he told FOX 11.
"I don't want to spoil anybody's appetite, but you've got a problem with defecation on sidewalks, for somebody was strung out on drugs. They're trying to make a score on fentanyl. They're passed out on the sidewalk, and the city is lame and not doing something about it."
He told the LA Times that while he dreads the prospect of leaving his 40 employees without work, he will be forced to shutter unless City Hall takes immediate action to clean up the streets and restore public safety in the area.
"I'm tired of pushing the cart up the hill," the 79-year-old said.
A waiter serves food to customers dining indoors at Langer's Deli in Los Angeles, California on August 7, 2021. ((Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
His requests include better evening lighting, heightened police patrols and regular trash collecting efforts to restore the neighborhood for its local residents and merchants, the LA Times reported.
"Let them get their act together," he told the outlet, "and I won’t go anywhere. How does that sound?"
He gives the city "about a week" to take action, he told FOX 11.
Langers has been a mainstay of the downtown Los Angeles community since it opened in 1947. It was founded byNorm's father, Al Langer and quickly earned the reputation of offering "the world’s best Pastrami sandwich."
Since 2020, MacArthur Park has become a hub for fentanyl users and sellers, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Businessowners told the outlet that they've seen people overdose and die right outside their shops on more than one occasion. Other merchants complained of theft in the area, telling the outlet, "people are going into stores, they steal items, they go out, they immediately sell it, they buy drugs, they go back and they steal again." Locals told FOX 11 that is has come to resemble a "third world country," noting that "you never even see a kid playing in the park anymore."
Homeless men draw water from a fire hydrant amid an encampment along Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles. (Getty Images)
Langer joins a long list of businessowners and longtime residents who are increasingly sounding the alarm about the state of crime and homelessness in Los Angeles.
As of April 2024, the state’s violent crime rate has skyrocketed by 13.5% compared to the pre-COVID rate of 2019, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Robberies involving firearms increased nearly 13% compared to 2019 and gun-related homicides and aggravated assaults surged even more, increasing by 37.7% and 61.1% respectively.