Famous L.A. deli may close due to safety, homeless concerns

The famed Langer’s Deli in downtown Los Angeles could close, its owner tells the Los Angeles Times.

Norm Langer, 79, has spent almost his entire life growing up around and running the 77-year-old delicatessen.

But with the persistent public safety and homelessness issues plaguing nearby MacArthur Park and the surrounding area, Langer is “considering closing,” he told Times columnist Steve Lopez , who called the possibility a “hole-in-your-soul development.”

Langer added that he hopes city officials provide “improved lighting, increased police patrols, social services outreach and targeted clean-up efforts,” and Lopez noted that “the more I talked to Langer, the more I got the sense that he’d rather keep his business running than walk away.”

So what would Langer tell city leaders?

“Let them get their act together, and I won’t go anywhere,” he said. “How does that sound?”

In a statement, Deputy Mayor Zach Seidl said Mayor Karen Bass has “been in direct conversation with Mr. Langer.”

“Supporting local businesses like Langers is a top priority, not just through direct aid and resources but also through addressing homelessness and crime … Urgent action on all fronts will continue,” Seidl said.

The office of City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the area, said in her first 20 months in office, she “has brought in an unprecedented level of funding to MacArthur Park to address the decades of underinvestment in the area.”

“She is coordinating a multi-agency approach to address the crisis at the park and break the cycle of neglect and disinvestment by deploying a full-time clean team to the area, bringing in a street medicine team to provide services to people experiencing homelessness, leveraging federal funding to explore an expansion of the park by closing Wilshire Blvd, and securing funding from the City’s Opioid Settlement Fund to address the opioid and overdose crisis,” the statement said. “She is committed to seeing this through and is calling on leaders at every level of government to join her in this urgent work.”

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