Fencing outside federal buildings in downtown LA creates accessibility concerns

When 8-foot-tall fences went up outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles last month during a relatively calm moment in the city’s summer of protest, they quickly drew attention on social media.

One Reddit commenter wrote , “why would a Federal building in Los Angeles [start] turning into a fortress?”

The Little Tokyo federal building complex, especially the Metropolitan Detention Center on Alameda Street, has been an epicenter of anti-immigration enforcement protests since June. It’s also a block up the street from the Japanese American National Museum, where federal agents staked out Gov. Gavin Newsom’s news conference on redistricting last month.

Besides the optics of putting up the fencing, there’s another issue: it blocks parts of the sidewalk and a pedestrian on-ra