SAN JOSE — St. James Park, an iconic destination in the heart of the city’s urban core, has a great deal in common with the historic MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles.

Both city-owned parks have fallen into disrepair and gained attention for the wrong reasons — gangs, drugs, crime and homelessness. But in 2007, after years of drug dealing and violence, a national foundation built an outdoor stage at MacArthur Park, turning a new leaf by attracting more families and recreational activities. Statistics showed a reduction in crime in the area.

Now that organization — the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation — has its eye on San Jose. It wants to revitalize St. James Park by paying for a bandstand to host 50 free concerts each summer.

“We need to create a park that people want to use,” said Councilman Raul Peralez, whose district includes the park. “We haven’t done that, and that’s what Levitt can do. We want people to take back their park — their asset — and use it.”

The program pays up to $500,000 for a “Levitt Pavilion” — an outdoor music venue — at urban parks plagued by blight and crime. The foundation, which also provides money each year to help pay for entertainment, contacted San Jose officials about building the pavilion at St. James Park.

“St. James Park is an ideal match for a future Levitt Pavilion based on the need for the park’s activation and the park’s accessibility to a wide range of socioeconomic groups,” said Sharon Yazowski, executive director of the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, in an email.

Levitt Pavilions have helped transform the grittiest parks in six major cities: Los Angeles, Pasadena, Arlington, Memphis, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the first in Westport, Connecticut in 1974. The organization has plans to expand into Denver, Houston and possibly New Orleans.

But the proposal comes with some roadblocks. To get the project off the ground, San Jose has to assemble a nonprofit board to raise funds year-round to pay for the live summer entertainment. The city must agree to a minimum of 50 concerts each year.

And while nearly 30 activists from the arts and music communities have joined Peralez on a “steering committee” to discuss the idea, there still isn’t a board in place. Some advocates say they’re too busy to commit to the effort. Others don’t have the expertise.

“The challenge is finding people that will step up and do it,” said James Reber, executive director of the San Jose Parks Foundation. “You have to find people who have the money and connections in the community. Without the board, this will never happen.”

Reber said people often focus on the negative aspects of St. James Park. But he said this project, despite naysayers who complain about noise concerns, has the potential to reinvigorate a park that’s been left in the shadows.

“The park got neglected when downtown and Silicon Valley grew,” Reber said. “The opposite of neglect is engagement. An unused park is an open space that becomes a crime scene. This will create enough ongoing traffic.”

Designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, St. James Park hosted the best and worst of San Jose history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tiburcio Vasquez, a Mexican-American bandit to some and freedom fighter to others, was condemned and hanged in the courthouse across the street in 1875. The park hosted an infamous lynching in 1933 as well as a stirring speech by presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy just before his assassination in 1968.

Decades of urban decline and neglect followed. A grant from the Knight Foundation of Silicon Valley last year allowed for music and yoga in the park, but unlike the Levitt Pavilion proposal, those programs were temporary and funding was limited.

In recent years a series of ongoing commercial concerts at St. James Park upset neighbors who complained about loud music, rowdy crowds and drunk patrons.

“We’ve had rattling of our walls and horrible experiences from music in the park,” said Matt Stevens, president of the homeowners association for the St. James Place condominiums. “They paint the picture of crowd, noise and traffic control, but they may be looking at it through rose-colored glasses. We’re very dubious about the impacts on our residents.”

Though officials promise to play family-friendly music, keep the volume down and wrap up concerts by 8 p.m., not everyone is convinced the Levitt Pavilion by itself can transform the troubled park.

Shawn Atkisson, general manager of the Sainte Claire Club, an exclusive’s men’s club across from the park, said the city needs to first address public safety and cleanliness concerns.

His group is urging city leaders to conduct an environmental study to gauge the proposed pavilion’s impacts.

“The noise has everyone concerned, but we’re worried about all the other impacts,” Atkisson said. “Where will people park? How’s the traffic going to work? Where will people go to the bathroom?”

St. James Park is also at the center of growth in downtown San Jose. The park sits within blocks of several new residential towers and other higher density, mixed-use development.

Peralez, who toured the Levitt Pavilions in Los Angeles and Pasadena, also visited a handful of urban parks in New York and Philadelphia. All the successful parks had one thing in common — they offered a wide range of activities to engage the public, such as fire pits, coffee carts, beer gardens, public art and games.

The Levitt Pavilion in San Jose, if it comes together, is the first step in a bigger plan to offer more amenities at St. James Park.

“I’m hoping it brings more people and more life,” Peralez said. “We really have an opportunity to change St. James Park.”

Follow Ramona Giwargis at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis or contact her at 408-920-5705.