 Bowen was a member of the City Council in 1900-04, and as acting mayor in 1904 he vetoed a council resolution that would have placed a bond issue of $250,000 to build a new city library in Central Park, today's Pershing Square.The library was later built on the site of the Los Angeles State Normal School on Fifth Street.Almost from the time he landed here he became interested in the tract which he afterward dedicated as Exposition Park.