Is Trouble Brewing Today At Mexican Independance Day Celebration?
Since Thursday evening, lanes on Main St. and 1st St have been closed down- I presumed for another movie shoot. Then yesterday (Friday) I find it’s for the Mexican Independance Day celebration (see video in previous post). Hey, I always up for a party, so I come home and search for info on the schedule of events, cost, etc., and I cannot find ANYTHING via search engines or in the normal local newspapers. All I find is stories of previous celebrations that turned into rock and bottle throwing fiascos between attendees and the police. And these were at Olvera St.- 4 blocks north where there is the old Mexican history as the first settlement in Los Angeles not in front of City Hall.
This morning at 6 a.m. I walk White Dog and now they have fences around literally a one block area on 1st between Main and Los Angeles St And they have fences around the park in front of city hall- both places where I walk my dog as there is grass there. Now more streets are closed, and I ask a security guy what time event starts- “5pm” he says- I ask “What? Why do you close streets so soon, etc?” and he says they are still building stage on CalTrans steps (they have been working on that since late Thursday). And he says event is scheduled to end at 10pm but something to the effect that they have a permit until midnight (I could not understand his accent).
Now I don’t want to be a hypocrite as I am excited about the Detour Festival that will occur on Oct. 6th and take up a similar area, with 4 stages for bands and 9 hours of live music, but I believe that festival is from 10am - 7pm (maybe 11am - 8pm). But Detour is charging $35 for tickets, and I’ll bet some of that money is being paid to the city in the form of permits, fees, etc. I would really like to know how much the Mexican Independance Day organizers are paying the City for this large disruption that really belongs SOUTH OF THE BORDER! Do U.S. citizens celebrate 4th of July in Mexico? I’ll bet not many…
I just wonder how much this has to do with Mayor Tony Villar’s pandering to the Mexicans, legal and illegal, that live in Los Angeles. I hope there’s no riot tonite, as White Dog needs her two walks that are scheduled during the event….
I’m not sure why you were surprised about Mexican Independence Day celebrations that have been happening on Spring Street for years, going back to the days when Richard Riordan was mayor. The events were calendared at lacity.org, culturela.org and allaccess.la. Were you caught off guard by the fact that September 16 is celebrated as a holiday by people throughout Downtown, not just in the “old Mexican” area of Olvera Street. I guess this is all jut part of your baptism in the life of Los Angeles. Not Angelville, not Angelburg, not Angeltown but Los Angeles, a city founded by people from Sinaloa and Sonora in Mexico and a city whose population’s largest component is once again from Mexico.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:11 pmIf anyone was pandering to these Mexicans, it was this year’s major corporate sponsors, Disney, AT&T,and Best Buy that wrote the checks to the city to underwrite this potential riot in order to take advantage of another opportunity to sell product to their customer base. I didn’t notice too many major disturbances last night, but I’m sure that if things get too violent or unruly, the city will be forced to limit or end these events just like Santa Monica and Huntington Beach were forced to curtail 4th of July celebrations that in the past have gotten out of hand.
Dennis- you are right with regard to the fact that there were no disturbances last night. But it was still a “disturbance” to me in that they not only closed streets (like a movie filming) but fenced them off so I could not walk my dog. I took her for a walk at 6am Sunday morning and crews were still tearing down the stage- a security guard came up to me and said, I quote- “this area is closed, you are not allowed here and we have a permit from the city to be here”. Never have I been treated that way on a movie set- they are polite. Needless to say I said “get the f*ck out of here” and continued to walk my dog.
No web searches turned up any info on the event or the sites you mentioned, and I have never heard of those sites.
BTW- the event was NOT on Spring St. this year- although it was closed too.
I guess we can agree to disagree with the way the event was handled.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:31 pmPlease be aware that last year’s Detour Festival started closing streets on the Friday night previous to the Saturday show and were still closed the following Sunday morning. As it is an event that requires paid admission, security will be even tighter to maintain their perimeter. Last year, the street closings were multiplied by the simultaneous Grand Avenue Festival so this year won’t be so bad but anticipate access being denied by the Detour Festival as early as October 5th. It will make planning your activities easier if you are prepared.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:55 pmlacity.org is the official website for the City of Los Angeles
culturela.org is the official website for the Department of Cultural Affairs
I don’t care if Detour inconviences me as much as a celebration for MEXICAN Independance Day. But I do care that the MEXICAN celebration was on the steps of City Hall. I would never go to Mexico and want to celebrate the Fourth of July- “when in Rome do as the Romans”. I think this concept is lost on many hispanic immigrants.
I will research further and find out how much each event is paying the city for the use of the property.
September 16th, 2007 at 5:15 pm(from Dennis Smith via e-mail)…
Couldn’t that be rephrased as “When in downtown Los Angeles, do as the downtown Angelenos do”? Many Angelenos see September 15 and September 16 as days to celebrated and City Hall has hosted a celebration of “El Grito” for many years prior to 2007. Should this come to an end when newcomers feel inconvenienced by this event of long standing in the city of Los
September 17th, 2007 at 6:57 amAngeles.
Dennis-
I have lots of comments about your comment, but first, what is your connection with this? Do you LIVE downtown (not just in “Los Angeles” but Downtown)? Are you Mexican? Do you work for the city?
You defend this Mexican celebration on City Halls steps just a little too much to not be involved emotionally.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:00 am1) I have lived in downtown Los Angeles since I993 and lived in Koreatown for the previous ten years. I grew up in West Covina.
2) I am not now a Mexican nor have I ever been one.
3) I do not work for the City of Los Angeles.
Fire away with the rest of your comments but be aware that your antipathy towards the preexisting Mexican immigrant community that live,shop and do business downtown already seems fairly apparent.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:37 amOk, and your point is?
If it were a movie crew that caused me as much inconvience as the Mexican Independance Day celebration, I’d be just as upset (unless they were paying my HOA a lot of meney).
September 17th, 2007 at 11:19 amBTW- after living downtown 5+ months, the only time I’ve been really inconvenienced is when the Hispanics/Mexicans decide to march to City Hall for a protest of some sort. This has happened at least 4 times, so maybe I am a little biased.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:40 am