A Sunset Junction Native’s Rebuttal to Criticism of Community Members

This past weekend, my friend from NYC and I (both of us L.A. natives) had a long conversation about the differences between New York City and Los Angeles. Ultimately we both agreed that both cities are amazing and we mostly agreed with one another in terms of what was missing in Los Angeles (although I really emphasized the fact that this is due largely to the fact L.A. is still in the midst of urban maturation). My point in the whole conversation was, though I love and appreciate New York’s cohesion, that it is precisely what Los Angeles lacks that I love; no, not because it lacks an efficient, multimodal public transit system or a city government that heavily invests in community cultural and arts events (like it could do with the Sunset Junction street fair).

No. What I love about this city is the serious DIY culture that has been spurred by the infrastructural gaps we've historically had. I love that the city's amazingness and shortcomings together form a source of inspiration for the imagination. But more than anything, it leaves room to grow and to create sustainable urban development models, learning from the mistakes of cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

What does this have to with the Sunset Junction Street Fair? The whole situation is valuable to explore as a case study because it can illuminate larger structural problems in the city of Los Angeles. How? In terms of the relationships between private and public institutions and their constituents. Who are the players involved? They include entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, city government, neighborhood councils, and civically-engaged and not-civically engaged community members.

The Sunset Junction Street Fair: A Case Study Worth Exploring

Some of the criticism of community members and even the dismissal of our concerns is predicated on the intent behind some of the measures that that Michael McKinley implemented. I certainly understand the realities that organizers have to deal with. But it's just like when someone inadvertently offends you: you aren't excused just because your intentions weren't to offend. You take responsibility for it and you work to resolve it via mutual communication and effort.

Lets look at two different examples of actions, their intents, their impacts and the mechanisms (or lack thereof) implemented to mitigate negative impact.

ACTION	INTENT	IMPACT	MECHANISM TO MITIGATE IMPACT
Creating entrance fees ($25)	Crowd control.	Pushes out working-class communities (esp. local) and inadvertently homogenizes the fair attendee population (race, class, interests); excludes local merchants.	Four free passes to residents of homes within 1 block of fair (Ineffective)
Entertainment PR firm releases statement for SJ Street Fair Organizers to persuade community and city govt to give permit.	Push positive image of street fair, focusing on the youth negatively impacted by fair cancellation	Inadvertently increases perception that the fair is commercially-oriented (hiring an Entertainment PR Firm that is probably inexperienced w/ engaging diverse communities.)	N/A

The first is a fair measure example. Crowd control is something organizers have to work with, but what this action did was it disproportionately affected some segments of the population who could have been part of that crowd.

The second is a public relations example. Just the mere fact that you hired an entertainment PR firm to handle a civic situation--not a good idea. Remember those criticisms of you turning your back on the community? Yeah, this doesn't help if the firm you've hired has little to no experience with community engagement.

Other criticisms essentially brand community members as "NIMBYs". Street-Hassle Blogger Joseph Mailander wrote:

I'm sure Mardi Gras was once a pleasant little street-gathering as well. One notes that New Orleans did not shut it down because it became too popular.

Well, I'm sure even if Mardi Gras were ever small, I'm sure that it was always of huge significance given its Latin Catholic origin. Just go anywhere in Latin Europe or Latin America and see how the community comes together for religious celebrations. In any case, the labelling is unfounded, since the event had always been huge; trash and drunkenness had always been a problem. The difference is that there was more community involvement before. As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject, surely the neighbors and merchants would be a lot more cooperative and tolerant of all these problems if we served more than just marketing material for the event.

I had another issue with what Mr. Mailander was perhaps unintentionally insinuating in his post regarding the origins of the Sunset Junction fair.

In its earliest days--the nascent days of the AIDS epidemic--Sunset Junction Street Fair was a de facto gay and lesbian pride event that featured music and also community booths. Latinos had a presence and an involvement, and it was a proportional one, but it wasn't an especially defining one.

So Latinos had a presence and involvement that wasn't especially defining? Does that then imply that we can or should be trampled over? Or that we are any less significant to the event or community? I mean, my family has told me fond stories of the first few years of the fair, so it's actually insulting. Lets see what some of the problems are with this:

1. If Latino involvement wasn't particularly notable, it was probably because of a huge lack of social and human capital due to overt and institutional discrimination. The Chicano movement in the 60s began changing this. After Central Americans first began arriving to the U.S. in large waves, they started a whole new wave of Latino political organizing in the 80s with the Sanctuary movements.

2. As a gay Latino man who has a loving, accepting and supportive family, I would invite you to remember that LGBT and Latino are not mutually exclusive groups. If you're talking about white LGBT and the Latino population as a whole, that's different. And as late as 2005, when I graduated from John Marshall High School, my friends and I would call the event "the Gay Fair," and we would all look forward to it every summer.

3. Le Barcito, a gay Latino establishment, is keeping the neighborhood's LGBT presence and legacy alive.

In conclusion, it is completely ironic that an event that touts its social justice mission of giving back to the community (through its youth) has a structure and execution that is antithetical to its purported goals. However I will certainly concede that a lot of the blame is due to a lack of arts and culture investment in this city, something larger than Michael McKinley, so listen up Los Angeles city government officials.

I would like to end with a call to action to all residents of Silver Lake, East Hollywood, Los Feliz, and Echo Park areas: lets make sure that the Sunset Junction happens next year; one that is inclusive of the entire community and that is welcoming to those who live outside of it.