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.

A Sunset Junction Native's Thoughts on L.A.'s Decision to Deny Permit to Sunset Junction Street Fair

In my mind, the Sunset Junction fair was cancelled when it started exploiting our community in its marketing to attract more outsiders, in the process excluding much of the community because of high prices and its almost exclusive catering to bourgeois tastes without regard to the diversity of interests in the neighborhood.

I've been a lifelong resident of the Sunset Junction (minus the years I lived in the San Gabriel Valley; and my permanent address was still here even when I was away at Berkeley). My family has a strong emotional connection to this neighborhood, as it’s where most on my mom’s side of the family settled when they fled from El Salvador in the 70s and 80s. And though true, that most have left, some (like my grandma, mom and I) are still here, and so the family connection to the neighborhood is as strong as ever.

Sunset Junction Street Fair a.k.a. Scenester Takeover a.k.a. Classist Exclusion

Because the Sunset Junction is this weekend:

I recall a Sunset Junction street fair entrance volunteer's off-putting—bordering on aggressive—approach at attempting to make me pay the 'suggested' donation of $7 back in 2004. Of course, I refused and went in anyway. But the discomfort lingered and soured my mood for the initial part of my time there. Little did I know that that particular year's fair logistics and ambiance presaged what was to come in 2006. Although,in retrospect, I did perceive that something had changed - and I couldn't quite put my finger on it – that made that particular year unsettling, something that didn’t allow me to have as much fun as I did in previous years.

Upon learning of the changes to the Sunset Junction fair, I was immediately upset, admittedly mostly because I was like, "Damn, now I'm gonna have pay a whole lotta money just to get in," without taking the social/elitist implications of the changes into consideration.

In “good ol’” ’06, my friend’s band played at the Bates stage, located about a block-and-a-half away from my family's apartment. After they played, however, the deeper into the fair territory I got, I noticed little by little the different crowd, the decline of quality rides, the high entrance cost - it lost its family-friendly appeal. Needless to say, as an ensemble, the fair was disappointing, to say the least. Sure, certain people say "$12 is a bargain to see all these bands, so stop complaining!" Yes. Because everyone goes specifically to see those particular bands; because everyone has the same music tastes; because everyone can afford to shell out $12 to enter a fair in their own neighborhood. The organizers of the fair seem to believe that the negative effects of the fair in terms of parking, traffic and drunken loud fools seem to be confined to the areas within a block radius of Sunset Boulevard; think again, try to walk as far as 5 blocks, folks.

In short, with the new "VIP lounge,” the huge increase in scenesters, the Sunset Junction street fair has officially sold out, to take the phrase from another blogger (credit is given to you, blogger whose username I forget). Yes, the Sunset Junction Street Fair is no longer for the entire community. What began as an event to bring the old-time residents with the incoming residents of a different demographic, has been exploited. Gentrification, to put it bluntly, has forced many low-income residents to have to search for housing in less expensive parts of the city, or even outside of the L.A. Basin. The fair is now exclusively catering to the tastes of professional-middle or upper-middle class hipsters/scenesters that have moved in to the neighbordhood and even more to the scenester kids outside of the East Hollywood/Silver Lake/Echo Park/Los Feliz area. I realize that gentrification is not altogether a bad thing, as it does have positive effects; but it has very negative consequences that can be mitigated. The new institutional changes done to the fair is a very good example of such negative consequences. I used to love seeing the incredible mix of people; now the fair’s crowd seems to be homogenizing as the years go by. The different scenes (i.e. "leather" gays from old Silver Lake, among others), and “ethnic” folks are now no more than tokens to be used to promote the “diversity” of the increasingly sterilized fair.

Of course, these “types,” if I may be allowed to stereotype for the purposes of this entry, are as much a part of the neighborhood as anyone else, so it’s not an issue of ownership. But these new changes blatantly exclude an important demographic from the neighborhood, be it in the Silver Lake, East Hollywood or Franklin Hills side, whose parking and traffic is directly impacted by the fair: the working-class, immigrant person or family.

I’m glad to hear that there'll be a Sunset Junction Street Fair post-mortem. It will be a good venue to express the concerns certain neighbors have. As a self-proclaimed progressive person, I do realize that things do change, so lets do it right.