Will Sunset Junction Go On? Final Vote Monday
Public comment will be heard at the special meeting of the Board of Public Works at City Hall.
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The fate of the 31st Sunset Junction Street Fair remains uncertain.
Final Hearing Monday
The Los Angeles City Board of Public Works will decide whether the giant music, food and craft event will go on at a special meeting on Monday at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall.
Locals can weigh in at the public forum.
The event is scheduled for this coming weekend, August 27-28, and could attract 50,000 people--many of whom have already bought tickets.
Here’s a map of the Fair route on Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards.
Board Delayed Voting on Permit Wednesday
The Board had put off voting on whether to permit the fair Wednesday.
The Sunset Junction Fair owes in $267,000 in police and road closure fees and expenses from last year. It has also been asked to pay $142,000 this year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The city usd to absorb expenses like these but that changed several years ago.
Attorney Jerry Neuman had argued that the figure is too high, especially when compared with other similar events.
He says the Fair is willing to pay $50,000 now and another $140,000 afterwards.
Tonya Durrell of the Department of Public Works says founder Michael McKinley has been informed by letter that the Board has a recommendation to deny the Fair’s permit.
One of Three Decisions Possible
According to Durell, the decision could be either to deny the permit, approve it or approve it with conditions.
Many near the Fair route say it is disruptive and lacks local flavor, though organizers continue to offer neighbors free tickets.
Echo Park Patch will be following the story so check back at the site.
Mark
7:35 am on Saturday, August 20, 2011
I Correct: only very FEW of the very IMMEDIATE neighbors of the fair are being offered free tickets. I am 1 1/2 blocks off the fair, on the 800 block of Hyperion Avenue (actually, there is no block distinction, no street to divide between 900 and 800, just a technicality of numbers), and I am not included in the list for free tickets. If you live farther from the fair than you can spit, you cannot have a free ticket. That is, they are NOT offering free tickets to all Sunset Junction residents, not even trying.
Nonetheless, I am VERY severely impacted by the fair, from lots of cars driving up and down trying to find parking on my block, to lots of people parking and going down to the fair, to noise, to trash on the street from the fair goers, to blocking streets and forcing a big circuitous route to anywhere, etc.
I find this so drastically limited offer of free tickets to be devious, a divide and conquer strategy to shut up at least some of the people complaining. This fair originally was to bring all the people of the neighborhood together -- and this drastic limitation sure would seem to undermine that concept, merely pretending to invite the neighborhood. The neighborhood is still being blocked out!
sam peckerpaw
8:08 am on Sunday, August 21, 2011
Yes, but Mark has not bothered to explain how he is severely impacted.
He told us that cars drive up and down the block searching for a place to park. Cars find a place to park and people get out of the car and walk down Mark's block. There is noise. There is some trash left on the street.
Mark has not related anything to his ability to live and enjoy his life as he usually does on any other weekend.
I would begin to question how the noise he attributes to the festival is greater or more intrusive than all the city noises of an average day. I would most definitely question the complaint of trash on the street. I don't doubt some hot dog wrappers might be dropped on his street by a few careless Festival goers as they return to their car to leave. Is that any greater nuisance than the old futons, ratty matresses and box full of bottles of used motor oil left on the street by some of Mark's neighbors on Hyperion?
I think Mark really gives away his love of bellyaching and his penchant for baseless hyperbole when he claims the severe impact includes "blocking streets and forcing a big circuitous route to anywhere,etc."
Maybe Mark is right. Maybe his entire block is fenced off, circled, surrounded, barricaded, layed seige to leaving no direct route leading to anywhere. Correction: "no direct route to anywhere, etc."
Not only is there no direct route to anywhere, but etcetera has also been rendered virtually inaccessible.
sam peckerpaw
7:47 am on Sunday, August 21, 2011
I get Mark's point that he doesn't like the annual Sunset Junction Festival and he doesn't want the Sunset Junction Festival to be granted a permit this year.
I see that Mark is not fooling around with half-hearted angst over trhe Sunset Junction Festival - he will submit detailed comments and keep himself updated on the permit controversy, he might even have attended the permit hearing last week and might be going to the next hearing.
Mark is clearly a hardcore fundamentalist in the NO on Sunset Junction Festival camp, i respect his dedication and his activism and his right to his position.
I wouldn't try to change his mind - not in the slightest.
And he has told us that the Sunset Junction Festival creates a sever impact on him.
That may be so, but that is not an argument for anyone else to vote against granting this year's permit.
Doesn't Mark have value just like anyone else living near the event? Why shouldn't Mark's needs be taken into consideration? Mark has told us that he is severely impacted.
Mark
3:13 pm on Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sam, actually, you don't get the point. In reality, I love the fair. The comments, if you look at them and as stated right up front, are about access to it by the neighbors it is supposed to be for.
I support the fair as originally justified, a community gathering to bring the different peoples of the neighborhood together. But it has morphed into a major regional attraction, to the exclusion of the neighbors. Now, unless we are prepared and/or able to lay out $20 a day, or $40 total, we can't even enter. Anyone who has attended the fair over the years can see a drastic difference in the people who used to attend and those who now do -- all because of the charge.
As for baseless hyperbole, c'mon over next weekend and see if you can park anywhere around here. See if the normally quiet neighborhood is instead overrun with people coming and going. Then try to make a run to Sunday church services, or to Trader Joe's -- or any place else on the other side of Sunset. Then tell me it's hyperbole. That doesn't mean the fair should be canceled, it just emphasizes that of course we people 1 1/2 blocks or 2 blocks from Sunset are part of the neighborhood this fair is supposed to be for -- but they have chosen to divide and conquer and give tickets only to very few, to hell with the rest of us because they really care to focus on a major, regional event, not the neighborhood. And that is why so much animosity has risen to the fair and it is now in danger of being canceled.
Anthea Raymond
10:49 pm on Sunday, August 21, 2011
I just spoke with Jerry Neuman, an attorney for the fair. He said 5,000 free wristbands go out to the community and another 1,000 go to local businesses. Does that sound right to you? That's about ten percent of the high end of the estimated attendance each day.
Naught McFaux
3:09 am on Monday, August 22, 2011
While I am not connected with the fair's organization and thus do not have access to the tally of actual free wristbands handed out, I can say that there are less than 5,000 people resident within all the census tract block groups adjacent the length of the fair's area. This suggests to me that, in lieu of supporting evidence to the contrary, Mr. Neuman's claim is statistically unlikely.
Add to this the fact that the organizers do not provide free wristbands to those entire census tract block group areas, but only to the most narrowly-defined residential blocks (or even just half residential blocks in the longer blocks to the fair's southeast) immediately adjacent the fair's perimeter. By way of example, if you live on Gateway right around the corner from the Bates Stage, you have been S.O.L. the past few years. The end result is that of any given census tract block group along the fair's perimeter, at best 1/2-1/3 of those populations are within the organizer's wristband-eligible area.
What all this suggests is that once you crunch the numbers, a more probable tally of free wristbands handed out to the fair's impacted neighbors would seem to be more in the range of 2,000 or so, and that's a generous estimate.
Lauren Everett
11:17 am on Monday, August 22, 2011
Unless you live in the neighborhood, you really have no idea how disruptive this festival really is.
Two years ago I was walking home late at night after parting ways with some friends on the corner, and arrived at my street (Hyperion) to find that it was totally fenced-off and inaccessible from Sunset. That might not sounds like a big deal, but to circumvent the fence you have to walk about four blocks out of the way, which is really not an acceptable position to put a lady in at 1am.
Then last year someone threw salsa on my car, and the stain is still there as I was never able to remove it. The next day I saw a few guys in a souped-up Mercedes tear down Hyperion at about 50mph and deliberately swerve to hit a couple walking in the street, knocking down the woman with such a forceful impact that the side mirror tore off. Not that these things don't ever happen in the day-to-day, but the increase of general mischief is pretty noticeable this time of year.
All that said, when it was free and you could invite all of your friends out for a good time it was totally worth it! One of my favorite weekends of the year. Sadly, its spirit was crushed when McKinley started charging an outrageous gate fee. As others have commented, it is no longer a community festival and is not worth the inconvenience, such as not being able to cross Sunset Blvd., anymore.