A Threefold 'Thank You' to Los Angeles
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At a meeting last night of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, the board voted to "oppose the Sunset Junction Street Festival in its current format [i.e., fees, street closure location, etc]," reports the LA Weekly. Of concern is that festival organizers are not working with the community and businesses affected by the popular and well-attended event, which is scheduled for August 22 and 23 this year.
Neighborhood Councils are advisory bodies to the LA City Council and Council President Eric Garetti has already stated he would have trouble supporting the event again if issues raised by the community were not addressed. The fete's fate is unknown at this point, but talks between the council, city and organizers will take place between now and the scheduled event.
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Does this mean no one's gonna be able to shake me down for $20 anymore? Sweet!
The vote is only advisory, but does pack a punch in the outcome of how all this will turn out.
Glad City Council and Eric Garcetti (congrats on the re-up!) are taking a closer look at the concerns of the neighborhood and the local businesses. If they want to take their music fest else wher (H'wood and Highland environs?), so be it. Are there proprietary rights, I wonder, re: the name "Sunset Junction Music Festival"?
i've heard that the organizer hasn't shown any proof that the money is going back into the community. isnt that some sort of fraud?
if he collected money for an event that was donation only; i think he should have to pay that money back to the silver lake council.
i know i was ticked off when i had to pay 40 bucks to walk down my own street...
hopefully eric garcetti will help the community do something about this. this festival should not be about making one guy rich by ripping off the silver lake residents.
i teach at one of the schools listed as a beneficiary on their website. i've asked around, took a peek at the school budget. i saw no mention of us getting any of their funds. maybe they're being more creative with how it gets out there, or to whom it's going to. but as far as i'm concerned, it's a scam and there are severe acts of fraud going on.
i teach at one of the schools listed as a beneficiary on their website. i've asked around, took a peek at the school budget. i saw no mention of us getting any of their funds. maybe they're being more creative with how it gets out there, or to whom it's going to. but as far as i'm concerned, it's a scam and there are severe acts of fraud going on.
hey brainylagirl....
movie it to hollywood and highland? Are you fucking serious? Your right to live in L.A. just got revoked.
glad this is being addressed.. I hate that day.. just noise and people telling me I have to pay to cross the street.. while I seriously doubt anyone is 'getting rich' off of this, I think the surrounding area's should have a MUCH bigger say in what happens, when and how. AND where the money goes.
the sunset junction neighborhood alliance owns the name of the festival. they were asked to move it out of our neighborhood but have so far refused. they are welcome to take the name and have it somewhere else. i wish they would!!!
As for fraud - as a non profit, all the group has to do is have published tax returns.(on the web at guidestar). the $$ thing has always been shady. L.A. Weekly wrote about it as long ago as 1999. You are right, they really don't share the details of how they spend the money. Supposedly the IRS would need to go after them but the IRS doesn't really bother with non-profits.
The system, the bureaucracy, it all sucks. It's hard to get anything changed...
Its two fucking nights out of the year! Get a life and have some fun with it!!! For FUCK sake!!!
for the people who live in the area...yeah come on, its 2 nights and gives people a chance from the west side to see what the east side has to offer.
for the businesses effected, i get it. there just needs to be some better way for them to benefit during this. i feel like it is weird that the stores dont seem to have any booths or anything outside their stores to be part of the festival. maybe they should incorporate the retail stores in a better way.
Do you live in the area? Because last year this festival felt more like a hostile presence than a community festival. For example, I walked home from Ak Bar to my apartment on Hyperion at about 12am on Friday night, only to find that the entire entrance to my street was completely sealed off. I literally had to ask a passer-by to help me pry back the fence just so I could go home.
Or the next day when I just wanted to get some coffee down the street to start my day and it took over 15 minutes to get the proper wristband and find the proper exit, because there were FENCES on fucking EVERYTHING. That kind of bullshit is what people are complaning about. It's not ok to use public space like that and create a huge inconvenience for people who pay to live there/have businesses there and then to charge $20 on top of it so that none of your friends want to come anyway. I've been coming to this fest since I was a little kid, back when I actually did live on the Westside (Venice), and it used to be totally open, laid-back, and fun! If people from the Westside want to see what the area has to offer they are more than welcome to drive over anytime - it hardly necessitates a Lollapalooza.
People aren't accepting it anymore, nor should they.
Right on. This festival used to be a fun little neighborhood gathering for nearly 20 years before it went all corporate and authoritarian, which is why I suggested the current proprietors take their little fest to more suited environs, like Hollywood & Highland. (And caliking01, if you're offended by that, you probably don't remember what the festival used to be like and why it seems more suited to H&H rather than our humble little Sunset Junction.) I'm not saying do away with a neighborhood music festival, just not one run by this bunch who have absolutely no interest in promoting a sense of neighborhood and community in Silver Lake. They seem primarily interested in making $$$ -- wh. profits do not go back into the community. To add capitalistic insult to communal injury, these guys effectively close down the retail shops on that bit of Sunset for the whole weekend, denying our local business owners profit on a day which, as you say, many people who don't usu. trek over to the neighborhood are milling around. If you want to learn more about the local business angle of this, stop into Bar Keeper and have a chat with the owner, Joe Keeper about it.
And who ordained you with the ability to "revoke [my] right to live in LA" caliking01? Grow the eff up.
I Lived on Franklin and people always complained about parking one weekend out of the year. I remember Sunset Junction 15 years ago before all the Hipster, and Scenesters came in. It was a happier place. Why don't you complainers leave I like the SJ. It made the community a better place.
What no one seems to remember was that this was not a music festival (although always with music and the addition of more music is great) but a way to mend the frictions between the gay and Latino communities in the area. It really did work and it was a great day when you could see a family, including grandma, waiting in line for an ear of corn behind two leather clad dudes. I don't mind paying to get in(I remember when a dollar got you in) but 20 bucks means 15-19 dollars LESS I'm going to pay to a vendor or business at the site. Last year we made fake wrist bands (yeah, some of us did get caught) and spent all the money in our pockets on t-shirts and drinks. Don't spend the money on so much security and charge less! The issue of it not benefiting the neighborhood is obvious since it is not like once the street fair goes away a new tree is planted or something. Sorry my view is not very focused. I just wish it was as fun as it used to be. I've lived down the street from the fair since 1990. Local business really seemed like part of the fair too. WHO is putting on the fair?