daily musings about the oddities of san pedro, california.
Monday, May 01, 2006
To shop or not to shop?
I'm not shopping, myself, but you may be. what do you guys think about today's political action? Is anyone marching? Are you defiantly not engaging in commerce? Are you defiantly engaging in commerce?
Despite the promise of massive civil unrest, nothing happened here. I work for an anonymous harborside city, and we were threatened with severe punative reactions if we did not show up at work today without a doctor's excuse. With my hispanic surname, i would have been extra suspect, and i presume other folks opted out of the festivities under similar intimations. Not that i would have participated (i love work), i was disappointed by the lack of show. On the other hand, there was no observable trucker's blockade, and i was able to drive across the harbor and to work on time.
I marched (BOY, did I fscking march) and semi-defiantly engaged in as little commerce as practicable. I went to the first one last month; how could I miss this? Besides, these things are always full of cute leftist girls who look like Frida Kahlo, some of whom are even over 18!
The Port
I'll start at the beginning. On the way up there on the 445, I noticed very, very few port truckers hauling containers up or down the 110 freeway. Passing TraPac, I could count on one hand the number of truckers I saw in the yard--although it should be noted that it was a little after noon, so the only trucks you would see moving at that hour would be the ones picking up wheel loads (the transtainers and flip line shut down during the lunch hour).
When I had gone to the first big march on 3/26, downtown LA was so paralyzed that the buses weren't going any farther north than Washington Blvd in the downtown grid. This time, the 445 went all the way north along Figueroa with no problem, which made me wonder whether the turnout was going to be disappointing--or whether the organizational split (two events, one downtown and the other at MacArthur Park) was maybe dividing the crowd between two meeting points.
Downtown
So, was turnout low? Well, the numbers along Broadway didn't seem to be quite what they were on 3/26, but really we're talking about the difference between a super-duper-mega shitload of people and a mere super-mega shitload. There were a LOT of people.
Amazingly, even more people were carrying American flags this time than last time, which is saying something. And there was something new: all day long, among the chants of "Si, se puede!" and "El pueblo unido..." were chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" Like last time, there were also some signs and t-shirt slogans of the this-is-our-homeland, the-border-crossed-us variety. I wouldn't say that the overarching message has changed, but it looks to have broadened. I didn't notice any kind of friction between the marchers waving US flags and singing America's praises and the people expressing more provocative views.
Unsurprisingly for a May Day march, there were some socialist, communist (including the Salvadoran FMLN) and anarchist contingents present. I didn't see any hostility from or towards them, either.
There were definitely more white, black and Asian people in the crowd today than in March.
The funniest thing I saw all day was a group of three white women on Broadway and First who were trying to counterdemonstrate--but because of the ambiguous wording of their signs, and because half the demonstrators had bigger American flags than they did, nobody paid them the slightest attention. They looked a little miffed.
The march ended up at City Hall, where apparently Villaraigosa spoke at some point. I didn't see it. But there was a stage set up just west of the building where some march organizers, labor activists, and other assorted speakers addressed the crowd--and here I noticed another thing about these rallies. Last time I mentioned that the crowds, compared to the white left activists you see at antiwar/anti-Bush demonstrations, were really unjaded and fired up, chanting and cheering constantly as they marched. Today I noticed that they're just as charged up when the speechifying starts--they listen to the speakers, applaud and hoot and holler when appropriate, and pick up instantly on any chants that the speakers lead them in.
So after about an hour of this, the rally ended and people started to stream south, away from City Hall. I had been wondering whether a lot of people were going to march west and meet up with the other group at MacArthur Park. It didn't look like it as I walked down Spring Street. People were taking their time, seeing the sights, and buying refreshments (the boycott definitely did not seem to apply to the paleta or hot dog pushcart guys, who of course are immigrants themselves). It looked like everybody was in an after-event mode.
Then I got to Seventh Street. And there I found that a whopping great portion of the crowd had reconstituted itself, taking over the street and heading west, to the surprise and bemusement of a whole lot of car and bus drivers trying to go north or south on Grand, Hope, Flower, or Figueroa. Joining the crowd, I walked with them all the way to MacArthur Park, where my question about the slightly lower turnout downtown would be answered.
MacArthur Park
The park area was packed. There were a ton of people packed onto the segment of Wilshire Blvd that cuts through the park, with a large spillover in the park itself and along Westlake, Alvarado, Sixth, and Seventh. Our group from downtown merged with the park group, and once again there was an astounding critical mass of human beings.
And it turned out that people had been leaving the park and heading west toward the La Brea Tar Pits for some time. How do I know? Because I cheated, and went down into the MacArthur Park Red Line station and jumped on a train to Wilshire and Western--and when I emerged, I saw a great sea of flag-bearing marchers passing the Wiltern Theater, and thousands more ahead of them as far west as the eye could see.
I walked with the crowd as far west as Highland Ave before realizing that if I didn't leave soon I would be there all night. So I walked a couple of miles north toward Hollywood (bus service was totally shot to hell at this point).
Hollywood
I wasn't the only person who walked from Wilshire through Hancock Park to Hollywood. For miles in every direction as it began to get dark, knots of people with white shirts and flags could be seen walking the sidewalks. It must have looked like that all over Los Angeles.
Around Sunset and Cahuenga I remembered that I would need to break a twenty for the trip home. So I reluctantly violated the boycott and bought a single Americano at Groundwork Coffee BUT I DIDN'T ENJOY IT, OK? It tasted like ashes in my mouth. Delicious, dark-roasted, organic, fair-trade ashes.
Red Line
I finally left Hollywood at around 9:00 PM. Even at this late hour, a good four miles from the endpoint of the march, there were a bunch of white-shirted flag bearers waiting on the eastbound platform at the Hollywood/Vine Red Line station. Once we got moving, the train driver announced on the PA that nobody would be allowed to get off at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, as the Sheriff's Department had ordered it shut down. I had no way of knowing it at the time, but when I got home I saw on the news that there had been a melee at the park between police and demonstrators who didn't want to go home yet. In the clip they showed, it looked like a couple of cops were really going to town on one guy who was already down on the ground.
So all in all, a good time was had by most, a bunch of people got the day off work, the Lou Dobbses of the world saw their systolic blood pressure rise by another 10 mm Hg, and a few lucky kids got to relive the police brutality that followed the Chicano Moratorium gathering in East LA in 1970. But nobody got killed. The end.
Thanks for the march update. I keep hearing alternate accounts that it was both bigger and smaller than the last march, but who knows. The point is probably that it certainly was enough people to get the point across.
A San Pedro woman who would not give her last name said she had a "calmer day" because of the protests.
"I don't think this helped the cause of the protesters," she said. "My town didn't seem like a border town like it normally does. I was able to fill gas without being leered at. And I'm guessing children are actually being taught something in school today without being weighed down by the bilinguals."
A resident of San Pedro for more than 20 years, she said illegal immigrants have changed the feel of what was once a vibrant, diverse town.
"I love and appreciate ethnic diversity," she said. "But when people come here and make the town trashy with their homemade food, taco trucks and fruit stands with utter disregard for our health and safety regulations, that's what I don't like."
Let's hear it for ethnic diversity, as long as there's absolutely nothing ethnic or diverse about it! And down with home cooking!
And can we get a little appreciation, please, for all the non-immigrant San Pedrans who make the town so vibrant by doing all their shopping twenty miles away and sequestering themselves in their homes every night with their televisions? Why doesn't anybody hold a march for them, huh? HUH?
"I love and appreciate ethnic diversity," - except when people bring their culture with them. I just love that kind of ignorant racist talk in this town, which more than any place I have ever known celebrates its immigrant heritage - or at least its white immigrant heritage.
I ate at one last night. I can't imagine why anyone would think they are unlicensed. As if the police wouldn't notice a brightly lit, food dispensing truck in the middle of an empty street, late at night. Taco trucks are genius!
I tell you, this country is going to hell in a handbasket. Home cooking! It's an outrage! What's next, hand-sewn clothing? Back yard gardens? Hand crafted pottery?
9 Comments:
Despite the promise of massive civil unrest, nothing happened here. I work for an anonymous harborside city, and we were threatened with severe punative reactions if we did not show up at work today without a doctor's excuse. With my hispanic surname, i would have been extra suspect, and i presume other folks opted out of the festivities under similar intimations. Not that i would have participated (i love work), i was disappointed by the lack of show. On the other hand, there was no observable trucker's blockade, and i was able to drive across the harbor and to work on time.
I marched (BOY, did I fscking march) and semi-defiantly engaged in as little commerce as practicable. I went to the first one last month; how could I miss this? Besides, these things are always full of cute leftist girls who look like Frida Kahlo, some of whom are even over 18!
The Port
I'll start at the beginning. On the way up there on the 445, I noticed very, very few port truckers hauling containers up or down the 110 freeway. Passing TraPac, I could count on one hand the number of truckers I saw in the yard--although it should be noted that it was a little after noon, so the only trucks you would see moving at that hour would be the ones picking up wheel loads (the transtainers and flip line shut down during the lunch hour).
When I had gone to the first big march on 3/26, downtown LA was so paralyzed that the buses weren't going any farther north than Washington Blvd in the downtown grid. This time, the 445 went all the way north along Figueroa with no problem, which made me wonder whether the turnout was going to be disappointing--or whether the organizational split (two events, one downtown and the other at MacArthur Park) was maybe dividing the crowd between two meeting points.
Downtown
So, was turnout low? Well, the numbers along Broadway didn't seem to be quite what they were on 3/26, but really we're talking about the difference between a super-duper-mega shitload of people and a mere super-mega shitload. There were a LOT of people.
Amazingly, even more people were carrying American flags this time than last time, which is saying something. And there was something new: all day long, among the chants of "Si, se puede!" and "El pueblo unido..." were chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" Like last time, there were also some signs and t-shirt slogans of the this-is-our-homeland, the-border-crossed-us variety. I wouldn't say that the overarching message has changed, but it looks to have broadened. I didn't notice any kind of friction between the marchers waving US flags and singing America's praises and the people expressing more provocative views.
Unsurprisingly for a May Day march, there were some socialist, communist (including the Salvadoran FMLN) and anarchist contingents present. I didn't see any hostility from or towards them, either.
There were definitely more white, black and Asian people in the crowd today than in March.
The funniest thing I saw all day was a group of three white women on Broadway and First who were trying to counterdemonstrate--but because of the ambiguous wording of their signs, and because half the demonstrators had bigger American flags than they did, nobody paid them the slightest attention. They looked a little miffed.
The march ended up at City Hall, where apparently Villaraigosa spoke at some point. I didn't see it. But there was a stage set up just west of the building where some march organizers, labor activists, and other assorted speakers addressed the crowd--and here I noticed another thing about these rallies. Last time I mentioned that the crowds, compared to the white left activists you see at antiwar/anti-Bush demonstrations, were really unjaded and fired up, chanting and cheering constantly as they marched. Today I noticed that they're just as charged up when the speechifying starts--they listen to the speakers, applaud and hoot and holler when appropriate, and pick up instantly on any chants that the speakers lead them in.
So after about an hour of this, the rally ended and people started to stream south, away from City Hall. I had been wondering whether a lot of people were going to march west and meet up with the other group at MacArthur Park. It didn't look like it as I walked down Spring Street. People were taking their time, seeing the sights, and buying refreshments (the boycott definitely did not seem to apply to the paleta or hot dog pushcart guys, who of course are immigrants themselves). It looked like everybody was in an after-event mode.
Then I got to Seventh Street. And there I found that a whopping great portion of the crowd had reconstituted itself, taking over the street and heading west, to the surprise and bemusement of a whole lot of car and bus drivers trying to go north or south on Grand, Hope, Flower, or Figueroa. Joining the crowd, I walked with them all the way to MacArthur Park, where my question about the slightly lower turnout downtown would be answered.
MacArthur Park
The park area was packed. There were a ton of people packed onto the segment of Wilshire Blvd that cuts through the park, with a large spillover in the park itself and along Westlake, Alvarado, Sixth, and Seventh. Our group from downtown merged with the park group, and once again there was an astounding critical mass of human beings.
And it turned out that people had been leaving the park and heading west toward the La Brea Tar Pits for some time. How do I know? Because I cheated, and went down into the MacArthur Park Red Line station and jumped on a train to Wilshire and Western--and when I emerged, I saw a great sea of flag-bearing marchers passing the Wiltern Theater, and thousands more ahead of them as far west as the eye could see.
I walked with the crowd as far west as Highland Ave before realizing that if I didn't leave soon I would be there all night. So I walked a couple of miles north toward Hollywood (bus service was totally shot to hell at this point).
Hollywood
I wasn't the only person who walked from Wilshire through Hancock Park to Hollywood. For miles in every direction as it began to get dark, knots of people with white shirts and flags could be seen walking the sidewalks. It must have looked like that all over Los Angeles.
Around Sunset and Cahuenga I remembered that I would need to break a twenty for the trip home. So I reluctantly violated the boycott and bought a single Americano at Groundwork Coffee BUT I DIDN'T ENJOY IT, OK? It tasted like ashes in my mouth. Delicious, dark-roasted, organic, fair-trade ashes.
Red Line
I finally left Hollywood at around 9:00 PM. Even at this late hour, a good four miles from the endpoint of the march, there were a bunch of white-shirted flag bearers waiting on the eastbound platform at the Hollywood/Vine Red Line station. Once we got moving, the train driver announced on the PA that nobody would be allowed to get off at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station, as the Sheriff's Department had ordered it shut down. I had no way of knowing it at the time, but when I got home I saw on the news that there had been a melee at the park between police and demonstrators who didn't want to go home yet. In the clip they showed, it looked like a couple of cops were really going to town on one guy who was already down on the ground.
So all in all, a good time was had by most, a bunch of people got the day off work, the Lou Dobbses of the world saw their systolic blood pressure rise by another 10 mm Hg, and a few lucky kids got to relive the police brutality that followed the Chicano Moratorium gathering in East LA in 1970. But nobody got killed. The end.
Did I mention there were a LOT of people?
Thanks for the march update. I keep hearing alternate accounts that it was both bigger and smaller than the last march, but who knows. The point is probably that it certainly was enough people to get the point across.
Great account, IMBG!
Check this out, from the Daily Breeze:
A San Pedro woman who would not give her last name said she had a "calmer day" because of the protests.
"I don't think this helped the cause of the protesters," she said. "My town didn't seem like a border town like it normally does. I was able to fill gas without being leered at. And I'm guessing children are actually being taught something in school today without being weighed down by the bilinguals."
A resident of San Pedro for more than 20 years, she said illegal immigrants have changed the feel of what was once a vibrant, diverse town.
"I love and appreciate ethnic diversity," she said. "But when people come here and make the town trashy with their homemade food, taco trucks and fruit stands with utter disregard for our health and safety regulations, that's what I don't like."
Let's hear it for ethnic diversity, as long as there's absolutely nothing ethnic or diverse about it! And down with home cooking!
And can we get a little appreciation, please, for all the non-immigrant San Pedrans who make the town so vibrant by doing all their shopping twenty miles away and sequestering themselves in their homes every night with their televisions? Why doesn't anybody hold a march for them, huh? HUH?
"I love and appreciate ethnic diversity," - except when people bring their culture with them. I just love that kind of ignorant racist talk in this town, which more than any place I have ever known celebrates its immigrant heritage - or at least its white immigrant heritage.
those damn taco trucks! how DARE they make food in moving vehicles.
I ate at one last night. I can't imagine why anyone would think they are unlicensed. As if the police wouldn't notice a brightly lit, food dispensing truck in the middle of an empty street, late at night. Taco trucks are genius!
I tell you, this country is going to hell in a handbasket. Home cooking! It's an outrage! What's next, hand-sewn clothing? Back yard gardens? Hand crafted pottery?
Post a Comment
<< Home