[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap] banner with the spray-painted words “Little Tijuana” was unveiled by two masked protestors at approximately 8:57 PM in Glassell Park’s monthly neighborhood council meeting last night. They were just two of the nearly 50 attendees who showed up to voice their concern against a member of their council who allegedly made the following controversial statement about Glassell Park’s recent boom of street vendors: “We do not want a little TJ here.” There were also two police officers present throughout the meeting which took place inside the Glassell Park Senior Center.
This happened after a letter against “sidewalk pop-up vendors” in Glassell Park was written to the Neighborhood Council last month by a community member who identified himself to L.A. Taco as “Bradley” was made public. In that letter, Bradley asked the neighborhood council to “please help” with the “growing problem” of “unlawful, unlicensed, and unpermitted street vendors in the community of Glassell Park.” The letter goes on to say, “We do not want a proliferation of MacArthur Park-type pop-up vending and illegal vendors that define our neighborhood.”
The neighborhood council member whom the protestors and attendees were referring to is Marcie Rose, who denied she ever said that statement relating Glassell Park to “Little TJ” during the meeting. Meanwhile, about a mile away on Eagle Rock Boulevard and Ave 42, the popular street vendor Angel’s Tijuana-style Tacos had a line of over 30 people eagerly waiting to support and take a bite of their sizzling, smokey plate of street tacos.
Community members who were present in last month’s meeting say otherwise. “All of us couldn’t believe what [Marcie Rose] had just said,” Yaya Castillo, confirmed to L.A. Taco after the meeting. “There was someone else here who got up and slammed the door because he was so upset.” She was present at last month’s meeting and was the community member who shared the letter with the L.A. Tenants Union and a few other community advocate Instagram accounts like @iceoutofnela and @inform.the.people, who posted their solidarity with street vendors and requested community members in support of street vendors to show up.