Summer Festivals: Are the Parties Over? : THE STREET SCENE

One began as a celebration of L.A.’s cultural diversity, the other as a commemoration of lives lost in a bloody chapter of the city’s history. But both the Street Scene and the Watts Festival shared a vision: a peaceful gathering of humanity. Now, clouds hang over both events. The mayor, citing incidents of violence, wants to abolish the Street Scene--but the City Council isn’t so sure. And the Watts Festival is being canceled for the second straight year--a victim of organizational problems and troubled finances--but promoters promise a comeback. Here are two reports on the status of these Los Angeles summer festivals.

Despite Mayor Tom Bradley’s proposal to abolish the Los Angeles Street Scene after it was marred by violence last weekend, there appears to be little sentiment on the City Council to scrap an annual event that has attracted millions of participants.

Several council members said Tuesday that they were alarmed at the weekend toll--one person fatally shot, at least 40 others injured and 35 more arrested--but few agreed with Bradley’s recommendation that the huge festival should be shut down.

Based on interviews with council members and aides, eight of 12 on the council appeared Tuesday to favor modifying, not discontinuing, Street Scene.

‘Try to Keep It’

“I think we should try to keep it,” Councilman Joel Wachs said. “I just hate to see a million people having a good time and have a few hoodlums come in and ruin it for everyone. It’s just like I hate to see a few terrorists ruin things for an entire city.”

“I feel very strongly about it that we have created a great festival for Los Angeles, that we ought to expand that festival and it ought to include the cultural arts,” said Councilman Marvin Braude. “It should be a great festival for all of Los Angeles, but it ought to be much better managed.”

Braude’s criticism of the organizers of Street Scene, which attracted about 1 million people to the downtown Civic Center on Saturday and Sunday, echoed the concerns of other council members who are seeking ways to salvage the city’s annual tribute to cultural diversity

In an effort to control the outbreak of violence, various council members said they favor such changes as banning alcohol sales, limiting the festival to daylight hours, adding police and controlling musical acts.

Fighting broke out Saturday when a band that had been mistakenly scheduled to appear failed to show up. On Sunday, a man watching a band performance was shot in the back and later died.

Disturbed by those reports of violence, Bradley, who was in New York on a campaign swing for his gubernatorial race, said Monday that Street Scene should be abandoned. On the same day, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates announced that he would recommend that the city-sponsored festival, which began in 1978, be discontinued unless organizers are willing to curtail night performances and stop booking “punk-rock” acts.

Wachs and Councilman John Ferraro said Tuesday that they agreed with Gates’ proposals, and Councilman Ernani Bernardi said he agreed with Bradley that the festival should be scrapped. But most members were noncommittal or seemed reluctant to discard Street Scene without reviewing it further.

‘Another Chance’

“I may be willing to give it another chance,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who proposed banning the sale and consumption of alcohol at city-sponsored street fairs, including Street Scene.

Calling the use of alcohol a contributing factor in the recent Street Scene problems, Yaroslavsky said he thought his colleagues would back such a ban.

“How could anyone support the sale of alcohol beverages on the city streets--period--and certainly after what we have witnessed over the last weekend, how could anyone continue to support that?” Yaroslavsky asked.

Street Scene organizers have been reluctant to ban alcohol sales, noting that beer and wine-cooler company sponsorships have been a major source of the $700,000 annual budget.

Deputy Mayor Tom Houston, however, said Tuesday that even with such restrictions on alcohol use and a curtailment of certain bands and evening performances, the annual festival should be canceled or suspended for at least a year or two.

“The mayor holds to his position. We’ve had violence, and there is no guarantee that we can protect the public no matter what (changes are made),” he said.

Although the council could approve another Street Scene without the mayor’s approval, Houston said the mayor could veto the city’s share of the festival budget, which he said amounts to nearly $280,000.

In his criticism of Street Scene organizers, Braude said Tuesday that the city official behind the event, Sylvia Cunliffe, has to accept some of the blame for the festival’s problems.

“She has the basic responsibility. . . . I think she’s done as good a job as she can, but I don’t think any single person has the shoulders to conduct a production of that magnitude,” Braude said, adding that the downtown business community should become more involved in the event.

“I don’t think there was anything wrong with the (Street Scene) production,” Cunliffe said. “Technically and programmatically, the production was fine. The problem was sociological. . . . I don’t know what you do with people who carry guns and who carry knives.”

Cunliffe added that she spoke with Bradley on Tuesday and that she felt the mayor had not closed the door on the festival.

“I talked with him, and he said it was open to discussion,” she said.