SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Picketing Is Planned at Movie Theaters
Historic preservation activists who have been invited to Thursday’s private, grand-opening party for five Edwards movie theaters near Mission San Juan Capistrano say they will picket the gathering instead.
“We wish to demonstrate the need for a more concerted, less commercialized approach to downtown redevelopment,” said Mark Clancey, the new president of Friends of Historic San Juan Capistrano.
The demonstration is expected to be peaceful, with only a handful of protesters, said Bob Dunn, another preservationist.
“We just want to remind people that we don’t like the theaters or a 40-foot sign with incandescent lights glaring out at the mission,” Dunn said.
Friends of Historic San Juan Capistrano had petitioned city officials to allow only small, pueblo-style buildings for projects built within a two-block radius of the 213-year-old mission.
“This would require, however, acceptance of the fact that there are no such things as mission-period escalators, low-impact cinema complexes or hybrid 1950s-era diners,” Clancey said.
The grass-roots organization formed in early 1988 to oppose the theaters and the surrounding Franciscan Plaza shopping center.
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