A Big Deal for Olvera Street : City Prop. H would give it a well-deserved new lease on life

Charter Amendment H, on the Los Angeles city ballot, was drafted by the City Council to help recent efforts to revitalize Olvera Street, the Mexican marketplace that marks the site where El Pueblo de Los Angeles was first established in 1881.

Like so many historic sites in the Los Angeles area, Olvera Street and the surrounding buildings--which range in age from 56 to 174 years old--was in a serious state of deterioration until efforts to restore it began in 1930. That is when civic leaders first helped a group of Mexican artisans establish the marketplace as a tourist attraction.

Subsequent efforts to upgrade the street, while well-intentioned, wound up creating a hodgepodge of bureaucratic overseers for Olvera Street. In 1953, for example, part of the site was designated a state historic park. Other sections of the El Pueblo area were owned and operated by the county of Los Angeles. Only in 1990 was control of the entire area finally handed over to the city of Los Angeles, which created an El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument Authority to administer Olvera Street and the other historic sites in the area.

But through all these changes, most of the small businesses on Olvera Street were still being operated by descendants of the original artisans. They must now negotiate new leases and contracts with the city in order to stay in business. Amendment H would grant them a one-time-only exemption from City Charter provisions that require competitive bidding on city contracts. It deserves a “yes” vote, if only as a vote of confidence in those small businessmen who kept Olvera Street’s charm alive even as the rest of downtown changed dramatically.