Safety Concerns Prompt Delay of Fiesta Broadway

Concerned that Los Angles police resources might be inadequate because of deployment related to the Rodney G. King civil rights trial, organizers of L.A. Fiesta Broadway announced Thursday that they have postponed the April 25 event for a month.

The organizers of the downtown street party, which features top Latino musical stars, decided to move the event to May 30 because it depends on hundreds of Los Angeles police officers to provide security, said Michael G. Martinez, general manager of KMEX-TV, the event’s major sponsor.

“The LAPD is an important participant in each year’s security plan, and their resources would be taxed by a citywide mobilization following the Rodney King trial verdict,” Martinez said.

The festival, in its fourth year, is expected to attract up to 1 million visitors to 36 blocks encompassing Broadway, and Hill and Spring streets from Temple Street to Olympic Boulevard.

City Councilman Richard Alatorre will introduce a resolution at today’s council meeting to change the date of the event.

Sgt. Gerry Sola, special events coordinator for the Police Department’s Central Division, said the LAPD had planned to assign 488 officers to L.A. Fiesta Broadway. Event organizers had expressed concerns about police deployment throughout the planning, he said.

“We expressed the pros and cons (of the April 25 date),” Sola said. “Obviously, we want to help them put on the event if at all possible.”

Martinez said concerns about staffing were first brought up by KMEX officials and by Alatorre, not the LAPD. “The Police Department has been totally supportive of this, and they said even with the mobilization they wanted to work this out,” Martinez said. But organizers feared the possibility of “thinner security than we’d like” and the potential for Fiesta to get out of hand, Martinez said.

Estela Lopez, executive director of Miracle on Broadway, another sponsoring organization, said: “We are happy to cooperate with the city and the city departments, who always cooperate with us and give us 100%. This time, it’s our turn to help them out.”

Miracle on Broadway is a nonprofit organization that aims to revitalize the Broadway corridor economically and aesthetically by teaming up developers, businesses and public agencies.

With the date change, organizers said they will revise the theme of the festival from that of a Cinco de Mayo party to a celebration of all the city’s ethnic groups. The new event theme will be “Unidos L.A. (United L.A.),” said spokeswoman Maria Herrera.

This year, more than 100 stars from throughout Latin American are scheduled to perform mariachi, salsa, ballads and other music on eight stages placed throughout the festival site.