El Mercado Loses Bid for Expanded Commercial Zoning

The City Council denied a zoning change sought by Boyle Heights’ bustling El Mercado on Wednesday and, like nearly everything else surrounding the controversial market-cum-swap meet, the reasons for the rebuff are in dispute.

Some say the busy center of neighborhood commerce became a political football, a chance for Latino politicians to prove they can be tough on other Latinos. Others say the council simply had enough of the complaints from neighbors, who are fighting mad about the parking, trash and loitering problems.

Any way you look at it, El Mercado’s supporters and opponents have raised their voices in numerous hearings and in Superior Court, but the City Council had the last word.

The council approved a zoning change for the market--albeit not the commercial change sought by the owners--and instructed city agencies to enforce health and safety laws at the 1st and Lorena streets site.

Notable at Wednesday’s meeting were the presence--and absence--of several key players in the years-long fight. Present were former City Council members Art Snyder, an attorney and former lobbyist who supports the owner and the zoning change, and Gloria Molina, now a Los Angeles County supervisor who adamantly opposes it. Absent was Councilman Richard Alatorre, at home recovering from surgery, who--in an unusual political alliance--joined Molina in opposing the zoning change.

Many of the families who operate food, juice, toy and other stalls outside the market filled the council chamber, urging the lawmakers to approve the zoning change so that the owner could construct a special area for them to sell their wares.

“They have to get pushcarts and go out on the streets,” Snyder said after the council vote. “These people are on the streets. . . . It’s become a political football.”

Arturo Chayra, the founding owner of El Mercado, went further: “They want to demonstrate--and Gloria Molina especially--that they are tough enough to even punish their own people.”

But the elected officials, including Molina, who have opposed El Mercado owner Pedro Rosado’s attempts to expand the complex said the issue was simple.

“I’m not asking you to turn your backs on the merchants,” said Molina, who spoke before the council vote and who lobbied council members to oppose the zoning change. “We’re asking that you force the owner to obey the laws of this city.”

Aside from a litany of complaints from neighbors, officials said Los Angeles police and county health officers last week confiscated between $500,000 and $1 million worth of medications sold illegally at El Mercado, including antibiotics, steroids and liquid ether.

Supporters of El Mercado questioned the timing of that raid, coming just hours before a key council committee voted unanimously to deny the zoning change.

Others saw the illegal pharmaceuticals as just one more problem activity at the market, which bustles on weekends and some weekdays with tortilla and tamale sellers, as well as booths selling toys, trinkets, juices and makeup.

The merchants already have been operating on the outdoor ramps, spilling into what was once considered a parking lot.

The city’s Boyle Heights land-use plan allows the area to be commercially zoned. But council members backed away from that option, choosing instead to zone it for parking.

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who said he went to the market frequently as a child, said the issue revolved around city laws--not culture and ethnicity.

“It is wrong for us to think just because we share a culture that we can allow someone to come in and ignore the rules,” Alarcon said. “You either abide by the rules we have in place or you’re not going to succeed.”

Both the city and the county have been after El Mercado for years, denying permits, taking the owners to court and even targeting the market for building and safety inspections.

None of that, city officials say, has had an impact on Rosado. They allege that he charges rent from the stall owners who they say are operating illegally outside the market. Those vendors allegedly have paid Rosado $10,000 per month to keep their stalls outside the market.

“When you have a landlord who charges rent, you have responsibility,” said Councilman Mike Hernandez. “We’re trying to do what’s right for that community.”