City Council OKs Compromise on El Mercado

Hoping to end a long-running battle over a landmark Boyle Heights market-cum-swap meet, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved the first step in a compromise plan for El Mercado.

The plan is a test of the political skills of Councilman Nick Pacheco, who inherited the solution-defying El Mercado issue when he succeeded retiring Councilman Richard Alatorre last spring.

The initial step is a zoning change that the council approved Friday, and which clears the way for a legal parking area. Pacheco has outlined other elements of his plan in the controversy that has long pitted neighbor against neighbor and deepened political divides among the Eastside’s civic leadership.

The councilman proposes having outside vendors, who have been operating illegally in the parking lot for years, pack up their tortilla and toy stands by Nov. 1.

He also wants the owner of El Mercado, Pedro Rosado, to complete all the improvements necessary to finally obtain a certificate of occupancy, a city requirement that he has neglected for a couple of decades at least.

Once all the conditions are met, Pacheco says he will will take steps to allow the vendors to return and operate legally.

Pacheco promised to include in the process Rosado, the vendors and neighborhood residents, who have complained about traffic, noise and garbage.

Pacheco said he will encourage the owner to build outdoor booths, with guidance from the community, for 20 vendors. There are about two dozen vendors there now.

“Today is not a day of celebration,” Pacheco told the crowd at the council meeting. “Today is the day we begin a new dialogue.”

Notable by her absence from the council chamber was Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who had vehemently objected to Alatorre’s final attempt at a solution.

He had wanted to redesignate the parking lot as a commercial area.

Speaking through an aide, Molina said that she did not attend Friday’s council meeting “out of respect” for Pacheco, and that she fully supports his compromise plan.

Rosado said that he too supports the compromise and that he believes Pacheco will work honestly with him.

“I respect his ideas,” Rosado said. “I think he cares for people. I hope he’s doing things that will make things better in the long run.”

Pacheco, who was roundly applauded after the vote and congratulated by some of his council colleagues, said: “This one was thorny. Obviously, now the challenge is to hold everyone to their commitments.”

Over the years, he said, one side always felt that it was favored over the other and that the “constant changing of position” among the Latino leadership created confusion and resentment.

El Mercado, a bustling marketplace where men and women peddle everything from churros to cowboy boots, has been the focus of numerous complaints from residents. Rosado, however, says that only a few residents complain, but that they are “professionals” who know how to get their views heard.

Los Angeles police and county health officers have conducted raids at the marketplace, confiscating between $500,000 and $1 million worth of medications being sold illegally. And Rosado has been sued in Superior Court for illegally renting space to the vendors.

Some Rosado supporters say he has become a target for harassment.

Pacheco acknowledged that Rosado has been far from reliable. Whether he can live up to his promises is still to be determined, Pacheco said.

Rosado, however, said he already has met many of the conditions imposed on him, including adding more parking and upgrading the restrooms and air conditioning inside the 1st Street building.

If all goes well, Pacheco said the vendors could be back in six months--this time legally.