Disruption downtown is limited
The Jewelry Mart was shuttered. But a few blocks away, it was business as usual in the Flower District. Most of the stores along Broadway were closed for the day. But in Little Tokyo, Starbucks was percolating with customers.
Overall, the economic impact of Tuesday’s immigration march through downtown Los Angeles appeared to be muted by the lower-than-expected turnout. The effects on businesses and residents varied, depending largely on their proximity to the main line of the march along Broadway and on their place in the evolution of the city’s central core.
At Pitfire Pizza Co., which opened almost two years ago at 2nd and Main streets to serve the burgeoning population of loft-dwellers, lunch business was down by a third.
“Normally there’s a big line out the door,” said assistant manager Evelyn Aquirre, pointing to the nearly empty waiting area just after 1 p.m.
The financial hit to Pitfire and other businesses caused some to wonder whether the time has passed for the central city to be the default demonstration locale.
What had been primarily a daytime destination for shoppers and office workers has become much more a residential district as thousands of condominiums and apartments have been built or carved out of aging commercial buildings. The downtown population has tripled in five years to around 30,000, and trendier stores, restaurants and nightspots have followed.
“You’re getting to the point where people have to start to factor that in,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “If you want to parade up Broadway, is that the best way to do it? Why not have a demonstration around City Hall and contain it?”
City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes much of downtown, said city officials have been talking about the strain on businesses from large demonstrations and major festivals, like last weekend’s Fiesta Broadway.
“It’s a delicate balance between the right to assemble and the right to free speech and between public safety and ... allowing businesses to operate,” Perry said.
The vast majority of the businesses on the march route along Broadway from Olympic Boulevard to 1st Street, expecting few customers and wary of the crowds, were closed. At the Jewelry Mart on Hill Street, most of the shops were shuttered.
Proprietors of downtown businesses that did open said the fears may have been overblown.
“It was business as usual,” said Oscar Macias, manager of a Foot Locker store. “I decided to open, and it turns out it was a wise choice. Maybe after the rally some of these people walking back will stop to shop.”
Robert Clinton, manager of the landmark Clifton’s Cafeteria, said he expected the same.
“We had almost no lunch business,” said Clinton as the marchers waned in front of his restaurant shortly after the lunch hour. “But they may be hungry after the rally. I am expecting business to pick up later.” After the march, business was “steady” but a little less than normal, said Alfred Garcia, the afternoon manager.
During last year’s rally, Clinton said, the crowds were much larger and rowdier. He closed his restaurant a little before noon and lost about 75% of the business for the day.
Clinton and other merchants who decided to open -- including money wiring services, eateries and clothing stores -- said that although business was slow for the most part, they didn’t expect big losses.
Carlos Alvarado of Ace Jewelry and Loan said his business volume was actually comparable to a regular weekday’s.
“Our customers somehow found ways to get to the store,” he said.
Many residents also managed to adapt. A recent study found that more than 55% of people living downtown also work in the area, making it much easier to deal with the crowds.
David Morin, 30, who moved to L.A. two days ago from Quebec City, Canada, was among the lucky ones: His new job is at a downtown ad agency only a few blocks away. To beat the crowds, he said, his boss told him to arrive early, before 9 a.m. Until then, he was relaxing at a Starbucks in Little Tokyo, where parking enforcement personnel and police bicycle officers were helping to keep business brisk.
Likewise, Reggie McCree, 44, an architectural designer who works out of his Broadway apartment, was heading out of his building on foot at midmorning to visit clients and run errands downtown.
“The march doesn’t really affect me,” he said.
Unlike last year’s, Tuesday’s demonstrations had little effect beyond the areas closed for the rally. Near downtown, in the Garment district, stores opened as usual. A year ago, many of the businesses in the area were closed because owners wanted to show solidarity with their workers who had joined the marches. Fewer workers joined the demonstrations this year, business owners said.
It was much the same in the Flower district on 8th Street, several blocks east of the march route.
Contrary to some reports, the Los Angeles-Long Beach container ports were open for business and members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union showed up for work.
An immigration rights gathering at Banning Park that had been planned for 250 port truck drivers drew only about 25 people. Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach, said truck travel to and from the harbor was running about 45% to 50% lower than normal.
Business was down about 50% at M&E; Discount Center, an electronics store on Broadway, said Nissen Bachsian, whose family owns the store. It wasn’t bad, he said, considering the circumstances.
He said he sold many disposable cameras and batteries as photo-happy marchers sought to mark the moment.
“Our employees wanted to work,” Bachsian said. “We wanted to keep things as normal as possible. The crowds were pretty good, well behaved. They just want to have their voices heard.”
molly.selvin@latimes.com
daniel.yi@latimes.com
