Frustration Finds Council President's House

The crowed marched about a mile from Sunset Boulevard to the front of Garcetti's home in a typically quiet residential area, where some neighbors complained about the noise of chants, drums, a loudspeaker and several renditions of a protest songs.

A group of 200 or so demonstrators recently brought their complaints with 13th District Los Angeles City Councilmember Eric Garcetti to his residence on a typically quiet street in the Echo Park district northwest of Downtown, calling him a traitor and demanding "housing as a human right."

Garcetti was on duty as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve at the time of the demonstration, which took place during the evening of June 17.

The ruckus actually started several weeks earlier, when Garcetti voted against a proposal to declare a temporary moratorium on rent hikes in any of the 630,000 rent-controlled residential units in the city. Supporters of the measure have indicated that Garcetti had promised to back the measure but changed his mind at the last minute, leading to its defeat.

Some of the protestors' signs referred to Garcetti as a traitor — in Spanish — because they believe he had agreed to support the moratorium on rent hikes before voting against it in the City Council.

Pete White, executive director of the Downtown-based non-profit advocacy group Los Angeles Community Network (LA CAN), told the crowd that their goal had changed in the wake of the vote against the moratorium, which would have been for four months.

"Today we want the whole package," White said. "We won't stop until we get housing as a human right."

The vote against the moratorium came on May 21 and led to a vigorous protest by members of LA CAN. Garcetti also serves as president of the City Council, and members of the body summoned Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to quell the protest. Officers arrested several LA CAN members, who have since been released. A number of the organization's members have also announced plans to sue the city for injuries sustained during the incident.

This fellow drew cheers for portraying Garcetti with money stuffed in the pockets of his suit.

Legal claims will likely take several months to work their way through the courts, but LA CAN has joined with several other advocacy groups — including Vecinos Unidos, an organization with a chapter in the Boyle Heights district on the Eastide, and several others from other parts of the city — under the banner of Los Angeles Right to Housing Collective.

Members of those groups and others gathered for the march and protest in Echo Park. They spent an hour or so in front of Garcetti's house calling on him to answer their demands for "housing as a human right."

Protesters did not offer any specifics on their demands.

A handful of LAPD officers escorted the protestors as they marched and stood in front of Garcetti's house, and also on their procession out of the neighborhood. There were no altercations between protestors and the police.

Photos by Jerry Sullivan, L.A. Garment & Citizen.