Convention Fence Upsets Merchants

As workers toiled under a hot sun to install a security fence around the immediate Staples Center area, some merchants near the arena were broiling mad Thursday at the prospects of losing more business because of the barriers.

Merchants south of the arena on Figueroa Street have already seen their business plummet by as much as 40% since rioters rampaged through the area when the Lakers won the National Basketball Assn. title June 19.

“They’re killing my business,” Koo Chung, owner of a market and store equipment business on Figueroa south of Pico Boulevard, said about the security barriers.

Ilya Vaskell, who owns the nearby Office Plus furniture store, said he will have to lay off three employees because business has dried up since the fencing went up earlier this week. “My business is already down 40% because of the Lakers riot,” he said.

“They say business in L.A. will benefit from the convention, but we’re struggling,” Vaskell said. “How are we going to benefit?”

The answer, according to police officials, is that a few businesses might be inconvenienced as the LAPD tries to provide security for an event as complex and large as the Democratic convention.

“This is a high-level event with VIPs and the president of the United States,” said Sgt. John Pasquariello, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. “It’s a complex situation, and there are going to be some people inconvenienced. But we’re trying to be as accommodating as possible with everybody.”

An official with the convention’s host committee said the complaints from some merchants don’t change the fact that downtown businesses will experience the bulk of the convention’s projected $132-million economic impact.

“We’re working very closely with downtown community and business leaders to make sure they reap the benefits of the convention,” said Ben Austin, the host committee’s director of communications.

He downplayed concerns that the violence after the Lakers’ victory over the Indiana Pacers was an indication of more violence to come during the Democrats’ gathering.

He said that there were hometown disturbances when the Chicago Bulls won the NBA title in 1996 but that the Democratic convention there that summer “went off beautifully.”

Some Staples area merchants said they were upset by the fence because no one at the city had told them about it. The manager of a parking lot, with a blocked entrance on Figueroa because of the security fence, said no one informed the lot’s owner.

One merchant, the owner of a small luncheonette who declined to give his name, said he received a notice from the city in March about the 13-foot-high security fence and other security measures.

Meanwhile, workers have been on the job since Monday installing the fence in an area bounded by Olympic Boulevard on the north, the Harbor Freeway on the west, Venice Boulevard on the south and Figueroa and Flower streets on the east.

The designated protest area at Figueroa and Olympic is outside the security zone marked by the fence.

Crews methodically worked through the day Thursday, either placing a 2-foot-high concrete base on the street or installing 10-foot metal poles that will anchor chain-link fence and barbed wire.

The fence work should be completed by early next week, Pasquariello said.

On Figueroa, there is an air of resignation that has come with the security fence.

Steve Pine, the owner of That’s the Ticket, which sells tickets to concerts and sports events, remembered the scene in June when rioters beat up his building’s security guard on the night the Lakers won the NBA title.

He said he probably would have welcomed a fence then if that violence could have been anticipated.

“It’s a Catch-22 situation for me,” said Pine, who had to lay off one worker recently. “Does the fence need to be here now? Sure it needs to be here. But I have no business because of it. People can’t park here. People don’t walk in. People are afraid to come down here because of what happened with the Lakers.”

At Vaskell’s office furniture store, warehouse manager Pablo Rivera said he is being laid off because of the plummeting business.

“What am I going to do?” Rivera, of Huntington Park, wondered. “I have three small kids.”