Caption Credit: The Eastsider LA
Anti-gentrification activists briefly took over a Metro-sponsored community meeting on extending the L.A. River bike path late last month. The Facebook group Defend Boyle Heights posted video of the dramatic show from more than half a dozen activists, some with black hoodies, black sunglasses and red bandanas carrying protest posters.
The 8-mile river path extension would run from Elysian Park to Vernon, snaking through Boyle Heights. It has close to $365 million in Measure M funding. It’s expected to be completed by 2027.
One of the activist at “Boyle Heights City Hall” on First Street took to his bullhorn to denounce development in the working class community that’s been a flashpoint over gentrification. Much of his speech in front of the small meeting was hard to make out on the video, but the audience looked slightly bewildered at first and later taking up their own cell phone video. The anti-development band left, chanting, hitting metal pails ,and one protester posted a fluorescent pink sheet that said “null and void” on one of Metro’s displays.