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As a community and cultural centre in Boyle Heights, Mariachi Plaza is clearly assembled for families on Father’s Day.
But the normally bustling plaza was largely abandoned when Mayor Karen Bass visited on Sunday morning.
More than a week after President Trump’s immigrant raid first instilled fear in Los Angeles communities, the federal sweep had a serious sobering effect in an overwhelmingly Latino working-class neighborhood just east of downtown.
“Mariachi Plaza was completely empty. There was no soul there,” Bass recalled hours later. “There was one restaurant, a few people. Another restaurant, literally no one was there.”
Bass visited many small businesses in Boyle Heights with assembly member Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), including Casa Fina, Distrito Caturce, Jayas and Billrieria de Don Boni.
“It is uncertainty that has an absolute economic impact, but walking down the street and looking at the empty street is pretty deep.
Bass said the current situation is actually worse than what was faced during Covid-19. She assumed the problem was exacerbated by the fact that many people weren’t going to work, that is, they didn’t have disposable income to eat out.
“They said people weren’t ordering, and people probably didn’t order because they weren’t working,” Bus said.
Gonzalez said the owner of one of the restaurants they visited was crying.
“He said, ‘It’s so empty. I’ve never seen it like this, and I don’t know how we can survive this,” recalls Gonzalez.
Asked about his message to Trump, Gonzalez spoke about the centrality of immigration into California’s economy.
“For those who are supposed to be business-oriented, he certainly allows local businesses to sink and these attacks to sink,” Gonzalez said.
All sectors of the city’s economy cannot function without immigrant labor, Bass said, citing a fashion district in downtown Los Angeles, where the attacks have instilled acutely terrifying businesses.
Bass also said that if immigrants fear that key commercials of heavy construction workers will appear on employment sites, they are concerned about how the disaster will affect reconstruction in Palisade, the fire-rising Pacific.
The mayor highlighted a similar point in a Sunday morning interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, explaining the “body blow to our economy” and confusion and fear.
In an X post, she urged Angelenos to visit small businesses like Boyle Heights, writing, “Show, support, send a message: LA Stands With You.”
The later period of the subsequent massive protests involved extensive vandalism in the Civic Center and Little Tokio area, obstructing restaurants and bars in the Downtown area.
The 8pm to 6am curfew imposed on downtown Los Angeles has transformed the Nightlife Hub into a virtual ghost town after a dark mural that has already blew through years of financial and operational set-offs in the wake of a pandemic and entertainment industry strike.
However, the mayor said the downtown business community has “stricken a strong appeal against a curfew” given the chaos in the area.
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