Extension Urged on Lease Talks for Olvera Street

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday urged the commission that oversees historic Olvera Street to extend lease negotiations with merchants there for two months and hold off on threatened evictions.

The unanimous vote on a motion introduced by Councilman Richard Alatorre also asks the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument Commission to accept rents that a group of merchants at the city’s birthplace put in a private account as part of a rent strike since July.

Friday’s council action comes after more than a year of contentious negotiations for the first long-term leases in the street’s 68-year history. Rent hikes--the first in 11 years--are only one aspect of the negotiations on Olvera Street, where merchants have called for repairs of dilapidated streets and buildings.

The nearly 80 merchants there have long been divided in their approach to their government landlords. Thirty-four merchants, negotiating for rent hikes independently, met a council-imposed July 1 deadline and have been paying increased rates. The remaining 42 business owners, negotiating together, missed the deadline, charging that dealings were one-sided. Although owners of smaller businesses in the group had reached agreement on their leases, the whole group has withheld rents, placing what they feel are appropriate rents--with some increases--into a special account until the larger stores resolve negotiations. Last month, the commission began issuing eviction notices to those merchants who have withheld rents.

Frank Catania, acting director of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument Authority, said he will urge the commission to follow the council’s recommendations.