Let’s start with: Who is throwing this Pride festivity? On banners it says: “LA Pride Music Festival and Parade” and underneath in small letters “in West Hollywood.” The city’s $600,000 contribution should buy us top billing! Banners along the street should read “West Hollywood presents LA Pride.” The resources our city invests should give us top sponsorship. The questions that were raised pre-Pride still need to be answered. We are still waiting on them to release their 2015 financials. We probably won’t know if CSW also had a record Pride for months or years. People who refused to pay $30 to enter the festival stood on lines around the block for bars like Micky’s and Revolver. The LA Pride Music Festival and Parade was a commercial success for local businesses. After speaking to many neighbors it is clear that the Boystown district was popping. My store, Block Party, posted its biggest day in history on Pride Sunday. Many of us were standing on the parade route with tears in our eyes as reality tested our Pride.īusiness was brisk for local merchants. The ability to tap into county resources during a crisis was a big benefit and should put an end to those advocating for our own police department. Chris Classen declared: “The show must go on!” Sheriff’s Capt. Larry Blockīack here at home, the LA Pride Music Festival and Parade was prepared with fantastic security in place. Their spirits are rising to paint planet Earth the colors of the rainbow. The lost souls in Orlando are not forgotten.
On the streets of London, on the Eiffel tower in Paris, from the White House to Tel Aviv, people gathered to honor those who lost their lives and show their Pride. Through the dust and ashes of tragedy the world showed its Pride. But among those there, people held signs in support of both gay and straight people massacred in Orlando and showed the world we are together. Chris Classen, president of Christopher Street West (CSW), which puts on the parade, said on CNN that he thought the parade was 100,000 persons light. There were moments you could walk in both directions on a clear sidewalk. Only two to three people deep in many places along Santa Monica Boulevard. It’s time to put the issue of surveillance cameras in public areas back on the agenda. Our community’s safety is more important than an individual’s civil liberty. The city council failed to act on cameras earlier in the year. The sheriff needs to have a greater presence in the nightlife area, including cops on the beat, patrol cars parked on side streets and surveillance cameras. At Monday night’s Public Safety Commission meeting I asked for a doubling down of resources for the Boystown district. Orlando could have happened right here at home. The Abbey is also upping the ante on its security measures.
On Sunday, Micky’s was checking each and every person’s bags for bombs or guns. The tragedy at Pulse and the man with explosives on his way to LA Pride in WeHo have changed everything.