Just a little over a year after L.A.'s City Council had one of the most significant racism-based controversies in history, involving leaked audio and the former City Council president Nury Martinez, former CD1 representative Gil Cedillo, and CD 14 representative Kevin de León, de León has now penned a lengthy letter opposing the development of a new six-story mixed-use building with 50 units on what is now a Mexican restaurant, independent book shop, and beauty salon, along with a rent-controlled residential unit at 2125 E. Cesar Chavez.
According to the letter that L.A. TACO obtained on December 1, the councilmember, who refused to resign despite consistent pressure from activists, stands in solidarity with El Apetito Finessa Colectivo, the collective of tenants who is responsible for the mural on the side of the building bearing the words: "Brooklyn Ave is not for sale."
Last week, those words were whitewashed twice and a larger anti-gentrification mural is currently in the works by a collective of local artists.
León's letter was addressed to Michael Yap, Eunice Song, and Gloria Gutierrez of the East Los Angeles Area Planning Commission.