Venice Renters Taking Action: Tenants Picket Outside Wurstküche Shops

[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he phrases “#HomesNotHotDogs” and “These Hot Dogs Are Hamburgeois” were just a couple of the picketing signs and statements that might have caught of your attention over the weekend if you were driving by or trying to get in to either the Arts District or Venice location of Wurstküche, a pricey gourmet sausage restaurant chain.

A group of about a dozen demonstrators organized by the LA Tenants Union took to both sausage storefronts to protest the eviction of Patricia Sánchez, a resident who lives in a Venice duplex recently purchased by Tyler Wilson, who is Wurstküche’s owner.

The story first broke on KNOCK-LA in February. According to the report, Sánchez received an Ellis Act eviction notice from Wilson in June, 2018 and was ordered to move out of her longtime home under the legally mandated time limit – in her specific case, a year. Tenant right supporters argue this is an unfair eviction because there is no cause for action while property owners argue that Wilson is simply practicing his right as a landlord.

In videos posted on the LA Tenants Union Facebook page, a small crowd of people is circling the entrance and outdoor eating area of Wurstküche’s Arts District location. Customers look up slightly as they take bites of their food and sips of their ales, but look mostly nonplussed.

As a counter move, the restaurant parked a line of U-haul trucks in the loading only curb in front of the entrance to the restaurant in an attempt to block the public view of the demonstration. On the group’s active Instagram page, they live-streamed Sánchez giving a passionate speech in front of her supporters in the Venice location in Spanish through a megaphone.  

Wilson has admitted in an article about the ongoing dispute published in LA Magazine in February that he doesn’t “own houses for tenants,” saying “that’s not [his] business.” There is also a video floating around of Wilson saying, “she won’t talk to me in English.”

L.A. Taco reached out to him for comment over email but has not heard back.

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