Two National City Council members tried to get the 30-year ban on cruising lifted last year, but that effort was shot down by the majority. They plan to try again.
Councilmember Jose Rodriguez said Friday he has asked that the issue be placed on the June 7 City Council agenda. He wants to discuss repealing the 1992 anti-cruise law and gauge whether other members of the council would consider an ordinance at a future meeting.
“We can’t just automatically add things to the agenda,” he said at a news conference held by the United Lowrider Coalition. “So, we have to put in a request and then the majority of us — the elected council members — have to be on board with discussing the actual item.”
The Coalition is lobbying National City to repeal the no-cruise ordinance, which was passed due to concerns about crime and traffic. For months, they have argued that cruising with lowriders is a form of artistic expression and a family-friendly pastime.
Last year, the city agreed to temporarily suspend the cruising ban to allow for six test cruises on Highland Avenue on the first Friday of each month from 6-9 p.m. After the pilot, the City Council would assess what to do with the law.
With a green light from the city, the Coalition held its first cruise on May 6, which brought out hundreds of cars and spectators. Most, including the city, deemed it a highly successful event. The city and police recently recommended organizers pay as much as $20,000 per cruise to better organize the event and control traffic.
Coalition members said they cannot afford the fees even though several groups offered to help pay the costs, and their frustrations with the city post-cruise convinced them to opt-out of the pilot project. Their next cruise would have been on June 3.
“We decided to pull the plug on this because the power of the community comes from this organization and the Coalition. So, we decide how we’re going to implement these efforts and we’ve decided that the city is putting us through some arbitrary standards that we’re just not willing to accommodate,” said Aida Castañeda, a political adviser for the United Lowrider Coalition.
She was in attendance at the news conference held at the First Baptist Church parking lot in National City, where the Coalition announced that despite forgoing the cruises, they would continue efforts to get the ordinance repealed. Several more members of the Coalition, local car clubs, and elected officials were in attendance, including Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Marcus Bush, and former San Diego City Council President Georgette Gómez. Surrounded by lowriders and low bikes, attendees held signs that read, “Repeal the no-cruise ordinance,” and “Why should we pay for the cruise?”
Rodriguez said he wants the City Council to consider voiding the law. “I’m listening to the community and they’re very, very clear about repealing the ordinance and we’re in this situation because we didn’t repeal it before,” he said.
In December, the City Council agreed to move forward with the temporary cruises and suspend the ordinance during that period. Prior to arriving at that decision, Bush made a motion that would have required the City Council to consider fully repealing the law in January. Rodriguez seconded that motion, but it failed when Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis and council members Mona Rios and Ron Morrison voted in opposition.
“The reason why for me is … it’s the fact that this has not been enforced in 10 years,” said Bush.
Rodriguez followed, saying that because the police have not enforced the law, “I think it’s an indication that we don’t really need it in the books and it’s kind of about time to move on.”
At that meeting, Morrison disagreed, saying a cruise season would allow the Coalition to better organize with the police over traffic control.
Sotelo-Solis said then that while she understood the law has not been enforced, a test period would serve as a “litmus test.”
“Will there be other infractions? … I don’t know what those other things will be but we’ll have that litmus and I think it’ll just give us that much more data,” she said.
On Wednesday, the mayor said she respected the Coalition’s decision to end the pilot cruises and looked “forward to continuing that dialogue” about the anti-cruise law’s future.
