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Dane now is threatening to file a major claim against both Alarcon and the city.
Further complicating the bad blood arising from the food-truck ban is the fact that Joe Moller, head of the nonprofit Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk group, has simultaneously begun pressuring food trucks and art peddlers to pay his group "special event" fees.
PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Volatile charmer: Joe Moller runs the nonprofit calling itself Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, but he doesn't run the event. Nobody does.
He has no apparent legal basis for his demand for money from these private entrepreneurs. Yet the colorful and often volatile Moller has used the power of the Art Walk Los Angeles Facebook page to publicly slam at least one Art Walk participant who won't pay.
Dane says that, despite its official-sounding name, the Art Walk Los Angeles nonprofit has no authority to demand fees from anyone: "Tomorrow I can start a 501(c)3, call it a nonprofit, name it the Downtown Art Walk 'Coalition' and claim that I'm the guy that handles Art Walk."
Moller retorts: "Phillip is not an artist! Phillip is not a gallery owner! Phillip is a parking-lot pimp!"
But, in fact, Dane is right.
Gallery owner Bert Green founded Art Walk in 2004 as an informal, self-guided tour of downtown's growing number of art galleries. The event grew through word-of-mouth.
Moller's entity was formed five years later — well after Art Walk was a success. His salary is paid through funds provided by downtown property owners organized by prominent developer Tom Gilmore. The nonprofit's website lists one artist and no gallery owners on its nine-member board, which represents downtown business interests.
To be sure, Moller's group does some good things to enhance Art Walk. It pays a firm to clean the sidewalks before and after each event, provides a free brochure listing participating galleries and manages the much-trafficked Art Walk Facebook page.
Moller, an event planner who boasts Dolce & Gabbana and Dr. Dre among his clients, won Philanthropist of the Year in 2007 from the Society of Young Philanthropists.
But he's also a loose cannon. Most of Moller's current venom is directed at fledgling entrepreneur Art SQuare, run by Carl Edgar and Derrick Knight, who sublease a private parking lot and then rent individual stalls to artists, craftsmen and food purveyors.
Art SQuare previously was held in a Historic Core parking lot but, due to the city's restrictions, now uses the 1924 Spring Arcade Building's breezeway between Broadway and Spring.
Last year, Art SQuare signed a contract to "donate" $5,000 a year to Moller's nonprofit. In turn, Moller would direct business to Art SQuare by referring artists who needed to rent booths.
But Art SQuare broke the contract, infuriating Moller.
When the Weekly described to Art Walk founder Green the deal in which Moller's group would have acted as an agent for Art SQuare, Green, who is no longer involved in the event, asked: "Why is the Art Walk [nonprofit] organization making money off of artists?"
In February, Moller publicly blasted Edgar and Knight on the Art Walk Facebook page, alleging, "We just got a second call this week from another vendor burned by Art SQuare." Moller then denied his post was an attack, telling the Weekly, "We have never published any negative information about Art SQuare." Moller told the paper: "What we see, in Art Walk's point of view, are continuing and ongoing permitting infractions, intentionally executed by Art SQuare."
Moller goes further, alleging that Edgar and Knight lack proper health permits and are "willing to roll the dice to make money."
In truth, Art SQuare has a county health permit to sell food, and its recent "dice rolling" — if it can be termed that — was in allowing a vendor to improperly serve cupcakes, which drew a minor citation.
Even Andrea Alarcon says, "Art SQuare, they've been nothing but cooperative."
Despite his near-libelous slams, Moller also is victim to the confused ban and other rules that Alarcon's task force approved last summer and persuaded the City Council to adopt in October.
One City Council–approved idea is that Art Walk become an official entity that pays hefty special-event fees to City Hall. But that assumes the existence of a deep-pocketed Art Walk "sponsor" that could pay. There isn't one.
In lieu of that, Alarcon persuaded Moller's group to voluntarily pay a special-events fee of $3,000 to $6,000 during each of the event's crowded, warm-season months, tapping into funds it gets from businesses. Many businesses open their bars, cafés and galleries for the crowds.
The fee covers the salaries of city transportation, fire and Building and Safety officers who make sure Art Walk runs smoothly.
But after Moller paid his first special-event permit fee of $3,000 in October, he turned around and asked the banned food-truck owners to sign a contract to reimburse him for the permit fee, leaving a blank space for his proposed charges.
Moller sent an email to Dane, of Truckit Fest, for example, seeking $1,500. Dane, who had just been shoved outside the Historic Core by the city ban, angrily called the request "arbitrary" and wouldn't pay.
"It was never arbitrary," Moller says. "At the end of the day, Phillip wants to make as much money as possible."
Now the city wants the food-truck vendors to pay it special-event fees. "It's really black-and-white," Dane says. "You've got an event that's not 'sponsored.' The city wants to recoup some money, and they're trying to pass the buck to people like myself."
12 comments
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I was on the block when the accident happened. Typical of LA government to come in and ruin a successful event based on a lie to extort money. Food trucks had NOTHING to do with a private car jumping a curb. Why don't they worry about the wannabe thugs that are coming into the neighborhood during artwalk and starting fights? Everything good must come to an end I guess. It was a very good for a while. Friends used to come to DTLA on artwalk days every month and we would grab a bite(sometimes at a food truck), walk around, buy some art or at least discover incredible talent and purchase later, hit a few bars and walk back upstairs. With that being said, I have NOT been to artwalk in months. The whole vibe has changed (for the worse). I would like to see the numbers of how much the city pulled in sales tax, vendor permits, and parking fees(all the lots are taxed). It's a random Thursday night when most people would just be at home NOT spending any money. IMO we need as much activity as possible to increase the tax base. LA and to a greater extent CA have an anti business rep for a reason and it's well earned based on what I see in the case of artwalk!
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The saddest thing about this very unfortunate situation is that the LA Weekly was comfortable referring to the Downtown Art Walk's non-profit board as "represent[ing] downtown business interests." That certainly was not the case when my husband Richard Schave and I volunteered to create the non-profit, after Bert Green asked us to take over management of the Art Walk in late 2008. We stated at that time that Art Walk through its non-profit was to be a "People Improvement District" -- as opposed to the Business Improvement Districts which do represent these commercial interests. Because certain business interests refused to work with the non-profit while we ran it, we ended up resigning from the non-profit after its second board meeting. I think it would behoove the Art Walk board to revisit the "Making The Case" document that it voted into place in October 2009, and try once again to achieve its goals. Even three years later, many of the event's ongoing problems could still be solved by following these directions for improved public safety, fundraising, community advisory committees, officially curated events and other aspects of non-profit management. A link to that document is below. http://artwalk2009.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/policy-directions-abandoned-by-the-downtown-art-walk-board-in-2010/ - Kim Cooper, founding Treasurer / Curator, Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk
If it's only a restriction in the historic core, and only on artwalk night for a specific number of hours, it, by definition, is not a ban. It's a time, place and manner restriction.
The saddest thing about this very unfortunate situation is that the LA Weekly was comfortable referring to the Downtown Art Walk's non-profit board as "represent[ing] downtown business interests." That certainly was not the case when my husband Richard Schave and I volunteered to create the non-profit, after Bert Green asked us to take over management of the Art Walk in late 2008. We stated at that time that Art Walk through its non-profit was to be a "People Improvement District" -- as opposed to the Business Improvement Districts which do represent these commercial interests. Because certain business interests refused to work with the non-profit while we ran it, we ended up resigning from the non-profit after its second board meeting. I think it would behoove the Art Walk board to revisit the "Making The Case" document that it voted into place in October 2009, and try once again to achieve its goals. Even three years later, many of the event's ongoing problems could still be solved by following these directions for improved public safety, fundraising, community advisory committees, officially curated events and other aspects of non-profit management. A link to that document is below. http://artwalk2009.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/policy-directions-abandoned-by-the-downtown-art-walk-board-in-2010/ - Kim Cooper, founding Treasurer / Curator, Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk
art square was kicked out of their building by the owners & all the residents are happy. also, someone should teach this reporter how to write, this crappy story sounds like that dane guy paid her to write it. no wonder no one reads this paper any more.
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Last I heard, news was supposed to be unbiased. Seems this author has a thing for food trucks. Flat out they are the problem. They bring hoards of people to the event with their "tweets" and throw up their hands and the extra cost they produce for the area, the city, and the people who live here. Keep it up guys--the event can get shut down don't think you're above it and then you will have nothing.
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