Community street fair in BH on August 18

Organized by Unión de Vecinos, Boyle Heights's first community street fair to feature entirely local merchants and organizations will take place tomorrow at Fickett and Cesar Chavez. Unlike other fairs around here, such as the one on the Sixth Street bridge, it is almost entirely the very señoras living in the neighborhood who are getting together to make this happen. Sweeping and scrubbing sidewalks, and picking up trash, setting up shop and cooking at home the food to be sold there... they're making the event possible.

An essential part of the event will be several educational workshops on various themes, such as tenants' rights, how to fight an eviction, how to get health and housing codes enforced and other issues faced by local residents.

Unión de Vecinos as as association of residents in BH that includes both landlords and tenants seeking to improve the quality of life in the community. A branch of the group is the Sindicato de Inquilinos, which is a tenants' union.

Anyway, it'll be worth checking out.