Downtown

This sign about covers it

pershing-square-sign.jpgDavid Allen, columnist and blogger for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, spotted this perplexer in Downtown's Pershing Square. He and his commenters have some ideas at the blog of what you can and can't do and still be legal.

No matter what the city is trying to ban here, there's historical precedent. Back when the square was still called Central Park — and there really were socialists in U.S. politics — the Los Angeles City Council banned orating in the park to stymie the radicals. gaylord-wilshire.jpg My pal Gaylord Wilshire saw an opening, grabbed his hat, and went over to get arrested. As he was being led away, he shouted to witnesses that they could read all about it in his new magazine. The mag moved to New York soon after, changed its name to Wilshire's, and became the top socialist periodical of its day and the home for lefty writers like Upton Sinclair and Jack London.

Noted: A hundred years before Carmen Trutanich came along, Wilshire also was the first notorious L.A. billboard purveyor to be hauled into court and pressured to take down his signs.


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