"Positive Del Paso": Businesses on boulevard band together following shooting and postponed taco festival
SACRAMENTO -- Del Paso Boulevard came to life with food trucks and pop-up vendors on Friday night in direct response to the postponement of the Vida de Oro Foundation's taco festival.
"This is a fly by the seat of your pants type of event," said the owner of Buffalo Pizza.
CEO of the Vida de Oro Foundation Mina Perez said they canceled the weekend's event after two children and two adults were shot on Del Paso Boulevard last Saturday night.
"I did not want to have that on our conscious that we set that event up and people got hurt," said Perez. "Those individuals showed up intentionally to hurt someone."
Businesses on the boulevard claim the foundation never had a permit for the event.
CBS13 got answers from the City of Sacramento. It said the foundation submitted the permit application and were in the process of meeting with the permitting staff to get the final permit, but the foundation did not submit that additional required paperwork and, therefore, did not receive a permit.
According to the city, the organizers told the city they choose not to submit the final paperwork required in light of everything on Del Paso Boulevard and canceled the event altogether.
"All the signatures are signed. The barricades have been paid for," said Perez.
Perez showed CBS13 the signed paperwork, but admitted they still had another step to go.
"This is not my first rodeo," said Perez. "We were already engaged and we were in the process."
Perez said permit or not, she was concerned for people's safety.
The shooting happened on Del Paso just feet away from where the businesses banded together for Friday's event. It was not on the calendar until everything happened.
"It happens in every community, it just gets amplified here," said Candace Brooks, co-owner of 1913 on Del Paso Boulevard.
Police were patrolling Friday's event, but Brooks said it is not unsafe there.
"That one thing happened, but it does not define us," Brooks told CBS13.
She said this is the first of many more positive Del Paso events to come.
"You should not be spreading a message of fear, you should be spreading a message of love," said the owner of Buffalo Pizza.
The Vida de Oro Foundation has been having its taco festival fundraiser for about seven years now on Del Paso Boulevard. The event was rescheduled for June 24th at 1324 Grant Ave. at the Highlands site.
Del Paso Boulevard still has a weekend of events, even without the taco festival. It will be having its "Malcolm x Fest" on Sunday starting at noon.
"Let's push the agenda of positive Del Paso activities to the forefront and it overshadows the occasional negative," said Brooks.
