A planned Sept. 6 run was relocated when Black residents and vendors objected to the event’s promotion and potential disruption of Leimert Park’s long-running Sunday marketplace.
Objections centered on a promotional phrase “taking over the streets,” threats circulating on social media, and possible disruption to Leimert Park’s longstanding Sunday African Marketplace and Drum Circle.
The dispute split along two related lines: race and intercommunity relations, and questions about consultation and use of a culturally important public space.
Barrio Athletics, a grassroots fitness group founded in South L.A., originally planned a 5K meetup at Leimert Park on Sunday, Sept. 6. After promotional material that used the phrase "taking over the streets" circulated, some Leimert Park residents and vendors pushed back. The organizers announced the run would meet instead at Elysian Park.
Leimert Park is a recognized center of Black cultural and economic life in Los Angeles. The neighborhood hosts a weekly African Marketplace and Drum Circle on Degnan Boulevard with vendor networks and a permitting history stretching back decades. Organizers and vendors said a large outside event on a Sunday risked disrupting an established marketplace that many view as key to local Black entrepreneurship and community life.
The promotional language in Barrio Athletics' video was a trigger. A social media clip in which a woman warned the organizers not to come into what she called "Africa Town" amplified tensions. Some social media users then posted threats, including claims they would contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about people attending the run. Barrio Athletics publicly rejected racism, violence, and hate.
Barrio Athletics acknowledged the market would be on site and initially proposed moving a warm-up to a nearby restaurant, El Pollo Loco, if the two events overlapped. That proposal did not resolve concerns about prior consultation and respect for the market.
The group later said it moved the event after "careful conversation with community leaders" and framed the relocation as a decision to respect Leimert Park and its surrounding community.
Mayor Karen Bass' office told a local TV station it had not intervened to force the relocation. Bass issued a separate statement describing Leimert Park as a special place in Los Angeles and called for constructive engagement between Black and Brown communities.
Organizers and neighborhood leaders will likely face follow-up questions about outreach, timing, and how to coordinate future events so they do not overlap with established economic activities in Leimert Park.
*UPDATE: Barrio Athletics announced Wednesday evening that it is moving its Sept. 6 run from Leimert Park to Elysian Park following what the organization described as “careful conversation with community leaders.” The group said participants will no longer meet in the Leimert Park area and that the decision was made “t
A Latino running club in California was forced to move a planned event in a historically black neighborhood after several community members threatened "resistance." The feud began after "Barrio Athletics" published a promotional video about a run in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. 'Not gonna happen. So re
*The California Post put an inflammatory spin on the controversy over Barrio Athletics’ proposed 5K in Leimert Park with this headline: “Historically black LA neighborhood explodes with racism claims and forces Latino run club to move event.” That framing badly distorts what many of us who opposed the event were actual
*Leimert Park has long stood as one of Los Angeles’ most important centers of Black culture, business, homeownership and community life. Black-owned businesses, artists, entrepreneurs, homeowners and independent vendors have helped give the neighborhood an identity unlike virtually anywhere else in the city. That model
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