SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Community members brought concerns to ABC10 following the cancellation of the Sacramento Taco Festival.
The festival organizers decided to postpone their event after two children and two adults were injured in a shooting over the weekend on Del Paso Boulevard, which is the street where the festival was set to be held on Sunday.
Organizer Mina Perez with the Vida De Oro Foundation said the festival was postponed because her organization did not want to put people in harm's way if there was potential retaliation.
But, the abrupt cancellation spurred concern from some business owners on Del Paso Boulevard over how the area was being characterized.
Candace Brooks, an owner of the 1913 Lounge expressed concern about how the area was being characterized.
"We always get a little negative press on Del Paso, so we're used to that so when it became super amplified and was in every newsfeed, it became a problem," said Brooks. "One message undoes a lot of hard work."
"We're not going to let others write our narrative," said Cynthia Dees Brooks of TAP Wine Lounge.
The Del Paso Boulevard partnership hosted the Uptown Marketplace pop-up Friday evening. Candace Brooks told ABC10 the event was a response to negative comments surrounding the area following the shooting.
ABC10 brought those concerns to Perez who agreed to sit down with us and address them, including the concerns of the area being put in a negative light.
"We didn't do that. If anything, you can drive down on your own and make your own decision and judgement on that," said Perez. "I had to make a decision, an executive decision, of putting the people who come around from everywhere in harm's way. I was not going to do that."
The organizers told ABC10 they already put money into the event and vendors were ready to come before it was postponed. She said her organization also received a festival grant from the city to help put it on.
Brooks also expressed concerns to us about whether the event could be held, regardless of the postponement.
"They could not have done it this weekend legally. Let's be very clear: If you do not have a permit to do an event on a city street, you can't hold the event," Brooks said.
We asked the city if the event obtained proper permitting. Gabby Miller, the Sacramento Media and Communications Specialist for Youth Park Community Enrichment and Public Works confirmed with us that the paperwork for the final event permit was not submitted. She said they were only granted a street closure permit.
When we asked Perez about the permit, she maintains that her organization followed the proper protocols.
"We were at the end of getting it, getting everything in place and getting everything signed off. Mind you, everybody had already approved. I had met with the city, the parks and recreation, the fire department, the police department, the logistics," Perez said.
Perez showed us the documents she obtained during the process, including a Liquor license that the police department and the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership director signed off on.
Perez said the last step the organization needed before they could get final permit approval was a traffic plan which she showed us, and said she did not submit because she decided to cancel the event.
"We only had this traffic plan that had to be submitted and we received it the day before the incident that happened on that Saturday so this was it, this was going to be submitted and everything would be checked off and it was just a matter of Monday or Tuesday receiving our permit," said Perez. "But, I stopped everything on the Sunday."
As for Del Paso Boulevard businesses, this is what they want the community to remember:
"Those bad actors and activities happen everywhere. Unfortunately, it's heightened when it's here and we are not sitting by," said Cynthia Dees Brooks. "What the boulevard is all about is community."
The Taco Festival has been rescheduled to be held on June 24th on Grand Avenue. Perez said they are working with the Twin Rivers School Board.
Watch more from ABC10: Exclusive: Sacramento mother hurt in shooting shares safety concerns for her children | To The Point
