City Slams Brakes on Cruise Night for Low Riders
Lowcos Car Club of Yakima
Yakima leaders slam the brakes on a lowrider group's plans for a special cruise night.
But one city leader says Yakima missed a chance to build a bridge between the Hispanic community, and city hall.
Javier Gonzalez of the "Lowcos" car club in Yakima says thousands of dollars are spent to custom build lowrider cars.
But because of the association between lowriders and gangs, he says most people only see the bad side.
"It's not like the vintiques or hot rods where they get to cruise and people get, they wow them, we get looked upon as if we're up to something bad," says Gonzalez.
So to improve that image, the Lowcos applied to change a September cruising date to a Saturday this month to coincide with their car show.
Last night the city council voted four-to-three against it.
In voting no, mayor Micah Cawley said there wouldn't be enough time to approve the changes legally.
"The council said we'll easily work with you next year to find the date that works, it just didn't work out for the rules and the timeline we had this year," says Cawley.
Council member Dave Ettl supported allowing the cruise, saying it would have been a show of good faith from the city to the Hispanic community.
"The tensions that our community does have, and the issues with gangs and all of that, and here we have a low rider group often associates with that wanting to prove to us that that wasn't the case," says Ettl.
Now the Lowcos will meet with Union Gap leaders to see if they can cruise that city's streets during the car show.
The group doesn't plan to protest the Yakima city council's decision.
"We're not gonna sit there and say well we're gonna do it anyway, that would just defeat the purpose of our cause, we're not here to be the gangsters that they think we are," says Gonzalez.
Just last month Benton county leaders cancelled the "Rollerz" low-rider show -- because it had been advertised as a rap concert on the internet, and they feared it might attract gang activity.