L.A. girds for gridlock on May Day

As Southern California organizers made final preparations for May Day marches to press for immigrant and labor rights today, officials warned that the protests will snarl traffic, disrupt mass transit and halt some business in downtown Los Angeles and beyond.

March organizers say they expect fewer than the estimated 650,000 who took to the streets last year, but the LAPD said Monday that it is bracing for 100,000 -- and perhaps more -- people to descend on the city center and are warning the public to avoid downtown.

Officially organized to celebrate the May 1 International Workers’ Day, marches are planned today in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Riverside and at least 75 other cities nationwide.

The larger of L.A.’s expected marches, organized by the March 25 Coalition, is scheduled to leave Olympic Boulevard and Broadway for Los Angeles City Hall at 10 a.m. The coalition is calling for a boycott of work, school and all consumer activity.

A second march, by the Multiethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network, is set to begin at 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue at 2 p.m. and head to MacArthur Park for a 5:30 p.m. rally.

Law enforcement and transportation officials have spent more than two months planning for today’s marches, saying that they were caught off guard by underestimating crowds last year. This year, although most immigrant rights rallies have fallen far short of last year’s numbers, local officials are taking no chances.

Los Angeles police will be on maximum deployment, with at least 1,000 officers set to check in at 6 a.m.

“Everyone who can work will be working. Everyone who can be in uniform will be in uniform. All our detectives and sworn support personnel will be available to go out,” LAPD Capt. Andy Smith said.

California Highway Patrol officers will be stationed at ramps near the march areas to ensure that students do not take their protests to freeways, as occurred last year, and police said those who do will be arrested.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation plans to deploy 50 engineers and 100 traffic officers to monitor congestion in what they expect will be their biggest downtown event this year. Street closures will begin about 8 a.m. on Olympic and Broadway; officials expect service slowdowns and possible disruptions on DASH Downtown and Commuter Express service.

In addition, the marches will disrupt service for more than 60 buses along 17 downtown streets, causing them to detour and drop off passengers several blocks from their usual destinations.

Organizers for both Los Angeles marches downplayed expectations for massive crowds, saying that many immigrants lost the motivation to march after Congress failed to pass legislation that would have criminalized illegal immigrants. In addition, the immigrant rights movement has been divided by infighting and disagreement over a reform agenda, organizers said.

Student activists, however, were delivering a more optimistic message. With their message going out by word of mouth, fliers, message boards and profiles on MySpace, student activists said their numbers could surpass the estimated 51,000 who walked out of classes last year.

Youth organizers said walkouts were planned in at least 20 Los Angeles middle schools and high schools, including Roosevelt High School, Garfield High School, Hollenbeck Middle School, Manual Arts, Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet, King Drew Medical Magnet, Belvedere Middle School and others.

They said they hoped to reinspire what they see as a flagging adult movement.

“We feel we can bring hope back to the adults of our community,” Alma Soriano, 17, a junior at Bravo Medical Magnet, said at a news conference Monday. “We’re going to show them that we’re not going to give up so easily.”

On Monday, however, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. David L. Brewer urged students not to walk out of classes. School officials planned to offer alternative activities, such as school forums on immigration.

“The emphasis is to stay in school, get your education and participate in any demonstration you want to after school,” said Dan Isaacs, Los Angeles Unified School District chief operating officer. “To the degree that we can cause students to remain on campus and discuss the issues, that’s our primary goal.”

But if students walk out, school officials plan to march with them -- walkie-talkies and cellphones in hand -- to help protect them. In addition, buses will be on call to take students back to their respective schools after the march is over, officials said.

“We honor their 1st Amendment rights, even though that gets in the way of their schooling,” said Richard Chavez, a high school director for local District 5, which encompasses much of East Los Angeles. “This is a lesson on civics.”

Many downtown businesses were debating Monday whether to shut down today. In a 10-block radius in downtown Los Angeles, about half of 20 businesses surveyed planned to stay open. Some expected the crowds would be a boon to their sales.

Jenny Kim, who took over Primo’s Cafe on Spring Street two weeks ago, said previous owners assured her that protest marches were peaceful and boosted sales. She planned to stay open.

“I’m not scared about security issues,” Kim said. “We’ll have two people in tomorrow and think we’ll be able to manage.”

In contrast, Eli Kogman, owner of Star Electronics in the 400 block of South Broadway, planned to close -- and lamented his loss of sales plus $200 in daily rent.

“We are going to the beach,” Kogman said, laughing. “There’s no point in fighting the crowds and traffic for us or for our customers.”

Kogman, a 31-year-old from Israel, said he sympathizes with the movement but said it’s counterproductive that Broadway has become a main vein for protests of various causes, such as immigration and the war in Iraq, over the five years he’s owned his downtown shop.

Gloria Saullama, owner of a Broadway newsstand plastered with Spanish-language publications, remained uncertain of her plans.

“I’m all for the marches, but I’m not for disorder,” said Saullama, a 60-year-old native of El Salvador who’s lived in Los Angeles for 35 years.

Meanwhile, volunteers with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles fanned out throughout the Central City at 7 a.m. Monday to drum up support for the marches. Activists said the MacArthur Park rally will highlight the difficult conditions facing many Los Angeles workers, a growing proportion of whom are immigrants.

The share of Los Angeles workers with job-based healthcare, for instance, has decreased from 71% in 1979 to 50.5% in 2004, according to a 2006 California Budget Project study.

Andrea Perez, a 48-year-old housekeeper from Mexico, said many workers today are paid less than minimum wage and routinely abused. One friend, she said, had coffee thrown in her face by an employer who disliked the way it was made.

On Monday, she teamed up with Samantha Contreras, a 21-year-old college student and youth organizer, to pass out fliers to immigrants from Mexico, Belize and elsewhere.

“I just want people to recognize immigrants as humans,” Perez said.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

tami.abdollah@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Richard Winton and Francisco Vara-Orta also contributed to this report.