Too bad the City of Santa Cruz passed all these downtown ordinances which forbid street performers from standing next to a building or under an awning.

The City Council, led by Ed Porter and Cynthia Matthews, passed these innane restrictive ordinances in order to grant the merchants wide latitude to call the cops to remove performers they don't like.

Performers they like, can stay, but only by risking a $162 ticket.

Likewise, Matthews one-hour "move-along" law which was loosely based on the Voluntary Street Performers Guidelines (VSPG) which had operated in Santa Cruz for over twenty years, requires a performer using a "display device" to move-along after only one hour in a spot. This blatantly unconstitutional law limits free speech to one hour at a time out of 24.

The VSPG's were voluntary. They allowed for a person to ask for a spot, and the performer could then perform for one more hour before giving up the spot to the next performer. The new law sets in stone the one-hour limit and backs it up with police power.

Please contact Mayor Scott Kennedy at (831) 420-5050 and demand that the council revisit these ordinances and to prove why they are neccessary.