Warning: Last Wednesday, scuttlebutt has it, merchants held a special "Get Rid of Street Food Serving" meeting on the mall. Keith Holtaway, (former?) owner of Pizza my Heart and head of the Downtown Association (DTA) confirmed yesterday that this issue is up for discussion.

They may be planning to repeat the infamous efforts of the City in 1988-89 (and again in 1993) when they moved to harass, arrest, and prosecute food servers to further gentrify the downtown. The pretext for this will be "the health and dignity of the homeless".

Those interested may want to check into meetings of the Downtown Association, which has open public meetings (after being forced to do so by state law) at 1126 Pacific Ave. 2nd floor. The meeting of the Hosts management group is Monday August 4 at 8:30 AM. The meeting of the DTA Social and Legislative Committee is August 6th (Wednesday) at 9 AM.

Food Not Bombs can be reached at 425-3345.