BRAVE NEW ORDINANCES

_www.greenpress.org

By Michael Ackerman

The first time I experienced Pacific Mall it was still a genuine
European style pedestrian mall, with performers, artists, and people being a
community. Everything advocated to alleviate the nationwide death of the
inner city was here, working like an urban planning textbook. I knew this
was where I was supposed to be living.
When I finally did migrate here in 1995, something had changed, and
it wasn't just the cars. There were more intimidating cops on Pacific
Avenue than there were in Guiliani's New York, and I wondered why.
Volunteering at the Homeless Garden Project, I learned why. I learned
about the prevailing hatred of the homeless, and about the 1994 Ordinances
establishing a minimum income before a human being was allowed to sleep. I
heard constant stories of atrocities committed by police and Park Rangers
against the most helpless and vulnerable of our citizens.
Then came the (still) uninvestigated police killing of Happy John, - a
well known, harmless, downtown character, - called murder by the only
non-police witnesses.
Wait a minute, wasn't this progressive, Collateral Damage, Nuclear and
Hate Free Santa Cruz? And being poor, really poor, was criminal behavior?
Of course, being just poor- working a couple jobs and smiling gratefully
when they give you a Thanksgiving turkey- that's allowed. And if you were
middle class and are suddenly poor because your house and everything you own
burned up, they'll find you a place to live the next day, and then throw a
benefit to buy you new stuff. But if you're really poor, they'll take
whatever little is in your backpack or shopping cart, fine you for still
having had it, and then throw you in jail for not being able to pay the
fine.
Over the years, community hatred of human beings without shelter became
ever more open and blatant. And then a new Menace to Society, as dangerous
as the homeless, slouched into Santa Cruz: our children! What with their
raves, their ecstasy, their Hackensacks, and their what nots, who knows what
they're not capable of? Damn it, our parents were right: don't trust anyone
under thirty!
But I was neither homeless nor adolescent.
Besides, there were still performers on Pacific, and lots of tourists
drawn by the internationally famous pseudo-hippie atmosphere. And there was
still the Wednesday Farmers Market, -a celebration of colors, smells,
tastes, and life, set to the rhythm of drums and sound of music.
It is here that the new Ordinances were test fired last spring. First,
front page articles and letters to the editor appeared in the Sentinel
decrying the horrid cacophony of drums, the dirtiness of shabby kids, the
nerve of artisans selling stuff without paying rent, and the non-specific
Drug Activity.
And thus it was ordained that the purpose of the Farmers Market was
commerce: people were to come, exchange money for produce, take their
purchases, and go home.
In one week, it was like an Italian Farmers Market taken over by
Germans.
When I go to the Market now, I don't stay as long, and I don't run into
many friends.
The Powers That Are could now concentrate fully on downtown. Non-stop
articles and letters appeared about dangerous downtown, always with the same
message: pass tougher laws. Aggressive panhandling? Pass tougher laws.
Aggressive hackeysack? Pass tougher laws. Aggressive bubble blowering?
Pass tougher laws. Lewd adolescents? Pass tougher laws. Drug users dying?
Pass tougher laws. Bad street music? Pass tougher laws. Gang brawl? Pass
tougher laws. The articles culminated in a tour of Beggars Opera Santa Cruz
filled with Hogarthean denizens who made Ronnie Reagan's Welfare Queen look
honest, implying there were no really deserving poor here so it was morally
OK to pass tougher laws.
The New Downtown Ordinances were drawn up by a coalition of Downtown
Merchants, Chamber of Commerce, police, and Powers That Are. They forbid
sitting, panhandling, performing, playing music, political tabling or pretty
much anything else within 14 feet from any building, doorway, bench, fence,
kiosk, crosswalk, outdoor café, telephone, or drinking fountain, or fifty
feet from an ATM. They apply to all "Community Commercial, Neighborhood
Commercial, Commercial Beach, Central Business District, and Tourist
Residential Districts." This entirely eliminates these activities on one
side of Pacific Avenue and severely limits places large enough for a table
or performer on the other. Hackeysack, juggling, blowing bubbles(!), street
musicians selling CD's, chalking on sidewalks, leaning against buildings,
or begging with a sign after dark, among other activities, are completely
outlawed. Since homeless humans aren't allowed to sleep, sit, have a
blanket, or beg after dark, they must just disappear at sunset. Cops are
authorized to steal belongings left on the sidewalk. And they are required
to cite any person against whom another citizen makes a complaint, opening
the door to further harassment of the young and the poor.
The Ordinances were rushed through City Council in a record three
weeks. During two lengthy nights of hearings, speakers opposed to them
outnumbered those supporting them by about ten to one. Then, in the most
contemptuous dismissal of democracy West of Florida, the Council passed
these Ordinances five to two.
Enforcement has been swift and severe. On August 20, Tim Rinker and
Becky Johnson were arrested for chalking political slogans on the sidewalk.
Johnson, a homeless rights activist, actually wrote in the gutter, was
probably set up for arrest on a citizen complaint by Parks employee Mia
Duquet. She was dragged away in handcuffs, held in jail on $1000 bond, and
if convicted, faces six months in jail. For (felonious) chalking?
Seriously! There have been many arrests since, for chalking and other
Ordinance violations.
Congress may not pass any law abridging the First Amendment, but the
City Council of Santa Cruz can and did.
What is happening here? All the noise about terrible downtown has
only scared tourists away. Besides, tourists can find more corporate stuff
in Malls and more expensive stuff in Carmel; it's the weird street life of
Santa Cruz that draws them here. The New Ordinances threaten to kill this,
if not directly, than from the class conflict they have engendered. Do they
have to destroy Santa Cruz to save it?
The 2000 homeless human beings in Santa Cruz will not disappear now.
Outlawing the poor makes it criminal to be poor. Surely Santa Cruz can do
better than this.