There has been legitimate criticism that supporting repeal of only those ordinances that impact performers colludes with the "divide-and-conquer" approach of the
Porter-Reilly Downtown Ordinance Expansions. Exempting performers leaves poor, young, and homeless people in the lurch (with 95% of the sidewalks in business districts
illegal for sitting or peaceful sparechanging) and potentially without allies.
Why support a special niche for street performers while giving the cops the power to roust everyone else for innocent behavior that is made criminal because merchants don't want people "hanging out"?
Still, my hope is that showing how unjustified these laws were for performers can lead directly to showing how unjustified they were for everyone else. Setting up 14' forbidden zones was and is as ridiculous as banning bubbleblowing, sneezing, and hackeysacking downtown.
If Council refuses to move further and decriminalize homeless and poor people in public spaces doing nothing more criminal than non-obstructively sitting or peacefully
panhandling, then a strong case might be made in court that these laws are content or status-based and unconstitutional (if we can find the lawyers).
I also think that performers in debating this issue have become aware that they have been regularly burned by the police and staff with lies, false characterizations, a private agenda, and an apparent blank check from the Council. They hopefully can be allies in a future fight to restore rights for everyone. Soon.
Additionally, the return of the Downtown Public Policy Mediation Project process, buried in 1996 by the Rotkin Council, opens up hope that we can address problems of class conflict, selective enforcement, and rude behavior by a public education and mediation process.
As a first step as part of this process for performers to be able to play under the Voluntary Guidelines, there needs to be not merely a return to the 1994 ordinances, but also amendments that remove the ban on performing in front of street cafes and standing next to buildings.
There should also be an acknowledgement and apology on the part of the Council that it has never had any reasonable evidence that the Street Performers Voluntary Guidelines haven't worked.
The performers, quite clearly, were sacrified as part of what seemed like a political deal to mobilize the merchants against Proposition P last summer and to provide a purely cosmetic response to the usual special-interest gentrification special-pleading by merchants like Candi Jackson of Jackson's Shoes.
This came out of an earlier sacrifice of their rights in 1994 in order to "get" hobos, tramps, bums, and poor people downtown and to give the police "tools" to move them along, even if they weren't doing anything criminal.
Police for a number of years (due in large part, I believe to mass protests in 1994) didn't use the non-commercial or soliciation ordinance regularly against street performers.
Then, this spring, they did. Massive outcry against this harassment at the Reilly-Porter hearings was completely ignored by Council, which instead gave police a blank check under the June "strict enforcement" directive. (There should be more testimony on this subject Monday evening at the 5:30 PM Citizens Police Review Board meeting at City Hall).
Many performers don't go downtown any more. Those who have can tell you at least one story about police harassment personally and another about a friend who got a $162 ticket.
Police need to be reined in here, and instead City Manager Dick Wilson is apparently looking to kill the (currently ineffectual, but potentially useful) Citizens Police Review Board, while giving the police fat pensions, all the while wailing about poverty problems in the budget.

COME TO THE CITIZENS POLICE REVIEW BOARD MONDAY DECEMBER 9TH AT 5:30 PM TO SUPPORT A PROPOSAL TO STOP SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT AND HARASSMENT DOWNTOWN OF PERFORMERS,
ACTIVISTS, AND POOR FOLKS.

COME TO THE CITY COUNCIL TUESDAY DECEMBER 10TH AT 8 PM TO SUPPORT THE VOLUNTARY STREET PERFORMERS GUIDELINES AND A NEW DIRECTIVE TO POLICE TO LEAVE THE PERFORMERS ALONE.

CALL IN TO CITY COUNCIL AT 420-5017 TO SUPPORT THE GUIDELINES.

CALL IN TO CITY COUNCIL TO OPPOSE AN ENDLESS BLANK CHECK TO THE POLICE FINANCIALLY WHILE THE CITY MANAGER MOVES QUIETLY TO KILL THE ONLY POTENTIAL CHECK ON THE POLICE--THE CITIZENS POLICE REVIEW BOARD. REQUIRE POLICE TO DOCUMENT ALL CONTACTS WITH STREET MUSICIANS IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS.
KEEP AN EYE ON ITEM #13 “GENERAL BUDGET FINANCIAL CRISIS” ON THE AFTERNOON AGENDA WHICH PROVIDES A FAT “3% AT 50” POLICE RETIREMENT PROGRAM WHICH ADDS AT LEAST $1.2 MILLION TO THE 2003-4 BUDGET.
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA DOCUMENTS CAN BE ACCESSED AT www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/ UNDER "QUICK LINKS".
Emily Reilly can be reached at 420-5022. Ed Porter can be reached at 420-5024.