Today (Monday June 2) at 4 PM, the City Parks and Recreation Commission will be meeting. On its agenda, placed there by Commission Chair Robert Poen is the "Fencing off" of the Walnut and Pacific St. planter (in front of the Pacific Trading Company and Costa Brava).

Poen reportedly opposes this move, which violates the spirit of an earlier Parks and Recreation Commission resolution of this winter which expressing concern about the loss of seating space along Pacific Avenue. Nearly half of the benches originally placed on Pacific after the earthquake as public resources have been moved to sidestreets or beyond the original Cathcart to Mission area. The Commission's resolution was never agendaized or returned with commentary to the Commission as required by City Council rules.

Closed Redevelopment meetings with owners and managers of Costa Brava, Pacific Trading Company, and Rosie McCann's developed this plan to move the fence that currently surrounds the Walnut Ave. planter out about half a foot, so there would be no place to sit at all--eliminating "an attractive nuisance" (as Vice-Mayor Scott Kennedy described the planter to Becky Johnson in an e-mail).

A Costa Brava manager reported this plan was not what they wanted (They wanted outdoor seating space for the restaurant). A Rosie McCann's manager said he opposed the plan. It's not clear how deeply the Downtown Associaiton was involved. What is clear is that the public was not involved at all.

Street activists report that city officials have been overheard making measuresments of and discussing plans for a similar "fence off the seating" plan for the planter in front of the former Cooperhouse.

The proposal comes in the wake of the controversial "Forbidden Fence" at the New Leaf Market planter(which now occupies 2/3 of the sidewalk between the Cafe Campesino and Alfresco's kiosks). As part of the "move along the undesireables" plan of the Redevelopment Agency and other city staff, there soon followed: the removal of benches in front of Borders and the Pacific Cookie Company and the implmentation of harsh new Downtown Ordinances--giving police discresionary power to criminalize sitters, political tablers, musicians, and panhandlers at will.

The Pacific Avenue Sushi Now! and Ali Baba's Cafe--that originally called for the fencing off what was "Hippie Planter"--have gone out of business. The current fencing plan is bypassing City Council as a "repair" project that will cost $12,000 (according to Martin Bernal, Assistant City Manager).

Bernal, after a Public Records Act Request, released some of the e-mails between the businesses pushing this proposal (apparently the Pacific Trading Company)--where it appears the Redevelopment Agency and/or the Downtown Association was soliciting a log of complaints and concerns against the varied population that uses the planter seating area.

All these discussions, however, like the Budget discussions and the Bench Removal decisions took place behind closed doors with no public input.

Today Parks and Recreation will be considering a resolution on the matter--perhaps asking City Council to slow up on this seating space removal. The fence moving is DUE TO BEGIN ON JUNE 6TH, according to Martin Bernal.

Some have suggested there should be no elimination of current seating space until new seating space is provided. Others have said that the entire business of eliminating public space to deal with social problems is an ineffective solution that compounds the problem by forcing people into smaller and smaller areas. PLEASE COME AND EXPRESS YOUR CONCERNS TODAY.

THOSE WHO FAVOR EXPANDED SEATING SPACE NEED TO SHOW UP FOR THIS MEETING. OR THEY NEED TO PHONE (420-5020) OR E-MAILA CITY COUNCILMEMBER. BERNAL HAS SAID THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE WILL POSTPONE THE PROJECT IF THEY RECEIVE A CALL FROM ONE COUNCILMEMBER.