Liberate the Locked Lavatories at London Nelson (aka Louden Nelson) Center
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
1:30 PM
301 Center St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Come at 1 PM to Help Make Signs, Set-Up

Demand Open Bathrooms !
•    Parks and Recreation [P&R] Supervisor Iseth Rae continues to
keep the public Louden Nelson bathrooms closed to all but “program
participants”.
•    Her boss P&R Director Tony Elliot, his boss City Manager
Martin Bernal, and the City Council majority, headed by Vice-Mayor
Justin Cummings continue to deny the elderly, the ill, the disabled, the
homeless, and the general toilets, reversing decades of free access.
•    Public Records show no documentation justifying the year-long
closure  other than the usual vandalism caused by an increase in use.
This was prompted by the closure of homeless facilities and Bernal’s
institutional failure to provide more bathrooms city-wide.
•    Activists from Conscience and Action, Homeless United for
Friendship & Freedom, Food Not Bombs, the California Homeless Union and
other groups are continuing the Freedom Sleepers “Give a Shit” campaign
from 2017, demanding decent and fair bathroom access.
•    Louden Nelson Staff claim the “nearby” police station
bathrooms are accessible; however police say they are only open when the
Community Room is in use—which is irregularly.
•    Rae additionally backs a dangerous and discriminatory
“homeless are dangerous” narrative with fences around the park, a First
Alarm guard, and a new set of restrictive regulations
•    Appeals to Elliot, Rae, Bernal, and the City Council have been
shined on or ignored for over a year. Councilmember Drew Glover’s direct
attempts to have City Council open the bathrooms have been indefinitely
delayed by Mayor Watkins and Vice-Mayor Cummings.