HUFF barely survived going mad gasping the bad air of bigotry in yesterday’s City Council meeting. The Council ignored all critical public testimony from those who braved the toxic situation there. Also coming up: mobilizing for educational outreach and protest in support of the vendors association, report from Project Connect, Taking the Unhoused Civil Rights Struggle to the Staff, MHCAN report….and, as ever…more… with coffee and stuff!
Vanish the Vendors Law, RV Night Ban, Big Police Budget & Freedom SleepOut #46 (whew!)
Mathews Council Crushes Handicraft Vendors; Freedom SleepOut #46 Soldiers On
by Robert Norse Tuesday May 24th, 2016 12:58 PM
Last chance to make a cry of outrage at the City Council’s law to outlaw all handicraft vending in the downtown and wharf-beachfront areas. Follow-up by saying no to a cop-heavy budget (social services take up less than 3% of the budget compared to police & rangers (42%). Finally the Food-Not-Bombs supported Freedom Sleepers will resume their principled civil disobedience on the sidewalk and city hall courtyard that night for the 46th week.
VANISHING THE VENDORS: THE GRIM DETAILS
On the docket shortly after 2:20 p.m., Mathews’ City Council will likely rubberstamp the staff’s law reducing performance, vending, and “free speech” spaces by half. The new law will also seriously stiffen the “Move Along Every Hour” law. It will require anyone with a table or display device (anything “capable of holding tangible things”) to move along every 61 minutes. No warning will be required. Fines for overstaying your time or being outside the “exempt” areas (the blue bracketed areas on the sidewalk) will be $250 to $300 when court fees are added.The new Commercial Vending ban bars selling or displaying for donation any articles like clothing, scarves, crystals, rocks, geodes, and many other articles. This true whether anywhere on Pacific Avenue or the adjoining streets, whether inside or outside the Blue Boxes. Banned performances also may include face-painting, creating visual art, “visual art produced with limited variation”, handicrafts such as weaving, carving, stitching, sewing, lacing, and beading.The “clear” standard is whether an item though it has an “expressive purpose”, it is “deemed to have more than nominal utility apart from its communication, if it has a common and dominant non-expressive purpose.
On the docket shortly after 2:20 p.m., Mathews’ City Council will likely rubberstamp the staff’s law reducing performance, vending, and “free speech” spaces by half. The new law will also seriously stiffen the “Move Along Every Hour” law. It will require anyone with a table or display device (anything “capable of holding tangible things”) to move along every 61 minutes. No warning will be required. Fines for overstaying your time or being outside the “exempt” areas (the blue bracketed areas on the sidewalk) will be $250 to $300 when court fees are added.The new Commercial Vending ban bars selling or displaying for donation any articles like clothing, scarves, crystals, rocks, geodes, and many other articles. This true whether anywhere on Pacific Avenue or the adjoining streets, whether inside or outside the Blue Boxes. Banned performances also may include face-painting, creating visual art, “visual art produced with limited variation”, handicrafts such as weaving, carving, stitching, sewing, lacing, and beading.The “clear” standard is whether an item though it has an “expressive purpose”, it is “deemed to have more than nominal utility apart from its communication, if it has a common and dominant non-expressive purpose.
Permitted performers such as singers, dancers, jugglers, puppeteers, magicians, actors, will be allowed to put a donation-seeking device directly on the sidewalk with their table, instruments, and possessions entirely contained within the Blue Boxes.
SCRUNCHING THE SPACE
A map of the Blue Boxes showed only 17 between Plaza Lane and Soquel Avenue. Only two spaces are available on the Del Mar Theater block in spite of the wide sidewalks. Much sidewalk space is taken up with privatized outdoor areas next to sidewalk cafes, unpermitted merchant A-frame advertising signs (technically illegal) and other city equipment. The expansive vacant space remaining is banned for “display device” use.
Defeated on May 10th at the first reading was a motion to allow “a few” spaces against any buildings for performers as repeatedly requested. Playing against the sides of building used to be regular practice prior to 2002 under the Voluntary Street Performers Guidelines.
There is no provision for public input or regular public hearing on the adequacy of these spaces or concerns about inappropriate police or host enforcement. Apparently these issues are left in the merchant-friendly hands of staffers like Redevelopment Agency leftover Julie Hende and Assistant City Manager Scott Collins. Both have a history of creating laws or projects that reduce public space at the behest of nearby merchants.
Vendors under the leadership of Shindig, a jewelry vendor, have begun signing up to oppose and fight back against the laws. HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) joined Shindig on Sunday to circulate petitions opposing the destruction of street culture. Many of these laws originate with a 1994 deal between merchants and a “progressive” City Council to clear away homeless-looking people from the sidewalk by instituting ever-expanding zones where it’s been forbidden to sit, table, peacefully spare change, perform, or vend.
DRIVING OUT THE RV’s: THANK COUNCILMEMBER NIROYAN
Agenda item #13 returns Councilmember Richelle Niroyan’s toxic attack on families living in their vehicles with a nighttime ban on RV parking anywhere in the City unless you’re a resident with a permit.
Though the federal government accepts homeless people as “residents” in allowing them to vote at the spot they currently frequent or try to find rest at, Santa Cruz will now ban homeless vehicle dwellers from applying for “resident” permits, no matter how long they’ve lived in town.
Niroyan’s latest attack on the poor on behalf of West Side wealthier folks who are concerned that RV’s block their view or “make them nervous” will have to meet a Coastal Commission review–which now seems more likely according to letters in the agenda packet.
BUDGET BOMBAST TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
The City’s 2017 Budget will be up for discussion beginning at 7 PM tonight all day tomorrow beginning at 9 AM. Social services (what little there is) will be up for discussion tonight with local agencies squabbling for tiny pieces of the ever-diminishing pie. Tomorrow morning Parks and Recreation (slated to take over First Alarm enforcement on Pacific Avenue and notorious for heavy ticketing and stay-away harassment in the parks at night) will be up for budget discussion at 9:10 AM. The police budget follows at 10:10 AM.
BLOATED POLICE/RANGER BUDGET
Strangely missing from the budget presentation on-line but occupying more than half of it in years past is the policing budget for the SCPD and Parks & Recreation. Nor is there any indication of the total budget with a pie chart indicating which departments get how much. In fact, nowhere in the budget agenda attachment that I’ve found is there any indication of what the total budget is for this year. City Administrator Bren Lehr was unable to find these stats in the budget, but after tracking the matter to the Finance Department, I found that this year’s budget is $90 million or so. And 42% of it goes to cops and rangers.
Mayor Mathews has declined to clarify when public comment will be allowed. I’ve sent her an e-mail asking her to correct this problem, but so far she hasn’t responded.
To address the real problems in the police departments generally, I suggest taking a long hard look at Black Lives Matters’ proposed reforms at http://www.joincampaignzero.
The Social Service component of the budget is less than $2 million.
FREEDOM SLEEPERS SUSTAIN VIGIL
For the 46th night, unhoused folks and their supporters will gather for soup (thanks to India Joze), coffee, and company through the night. Last week there were no tickets issued in spite of harassment driving poor people from the bricks and City Hall courtyard onto the sidewalk, where none have been prosecuted for sleeping.
Robert Norse (the author of this piece) is still facing charges for MC 13.04.011–being in a park after dark. This charge was widely used against Freedom Sleepers last summer and fall. I went to court on Friday and had my demurrer dismissed with a trial set for 10 AM on June 24. Motions hearing will be 10 AM June 17th in Dept. 1.
Though an original Freedom Sleeper, I am now simply writing and reporting. Hats off to activists Abbi Samuels, Zav Hershfield, and others who are holding down the protest each Tuesday. Support them in any way you can or propose new actions to end the Sleeping Ban!
https://www.facebook.com/
https://www.indybay.org/
https://www.indybay.org/
Action Against Police Abuse in San Francisco; Slumber in Santa Cruz…and the Rest of the Rant on the “Vanish the Vendors: Law Coming up at City Council 5-24
SFPD: Direct Action and the Police Murder of a Third Man Got the Resignation of Police Chief Greg Suhr; SCPD: Continuing Stonewalling on Public Records; Yet More Rant & Review Covering Last Council Meeting’s Passage of the “Vanish the Vendors” Law, Coming Up Again for a Final Reading shortly after 2:30 PM Tuesday May 24th in City Council Chambers.
The show broadcasts at 101.3 FM and streams on the internet at freakradio.org at 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM (May 22). It will archive at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/
Thursday’s Bathrobes Show 6-8 PM features Continued Raging Against the Vanish the Vendors Law
Caustic Criticism of the Upcoming Final Vote on the “Vanish the Vendors” Law at next Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
An update from Wes White on the Salinas Sleep-Out. More bits and pieces.
The show broadcasts at 101.3 FM and streams on the internet at freakradio.org at 6-8 PM (May 19th). It will archive at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/
For the really old shows go to http://huffsantacruz.org/
For the really old shows go to http://huffsantacruz.org/
HUFF pokes out its sleepy head 11 AM Sub Rosa Cafe Wednesday
HUFF will be holding Open House for Vendors, Performers, Tablers, Homeless Folks, and Community Members impacted under the upcoming Vanish the Vendors law coming up on 5-24-16. Other topics likely to surface: Updates from Salinas, Eureka, and other struggles against the Homeless Bans. Upcoming Freedom Sleeper preliminary (demurrer) hearing on Friday at 8:15 AM for Robert Norse. And coffee and snacks!
In the Streets and In the Courts: Freedom SleepOut #45 Persistent Protesters
| Growing Numbers At Freedom SleepOut #45? Challenge of Police Citations tin Court 5-20 | |
| Date | Tuesday May 17 |
| Time | 5:00 PM – 5:00 AM |
| Location Details | |
| Around City Hall at 809 Center St. on the bricks and sidewalk of along the Center St. corridor | |
| Event Type | Protest |
| Contact Name | Keith McHenry |
| Email Address | keith@foodnotbombs.net |
| Phone Number | 575-770-3377 |
| Address | |
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BACK IN SWELLING NUMBERS?
With last week’s expanded numbers (See “Freedom Sleepers Continue to Sleep at Santa Cruz City Hall” at http://www.indybay.org/ The center of City government, traditionally a constitutionally protected area for peaceful protest 24-hours a day, remained a “forbidden zone” after 10 PM at night with police and security guards patrolling the area and driving homeless people from under the eaves of the buildings where they go for protection from rain and wind. The once spacious grassy lawns have been roped off and replaced with cement and ornamental flowers. TWO CITATIONS GO TO COURT Almost all citations against the Freedom Sleepers–of which there have been at least a dozen–were issued as violations of MC 13.04.011. This law bans being in “closed area”, which are designated behind closed doors and without public input by the head of the Parks and Recreation [P & R] department. In 2010 the P & R boss, in private consultation with the police chief and other city bigwigs created made the entire City Hall courtyard and grounds a “No Go” closed zone. The point was to drive away an earlier protest called PeaceCamp 2010, similarly protest the treatment of the unhoused. See “Bad Law Rises Up to Bite the Homeless Again–Parks Boss Steals More Public Space” at http://www.indybay.org/ LEGAL LEAPFROG Norse is looking for a lawyer, but will likely speak for himself. The City has refused to drop the charges and declined to provide full audio and video of the police actions. It has already lost one case at trial (though it’s won others) when activist Zav Herschfield argued the posted “do not enter after 10 PM” signs were not visible from the sidewalk. Homeless Legal Persons Assistance founder and Freedom Sleeper supporter Steve Pleich has assisted Norse in preparing the case. If Norse loses the demurrer hearing, he’ll likely continue the struggle with a second demurrer hearing, an arraignment, a pre-trial conference, and finally a trial before the judge (juries are not allowed in infraction cases). For more event information:
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Sunday on Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides: a Blow-by-Blow Breakdown of the Vanish the Vendors Law; Snips from Freedom Sleepout #44, Selections from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and More !
More than you ever wanted to hear in a moment-by-moment deconstruction of Assistant City Mangler Scott Collins often misleading description of the unanimously passed Vanish the Vendors law at the May 10, 2016 City Council. Keith McHenry and Steve Pleich on Freedom SleepOut #44 and the City’s “Steal the Sidewalks” gambit. Pause with the Pathos of Steinbeck’s story, reminding us that yesterday is today
The show broadcasts at 101.3 FM and streams on the internet at freakradio.org at 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM (May 15). It will archive at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/
Free Radio Show Tonight Has “Vanish the Vendors” Ordinance Discussion and Sacramento Attorney Mark Merin: 6 -8 PM
Interviews with folks in line for a meal at the Red Church speak out on various issues; I interject some preliminary commentary on Tuesday‘s unanimous City Council vote approving harsher restrictions downtown that ban jewelry, hairwrapping, painting a picture, and other traditional Pacific Avenue sidewalk activities. Sacramento activist and attorney Mark Merin discusses the aftermath of the 3 month long homeless protest there and his move to establish a permitted homeless encampment.
No historical flashbacks this time, but go to http://radiolibre.org/brb/ for older shows–as well as the latest show. To see some of them described go to http://huffsantacruz.org/
For the really old shows go to http://huffsantacruz.org/
For the really old shows go to http://huffsantacruz.org/
The show broadcasts at 101.3 FM and streams on the internet at freakradio.org at 6-8 PM (May 5th). It will archive at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/
HUFF to fume at the Vanish the Vendors Law, plot new schemes 11 AM Wednesday the 11th
HUFF will be meeting as usual at the Sub Rosa Cafe at 703 Pacific at 11 AM. On the agenda: Which Way for the Freedom Sleepers? Support for Joff and Alex, the oft-arrested Street Artists. Reviewing the Wreckage after the Tuesday City Council Meeting. Plans for the Upcoming Project Homeless Connect. And more! Plus the usual coffee, munchies, and chatter.
If you can’t come, but want to get involved, call 831-423-4833.
FREEDOM SLEEPERS WILL GATHER FOR 44TH WEEK AFTER “VANISH THE VENDORS” LAW SAILS THROUGH CITY COUNCIL
| “Vanish the Vendors” Viciousness at City Council Followed by Freedom SleepOut #44 | |
| Date | Tuesday May 10 |
| Time | 3:00 PM – 3:00 PM |
| Location Details | |
| The afternoon City Council meeting begins at 2:15 PM with the “Vanish the Vendors” law Item #14 on the Council Agenda. Food Not Bombs activists will be serving food in the late afternoon. Freedom Sleepers will hit the sidewalk and bricks across from the main library in front of the City Hall in the evening and night. | |
| Event Type | Protest |
| Contact Name | Toby Nixon (post by Norse) |
| Email Address | tobynixon [at] gms.com |
| Phone Number | 408-582-4152 |
| Address | |
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ANOTHER ROUND OF “LAW-BREAKING” FOR JUSTICE
Freedom Sleepers will continue to defy the City’s 11 PM to 8:30 AM ban on the act of sleeping on all public and most private property in Santa Cruz by lining the sidewalk and City Hall grounds with sleepers on Tuesday night (5-10). Coffee and the occasional morsel to munch will likely be on hand. The weekly organizational meeting of the Freedom Sleepers will hold their usual review and reorganizational meeting at 10 AM Wednesday at 10 AM at the Sub Rosa Cafe to be followed at 11 AM by the HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) meet. Both are open to all. Food Not Bombs is slated to be feeding and organizing during the afternoon and early evening. THE DISMAL BACKGROUND Santa Cruz’s 1000-2000 unhoused residents continues ot face the threat and reality of harassment and citation for simply falling asleep after 11 PM. Survival “camping” is a $159 crime 24 hours a day (do it twice in 24 hours and face a year in jail and $1000 fine). Santa Cruz has zero walk-in shelter and full waiting lists for the token shelters that exist (for less than 5% of the homeless). In March, Council crushed a minimum proposal to strike “sleeping” and “covering up with blankets” from the law, while maintaiining a “no trespassing” ban on most public property around the City. No City Council member has followed up on proposals to establish Safe Sleeping Areas for the vulnerable homeless nor on Safe Parking Areas for those whose “affordable housing” is a vehicle. CITY COUNCIL’S NEW LAW AGAINST VENDORS, TABLERS, AND PERFORMERS The proposed law, created behind closed doors by city staffers Julie Hende and Scott Collins and City Attorney Tony Condotti, includes a radical restriction on display for sale or donation, and sale of all kinds of items. “Commercial Vending” is “to sell, offer for sale, expose or display for sale, solicit offers to purchase, or to barter food, goods, merchandise, or services in any area from a stand, table, pushcart, motor vehicle, bicycle, or by a person with or without the use of any other device, or to require someone to pay a fee or to set, negotiate, or establish a fee before providing food, goods, merchandise, or services, even if characterized by the vendor as a donation. [This]…includes the practice of providing, free of charge, an item which may not be vended, in exchange for the purchaser purchasing an item which may be vended as a condition for receiving the free item. Exempted from the law are “Traditional expressive speech and petitioning activities, and the distribution of the following expressive items: newspapers, leaflets, pamphlets, bumper stickers, patches, and/or buttons.” Also “items, which have been created, written or composed by the vendor or performer: books, audio, video, or other recordings of their performances, paintings, photographs, & prints.” Additionally “any other item that is inherently communicative and is of nominal value or utility apart from its communication. Although an item may have some expressive purpose, it will be deemed to have more than nominal utility apart from its communication if it has a common and dominant non-expressive purpose.” The City Attorney insisted that the law did not distinguish between what is art and what is not. Instead the hall monitors of Pacific Avenue will use the above definition to determine if an item is First Amendment protected or not. BANNED FROM THE BLACKTOP Banned as “items that have more than nominal utility apart from their communication” “include but are not limited to… food, housewares, appliances, articles of clothing, hats, scarves, sunglasses, auto parts, oils, incense, perfume, crystals, rocks, geodes, lotions, candles, jewelry, jewelry holders, toys, stuffed animals, glass and metal pipes, and any vaping device.” “Allowed” Performances are “playing musical instruments, singing, dancing, acting, pantomiming, puppeteering, juggling, reciting, engaging in magic, creating visual art in its entirety, presenting or enacting a play, work of music, physical or mental feat, or other constitutionally protected entertainment or form of expression.” Banned Performances include “(a) The application of substances to others’ bodies, including but not limited to, paints, dyes, and inks; (b) The provision of personal services such as massage or hair weaving, cutting, or styling; (c) the completion or other partial creation of visual art; (d) the creation of visual art which is mass produced or produced with limited variation; or (e) the creation of handcrafts, such as weaving, carving, stitching, sewing, lacing, and beading objects such as jewelry, pottery, silver work, leather goods, and trinkets.” These bans are in effect “on the streets or sidewalks of Pacific Avenue; and on the streets or sidewalks of the side streets, alleys, and surface parking lots one block in either direction from Pacific Avenue, between Laurel and Water Streets.” The area in which no tabling is allowed except in select “exempt” zones will be chosen behind closed doors, largely by merchant pressure by Hende and Collins. That forbidden area extends from Laurel to Mission along Pacific Avenue and one block in either direction along the side streets. The forbidden zone apparently includes the twice-weekly Food Not Bombs set-up near the main Post Office. Although the new “Vanish the Vendors” law does not explicitly ban simply giving away free items such as food, another section of the ordinance prohibits the use of “display devices” (i.e. tables) except in the limited (less than 30) “exempt” zones which Hende and Collins choose to designate. In addition the “Move Along Every Hour” law now requires what the current law does not–that folks time themselves. Anyone using a table, open guitar case, or any thing “capable of holding tangible things” placed on the sidewalk must move every hour without being asked to do so by a cop, security thug, or “host”. The current law requires a warning that one’s hour is up and then a “refusal” to move for the $200-300 ticket to be given. The new law just requires that you be there for 61 minutes to be slammed with a citation. Two artists–Joff Jones and Alex Skelton–were taken away in handcuffs twice within two weeks for setting up their art displays outside the sacred “blue boxes”. They had also declined to move every hour. Defying the massive police presence in their second arrest, the two have returned to Pacific Avenue to continue to assert their rights. See “Santa Cruz Artists Dare to Display Art “Outside of a Blue Box”” at http://www.indybay.org/ OTHER SCENES OF PROTEST Meanwhile in Sacramento, activists who staged a 3-month round-the-clock protest had all charges dropped against them. See “City of Sacramento Won’t Put Unlawful Camping Ordinance on Trial, Dismisses Criminal Charges Against City Hall Protest Organizers on Eve of Trials” at http://www.nlgsf.org/news/ And a delayed Freedom Sleepers case will be returning to Court 8:30 AM on May 20th as Robert Norse demurs to two “trespass at the City Hall courtyard” arrests, claiming they were unconstitutional. For more info on the Freedom Sleepers and the “Vanish the Vendors” law, check out http://www.indybay.org/  huff_vanishing_vendors-5.pdf download PDF (285.1 KB) TO LEAVE OR VIEW COMMENTS, GO TO https://www.indybay.org/ |
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