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Report to the City of Santa Monica
...a little history to set up the report...
.....Special
Thanks is given below....!
The City of Santa
Monica in Southern California took it upon itself to improve its downtown
area in the eighties. There was, what was seen as, a "homeless problem",
drug problem, and petty crime problem which was perceived to have an
adverse effect on business and tourism.
The City took action to invest in a plan which called for
improvements of the appearance, structure and accessibility of the area,
as well as, the creation of laws and enforcement policies aimed at pushing
out "undesirable groups" . Laws were created, such as, one which does
not allow anyone to sit on the street, that are only enforced against
those who fit a stereotype of not having money.
Homeless people and kids have been a target along with criminal
activities. The City had great luck removing these groups from the area
as they offered little resistance.
Business started to boom. About this time Venice Beach started
to crack down on homeless and vendors, and the Westwood/UCLA area experience
some gang related problems and closed up the streets. Street Performers
were hassled along with the others in these areas and moved on. A greater
number of performers appeared in Santa Monica in the early to mid nineties.
It was the booming cultural area with the "only street life" in LA.
It attracted people from all over the county and up and down the coast.
The City began to get some complaints about some Performers
and responded in a similar fashion to which it responded to the homelessness
and crime. However, Street Performers are better able to defend themselves
and have great support from businesses and public. This has been confusing
for the City and as yet it still hasnŐt figured out how to create policy
which manages the Performers as a positive resource.
This report was created in response
to the knowledge that in 1997 the City was considering changes to the
Ordinance pertaining to Performers. The City held secret meetings for
eight months and spent many, many thousands of dollars on outside research
to investigate the performer issue. Street Performers were not included
in the discussion. Wow, that was smart..!
The City issued it´s findings and proposed Ordinance
ONE WEEK before the City Counsel was to start voting on it. This
did not give the Performers adequate opportunity to respond. The city
completely disregarded performer input and tried to write a law to accomplish
it goals with little thought of its effect on the overall performance
picture. The only thing which held them up were several Federal Court
Challenges which forced them to re-examine the Constitutional issues.
The Performers held meetings and informal discussions. They
came up with this document with no direction or help from the City.
They offered these proposals which were largely ignored and occasionally
ridiculed, even by a member of the City Council.
Sixty (which is most) of the active Performers signed on
to this document. It is presented here for those interested in the issues
and for those Performers who might wish a reference on how to deal with
City government and create reports.
Cities love paperwork.!!!
Special
thanks
.........a special thanks must be given to those who helped
draft and re-draft this report. First of all, the apx. 30 performers
from the Promenade, who gave input on all these items through interviews
and meetings. Next, the folks who helped beat this into shape. Steven
Baird, from Boston, the father of Street Performer political action
and legal reform; Jason Squire, who's literary insights smoothed out
the really rough edges and phrased things in a positive light; Andy
Smyser, who's legal insights and good grammar fixed about 1000 errors;
and last of all my father Ed Landin, who's years of working at bending
government bureaucracies towards the creative, fixed many of the major
concepts and knew what really should be said. Thank-you all for
you help...!
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