"Coonerty's Greatest Hits": On FRSC Sunday AM & In Front of His BookStore Sunday PM

Choice cuts from Mayor Ryan Coonerty's Controlled Debate with ACLU's Don Zimmerman and local activist attorney Kate Wells will be airing twice on Sunday, as mentioned above.

Call-in number to comment on the radio is 831-427-3772. Feel free to heckle or critique from the sidewalk in front of the Bookshop Santa Cruz later during the protest.

Coonerty has refused to schedule an appointment with me, allow a public interview, reveal his public meeting schedule, release the record of meetings with lobbyists in the last few months, or clarify how the general public can meet with him (particularly homeless people).

At the last City Council meeting of the year, Coonerty cut back allowed oral communication time to two minutes per speaker, and shortened the evening time from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. (He also allowed a new brief period of oral communication at the beginning of the afternoon session of 10 minutes)

SAFE (Society for Artistic Freedom and Expression/Streetperformers Against Foolish Enforcement) singers will be singing "Santa Cruz"-specific Xmas carols as well as the old standbye "Downtown [in Santa Cruz]

The first stanza of the updated "Downtown" (sung to the tune of the old Petula Clark song) goes:

"When you're alone and rents are making you homeless,
You can always go...downtown!
When you get laid off, all the cops and the friends
Will move you to and fro...downtown!
Just try and find musicians who can tolerate the city
Linger on the sidewalk & the police will say "no sitting"
How can you win?
The fines are much higher there
They have forgotten you live here, forgotten you care
When you're downtown, there's lot of hate for you
Downtown--it's not so great for you
Downtown--tickets are waiting for you."

(for the next four verses, show up at the 2 PM protest later today, or check out the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night sing-a-long's in front of New Leaf Market beginning shortly after 6 PM)

For more info: check out http://www.huffsantacruz.org or call 831-423-4833

To view the entire Coonerty debate, go to
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/14/18461204.php or
http://humanityforhomeless.blogspot.com/2007/11/sleeping-ban-debate.html#links

To ask Coonerty directly about these issues, call him at 420-5020, but don't grow too old waiting for a response.