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DESCRIPTION:ANOTHER ROUND OF "LAW-BREAKING" FOR JUSTICE\nFreedom 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.  \n\nThe 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. \n\nFood Not Bombs is slated to 
 be feeding and organizing during the afternoon and early evening.  \n\nTHE 
 DISMAL BACKGROUND\nSanta 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). \n\nIn 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.  \n\nCITY 
 COUNCIL'S NEW LAW AGAINST VENDORS, TABLERS, AND PERFORMERS\nThe 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. 
 \n\n“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.  \n\nExempted 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."  \n\nThe 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. \n\nBANNED FROM THE BLACKTOP\nBanned 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." \n\n"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."\n\nBanned 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."\n\nThese 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."   \n\nThe 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.\n\nIn 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.\n\nTwo 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 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/05/06/18786130.php.\n\nOTHER SCENES 
 OF PROTEST\nMeanwhile 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/city-sacramento-wont-put-unlawful-camping-ordinance-trial-dismisses-criminal-charges-against 
 .  \n\nAnd 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.  \n\nFor more info 
 on the Freedom Sleepers and the "Vanish the Vendors" law, check out 
 https://www.indybay.org/calendar/?page_id=60 for the last 43 Tuesday 
 events.  \n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/05/10/18786263.php
SUMMARY:"Vanish the Vendors" Viciousness at City Council Followed by Freedom SleepOut #44
LOCATION: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.
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/05/10/18786263.php
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