Neighbors, It's very important that people understand the source of the new permit laws attacking city park users. Parks and recreation has abused a vaguely written ordinance of city council to completely and radically change public parks into exclusive rental venues. The original bill was designed for events which closed streeets and used city services, and was passed in reaction to the Mardi Gras bar crawl on South St.
Parks and Recreation has intentionally extended this vaguely written bill which was never meant to be applied to parks. That is why they have avoided public participation or advance knowledge of these new permit laws. It's why they convened secret meetings with selected civic association leaders and now pretend that it was a legitimate process that had broad and diverse "public" participation. It's why they are attempting to fundamentally change the nature of parks and the rights of citizens to gather without engaging in city council debate or hearings and passing a new ordinance. Although the meaning of the original law was clearly meant to be limited, it used the words "public property" instead of "streets/sidewalks" It limited the law only by stating it was not meant to be appllied to "block parties" The intentions of the original law are clearly not meant to apply to Clark Park informal community gatherings, like free and open chess or volleyball often played at community gatherings. This abuse of vague language is why they have done this behind an iron wall of secrecy depending on a tiny group of officers from dysfunctional organizations like the Friends of Clark park for cover. As people are rapidly learning, all of our public spaces are now considered commodities designed around corporate/university interests and visions. For parks, it means transformation into rental facilities, only affordable through corporate sponsorship, and away from the idea of parks as a public common and the center of culture and community for our neighborhoods. The city is using the cover of combining Fairmount park commission and the departmentof recreation to abuse this weakness in the original law. Admininistering permits for events like Mardi Gras was done through the Fairmount park commission, so this radical change is presented as a simple shift of established policy. (Darco once made the case for "established policy" on our list when FOCP was working on this secretly, but failed to provide his example for support) Additionaly, FOCP/UCD and the city are pretending that informal park gatherings, free and open to everyone, are the same as organized leagues, and that parks are designd for the same community purposes as recreation centers. By adding impossible rental charges for informal gatherings and giving special waivers to the allied "Friends" groups, this radical change places FOCP/UCD as a de facto ruling authority and guarantees that parks will be turned into country clubs for an exclusive dues paying upper class, prohibiting free and open use by the entire community through expensive permits. I think it's important to recognize how vaguely written laws, like most quality of life laws, are abused at later dates. These laws usually depend on an implied promise that repressive rules will be applied unequally, so that the vague language shouldn't be viewed as a problem for the powerful. If you study the permit applications, you will see that these continue to be desinged with vague but threatening language. The structure clearly shows that these are designed to allow violations of the 14th amendment and be applied with unequal standards against different groups of people! (e.g. Study the picnic permit) Anyway, that is what has happened with these new permit laws and UCD and FOCP started this demand for Clark Park back in 2001. The merge of the two departments finally gave them the opening for the goal they always had and to extend it to the entire city. What they have done and how they have done it have been shameful.. They are counting on the "Friends" group leaders to use intimidation and the promise of new power for their organization to get their members to buy into this radical transformation of parks and the rights of all. They are counting on keeping this out of the media spotlight, so that everyone is confused as the cops roll into Clark Park and quietly intimidate chess players and volleyball players. I think we need to ask; is this the society we want? Are we willing to risk the wrath of civic leaders by speaking out against these outrages? Are we willing to confront the truth about the new Parks and Recreation department and understand that it is assembled to and committed to the neoliberal privatization agenda? Do we believe in citizen rights for all or only for those with vast money? Do we believe in community and culture or that consumerism is the only reason for human existance? Are we mice or are we citizens? Sincerely, Glenn ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
