Wednesday, June 24, 2009
City This Makes Sense
Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Considering that the city funds and manages Seattle Center like a city park, then a park's rules for free speech ought to apply there, too. The 9th Circuit appeals court agrees:
Seattle Center rules aimed at addressing complaints about street performers making too much noise, blocking access or aggressively seeking donations are unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.The 8-3 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses an earlier ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court.
The original lawsuit was brought by Michael Berger - known as Magic Mike - a magician who performed at the downtown center. He sued the city and Seattle Center in 2003. Berger objected to regulations issued in 2002 that required street performers to obtain a permit, to wear a badge displaying the permit, to not aggressively seek donations, to limit performances to 16 designated locations and to not engage in "speech activities" within 30 feet of most visitors to Seattle Center.
Next someone ought to challenge the backward rules for holding protests and rallies there. Right now, a big free-speech event like gay pride is required to hire the Seattle Center staff and pay tens of thousands in fees to use the space. That, in part, is how Seattle Out and Proud got into about $90,000 of debt holding the pride festival there in 2006 (now a company holds the festival while SOaP only runs the parade). But those regulatory fees don't apply to gay pride or Hempfest in city parks; they shouldn't apply in Seattle Center—an underused concrete tundra that's empty most of the year—either.
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I'd like to see your reaction if Ken Hutcherson got the city to pick up the costs for an anti-homo rally at Seattle Center.
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@ 3) I'd be great with it. Parks are supposed to be used for rallies and protests--even ones with a message we detest. And maintaining those public spaces costs money, whether it's Seattle Center or Volunteer Park. But unlike a park, Seattle Center is designed for major events--it's got electricity, plumbing, built in bathrooms, amphitheaters--but it's hardly used.
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Hardly used? Where do you get that? Did you see the Livestrong event or the Iranian Festival this last weekend? How about Folklife a few weeks before that? Have you seen the fountain on a warm day? The thousands of children during Kid's Fest? Fire Festival, Cherry Blossom Festival, Italian Festival, Free outdoor movies, the ice rink in winter.... concrete tundra? Really?
10
First, as you yourself admit, Seattle Center is different, with its indoor plumbing, readily available electricity, etc. I think we can all agree that volunteers can't be expected to clean bathrooms, and we probably wouldn't want them messing too much with electricity. (In any event, the legal department/labor unions would probably insist that that isn't a good idea)
Thus, because Seattle Center is a complex space intended more for professional events, and there is that matter of labor contracts, and what can (and cannot) be done by whom, Seattle Center is always going to be more expensive.
Perhaps a better solution might be some sort of Seattle Center Foundation, that existed to underwrite worthy civic events that lack funds. But until then, it's always going to be pricier.
Unless an event is totally unorganized, of course. I don't think that anyone was charged anything for the impromptu gathering when Kurt Cobain died.
1) There are permanent organizations, with offices and facilities, on the grounds. Lots of them.
2) It is *constantly* being used for events. Just because they're not all vast festival-level extravaganzas doesn't mean the place is unoccupied. Quite the opposite.
3) Don't weep for gay pride man, they knew the expenses going into that arrangement, and the expenses are totally legit. (port-a-potties, traffic monitoring, etc.) They could have had it in a free public park if they had any sense, and should have. The people who said keep it on broadway were right.
Not a comment on this court ruling, just some comments on your comments.
SOaP signed a contract with the costs disclosed, didn't they? That's what got them into this mess (and the pansy-ass workaround of creating a corporation to run the festival). Have they paid off that money yet? Or are they still freeloading on civic goodwill?
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The Pride Festival organizers back in '06 chose to be a commercial, for profit event which precluded them from that underwriting and required them to pay for labor they incurred. Unfortunately they didn't have a clue what they were doing and had no idea how to turn a profit.
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The only thing that surprises me is that they didn't make them pay the estimated cost ahead of time. That's how every hotel in the world does it.
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That said, I miss Volunteer Park. It was way more fun.
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