New attempt by Honolulu City
Council to curtail street performers in Waikiki 2005
The battle never ends... The fake
public safety study... How many people have been injured by a
street performance? The real public safety issue is abuse of
alcohol and drugs.... The City's own Police Reports will document
this... Will the Honolulu City Council ban alcohol sales from 7-10
PM? No! The issue is not about public safety. It is about class
and money. "City Hall of Shame" continues -- Stephen
Baird.
Computer simulation program used to ban
performances in Waikiki from 7-10 PM. http://www.simwalk.com/applications/simwalk_urban_planning.html
The simulation study, conducted by Karl
Kim, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning University of Hawaii
at Manoa, is based on pedestrian counting data for the Kalakaua
Avenue. This study ignores the research of actual photographs and
films by urban planner William H, Whyte that show people will
"self regulate" crowds to minimize danger to personal
safety. This research concept was
confirmed when the Honolulu Police Chief stated there have been no
injuries caused by street performances at a public hearing.
William H, Whyte testified in the
Davenport vs. Alexanddria federal court case where the judge
stated: "there has been shown no safety interest
substantial enough to outweigh the plaintiff's First Amendment
interests." Davenport v. City
of Alexandria, VA.748 F.2d 208 (1984)
Rediscovering the Center City (Doubleday 1988) by
William H.
Whyte The
author, William H. Whyte, was an expert architect witness in favor
of street performances in the Davenport v. Alexandria, Virginia
and the Friedrich v. Chicago, Illinois federal court cases. He
provided important testimony to rebut the exaggerated and bogus
public safety issues often presented by city officials to suppress
and ban street performances. Details of this issue can be found in
the third chapter. William H. Whyte also wrote an earlier book
titled The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces which documented
street performances and pedestrian behavior.b See: Project for
Public Spaces, 153 Waverly Place, 4th floor, New York, NY 10014
Fred Kent, President, Phone: 212 620-5660, Fax: 212 620-3821
Email: pps@pps.org. Web site: http://www.pps.org/
- Safety & Security in Public
Space, Project for Public
Spaces http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/issuepapers/safety_security
- Campaign to Preserve the Commons:
Keeping the 'Public' in Public Space,
Project for Public
Spaces http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/issuepapers/commercialize
- A UCLA Department of Urban Planning research book chapter
summary on the use of public space can be found on this web
site at: Sidewalk
Democracy: Municipalities and the Regulation of Public
Space
- Also see: Djou's sidewalk study bumps
into reality http://poinography.com/index.php?p=1499
- See: Urban
Studies Statement by Dr. Allan Schnaiberg, Professor of
Sociology and Urban Affairs at Northwestern
University
"Finally, I want to speak briefly to the matter
of street performances and congestion of city streets.
Following the profound insights of planners such as Jane
Jacobs, reinforced by recent pedestrian-observation studies of
my fellow sociologist William Whyte, I want to suggest that our
major urban problems in North America stem from too little
pedestrian congestion and too much vehicular congestion.
Urbanites (and even many suburbanites) find comfort and
attraction in pedestrian congestion. That is why a sole street
observer looking up soon collects a crowd, regardless of what
he or she is looking at! Seriously, street activity is an
inherently social activity: too little street congestion, it
has been shown, actually decreases the propensity of many urban
and suburban dwellers to shop or walk certain streets. And this
is true quite independently of the risks of street crime, A
heighted street density introduced by street performances
actually reduces fear of crime, and increases numbers of
pedestrians (thus often enhancing commercial activity in the
areas near street performances). And this is true of local
residents as well as tourists. Thus the increase in street
performances will enhance the attractiveness of Chicago street
to residents, suburbanites, and tourists alike - thereby
increasing local profits and tax revenues and making Chicago a
more livable place still."
- See: http://www.streetvendor.org/
The Street Vendor Project has launched a campaign to identify
who is encroaching on our public spaces, and where. Invariably,
the same big business and Business Improvement Districts who
complain about vendors blocking the sidewalk are themselves
illegally taking up our public spaces. For example: Lately,
concrete planters have been blossoming on our sidewalks like
spring crocuses. The Department of Transportation requires that
all planters have permits, but 90% of the sidewalk planters in
New York are completely illegal. The city does nothing. When
vendors block the sidewalk, they are arrested and put in jail.
When big businesses do, the city looks the other way. We should
all take a critical look at who is really occupying our public
space. Each vendor's table or cart is, at most, four feet wide
by ten feet long. In contrast, big corporations routinely block
the sidewalk with hundreds of phone booths, trash containers,
news boxes, and planters, in ways that are much more intrusive
than vendors could ever be.
The new law Bill 71 PDF can be
downloaded HERE
Waikiki Documentary ADHD Films, LLC is doing a documentary on
the new law that bans street performers in certain locations and
during certain hours in Waikiki. If you are looking to be a part
of a fun documentary experience then email info@adhdfilms.com
http://www.adhdfilms.com
ADHD Films, LLC, 345 Queen Street, Suite 900, Honolulu, HI
96813.
ACLU Wins Artistic
Expression Lawsuit On Behalf of Waikiki Street
Performers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 28, 2001
HONOLULU -- In a victory for
free speech advocates and champions of artistic expression, a
district court judge today threw out a local ordinance that
unconstitutionally limited the rights of street performers in the
city of Waikiki on Oahu.
The legal challenge was
originally brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of
Hawai'i on behalf of clients who included a musician, a magician
and a youth leader from an area church.
Defenders of the ordinance -
which restricts performers' access to parts of the city and
stipulates a lengthy permit process -- claimed their original
intent was to ensure the safety of persons performing around
constant pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
"The decision acknowledges
that the city's claim of concern for safety was false. The
evidence showed that they wanted the street performers not in
locations that were safe but in locations where they would not be
able to reach an audience," said Brent White, Legal Director of
the ACLU of Hawaii.
In her 42-page opinion,
Judge Virginia Crandall said the city ordinance violated the First
and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal constitution and
corresponding provisions of the state constitutions; her ruling
permanently blocked the law from taking effect.
The ordinance had been
scheduled to go into effect on July 12, 2000, but had been
temporarily prohibited after the ACLU filed a legal challenge in
June of that year. The measure sought to ban religious, political,
and artistic expression in almost all of Waikiki for all
individuals, not just street performers, the ACLU argued. For
example, the ordinance banned such acts as reciting the bible on
the street corner, singing patriotic songs, chanting slogans
against the government, and sitting on a public bench strumming
the guitar. Individuals who wished to engage in free expression
had to apply a month in advance for a permit for one of six remote
locations.
The ACLU's clients included
musician Steve Sunn, known as "Sonny Beethoven," who has been
playing the saxophone in Waikiki for almost 20 years; Steve
Williams, a street magician; and Shawn Kawelo, who leads the
Greater Mount Zion Holiness Church youth group to Waikiki every
other Friday where they sing, recite the Bible, and preach as a
means of spreading their religious message.
"Today's decision vindicates
our arguments that the city all along had no intention of
protecting the rights of street performers but instead intended to
eliminate them from Waikiki," said Earle Partington, co-counsel in
the case.
Support for the ordinance
came largely from the Waikiki business community. The City Council
did not invite testimony from a single street
performer.
A news release about the
initial filing of the lawsuit is online at: http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n062900b.html
####################################
Please go to and read the
stories and articles at the following links. The last link is
titled City Hall of Shame Honolulu Hale ignores First Amendment
Freedoms. by Robert M. Rees published on August 8, 2001. It is
full of outrageous statements by city officials to ban T-shirts
with slogans on them, and:
Bainum and others who should know
better have let themselves be taken captive by the tourist
industry, and have combined to form a First Amendment "City Hall
of Shame." To qualify for this pantheon, one must understand it is
wrongheaded and dangerous to use the O'Brien standards as window
dressing for unconstitutional limitations on free expression --
but be willing to do so anyway. This criterion eliminates some
likely candidates. Councilmember John DeSoto, for example,
apparently has zero understanding of the issues, and once asked of
the entire Council, "What's wrong with banning street performers
all together? I say ban it." Qualifying for the City Hall of
Shame, besides Mayor Harris, are five who do understand that
Honolulu should not be governed after the fashion of Disneyland,
but who are, nevertheless, intent on doing so.
City Hall of Shame
Honolulu Hale ignores First Amendment Freedoms. by Robert
M. Rees published on August 8, 2001 by Honolulu
Weekly.
