Rewrite requested for Plaza sales rules

PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 07/14/09

Shoppers may soon walk away from the Plaza de la Constitucion with new paintings under their arms.

But they'll have to look elsewhere for cheap sunglasses.

St. Augustine city commissioners on Monday said they want a new legal strategy that would allow free expression to everyone but that would also control the swarms of venders who believe the historic Plaza is their personal flea market.

City Attorney Ron Brown said at a workshop on the issue that many U.S. cities have successfully written ordinances that have passed federal court muster.

"San Antonio requires permits. They cost $750 each and there are only six of them," he said. "Los Angeles allows political, philosophical, religious or ideological (objects), and all items created by the vendor. The city doesn't allow housewares, auto parts, oils, candles, jewelry and toys."

In the past, St. Augustine police have had difficulties in sorting out what's art from what's not.

Brown suggested the commission write its own shopping list of what they want allowed, using concrete examples.

"At least that would give us some basis to act," Brown said.

Because it was a workshop, the commission could not vote.

City Manager Bill Harriss said St. Augustine tried years ago to allow all vendors, but St. George Street became impassable and downtown merchants complained. Then a permit system was tried and then sacked.

Harriss said, "It was difficult to manage that system."

After a couple of failures, the City Commission eventually approved an ordinance that withstood federal court scrutiny and which banned all street artists, vendors and entertainers from St. George Street.

The displaced artists were told that their alternative place to perform or sell was the Plaza.

Now the city must decide: Everybody allowed on the Plaza, or nobody?

Commissioner Leanna Freeman said all or nothing is the safest legally, "but it's really lazy."

She suggested starting with an ordinance banning vendors nobody wants on the Plaza -- sunglass sellers top that list -- and see what happens.

"This is an evolving process. We've tried all or nothing. Nobody seems to be excited about either one," Freeman said. "It's summer. It's the perfect time to do it."

Brown said artists on the Plaza might be a natural link between crowded St. George Street and quiet Aviles Street, south of the Plaza, which features another art venue.

"The traditional public forum is a street or a park," Brown said.

Commissioner Don Crichlow noted that the busy market in Charleston, S.C., is not in the busiest or central part of town. "People go there because they want to go to the market," he said.

The commission briefly considered turning the Plaza's slave market into a place for free speech and artists. Crichlow said it might save the grass.

Mayor Joe Boles said he didn't think that would work.

"The northwest corner of the Plaza -- closest to St. George Street -- is where the most traffic is and where vendors want to cluster. Everything we have tried has not worked," Boles said.

The commission, by consensus, asked Brown to create a sample ordinance within the next few weeks.

Crichlow said, "Where we're going is where we've gone before. (But) we need to do something pretty quick."

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The St. Augustine City Commission held a workshop Monday before its regular meeting but ran out of time for a planned discussion on what the city's downtown architectural style should be.

No date was set for that discussion.

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