Friday, November 03, 2017

Ugly, unfriendly, unconstitutional "No trespassing" sign at St. Augustine's Slave Market



I wrote the City on October 24, 2017 and talked to the City Manager, asking that the sign be removed.  The sign is still there.  Now there's an incurious St. Augustine Record article, one-sided, without support from any documents or other sources.  Pitiful.

In 2016, UF documents reveal, the University of Florida erected No Trespassing signs in Loring Park at the behest of City Attorney Isabelle Christine Lopez. The signs were removed after Mayor Nancy Shaver, Commissioner Leanna Freeman and I (among ohers) objected. Now there's one in the Public Market a/k/a "Slave Market." It's time for a new City Attorney, to be hired after a statewide search. No more shills.


From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
To: jregan <jregan@citystaug.com>; tburchfield <tburchfield@citystaug.com>; dgalambos <dgalambos@citystaug.com>; jpiggott <jpiggott@citystaug.com>; dmay <dmay@citystaug.com>; ilopez <ilopez@citystaug.com>
Sent: Tue, Oct 24, 2017 3:44 pm
Subject: Request No. 2017-603: Ugly, unfriendly, unconstitutional "No trespassing" sign at St. Augustine's Slave Market


Good afternoon:
1. Please send me the work order, policy memo, and legal research (if any) re: the recently-erected, ugly, unconstitutional "No trespassing" sign located at the Slave Market in St. Augustine's Plaza de la Constitucion.
2. Will you please remove the unfriendly, illegal, ugly, unconstitional sign tomorrow morning?

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998






Posted November 2, 2017 10:31 pm
By SHELDON GARDNER sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com
New artists rules roll out in St. Augustine

The city’s rules for street artists, created to settle a lawsuit, are being tested for the first time.


Under new rules that went into effect in October, the spaces in the Plaza de la Constitucion market are only for street artists, people who engage in expressive speech like painting, photography and playing music. The Plaza market had been open to strictly commercial vendors, as well as artists and performers, via lottery.

The city also created a dozen new spaces for street artists near the city parking garage. Strictly commercial activity is allowed in other spaces near the garage.

The new ordinances are part of the city’s settlement of a lawsuit filed by four artists who took issue with the city’s rules that restricted the sale of art in public places. It was one of a number of court battles that have shaped the city’s rules regarding vending and street performances.

One ordinance defines street artists as people who engage in expressive speech and it defines expressive speech as including, but not limited to, juggling, taking photos, playing music, drawing, painting and singing. Expressive speech doesn’t include making or selling things of a utilitarian purpose that don’t have First Amendment expressive content, according to the ordinance.

As part of the ordinances, street artists can use space in the Plaza market or near the parking garage. To get a space, they apply for a permit and enter a lottery where city officials randomly select applications. If chosen, they pay $25 for a permit.

“They have to affirm and attest on their application that what they’re doing is a First Amendment-protected activity … If we find that that’s become abused, we’ll probably go down a review of the permit to see that they are doing what they attested they were doing,” said Assistant City Attorney Denise May.

The city recently held its first permit lottery under the new ordinances. Almost every applicant who asked for a November permit got one.

To help make the point Plaza market spaces are for street artists who have a permit, the city recently posted a no-trespassing sign, May said. She said the sign isn’t intended to keep people from walking through the market.

All of the Plaza market’s dozen spaces are taken for November. The artists are people who have been in the market before, including painters, photographers, jewelers, woodworkers and sculptors, said Cori Niles, coordinator in the customer service department, which handles lottery applications. A few applications for the Plaza market weren’t chosen and those people did not want a space near the parking garage, Niles said.

St. Augustine resident Sylvia Hostetter received one of the Plaza permits. She sculpts bonsai trees from dozens of plant varieties from her home and sells them elsewhere, she said.

By the time her creations appear for sale, she’s already sculpted them for months or years, she said.

“I had 30 years experience in doing this. … I have plants that are 26 years old,” said Hostetter, who owns the Closet Gardener.

As of this week, only one artist had received a permit to operate in the spaces near the parking garage, and he plans to sell paintings and photography, Niles said. The city denied a permit to someone who wanted a space near the parking garage to create stencil tattoos using purchased stencils, Niles and May said. That was considered commercial activity.

While there’s no rule that says artists have to create their art on site, officials would prefer things happen that way, May said.

“The point of our lively market is to show off our artists,” she said.

Comments
Edward Adelbert Slavin · 

I agree with Tom Reynolds. The sign is bizarre. I wrote the City on October 24, 2017 and talked to the City Manager, asking that the sign be removed. The sign is still there. Now there's a St. Augustine Record article, one-sided, without support from any documents or other sources. Pitiful.
LikeReply2 mins
Tom Reynolds · 

The No Trespassing sign should be removed right away. It is another lawsuit waiting to happen. And the City has a weak LEGAL DEPARTMENT, so it will end up costing the taxpayers again. How many years has the City taken to figure this mess out? The SUPER WEAK LEGAL DEPARTMENT of the OLD CITY should be COMPLETELY REPLACED for all their FAILURES!
LikeReply317 hrs

1 comment:

Warren Celli said...

Scam 'rule of law' selectively enforced!

The No Trespassing signs in Loring park have NOT been removed!

One remains at the west entrance. I photographed it shortly before hurricane Irma. The one sign serves for all signs in its 'legally' devious intent which is the same 'legally' devious intent as the No Trespassing sign on the slave market column, i.e., in court trespassing on 'posted' property allows the crooked judges to apply bogus penalties that they might otherwise not be able to impose.

The 'legally' devious INTENT is to selectively enforce the scam 'rule of law' against undesirables — that would be the homeless and any one else that does not fit the profile of an allowable Pig Tourism customer as seen through the brainwashed minds of the murderous governments paycheck driven mall security force (called a police force by the uninformed).

The city, hijacked by immoral self serving gangsters, is now wallowing in its own self created societal decay.

You will not make positive change within the system.

Keep on pretending,

http://saintaugdog.com/sadarticles/immoralsnobsignoretheir%20corruption.html