City may regulate street performances

A law regulating street performers in downtown Huntington Beach is in

the works and could be brought before the City Council in the coming

months.

The new ordinance could require downtown street performers to

obtain city permits to play music or perform on Main Street and would

be based on a similar law in Santa Monica. Many business owners said

the ordinance is needed to combat a wave of antisocial behavior

downtown, although 1st Amendment concerns linger.

“We don’t want to interfere with anyone’s free speech rights,”

Police Chief Ken Small said. “We just need to let people get by on

the sidewalks.”

An influx of performers is crowding city streets and sidewalks and

creating tension with the business community, said Small, who

assigned Doug Tallman, a downtown substation sergeant, to work on the

ordinance.

The details of the new law are not available, but Small predicted

the bill would require street performers to register and obtain

permits from the city before performing downtown. It’s unclear how

the law will define a street performer versus someone simply

exercising his or her free speech rights. The new ordinance will also

likely include language about when and where a person can perform in

downtown Huntington Beach.

The new law will be based on a Santa Monica ordinance, passed in

July 1999, that has been a boon to the city’s pier and the Third

Street Promenade, city spokesperson Judy Rambeau said. That law

requires performers to get a permit and relocate to a different spot

every two hours while maintaining a distance of 40 feet from one

another.

Rambeau said the ordinance helps people who might be subjected to

a performer they don’t like.

“If they’re not a great talent, at least you know they can’t stay

there all day long,” Rambeau said.

The Santa Monica law was also created to distribute popular

performance spots among artists more fairly. The Huntington Beach

law, by contrast, seems to aim at freeing up parts of Main Street

where young people like to congregate.

A particularly crowded area is the intersection of Main Street and

Walnut Avenue, where groups of youth can almost always be found

sitting around one of the four planters on each corner of the

intersection. During the busiest months of the summer, the youths

often play music for donations or panhandle. Many downtown business

managers said the young people sometimes disturb their customers.

“I’d say they go out here three to five times a week and just

start playing,” said Sunshine Mahler, manager of Huntington Surf and

Sport. “They range from the very talented to the very untalented.”

The bad ones, she argues, annoy customers and shop employees.

Many retailers agreed that the performers weren’t directly causing

problems, but the young people who congregate around the performers

often did. Mahler said the youths sometimes harass customers and

employees, and Mahler has seen fights spill into her store.

“It’s an intimidating situation,” she said.

The people who hang out on the corners often scare Huntington

Beach residents away, Diamonds and Lace manager Jennifer Dolstrom

said.

“It affects the people that live here locally because they don’t

want to come down here when it’s so crowded,” she said. “I rarely see

any locals on the weekend.”

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