Los Angeles Times: Judge blocks Venice boardwalk permit system (City of Los Angeles Defeated In Federal Court by Legalease Dream Team of Matt Dowd & Zuma Dogg)
Los Angeles Times: Judge blocks Venice boardwalk permit system
By Andrew Blankstein and Abby Sewell, Los Angeles Times
October 27, 2010
The jurist says the lottery system for performers and sellers violates the 1st Amendment. He also strikes down a rule barring the use of musical instruments or amplified sound between 9 a.m. and sunset in designated areas.
A federal judge has blocked portions of a Los Angeles ordinance designed to regulate performers and vendors along the Venice Beach boardwalk.
U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson issued the preliminary injunction last week, effectively stating that the city's permitting and lottery system for boardwalk performers and sellers violates the 1st Amendment.
The ruling involved a 2008 ordinance that required performers and vendors to seek permits to sing, dance and sell items along the boardwalk through a lottery system held between Memorial Day and Nov. 1.
In blocking the ordinance, Pregerson noted that the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a similar permitting system in Seattle was unconstitutionally broad and only marginally regulated vendors, which the appeals court said could be achieved through "less intrusive means."
"There is no explanation as to why this system manages conflicting claims to limited space any more effectively than a simple first-come-first-served rule," Pregerson wrote in his 27-page ruling.
The judge also struck down a Los Angeles City Council rule barring the use of musical instruments or amplified sound between 9 a.m. and sunset in designated areas.
Street performer "Zuma Dogg", one of the plaintiffs in the challenge to the law, said Tuesday that the city was arrogant in refusing to tweak the ordinance to address their concerns."You have to pay a permit fee for free speech, and that's wrong," he said.
Dogg also took issue with confining amplified music to one condensed area.
The ordinance grew out of complaints by residents and business owners that unregulated vending affected the character, safety and economic vitality of the boardwalk.
