Bans on hacky sacks and feeding the homeless delayed for the time being
A business group recommended Thursday that more police be deployed along the Third Street Promenade.
However, the group declined to act on proposals that would have banned feeding the homeless and allowing transients to pile their belongings on the Promenade, as well as banning playing with balls or hacky sacks.
The recommendations come from a committee set up by the Bayside District Corporation to study ways of increasing safety and controlling the homeless population along the Promenade. The committee, which consists of Bayside board members and business leaders, finalized its recommendations for the full board Thursday afternoon.
The committee said the two full-time police officers currently assigned to the Promenade can’t handle the volume of violations and perceived crimes being committed everyday.
“I think we really need to beef up police deployment on the Promenade,” said Ruth Elwell, a Bayside board member. “Things are getting sloppy down there.”
“Things are getting sloppy down there.” — — RUTH ELWELL Bayside Corporation board member
At the center of the committee’s concerns was a small group of transients and young adults who gather daily in the center court — located in the middle of the Promenade across from the food court — and hang out for hours.
Bayside officials said the group leaves behind large amounts of litter and blocks pedestrian access to center court when they play hacky sack, a game where players pass a small bean bag to each other using any body part other than their hands.
“Objects in the air under no means of control make me very uncomfortable,” said Patricia Hoffman, a Bayside board member. “You expect that at a park, but not on a pedestrian walkway.”
But after much debate, committee members decided to delay recommending a ban on all ball play along the Promenade until other proposals, including removing benches and creating a tent in center court that would rotate featuring different city restaurants, were attempted first.
“We would have such a difficult time and the city attorney would have such a difficult time getting something like this approved by the city council,” said Art Harris, a Bayside member. “I think we would have a real difficult effort for very little reform down the road.”
Committee members were also concerned with the center court group and other individuals bringing large bags of personal items and leaving them in the public’s way.
At a meeting earlier this month, city attorney Marsh Moutrie said it was unclear how preventing people from setting their bags down for long periods of time could be enforced.
Regardless, committee members voted to ask Moutrie to investigate the feasibility of implementing such a law. Business owners said they would like to see an ordinance in place by the summer, if possible.
And committee members said they would still pursue moving public feedings of the homeless to designated areas off the Promenade. They discussed possibly meeting with the non-profit charities that conduct the feedings to find a compromise.
“I think we make it clear to them we are not against this,” said Harris. “We just want this to take place in one area rather than along the entire Promenade.”
Kathleen Rawson, executive director of Bayside, said the committee would meet with the city’s homeless services director on how to precede with moving the feedings and working with the charities.
The committee’s recommendations will then go before the full Bayside board for a vote on April 25.
If the full board approves the committee’s recommendations they would be passed on to the city council, which would decide whether to make the necessary budget increases to fund hiring new officers for the Promenade.
The Bayside District Corporation is a public-private management company in partnership with the City of Santa Monica, charged with the responsibility of overseeing public safety, security, and maintenance of streets surrounding the Promenade, including the alleys and the six city-owned parking structures.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 19, 2002. Read the original PDF.