City Bans Tents in Parks in Not-So-Subtle Attempt to Curb Occupy L.A. Encampments

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://laist.com/2012/06/06/city_bans_tents_in_parks_in_not-so-.php

In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban tents from city parks, as a not-so-subtle means to prevent groups like Occupy L.A. from setting up camps.

The vote approved clarified wording of a city ordinance that now defines camping to mean: "to erect, maintain or occupy a camp facility for any purpose, including lodging or living accommodation," according to City News Service. Further, a tent under the language of L.A. law is a shelter that is partially closed and "`lacks an unobstructed view into the tent, shelter or structure from the outside.''

Members of the Occupy L.A. movement were on hand at the meeting today to protest the decision on the ordinance, but also pointed to the potential negative impact the ban on tents may have on the homeless population.

"The people that truly don't have homes, that's what this is really directed about,'' said Occupy L.A. activist Ryan Rice.

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It is odd that after the city made so much noise about how much the lawn would cost to replace, that they decided to re-install a non-native species requiring far more watering and care than a native succulent species, for example. If you've seen the "lawn" directly across the street at the City Hall South building, you'll note that even without protesters, it simply dies despite any attempt to care for it.

[Magoo48]

1. How small-minded and fearful.....quite sad

[msongs]

2. great news, just use canopies, as they are not tents by definition: "partially closed" nt

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. Unanimous eh? Just more proof that local blue elected officials are the most right wing division

of the Democratic party.

The corporatists took a ground-up approach to infiltrating and disrupting our structures for local governance, and we should respond in kind.

Everyone needs to take a course in land development and real estate to understand what is at the (200-year old) root of rot in our system.

It's the original and most basic form of corruption and it afflicts local government almost exclusively.

[JDPriestly]

4. About the lawn, for a couple of years now, some developer has kept the beautiful

lawn that separated the County Civil Court building from the County offices building and continued through just about to City Hall. That did not seem to upset anyone even though County and court employees were deprived of the quiet and peace of those gardens for years thanks to the developers' occupation.

It's a double standard.

As one who worked for a government sponsored homeless project for years, I would like to point out that telling homeless people they cannot camp in tents forces them to sleep in the open.

Brutality in our local government.

I know a couple of our councilmen. They are nice guys. Somehow they haven't thought this through.