Street artists may get booted

The Salt Lake City Council has decided it wants to kick street artists out of Pioneer Park and some other locales — a plan that counters a measure proposed by Mayor Rocky Anderson and which could well be vetoed by him.

Going against Anderson's wishes Thursday, the City Council unveiled an ordinance that would forbid street artists from selling their goods at Pioneer Park. Street art sales would similarly be barred from neighborhood commercial districts such as Ninth and Ninth and 15th and 15th under the council's plan, developed by Council Chairwoman Jill Remington Love, Vice Chairman Dale Lambert and Councilman Dave Buhler.

Last month Anderson forwarded a much less restrictive ordinance to the City Council and asked them to pass it. His measure would allow street artists in any park or business district, breathing life into the city, Anderson said.

The mayor said the council's ordinance may well be unconstitutional and he would feel "compelled to veto it" if the City Attorney's Office agreed.

"We're all supposed to uphold the Constitution," he said. "There are some of the members of the council who want to control and regulate things to a point that is incompatible with creating new ideas and events," he added.

Proponents of the art sales have said such restrictions in the new proposal run counter to protections afforded in federal court rulings, which have said artists have free speech rights to hawk their wares in public places. If any restrictions are imposed, they have to be narrow in scope and further a public interest, observers say.

The arts community embraced Anderson's plan and had lobbied the council over the past few weeks to adopt it. Some council members, however, said the plan was less restrictive than art-friendly places like San Francisco.

Like the mayor, the arts community wasn't pleased Thursday with the council's plan. Renee Shaw, who manages the Mainly Art gallery in Crossroads Plaza mall, said there are artists in Salt Lake City who will challenge the law's constitutionality.

A public hearing will be held on the council's plan June 1, with a final vote coming sometime after that hearing.

Street artists at Pioneer Park have become controversial in recent years as they have battled the Downtown Alliance's Farmers Market. The alliance pays to reserve space at the market while street artists, in the past, have been allowed in the park at little or no cost. The Farmers Market crowd has complained that the street artists are mooching off their success and don't have to pay the same costs.

Council members feel their ordinance is a just compromise — and it appears there is support enough to override a mayoral veto.