Creating Art Is Not a Crime ... Except in

[1monster]

If anyone is so inclined to express your opinion to the powers that be in St. Augustine, the contact information is below. Since we are a tourist town, the voices of potential tourists might ring louder than the voices of the local (non merchant class) people.

The commissioners listed below are not the ones who banned artists form the various parts of St. Augustine, but they haven't done anything to over turn these laws.

St. Augustine City Commissioners:

Mayor Nancy Shaver, [e-mail]

Vice Mayor Roxanne Horvath, [e-mail]

Commissioner Todd Neville, [e-mail]

Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline, [e-mail]

Commissioner Leanna Freeman [e-mail]

City Manager: John P. Regan [e-mail]

Contact all members of the St. Augustine City Commission
Mail: P. O. Box 210 (75 King Street), St. Augustine, FL 32085-0210
Phn: 904.825.1006
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[Kalidurga]

1. They are begging people to stage a paint-in

I bet thousands could be rounded up to do it. I wish I could I would be there in a heartbeat.

[1monster]

2. I haven't heard of this! Who is begging for a paint in and when?

[Kalidurga]

3. The people who made it illegal to paint.

That is the kind of thing that drives creative people to do things like well paint where they aren't supposed to. This is the first I have heard of a city doing something like this. I haven't heard any plans, but if it does happen I won't be shocked.

[Downwinder]

4. Pictures have a brighter future than the City

[valerief]

5. How did I *know* this was Florida solely from the subject line?

[1monster]

6. Well, many of the commissioners who pushed these laws

into being were from other states who moved here and opened businesses in the tourist heavy areas. They were irritated by the buskers (many who gave high quality performances) and artists because they drew crowds that the merchants felt should be spending all their money in the shops, not droppinhany of it I to the hats of buskers or buying art directly from the artists rather than through a gallery.

The current mayor has only lived in Florida a couple of years and she is just what one would expect acarpetbagger to be.

In the mid seventies, this area had a population of around 15,000. Now the population is around 645,000. The whole state is like that and the population boom didn't come from a sky rocketig birthrate. It came from people from other states moving herr.

[valerief]

8. Interesting, but all those facts still don't make it *not* Florida.

[1monster]

9. What state do YOU live in? I'm sure there could be a case made up for your state

to be jeered at and constantly put down, too. (Not that I will; I hope I have better manners than that.) In these United States, I doubt if there is any state that does not have its foibles, weird stories, strange people, el als.

And, for the record, Florida was one of the first states to enact sweeping Government in the Sunshine laws. Those laws were used as a basis for several other state's Sunshine laws. This was a good solid state to live in before Jebbie got in (and gerrymandering, voter suppression, and voter roll purges); and I'm sure that, unless we drown because Governor Voldemort is blind and stupid, Florida will again, someday be that again.

[valerief]

10. Whatever Florida WAS it isn't what it IS. And I COULD tell it was Florida

by the subject line.

Warren is my senator.

[progressoid]

7. WTF?