Occupy the Horse ... Legally?

[BackSeatEconomist]

JimBWise said:

I own a small business on the riverwalk, and I have been told explicitly by both the park district and the Chicago department of transportation that it "technically" does not ever close. It is patrolled like a park, but the laws regarding pedestrian thoroughfares are very clear, they must remain open 24 hours a day.

 


It may be that the cops do not ordinarily enforce the law, but it is the law and will almost certainly be enforced against OC.

Chicago Municipal Code section 10-36-145(b) states:

 Except as otherwise provided by the commissioner, it shall be unlawful for any person or vehicle to be in any facility or on the grounds of any part of the Chicago Riverwalk between the hours of 11:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M.

[tzipporar]

Very interesting!  To those who question why we need a tent city in the first place- we need to be more accessible to people and this means having:

- a welcome tent

- a food tent

- an education tent

- a medic tent

- an admin tent

etc.  Tents for sleeping address another issue and I don't have a great explanation as to why people need to be able to sleep on site.  One reason that comes to mind is the commute.  I have to bike 10 miles to get to HQ and GAs, and it's daunting at times.  I know that other people come from much farther than that.  So not having to go back where you came from in order to get some rest can be a big deal.

I'm curious to read other thoughts on why we need 24 hr presence, if we can stash our stuff at Grace's Place overnight.

[Lucki]

Tzippy said:

we need to be more accessible to people and this means having:

- a welcome tent

- a food tent

- an education tent

- a medic tent

- an admin tent

etc.  

Yes indeed. The "etc." include a couple of things dear to my heart: (1) A tech tent. (2) A sacred space.

OK, granted Grace Place itself can be considered a sacred space, hence the name. But we need one visible to everyone & not used for anything  else.

In any case, I was put on the agenda to present this proposal -- which I posted precisely because we were looking for all kinds of alternative ideas, & I wanted to find something a little, but not too, outside the box -- at GA tonight (THU 10/27). However, with last night's DAC proposal vote, I'm going to instead put this on hold until we find out how that works out, as this may either become unneccesary or infeasible (then again, maybe not) based on tonight's results.