Playing Roulette with Street Performers

By Ned Landin
Santa Monica Street Performers Group

In considering the assets of any community, the quality of work being done by the resident Artists in that community is a touchstone of its culture. Rich culture does not happen in every city. When it does happen, it is something to be treasured, protected and nurtured.

This week the Santa Monica City Council will update the City's street performance ordinance. This is a very important evening for the community.

There is no art form more vital and dynamic than street performance. Its archetypal role in human society dates back to when people first gathered around tribal fires singing, dancing, and telling stories as they communally plumbed the depths of awareness.

Down through the ages, storytellers and minstrels, actors, jugglers and musicians have played a significant role in the progress of every civilization. From William Shakespeare to Woody Guthrie, the best and the brightest have taken their turn as street performers.

Consider the benefits of street performance. In a given area, if 10 good performers give 5 shows a day, that's 350 good shows a week; or 18,000 good shows a year. This is a large sum of good, free entertainment -- a powerful draw with few administrative costs.

But free entertainment is not the only benefit. Greater still is the community’s mutual access to a space preserved for its creative members to express themselves and for the general public to be inspired by that free range of expression. This is the public living room, which deepens the collective experience and enriches the greater society.

Over the last half century, countless high quality street acts have toured the United States from city to city, performing in places like the Boston Commons, New Orleans’ Jackson Square, New York’s Central Park, and hundreds of other not-so-famous venues. Then in the 1980’s, America’s city governments began to implement street use regulations
that either eliminated or diminished the quality of excellence in the practice of the ancient and beneficial art form of street performance.

These regulations had devastating effects on the greater performer community and drove most of the best performers either out, or to other countries.

In our time, the City of Santa Monica has evolved a rich tradition of street performance. The Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier are two popular gathering areas for crowds of people who stroll, shop and patronize the local businesses. On any day or evening, performers of all kinds imaginable are also drawn to these venues to do
their work as artists. This mixture of performer and audience is of immeasurable value to the culture of Santa Monica. But this cultural treasure is now in serious peril.

When the City council meets next week to consider several proposed amendments, there will be three issues that threaten to diminish and even eliminate the quality of excellence in the ongoing experience of local street performance.

1) The first issue goes to the proposed institution of a lottery system for the daily venue allocation method for individual performers.

Several years ago, with participation and support of many performers and other stake-holders, the Santa Monica City Council took substantial time to discuss and implement a rotational system that allowed any performer access who would be willing to wait their turn.

The implemented rotational system allows over 220 "access times" on the Promenade alone, to accommodate the full range of people wishing an opportunity for expression and performance.

This has been a great benefit to those willing to work hard, because they know if they make the effort to show up, they will be able to perform on that day. It motivates the good and excellent performers -- who may have other opportunities - to participate in the system, because they know they are guaranteed a venue. The rotational system is
also a benefit to businesses and residents, because no single performer will be located in front of their location all day.

The rotational system is also a codification of sharing and has been working very well for performers . It utilizes the right amount of regulation -- not too much, not too little -- and has benefited Santa Monica, globally, as a place that is artist friendly. The city is now
attracting worldwide talent, which further enriches the experience of strollers and patrons.

However, due to a complex set of circumstances, the rotation system was never enforced in one area of the City - the Pier. This led to excess and unregulated competition for locations there. Now the action has been to over regulate through codifying a lottery system.

A lottery system would be devastating to the quality and excellence of the general level of performance art in Santa Monica.

Any performer would have access less than 1/2 to 1/3 of the time. And as in roulette or dice they will be selected in a very random pattern. Most good performers don't want to gamble with their time. They will soon tire of not being able to perform consistently, move on to other opportunities and we will lose these excellent performers.

2) A second policy proposal before the City Council Tuesday is one that proposes to dedicate spaces specifically to non-performers, while eliminating requirements for them to share in other locations.

Certain non-performers, using street space for forms of non-art expressive-merchandising, don't like the concept of sharing space on the Promenade. They want to keep prime locations to themselves, all day and they have lobbied the City through various means in hopes they will be granted special dispensation. Ironically, these individuals now enjoy a measure of extended access only because everyone else is
sharing. But they may be threatening themselves with their own actions.

If the non-performers are successful in persuading the City with their agenda, this could eventually place severe limits on the access of everyone else involved, by reducing the number of spaces available to everyone else from the 220 time slots to few more than 20 all day locations. This would create a lot of competition.

3) Last is the simple issue of reduction of territory. With a safety setback here, a restaurant expansion there, increased pressure to lease public space for revenue everywhere and much more to come -- it is very important to keep in mind that at some point Santa Monica will offer too limited an environment to sustain a quality performer population.

Naturally, the City must represent everyone's interests. The rotation system maintains an equitable order and allows the greatest number of people to express themselves. It is a successful model for sharing and allows the greatest number of people to have significant access, in various turns, during the day. The operative principal is that those who want access in these high demand areas, need to share the space responsibly by rotating.

Santa Monica's rotational system for street performers allows the greatest access for the largest number of people, and provides an excellent cultural model for Santa Monica.