At his weekly press conference this morning. I asked Mayor D.C. Reeves to explain how a permit given to Boots for Matt Berry allows Food Not Bombs to gather at Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza on Friday evenings to distribute food. His answer surprised me.
- “Well, first, it’s not a permit,” Mayor D.C. Reeves said. “It’s a park rental agreement, and any applicant can have a park rental agreement, and any activity taking place in the park is at the discretion of the person with a park rental agreement.”
So, Boots for Matt Berry is the one who determines where the Food Not Bombs can be at the park under this agreement?
The mayor stated that was the case under a park rental agreement while the park is closed. “I think that’s the important distinction,” he explained. “What we’re discussing is when a park is closed, and what we are simultaneously discussing is thoroughfare versus park, changing hours later.”
Reeves continued, “And what I can tell you now is we haven’t had any issues there the last couple of weeks. We don’t expect that there will be any issues.”
- He said his position has been: “We want folks to do what they want to do, and any perception or theory that we are trying to stop anybody from doing what they want to do at the location where they want to do it is incorrect. We are trying to balance all of these things, including a park that looks a lot like a sidewalk.”
The mayor said his staff has met with the police department about park hours. “Of course, there’s other opinions on council about the ordinance as a whole, or is that hour correct. So we have been working on the administrative side to come up with a solution.”
The mayor added, “I can tell you our solution is more focused on clarity around park hours. That’s what I can say at this moment. But we obviously want to hear out our council members too before we come make a quick change of which they don’t necessarily agree. So I would say we’re kind of in the analysis phase alongside our council members at this moment about what they feel is the best way to handle that situation.”
Can Boots for Matt Berry boot Food Not Bombs from MLK Plaza?
Mayor D.C. Reeves replied, “They have a permit through whatever the exact date…So yeah, you’d have to talk to them. So what I can tell you is I certainly don’t expect that because the spirit of the reason the permit or park rental agreement came in first place was to try to support that effort.”
He said the media would need to talk with the applicant about whether they plan to not allow Food Not Bombs in MLK Plaza. “I would suspect from our side it isn’t, since the indication given to our staff when that came in was to try to be in support of that activity taking place.”
- One problem: The applicant’s name has been redacted from the Permit.
