Santa Cruz gets chalked up - Santa Cruz Sentinel

I was there. It was everywhere, and generally not artistic. Classy.

Neat idea gone bad. It was mostly profanity. Sad really. Not much respect shown by the majority of those with Chalk. Wouldn't it be cool if it was an artful event and positive?
Oh never mind.

Only "Insanity Cruz"

What is a socialist justice mantra? Read teh anarchist's cookbook? Go commit felonies and say it's the local will of the people to violate laws freely? Cross the border illegally, and demand handouts and use up local government funds? Be a bum, drink, use drugs in public?

Wow...whoever did the drawing of Emily Reily
going topless....fantastic....way cool...

realist wrote:

What is a socialist justice mantra? Read teh anarchist's cookbook? Go commit felonies and say it's the local will of the people to violate laws freely? Cross the border illegally, and demand handouts and use up local government funds? Be a bum, drink, use drugs in public?

I can do those things and city hall will "vessa me culo". They pander to the bums, dopers, gang bangers and other riff raff that ruins any city...

Oh, how creative! How new-age. How downright artsy. How very Santa Cruz. Now go to work.

You guys are kidding us, right? This is a joke story. No community is THAT stupid to hand out chalk. What's next? Spray cans so graffitti "artists" can express themselves? Get a life Santa Cruz.

"Names, art and social justice mantras." What, no right wing stuff? You mean that conservatives don't know how to use chalk? A pity, that.

2400 sticks of chalk get washed into the streets, down the storm drains, into the river and onward into the ocean. That's just friggin brilliant. Santa Cruz wants to slap a sur charge on property owners for storm water clean up and this is what in essence stopped the work on the El Rancho and La Madfrona retaining wall a few years ago, a pH spike from cement rinsed into Carbonera Creek.

Good way to let your Ya Ya's out!

Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

2400 sticks of chalk get washed into the streets, down the storm drains, into the river and onward into the ocean. That's just friggin brilliant. Santa Cruz wants to slap a sur charge on property owners for storm water clean up and this is what in essence stopped the work on the El Rancho and La Madfrona retaining wall a few years ago, a pH spike from cement rinsed into Carbonera Creek.

Chalk is fairly inert but the coloring component may not be. You have a good argument.

Another brilliant move by the powers that be in our weird city.What a mess it was.I had to clean it up the next morning.Not much in the way of art though.And yes, it was washed down the storm drain into our ocean. Now thats green?

"Social justice" is a loaded term used by the extreme left.

Does the Sentinel still have editors?

Why didn't the artist donate all that chalk to the under-financed schools, so that Lil' Johnny may learn to spell??

p.s. Did anyone post a job resume in chalk?

Didn't the city arrest or ticket protesters who used chalk on the mall in the past?

Kind of telling that our "local" paper took nearly 5 days to even report this. By the way, it wasn't some grand display of art and social justice, it was vulgar graffiti. I was there and it was mostly pan handlers writing some pretty awful things, even a death threat on the wall of one business that asked them to stop. The police were completely absent. It was near anarchy which of course to some is just fine. Santa Cruz either needs to commit to keeping the downtown a safe, accessible and vibrant economic and social resource, or just give up already and quit pretending.

How about the rudness shoppers, and tourists received from the homeless so called artist for trying to walk through downtown while a bunch of **** graffiti the town with chalk? Im wonderng did this landos guy help clean up the chalk or leave it for someone else to deal with? Sometimes I get so discouraged by our city leaders for putting people who contribute less than they should to our city in front of people who contribute more than they should.

THE SENTINEL WRITES: "While drawing on the sidewalk is technically illegal -- especially when it extends to private buildings -- no artists were arrested on Saturday."

BECKY: The ordinance "defacing the sidewalk" was written in 1963 to prevent businesses from PAINTING advertisements on the public sidewalk or curb. It was never used against chalk writing until 2000 when it was first used against a homeless man. Next a homeless activist was cited. Since then, only homeless people or homeless activists (including yours truly) have been cited and convicted of using sidewalk chalk on a public sidewalk. Oh, and the CITYWIDE infraction is ONLY enforced on Pacific Avenue!!

In court, City Attorney John Barisone asked me on the witness stand to identify a crude drawing that he said was "a **** and balls." I didn't draw it. I agreed to plead guilty and pay the $0.87 it cost to clean it up (per Coyote Industrials quote to the DTA of cost per sq. ft) only to be fined $162 for extensive chalking done by my co-defendant.

The issue of profanity or crude sexual images drawn as a natural consequence of allowing ordinary people to chalk is a red herring. People have the right to make up a flyer and pass it out or to carry a sign. But how many choose to write profanity on their flyer or draw crude phallic symbols? We don't outlaw freedom of speech on a flyer because someone might use a swear word.

Also, it is not specifically illegal to chalk on private property. The ordinance ONLY applies to public sidewalks. Chalking on private property is legal unless the owner files charges for vandalism. And if done so, the costs (spraying with a hose for half a minute) would be negligible and hence, would not likely be charged in a court of law.

Keep Santa Cruz Weird!

Is anyone surprised at how this actually turned out?

You know, if the chalk give-away had been limited to children, I bet the chalk drawings would have been more interesting, less offensive, and more likely to have been only on concrete.