51°F
weather icon Clear

New rules target downtown street performers

Las Vegas officials have already cleaned up the glass containers and brown bag liquor sales on Fremont Street. Now they plan to clean up the buskers.

An ordinance scheduled to be introduced next week aims to erect “performance zones” for dozens of street performers crowded under the Fremont Street Experience canopy.

City leaders said the draft ordinance, which was not made available for review Tuesday, would require those performers to stay within one of several 6-foot diameter circles scattered along the street.

It also would require them to register with the city and rotate out of those spaces every hour.

Las Vegas already has rules keeping buskers at least 20 feet away from building entrances and 10 feet away from ATMs, retail kiosks, fire lanes and crosswalks.

The city spent more than a decade in court defending earlier, bolder attempts to bounce street performers and panhandlers off Fremont Street, eventually losing a First Amendment challenge filed on the buskers’ behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has thrice ruled Fremont — which was built with public dollars but is maintained by privately held Fremont Street Experience, LLC — is a public forum subject to free speech protections.

City Council member and ordinance backer Bob Coffin said last he checked, the ACLU was happy with the city’s newly proposed rules.

Coffin expects Metro officers to enforce the one-hour time restrictions and performance zone descriptions included in the ordinance.

He said buskers will have to police themselves, at least to some extent.

“We’re going to know who they are, which is a big step,” Coffin said. “There’s an existing private and Metro presence down there. … Enforcement, I think, will happen.

“It’s got to be a step in the right direction.”

The city plans to provide further details on its latest Fremont rules at a news conference planned for 9 a.m. today at City Hall.

Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST