Commissioners discuss whether closed section near Park Street remains a designated free-speech area

A commissioner raised a question about whether the city’s previous designation of a free-speech zone around Park Street remained valid after a street closure.

At the start of the meeting Commissioner Stallings asked staff to clarify whether a group’s request to treat the area near the closed alley between Independence and Grand as a continued free-speech zone remains valid. "Looking at the closing of the alley between Independence and Grand, there is a group of people that had asked me about that at one time being designated as a free speech zone," Stallings said, and asked Gerald for his perspective.

Gerald (staff member) said the free-speech zone designation dated from roughly four years ago and had been oriented around Park Street; he told commissioners he believes the designation remains in effect despite the street closure, but that staff may have to modify the designation to reflect present conditions. "I think we might. I think that's probably gonna be a question that, perhaps we'll ask Carol and and work with Melissa as she gets up to speed on what's happened down there in the past," Gerald said. Gerald also observed that public parks generally are public fora and therefore open for speech, though he prefaced that with "I'm not the attorney" when offering his view.

Staff said they will review the prior designation and come back with a recommendation if the area needs to be redesignated given street-closure changes. No formal action or ordinance change was proposed at the meeting.