Art District Raided!
Body: Im reposting this I ask everyone to repost this if you enjoy
First Fridays and the whole downtown scene. Where was the city when
we took these crack infested areas and made them in to a place that
peolpe want to come to. Ive been told Grand Ave will be hit next
month.



Art District Raided!
Body: I'm sure you'rte already aware of all this, but . . .


This is a long but important post, please read it, repost it, and
forward it to everyone on Maricopa County, AZ!
D-PAC (The Downtown Phhoenix Artists Coalition) will be holding
important meetings very soon! Please make yourself availble! A show
of numbers is a show of solidartiy and power!
At the end of this email are contact info for the people who need to
be harrased about this, please contact and intimidate them as they
have done to us!
The Battle is once again engaged!:

Forward from Greg Esser:
Lightning struck Roosevelt Street at 7 p.m. last night. So did the
City of Phoenix.

The interest in the City of Phoenix to provide "assistance, education
and enforcement" is in fact much broader than we were originally
told by the Phoenix Police Department. We know that undercover
police officers and other city officials have been attending First
Fridays for at least several months recording observations and
collecting information. The issues they are investigating now appear
to extend far beyond und erage drinking, open container violations
and parking concerns as we have been told.

Last night, we observed at a minimum the following regulatory and
enforcement officials:

1) Maricopa County Health Inspectors (food)
2) City of Phoenix Tax Enforcement (privilege license, sales tax)
3) City of Phoenix Zoning Enforcement (vending, building occupancy
and use)

These teams or individuals were all accompanied by an armed, "soft
clothes" police officer as they visited our businesses.

4) City of Phoenix Planning Department (zoning, occupancy)
5) The Fire Marshall was touring buildings in plain clothes.
6) Other individuals with notebooks were recording information and
would not disclose their affiliation or reasons for documenting their
detailed observations.

7) There were at least two battalions of police officers including
mounted police on horseback, frequent patrol cars (at times with
lights on for no reason), "soft clothes" (badge, weapon, casual polo
shirt), and plain clothes police officers. Two to four uniformed
officers were stationed regularly at the corners of Third, Fourth and
Fifth Streets along Roosevelt.

These were individuals we spoke directly with and observed first
hand. They came last night prepared with previous research and
background on our businesses. We have no idea how many others or who
else may have been working last night in addition to what we
witnessed directly.

In short, this was an impressive and highly coordinated full-scale
multi-jurisdictional effort on the part of the City of Phoenix.

While an enhanced police presence is beneficial and appreciated for
providing crowd control and protecting public safety and we would
like to see continued coordinated efforts with the Police Department
and the City of Phoenix, there should be an appropriateness to the
scale of such efforts.

Where was this police and regulatory presence when we were fighting
crack sales, prostitution, assaults, arson and property crime for
years in these same downtown neighborhoods?

What can we do? For now, we have no idea what the city's actual
intent is or how they plan to compile, collect and utilize the
information they are continuing to glean about our businesses and
First Fridays. I encourage you to contact Phoenix City Manager Frank
Fairbanks and your elected officials including Mayor Phil Gordon and
Vice Mayor Michael Johnson who have continued to publicly express
their support for First Fridays and ask them to determine the intent
and goals of this initiative and to find out who is behind these
coordinated efforts.

If you receive follow-up contact from any of these regulatory
agencies or officials, please share your experience and the nature
of the contact with everyone.

As someone once said, the price of freedom is constant vigilance.

Additional Notes:

The building codes and business regulations that we must comply with
are approved and adopted by the Mayor and City Council. I encourage
you to contact these individuals and ask them to address this issue
through the establishment of regulations that do allow for the
adaptive re-use of existing buildings by artists for studios,
galleries and other arts-related uses. This is election season for
the even numbered Council Districts in Phoenix. Most of the art
venues are located in District 8 represented by Vice Mayor Michael
Johnson.
The current council members face re-election on September 13, 2005.
If you are a registered voter in any of these districts, please let
your elected representative know now that this is an important issue
that affects not only the arts in downtown but the health and
vibrancy of our state's capitol.
>
>Mayor Phil Gordon
>phil.gordon@...
>(602) 262-7111
>
>District 8 - Vice Mayor Michael Johnson
>michael.johnson@...
>(602) 262-7493
>
>District 1 - Councilman Dave Siebert
>cdist1@...
>(602) 262-7444
>
>District 2 - Councilwoman Peggy Neely
>council.district.2@...
>(602) 262-7445
>
>District 3 - Councilwoman Peggy Bilsten
>peggy.bilsten@...
>(602) 262-7441
>
>District 4 - Councilman Tom Simplot
>council.district.4@...
>(602) 262-7447

>District 5 - Councilman
>Claude Mattox
>council.district.5@...
>(602) 262-7446

>District 6 - Councilman Greg Stanton
>greg.stanton@...
>(602) 262-7491

>District 7 - Councilman Doug Lingner
>doug.lingner@...
>(602) 262-7492


>If you live within the City of Phoenix, the
>following link will provide you with your City
>Council representative:
>http://copwww05.phoenix.gov/mydistrict/