It’s a great weekend to be hooping on Fremont Street in protest of a pending ordinance that would ultimately prevent anyone from doing so in the future. The Las Vegas ordinance, which is currently on its way to the City Council, seeks to ensure that there will be no hula hooping allowed at the Fremont Street Experience. The ordinance, which was forwarded out of a council subcommittee on Tuesday, would establish two “free expression zones” on the Third Street Promenade, which abuts the downtown pedestrian mall, and street entertainers would be confined to these zones. The ordinance will also ban use of an amplifier or megaphone as well as shooting projectiles into the air. Oh yeah, and it will ban hula hoops. The Hula-Hoop ban was included because someone started renting them to visitors and “people using them created obstacles for other visitors.” Ultimately the proposed new law, intended to regulate activities such as street entertainment and busking, will likely once again land the city in court over free speech issues. Activity at the Fremont Street Experience has been largely unregulated since a little over a year ago, when a federal court struck down the city’s last set of regulations as unconstitutional. Full story: Las Vegas Review Journal
“If you don’t regulate that, it’s going to be mass chaos down there,” he said. I find it chuckle-worthy that hoops could add to a characterization of “mass chaos.” Even more delightful is the thought of hoops as “obstacles” — boy, is that the last thing I’d ever think to call them!
I’m extremely curious to know who the hoop-renter is! What a novel and enterprising idea (not to mention, cutting down on the folks that walk away with them). Are you on hooping.org, oh Vegas rentress-of-hoops?
haha! wow
It’s great to see that out of everything else that the LV City Council could be spending energy on, they’ve decided to put effort into demonizing one of the most pleasant, freeing, good-for-humanity toys out there. “Unemployment? Poverty? We’ll maybe deal with that next month. Today we’re dealing with the clear and present danger of colored circles of plastic! Oh, the humanity!” How can they even take themselves seriously?