Posts tagged "City Hall"

Going Mobile: NFL Games In London, Your Hand, and Everywhere Else You Go

National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell (right) walks with New York Giants co-owner Jonathan Tisch (left) after a City Hall press conference announcing plans for Super Bowl XLVIII in the region on January 24, 2012 in New York City. (Image …
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San Francisco lawmakers to vote on public nudity ban

San Francisco’s lawmakers are voting Tuesday on whether to ban nudity in a city where anything goes, including clothes.

The ordinance would prohibit nudity in most public places. It represents an escalation of a two-year fight between a group of men who strut their stuff through the city’s famously gay Castro District and the supervisor who represents the area.

Supervisor Scott Wiener’s proposal would make it illegal for a person over the age of 5 to “expose his or her genitals, perineum or anal region on any public street, sidewalk, street median, parklet or plaza” or while using public transit.

“I don’t think having some guys taking their clothes off and hanging out seven days a week at Castro and Market Street is really what San Francisco is about. I think it’s a caricature of what San Francisco is about,” Wiener said.

Exemptions would be made for participants at permitted street fairs and parades, such as the city’s annual gay pride event and the Folsom Street Fair, which celebrates sadomasochism and other sexual subcultures.

A first offense would carry a maximum penalty of a $100 fine, but prosecutors would have authority to charge a third violation as a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and a year in jail.

Wiener said he felt compelled to act after constituents complained about the naked men who gather in a small Castro plaza most days and sometimes walk the streets au naturel. He persuaded his colleagues last year to pass a law requiring a cloth to be placed between public seating and bare bottoms, but the complaints have continued.

The proposed ban predictably has produced outrage, as well as a lawsuit. Last week, about two dozen people undressed in front of City Hall and marched around the block to the amusement of gawking tourists.

Stripped down to his sunglasses and hiking boots, McCray Winpsett, 37, said he understands the disgust of residents who would prefer not to see the body modifications and sex enhancement devices sported by some of the Castro nudists. But he thinks Wiener’s prohibition goes too far in undermining a tradition “that keeps San Francisco weird.”

“A few lewd exhibitionists are really ruining it for the rest of us,” he said.

Because clothes are required to enter City Hall itself, demonstrators who try to disrobe at the Board of Supervisors meeting will be escorted out by sheriff’s deputies. That is what happened last Monday when Gypsy Taub removed her dress during the ban’s first public hearing.

“I thought if I take my clothes off, I bet they are going to listen,” the mother of two said.

San Francisco lawyer Christina DiEdoardo filed a federal lawsuit last week on behalf of Taub and three men that seeks to block Weiner’s ordinance. The complaint alleges that the ban infringes on the free speech rights of nudists and discriminates against those who cannot afford to obtain a city permit.

Art Modell | 1925-2012: A visionary and a villain

Art Modell dances with Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis, left, during the celebration following the Ravens' Super Bowl victory parade at City Hall in Baltimore on Jan. 30, 2001. Associated Press. Modell gestures during a news conference in 1982 about the … See all stories on this topic »

Columbus Dispatch

Giants show off Super Bowl trophy

Meredith O'Connell of Albany poses for a picture in the rotunda of City Hall with the NFL's Vince Lombardi Trophy that the New York Giants received after winning last season's Super Bowl, on Thursday Aug. 2, 2012 in Albany, NY. (Philip Kamrass / Times …
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Experts: Whitney Houston’s posthumous sales won’t match Michael Jackson, Elvis

By Bob Considine/The Star-Ledger Enlarge Star-Ledger Staff Newark Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson Jr. presents singer Whitney Houston with the key to the city at a press conference held at City Hall in this 1986 file photo. (Steve Andrascik/The Star-Ledger) … See all stories on this topic »

The Star-Ledger – NJ.com

Super Bowl champs Giants expect to have summer training camp in Albany

( Philip Kamrass / Times Union archive) Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz celebrates during the New York Giants Super Bowl ceremony at City Hall in New York, Feb. 7, 2012. Throngs of Giants fans celebrated in Manhattan on Tuesday at the parade and …
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300 arrested in daylong Occupy Oakland protests

About 300 people were arrested Saturday during a chaotic day of Occupy protests that saw demonstrators break into City Hall and burn an American flag, as police earlier fired tear gas and bean b…

Occupy LA asking court to stop eviction

Refusing to leave their camp at Los Angeles' City Hall, Occupy protesters were seeking a federal court injunction to block their removal.