Maybe I spoke too soon
St. Petersburg city officials have given the St. Vincent de Paul Society, on whose property the homeless have pitched their tents, one week to evict the 140 inhabitants of the mushrooming tent city christened "Coming Up."The Times reports that living in tents, even on private property, is prohibited by city code. Maybe I'm missing something, but as I read the city ordinance,* it outlaws erecting, constructing or maintaining any tent on any premises within the city without first procuring a written permit.
Couldn't the City Council just vote to waive the $50 permit fee?
Read the St. Petersburg Times article here. And see previous post here.
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* Section 13-92 can be accessed here.
posted by Jacqueline Dowd @ 3:16 PM
2 Comments:
I have written a few stories for a weekly paper in St. Pete, and here's what I've found: the part of the law you reference here is not the basis for the code violation.
St. Petersburg Code, Chapter 29, Section 29-595 essentially prohibits any structure not specifically allowed by another portion of the law, which in-
cludes tents.
I have a pdf of an article about the tent city residents, published the day before tent city closed. If you would like to see it, please let me know.
I'd very much like to see that article.
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