UPDATE: Cincinnati Parks announced Friday, June 15 that it will waive fees assessed against Triiibe and amend its policies to allow fee waivers for groups providing community services free of charge.
ORIGINAL STORY: Since January, a group of popular Cincinnati musicians and activists have been gathering once a month at the eastern edge of downtown's Piatt Park to distribute food to people experiencing homelessness, provide free haircuts, play games and make art. The event by Triiibe, called Potluck for the People, has been popular, drawing a couple hundred people each month who cycle in and out over the course of a few hours.
But Cincinnati Parks officials told Triiibe they must pay a $450 fee for a special use permit to hold the next Potluck for the People on June 24. What's more, the mother of one of the organizers last month received a $450 bill from the city related to retroactive fees from the group's May event. That has upset members of Triiibe, who say no money is exchanged at the potlucks and that they pay for many of the food and clothing donations out of their own pockets.The fee to use the publicly-owned park, they say, will make it financially difficult or impossible to hold the event.
Park officials said that the permit and fee are basic park policy, and that they were simply treating Triiibe as they would any other group. The fees represent a revenue source for the parks at a time when the system faces tough budget realities, including millions in deferred maintenance.
The group has pledged to continue the events.
"As the next Potluck for the People rolls around, we are keenly aware of the need that still exists," says co-organizer Siri Imani, a well-known Cincinnati poet and musician. "We are also aware that we could find ourselves facing arrest and/or legal action for trying to meet a need... it’s really sad that the city has taken this stance."
CityBeat contacted Cincinnati Parks for further information about park rules and policies, including who is eligible for fee waivers sometimes offered by the parks department which were denied Triiibe.
Parks officials now say they will meet with other city departments and Triiibe to try and find a way forward.
"We have recently become aware of a group who has been hosting a regular event in Piatt Park," Cincinnati Parks Business Services Division Manager Rocky Merz said today. "We understand and appreciate the civic nature of the work in which they are engaged. As would be the case with any group using our public parks spaces, upon learning of the events we asked them to initiate the standard permitting process.
"Based on the nature of this specific event, we have determined it is appropriate to review the matter further. Specifically, we will engage with other City agencies, and then Triiibe in order to discuss additional options and remedies with the goal of identifying a 'win win' solution allowing the event to continue without interruption, while also being mindful of City and Park Board regulations.
"Prior to taking any additional steps, we will discuss further with Triiibe before their next scheduled event on June 24."
Imani says that the event sprang from a clothing drive the group undertook this past winter and grew into an event involving a number of supporters. Besides art, dance and food, Triiibe says it has also enlisted doctors and nurses from Children's Hospital to do basic medical assessments on site. They also provide security and cleanup crews, Imani says.
"We never had any incidents of violence, we have never had any arguments, we have never had the police called, and we have never received any complaints from residents," she says.
The group began facing scrutiny from officials in April, when they say Cincinnati Police cut electricity available via outlets in the park during that month's event. Undaunted, Triiibe got a generator for the next event. Imani's mother, Jennie Wright, also filled out forms with Cincinnati Parks for a use permit and was told there would be a $500 fee.
Not every Cincinnati Park is so expensive — Clifton's Burnet Woods, for instance, can be reserved under a special use permit for $175 for four hours.
Because Piatt Park had become the venue for Potluck for the People in part due to its proximity to many in the city experiencing homelessness, Wright applied for a fee waiver for that site available per Parks policy.
Three days before the May 27 event, Wright emailed the Parks to check on the status of those applications. She was told her request was denied.
"Today we finished the process of reviewing your application and fee waiver request," Cincinnati Park Board's Jim Burkhardt wrote. "Your event is well thought out and I am sure that it will be well attended and successful. Unfortunately this event does not meet our criteria for a fee waiver. We work with many charitable organizations each year and we do not waive fees for their events."
Triiibe proceeded with their May event, using their generator instead of city electricity at Piatt. The next day, May 28, Wright received a $450 invoice — the fee minus a $50 credit for using their own power source — from Burkhardt.
This isn't the first time usage of the park has been controversial. In 2011, a battle between the city and local groups identifying with the Occupy movement centered around the latter's use of the same eastern edge of the park as a protest site, including around-the-clock camping there. The city ordered the protesters out of the park at night, and eventually arrested 23 of the demonstrators. But five protesters with Occupy Cincinnati filed a federal lawsuit, alleging the city was curtailing their first amendment rights. The city settled with the plaintiffs in that lawsuit in 2012, dropping trespassing charges against protesters and allowing a 100-square-foot section of the park for 24-hour public use for one year.
The controversy also follows recent debates between the city and activists over treatment of people experiencing homelessness downtown. Late last year, for example, the city removed a series of benches along four blocks of Third Street because officials said people without homes were conducting "lewd and lascivious acts" behind them.
"They were becoming an unattractive nuisance," Cincinnati's Transportation and Engineering Director Michael Moore wrote in a statement. "Stakeholders in the area lodged several complaints. We're looking at replacements, but haven't started to purchase them yet."
Those removals were spurred by complaints from nearby property owners, including large corporations, who also asked that trees along the stretch be removed. The move angered advocates for low-income people. After questions from activists and some members of Cincinnati City Council, however, the city paused the removals last October.
A few blocks north at Piatt Park, Triiibe says it will move forward with its planned June 24 event, but is looking into other spaces or donations that could help it avoid confrontation with the city. But that will be tricky, Imani says.
"The populations we serve don’t have readily accessible cell phones or access to social media so there was no good way to notify them of cancellation or a location change," she says, explaining why the group went ahead with last month's event. "Also, we were gaining trust and cultivating relationships that we didn’t want to damage by cancelling. There is a dire need for what we do. People are still hungry, they still felt disenfranchised and disconnected."
