Thousands to march; city to pick up tab
Thursday immigration-rights marches come as SR drops fees
Published: Monday, April 28, 2008 at 3:26 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, April 28, 2008 at 5:35 a.m.
Thousands of demonstrators are expected to clog city streets Thursday in support of immigration rights, just two days after Santa Rosa's City Council officially drops all fees for large-scale free speech marches.
The cost to the city: $5,000 to $8,000.
The costs are an estimate of having 28 police officers provide traffic control and security along a route that will require shutting down several streets and major intersections to accommodate the march, police Lt. Gary Negri said.
Thursday's march is actually two marches, both of which will meet up at B and Seventh streets and proceed together to a joint rally at Juilliard Park.
The purpose, said Jesus Guzman, involved in planning both, "is to highlight the need for immigration reform."
"Mostly it's to end immigration raids and to have Sonoma County declared a county of refuge," he said.
The smaller of the two marches, expected to be largely composed of 500 to 1,000 Santa Rosa Junior College students, will begin at 1 p.m. at the college and use the sidewalk until it joins up with the larger march.
The second march, sponsored by the May 1 Coalition, will begin at noon in Roseland and will require the closure of several major intersections and a lane of traffic to accommodate the 5,000 to 7,000 marchers expected to participate along the 2.5-mile route.
The issue of costs came to the forefront two weeks ago when the council considered imposing a $1,500 fee on all marches over 3,000 people, partly as a way to recoup some of the city's expenses in providing dozens of police officers for traffic control and security for larger marches that spill onto the city's streets.
Several immigration-related marches over the past two years that drew up to 10,000 participants ran up police-related bills between $3,216 and $12,771, some of which was paid in full, partially paid or forgiven by the city.
The council, in the face of opponents who claimed that charging for free speech rallies was a First Amendment violation, grudgingly agreed not only to reject the fee but to abandon the city's long-standing practice of charging hourly rates for police services for any free speech-related street march.
At the same time, several council members urged march organizers to restrict future marches to sidewalks when possible -- a move that would substantially reduce the bulk of the city's police costs.
Thursday's planned marches do both. Estimates of the anticipated crowd sizes, however, vary widely. Some predict the combined marches could add up to 1,500 to 2,000 people, while others say it could exceed the 10,000 who marched last year.
Guzman, a Santa Rosa Junior College student government leader and also a member of the May 1 Coalition, said he thinks the crowds will be larger, fueled by the infusion of interest in the U.S. presidential race and its potential impact on immigration.
But Richard Coshnear, an immigration rights attorney and member of the May 1 Coalition, expects crowd numbers half of what Guzman predicts, partly based on last month's march that honored Cesar Chavez and called for immigration reforms.
That march attracted 1,500 participants compared to the 7,000 to 10,000 of a year before.
Coshnear said part of the lower turnout may be because last year's hot-button issue, a federal bill to criminalize those who assisted undocumented immigrants, failed to pass.
"There hasn't been the same hue and cry since," Coshnear said.
Still, Negri said his department is planning for the number of expected marchers contained on their city-issued permits. "Regardless if it's 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 people, our plan will accommodate them," Negri said.
Besides approximately 20 officers assigned to traffic duties for the larger march and to ensure the crowd doesn't spill into a lane of oncoming traffic, Negri said a small contingent of officers will be stationed at a command post at City Hall.
That's where 100 members of the anti-immigration group Minuteman plan to hold a counter-demonstration as the marchers parade by.
All three groups have monitors to keep their participants under control, Negri said.
While city leaders would prefer marches stay on the sidewalk if possible to save the cash-strapped city money, Thursday's main march will be in the street.
Negri noted that having thousands of people stick to the sidewalks is impractical if not impossible.
"You know how long that line would be and how long that march would take? When you get a group that big you have to shut down a street," he said.
Negri said more practical ways to alleviate the city's costs were rejected by march organizers.
One rejected option was to have the main march use Prince Memorial Greenway as shortcut between Roseland and Juilliard Park. That would have avoided the need to close major streets and helped reduce the financial impact on the city.
"It would have been a significant reduction in resources for us but they really were interested in being downtown and being seen by a lot of people," Negri said.
Guzman said the groups tried to "strike a balance between police services being used and preserving our message."
"We weighed both sides of the issue," he said. While the march from the junior college will stay on the sidewalk, the larger march will be on the street, Guzman said.
"(Marching in) the street brings more visibility to the message we are trying to bring. When you take up an avenue of traffic, it grabs more attention. It's a more overt way to protest," Guzman said.
Councilwoman Susan Gorin admits the issue is a no-win situation for the financially strapped city.
"If we provide these kind of (police) services, that means we are not maintaining our parks or helping the homeless. It means giving up other things," she said.
But not charging "is the cost of a free society," she said.
You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.
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