Federal judge blocks Florida city's plan to restrict Black College Reunion traffic
The Associated Press
04.09.99
ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge yesterday blocked Daytona Beach's plan to restrict traffic during this weekend's Black College Reunion, saying it violated several articles of the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. District Judge Patricia C. Fawsett agreed with the claims of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and three Daytona Beach residents that the city unfairly singled out the event.
The First Amendment, which guarantees the right of assembly, also was violated, the judge said.
According to the plan, only people who previously had received passes access to the beachfront area would be able to enter if city officials determined the area was so congested that it jeopardized public safety. The judge said that standard was too vague.
All others without a special pass would have had to park their cars on the mainland and take a shuttle to the beach.
Daytona Beach officials also were attempting to protect residents at the expense of non-residents in proposing a plan that would only allow residents, hotel guests and people conducting business to drive to the city's beachfront if the area became too congested, Fawsett said in the 15-page ruling.
"Defendants have not proffered a rational explanation for why BCR as an event should be singled out and subjected to greater restrictions than other events," Fawsett wrote.
Black College Reunion, scheduled to begin today, is expected to draw an estimated 100,000 people to Daytona Beach. The judge issued her ruling at 7:05 p.m., more than three hours after the court's normal closing hours.
Attorneys for the NAACP earlier had argued that Daytona Beach's plan to restrict beach access during Black College Reunion was an attempt to force the event out of the popular tourist destination.
Attorney Charles Burr said the plan would put a "chilling effect" on the event and violated the visitors' constitutional right to assemble.
"Over the past nine months, at least three city commissioners, who are white, have said that it is their intent to see to it that BCR leaves Daytona Beach," he said.
Burr added that similar goals have never been expressed about other larger events, such as Bike Week and spring break, attended mostly by white visitors.
Even during the 1980s, when Bike Week was a "notoriously difficult and unruly event ... never was there a serious proposal that the event should be shut down and driven out of town," Burr said.
Fawsett declined to rule on the race-based discrimination claims of the plaintiffs.
Deputy city attorney Marie Hartman said the city's plan was the best officials could come up with to address a unique traffic problem.
During the reunion, the main beachside thoroughfare, Atlantic Avenue, becomes a virtual parking lot because of motorists who cruise up and down the beachside road, jumping out of cars, taking pictures and trying to win dates with members of the opposite sex.
"There is no color discrimination in the issuance of the passes for the vehicles," Hartman told the judge.
Messages left after regular business hours for Daytona Beach's mayor, police officials and the city attorney's office weren't immediately returned. Calls to attorneys for the NAACP and plaintiffs also weren't returned.
Black College Reunion started in 1984 as a small gathering of black college students from nearby Bethune-Cookman College and Florida A&M; University in Tallahassee. It has since ballooned into a much larger celebration, competing with Atlanta's Freaknik as the place for black students to go for a "black spring break."
Daytona Beach residents for years have complained of public urination and people performing sex acts in public. Many beachside businesses close for the three-day gathering.
City Manager Carey Smith said traffic restrictions previously had been enacted for other events. Plans restricting beach traffic were implemented during Black College Reunion in 1995 and in past years during Bike Week, but they were on a much smaller scale than what is proposed for this weekend.
About 250 people walked from the Bethune-Cookman campus to the beachside on April 7 to protest the traffic plan.