Cambridge, MA: Home of Organized Street Performers

My Cambridge Street Performer's Permit:

 It's not as fancy as the one that the City of Chicago passes out...

But take a look at the back of the Cambridge permit:

There is a number listed for Street Arts Advocates. A quick internet search turned up this description: They are "a nonprofit arts organization cultivating ongoing fundamental relationships between arts and communities by celebrating self-expression as a basic human right essential for the healthy growth of youth, individuals, and communities."

In addition to that license, I also got a copy of the Street Performer Code of Ethics when I gave them my application. There is clearly some degree of collaboration between the street performing community in Cambridge and the local government - one that I didn't really see much of in Chicago.

And ooh! This part had me geeking out: In Cambridge's Street Performer Ordinance, there are the words, "...a written notice shall be sent to the Street Artists Guild no less than ten days prior to said hearing..." Content aside, there is apparently a Street Artists Guild in Cambridge!

It's a guild!

Woah!

I wanna join the guild! Just so... I can be in a guild. Right. Ok. Stopping with the geeking out.

There's also the Street Performer Ordinance itself. The beginning looked pretty similar to what I saw in Chicago... and then I saw this:

"If a performer attracts a crowd sufficient to obstruct the public way, a police officer may disperse the portion of the crowd that is creating the obstruction. The police officer shall not cause the performer to leave the location unless efforts to move the crowd fail to adequately protect the public safety or order. A police officer shall not ask the performer to leave the location unless all other means of restoring the public safety or order have been exhausted."

Legal language aside, this is the part that I found most interesting about the street performing laws in Cambridge. I don't know yet how these laws are reflected in practice, but the fact that there is legal language here that puts constraints on what the police can do is a huge step forward from what happened in Chicago.

In Chicago, the police seemingly reserved the right to move you, regardless of whether or not you were breaking any laws. When I described to my advisor my observations of police officers ordering several different groups of street musicians to move, he had asked me this question: What, then, was the purpose of getting a street performer's license?

My answer at the time? It was just a way of keeping track of them. You aren't legally permitted to perform without a permit, but even if you have one, there's always a chance that you will be asked to move to another location - either by a police officer, by the managers of a nearby store, or by the occupants of a nearby building. Any anonymous complaint from any individual could result in the removal of a busker.

That's why I find these laws so refreshing: Embedded into these laws - institutionalized in the City of Cambridge's ordinances - is the recognition that street performers bring value to the city. While other cities might pay lip service to that idea, Cambridge has actually legally embraced the street performance as an integral part of the city's cultural vibe.

Whether or not that is true in practice, though, I will let you know...

Right after I figure out how to transport all my stuff around on the back of a bicycle.