City staff plan a new noise enforcement strategy. Requests for overnight camping on vacant lots near Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and George Engram boulevards divided the commission. Camping is a first in the master plan, even though it has occurred unregulated for many years. The camping, requested as part of street festivals by the Second Avenue Merchants Association, passed on two 4-3 votes. Commissioners Christina Travis, Darlene Yordon and Shallow unsuccessfully opposed the camping request that won backing from Mayor Bud Asher and Commissioners Yvonne Scarlett-Golden, Charles Cherry and George Burden.
Camping belongs in campgrounds.
Cherry responded that the camping sites are properties that have been vacant since urban renewal in the 1960s. Until something else comes along, we ought to allow this. Chamber and city officials attributed much of the rise in requests for activities on private property to a growth in recent years of biker activities in the black community along Bethune, Engram and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. The other streets where Bike Week activity is allowed have already seen nearly full participation by businesses. Those include Main and Beach streets, Fairview Avenue and Ballough Road.