Opinion ID: 779937
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is the Plaza a Public Forum?

Text: 29 In order to assess the constitutionality of Lincoln Center, Inc.'s policy limiting expressive uses in the Plaza to those having a performance, entertainment or other artistic component — which resulted in a rejection of the Union's proposed rally and leafletting activities — we must first determine the Plaza's proper forum categorization. No court has assessed the permissibility of speech restrictions on property with a structure and use similar to the Plaza. Compare Hawkins v. City & County of Denver, 170 F.3d 1281, 1287-88 (10th Cir.) (enclosed plaza forecourt located in a performing arts center is a non-public forum), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 871, 120 S.Ct. 172, 145 L.Ed.2d 145 (1999), with Congregation Lubavitch v. City of Cincinnati, 923 F.2d 458, 461-62 (6th Cir.1991); 997 F.2d 1160, 1161 (6th Cir.1993) (landscaped fountain plaza in downtown Cincinnati opened to all forms of public expression is probably a traditional public forum). Thus, we embark in uncharted waters. 30 The Union does not contend that the City has deliberately thrown open the Plaza for all forms of expressive use by the public. Rather, the Union argues that the Plaza is a traditional public forum because it is either a public park or a public place that is functionally equivalent to a park, sidewalk, or public thoroughfare. The defendants assert that the Plaza is a non-public forum, or at most a limited public forum, because the Plaza's main purpose is to serve as the forecourt for the performing arts halls at Lincoln Center, and, unlike a park or public thoroughfare, the Plaza has not traditionally served as a forum for debate or assembly. 31 In distinguishing between a public and non-public forum, we examine the forum's physical characteristics and the context of the property's use, including its location and purpose. See, e.g., Kokinda, 497 U.S. at 727-29, 110 S.Ct. 3115; Grace, 461 U.S. at 179-80, 103 S.Ct. 1702. The primary factor in determining whether property owned or controlled by the government is a public forum is how the locale is used. N.J. Sports, 691 F.2d at 160. Also relevant is the government's intent in constructing the space and its need for controlling expressive activity on the property, as evidenced by its policies or regulations. See, e.g., Greer, 424 U.S. at 837-38, 96 S.Ct. 1211; Paulsen v. County of Nassau, 925 F.2d 65, 69 (2d Cir.1991) (government intent must be inferred from policy and past practice, as well as the nature of the property and its compatibility with expressive activity); N.J. Sports, 691 F.2d at 160-61 (Public forum status is not appropriate for a locale where the full exercise of First Amendment rights would be inconsistent with the special interests of a government in overseeing the use of its property. (internal quotation marks omitted)). Finally, we consider whether the property in question is part of a class of property which by history or tradition has been open and used for expressive activity. Warren v. Fairfax County, 196 F.3d 186, 190 (4th Cir.1999); see also Greer, 424 U.S. at 838, 96 S.Ct. 1211; Venetian Casino Resort, L.L.C. v. Local Joint Exec. Bd., 257 F.3d 937, 943 (9th Cir.2001), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 905, 122 S.Ct. 1204, 152 L.Ed.2d 142 (2002). 32 The Union argues first that the Plaza has been expressly designated by the city as a public park. 9 See Gewirtz v. City of Long Beach, 69 Misc.2d 763, 330 N.Y.S.2d 495, 505 (N.Y.Sup.1972) (a municipality can dedicate property to public use), aff'd , 45 A.D.2d 841, 358 N.Y.S.2d 957 (2d Dep't 1974). Assuming this is so, the Union reasons, the Plaza would automatically warrant traditional public forum status. See, e.g., N.J. Sports, 691 F.2d at 160 (Streets, parks and sidewalks are the paradigms of a public forum ....); cf. Members of City Council v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 814, 104 S.Ct. 2118, 80 L.Ed.2d 772 (1984) (noting that public streets and parks enjoy a traditional right of access). We express no opinion on whether a dedicated public park must necessarily qualify as a traditional public forum, without regard to the context of its location and use. 10 We conclude, however, that while there is no dispute that the Plaza is a public place or that it is owned by the City and falls within the jurisdiction of the Parks Department, the Union has not established that the Plaza has been designated as a public park by the city. 33 [A] parcel of property may become a park by express provisions in a deed or legislative enactment or by implied acts, such as the continued use of the parcel as a park. Angiolillo v. Town of Greenburgh, 290 A.D.2d 1, 735 N.Y.S.2d 66, 73 (2d Dep't 2001); see also Ackerman v. Steisel, 104 A.D.2d 940, 480 N.Y.S.2d 556, 558 (2d Dep't 1984), aff'd, 66 N.Y.2d 833, 498 N.Y.S.2d 364, 489 N.E.2d 251 (1985); Gewirtz, 330 N.Y.S.2d at 504-05. The Union presented no evidence to the District Court that the Plaza's conveyance documents expressly limit the Plaza property to park uses or that the Plaza has been dedicated as a public park by legislative act. It is true, however, that absent a formal dedication, an implied dedication of park land may exist when a municipality's acts and declarations manifest a present, fixed, and unequivocal intent to dedicate. Riverview Partners, L.P. v. City of Peekskill, 273 A.D.2d 455, 710 N.Y.S.2d 601, 602 (2d Dep't 2000). 34 The only official act to which the Union points is Section 18-116 of the New York City Code, which authorized the City to construct a parking garage under the public park property in Lincoln Square Performing Arts Center for the purpose of accommodating persons using the facilities included in the Performing Arts Center and the adjacent public parks. N.Y.C.Code § 18-116. The reference to public park property is inconclusive, however, because the garage lies underneath Damrosch Park, a city park, as well as the Plaza. 35 While Lincoln Center, Inc. does not dispute that the Plaza is under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department and is defined as a park in the Parks Department's Rules & Regulations, the Parks Department has jurisdiction over all parks, squares, public places, playgrounds and other recreational properties in the city. N.Y.C. Charter § 533. Moreover, its Rules and Regulations define park as public parks, beaches, waters and land under water, pools, boardwalks, playgrounds, recreation centers and all other property ... under the jurisdiction ... of the Department. City of New York Parks & Recreation, Rules and Regulations § 102 (August 1998). The Union also requests that we take judicial notice of the fact that the Parks Department website lists the Plaza under a menu entitled Your Park. While it may be appropriate to take notice of the fact that the website makes such a designation, as the authenticity of the site has not been questioned, see, e.g., Ligon v. Doherty, 208 F. Supp.2d 384, 386 (E.D.N.Y. 2002); Hendrickson v. Ebay, Inc., 165 F.Supp.2d 1082, 1084 n. 2 (C.D.Cal. 2001), the fact itself has little relevance with regard to park dedication. The website refers to various types of properties as parks under this menu, including gardens and school playgrounds. 36 Thus, the Union's circumstantial evidence of implied park dedication is insufficient to raise a question of fact as to whether the City has dedicated the Plaza as a city park. 11 Moreover, whatever label is used, the City has affirmatively demonstrated an intent not to treat the Plaza as it would a typical city park. For example, the Parks Department retains exclusive scheduling authority over neighboring Damrosch and Dante Parks and permits organized expression in those parks. In contrast, Lincoln Center, Inc., as the City's licensee, has limited organized public speech in the Plaza to events having an artistic or performance-related component. 37 Having determined that the Plaza has not been dedicated, expressly or impliedly, as a city park, we next address the Union's argument that the Plaza is a public place that is a hybrid of a park, sidewalk, and public thoroughfare and therefore is deserving of traditional public forum status. As described above, the Plaza is an open square situated at the center of several performing arts buildings in the Lincoln Center complex — Avery Fisher Hall to the north, the Opera House to the west, and the New York State Theater to the south. The Plaza opens east onto Columbus Avenue and is reached by climbing a flight of stairs. The Plaza can also be accessed by pedestrian walkways that lead from the surrounding streets past the arts buildings. The Plaza is paved with cement and features its signature fountain at the center. Limited public seating is available at the west end of the Plaza and around the fountain itself. Damrosch Park lies immediately to the southwest, and the North Plaza and a reflecting pool immediately to the northwest. See generally Young, Lincoln Center, at 140-41, 183, 250, 261; Appendix. 38 To support its argument that the Plaza should be treated as a traditional public forum, the Union cites Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Inc., 452 U.S. 640, 651, 101 S.Ct. 2559, 69 L.Ed.2d 298 (1981), for the proposition that a traditional public forum is a place that is continually open, often uncongested, and constitutes not only a necessary conduit in the daily affairs of a locality's citizens, but also a place where people may enjoy the open air or the company of friends and neighbors in a relaxed environment. Id.; see also United States v. Kokinda, 497 U.S. 720, 727, 110 S.Ct. 3115, 111 L.Ed.2d 571 (1990). The Union points to evidence that the Plaza is visited and used by members of the public who are not attending events at Lincoln Center, and that the Plaza was designed as an open, public space connected to the city's major thoroughfares. Lincoln Center, Inc. does not dispute that non-patrons use the Plaza for the purpose of traversing between surrounding streets, or that non-patrons visit the Plaza in order to read or eat lunch by the fountain or simply to take in the sun. 39 The observation that the Plaza is used in ways similar to a public park or thoroughfare, however, does not end the inquiry. Rather, we must also examine the Plaza's location and purpose. Kokinda, 497 U.S. at 728-29, 110 S.Ct. 3115; see also id. at 727, 110 S.Ct. 3115 (The mere physical characteristics of the property cannot dictate forum analysis.). Several features of the Plaza suggest that it is dissimilar to those types of properties that have historically been defined as traditional public fora, i.e., parks, sidewalks, and streets, and further suggest that permitting all forms of expression would be inconsistent with its primary function and purpose. 40 First, the Plaza's location indicates that its primary architectural function is to serve as the centerpiece for the Lincoln Center performing arts complex. As such, the Plaza is an aesthetically pleasing landmark and a community symbol of the arts, as well as a gathering place for those attending performances at Lincoln Center. Thus, although Lincoln Center was designed to be related to the city, rather than isolated from it, Young, Lincoln Center, at 80, and the Plaza itself was designed to remain[] open to Columbus Avenue, id. at 140, the Plaza's physical location distinguishes it from a typical recreational park or town square. Similarly, although the Plaza connects with walkways leading to surrounding streets, it does not form part of the City's transportation grid in the way that traditional streets and sidewalks do. The ability of pedestrians to cross the Plaza as a short-cut between surrounding streets is merely an incidental feature of its principal function as the entrance plaza for the Lincoln Center complex. Moreover, as a result of the Plaza's physical location at the center of the surrounding performing arts buildings, pedestrians visiting the Plaza likely understand that they have entered some special type of enclave. United States v. Grace, 461 U.S. 171, 180, 103 S.Ct. 1702, 75 L.Ed.2d 736 (1983); cf. Venetian Casino Resort, L.L.C. v. Local Joint Exec. Bd., 257 F.3d 937, 945 (9th Cir.2001) (describing pedestrians' inability to discern that a public sidewalk had encroached onto private property), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 905, 122 S.Ct. 1204, 152 L.Ed.2d 142 (2002); Freedom From Religion Found., Inc. v. City of Marshfield, 203 F.3d 487, 494-95 (7th Cir.2000) (noting that no visual boundaries separated privately owned park property from adjacent public park land). 41 Furthermore, the City participated in the creation of the Lincoln Center complex for the purpose of establishing a cultural center devoted to the performing arts, and Lincoln Center, Inc. has sought to limit organized speech in the Plaza to arts- and performance-related events. Thus, despite the fact that the Plaza's design encourages passers-by to enter and pass through the Plaza, by restricting organized expression to arts-related presentations, the City has evidenced an intent to conserve the Plaza's function as an extension of the performing arts complex. 12 Worth noting again in this regard is that neighboring Damrosch and Dante Parks are open to other expressive uses, further indicating that the Plaza, by contrast, is intended to serve a more limited function. See Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. Lee, 505 U.S. 672, 680, 112 S.Ct. 2701, 120 L.Ed.2d 541 (1992) ([S]eparation from acknowledged public areas may serve to indicate that the separated property is a special enclave, subject to greater restriction.). Finally, plazas that serve as forecourts in performing arts complexes are not the types of public spaces that have traditionally been dedicated to expressive uses, or in which the government's ability to restrict speech has historically been circumscribed. See Hawkins v. City & County of Denver, 170 F.3d 1281, 1287-88 (10th Cir.) (holding that an enclosed forecourt to a performing arts center is a non-public forum), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 871, 120 S.Ct. 172, 145 L.Ed.2d 145 (1999). 42 Thus, it is apparent that the Plaza's primary function and purpose is to serve as a pleasing forecourt at the center of a prominent performing arts complex, to facilitate patrons' passage into the events taking place in the arts buildings, and symbolically to promote the cultural arts for the benefit of the community. Although the Plaza's design clearly invites passers-by to stroll through or linger, the Plaza was not created primarily to operate as a public artery, nor to provide an open forum for all forms of public expression. Cf. First Unitarian Church v. Salt Lake City Corp., 308 F.3d 1114, 1125-27 (10th Cir.2002) (holding that a portion of Main Street sold to church and converted into pedestrian plaza is a traditional public forum because by retaining easement for public passage, city intended to encourage pedestrian traffic and to preserve and enhance the [downtown] pedestrian grid). Put another way, the Plaza has not traditionally been available for public expression, Lee, 505 U.S. at 678, 112 S.Ct. 2701, nor does it have as a principal purpose ... the free exchange of ideas. Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 800, 105 S.Ct. 3439, 87 L.Ed.2d 567 (1985); cf. Hawkins, 170 F.3d at 1287-88 (enclosed forecourt in performing arts center is a non-public forum); Chicago Acorn v. Metro. Pier & Exposition Auth., 150 F.3d 695, 702-03 (7th Cir.1998) (sidewalks, plaza, and amusement park located on Navy Pier are non-public fora). Moreover, because the Plaza is not surrounded by government buildings, it is easily distinguished from those plazas and squares in which political speech has historically been protected. See, e.g., Warren v. Fairfax County, 196 F.3d 186, 189-90 (4th Cir.1999) ( en banc ) (park-like mall on grounds of legislative buildings is a traditional public forum). 43 Consideration of the relevant factors, i.e., the Plaza's location, use, function, and purpose, together with the City's intent in building the space, demonstrates that permitting all forms of expressive activity in the Plaza would be incompatible with its intended purpose, Ark. Educ. Television Comm'n v. Forbes, 523 U.S. 666, 673, 118 S.Ct. 1633, 140 L.Ed.2d 875 (1998) (internal quotation marks omitted), and how the locale is used. Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. N.J. Sports & Exposition Auth., 691 F.2d 155, 160 (3d Cir.1982). Moreover, the City has a strong interest in preserving the Plaza for its intended function. Indeed, it is self-evident that permitting speech on all manner of public issues in the Plaza would compromise the City's ability to establish a specialized space devoted to contemplation and celebration of the arts. Accordingly, we reject the Union's argument that the Plaza should be accorded the same level of constitutional protection as would a traditional public forum. 44 Even though the Plaza is not a traditional public forum, by allowing expression of an artistic or performance-related nature in the Plaza, it may be argued that the City has created a limited public forum. Indeed, that is the conclusion reached by both District Judges in the proceedings below. 45 In general, a limited public forum is created when the government opens a non-public forum for public expression, but limits expressive activity to certain kinds of speakers or the discussion of particular subjects. See Travis v. Owego-Apalachin Sch. Dist., 927 F.2d 688, 692 (2d Cir.1991). However, as the Supreme Court has noted, [a] [limit]ed public forum is not created when the government allows selective access for individual speakers rather than general access for a class of speakers. Forbes, 523 U.S. at 679, 118 S.Ct. 1633; see also Fighting Finest, Inc. v. Bratton, 95 F.3d 224, 230 (2d Cir.1996) (holding that, in analyzing whether a limited public forum has been created, we consider the nature of the property or means of communication, the Government's purpose in permitting whatever limited access it has allowed, and the conditions of access ( e.g., whether permission is required)). 46 There is scant evidence in the record describing the conditions of access to the Plaza, making difficult any determination of whether the Plaza is generally available to members of the public for organized artistic expression or whether access is restricted to select individuals. On the one hand, Lincoln Center, Inc. concedes that it authorizes gatherings in the Plaza for the purpose of expression through performance, entertainment, or other artistic [means], and the parties' License Agreement contains detailed provisions governing Lincoln Center, Inc.'s authority to schedule such events. On the other hand, the Director of Community Programming for Lincoln Center, Inc. attests that [e]ven within the category of events for which we do grant permission, namely events having a performance, entertainment, or artistic component, we exercise judgment and discretion and deny requests to use the Plaza for activities that in our judgment are not of a suitable artistic quality. While this statement is uncontested, it is also unsupported by any factual detail that would further elucidate the degree of selectivity exercised by Lincoln Center, Inc. 47 Due to the lack of clarity in the record on this point, we leave for another day a more definite resolution of the Plaza's status as either a limited public forum or a non-public forum. The distinction is immaterial in this case, because the Union's proposed activities fall outside the class of expressive uses for which the Plaza has been opened. The Union was seeking to leaflet and host an organizational rally, not stage an artistic performance, and government restrictions on expressive uses not falling within the limited category for which a limited public forum has been opened are subject to the same level of scrutiny as restrictions in non-public fora. See infra.