Just a short "hot off the press" message here, I'll go into details in my journal as soon as I have more time, hopefully tomorrow night ...

The City of Miami Beach is banning all artisans except for 3 tables in the area of Lummus Park starting April 1st, 2008, which is most of Ocean Drive, the famous Deco Drive or Art Deco District, from 5th to 15th Street. Last year they did the same on Lincoln Road Mall.

About 50 true Artisans are affected, not resellers of stuff, but true makers of their crafts. They will be moving to a small park between 2nd and 3rd on Ocean Drive, but the threat remains for the future.

The artisans are attempting to organize themselves, language barriers are a huge problem, many are Latin-American and hardly speak English.

The artisans are a huge success with visitors of South Beach, but the hotel, restaurant and store owners feel threatend, blind to the advantage of bringing more people to the area and keeping them there.

Bottom line, I'm seeking support from fellow artisans on dA. My Journal will contain details on how to contact the officials of Miami Beach. The whole development of the new ordinance screams foul play, leaving no place for the artisans to express their rights and needs. Many are 100% dependant on their income there.

I will do my best to write the whole story in my journal within the next 24 hours. I am also helping to organize the move, doing PR for the new location, and alarming the press and news stations ... Tomorrow is that last Sunday on Ocean Drive and I'll try to do a photo documentary as well and publish it here.

If anybody wants to contact me directly, this is my email: Lionheart.Live@gmail.com

Thank you for reading,
Lionheart