Yoga instructors seek legal action over city ban on their beachside classes
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Several yoga teachers are now seeking legal action against the city of San Diego over an apparent ban on their free, beachside classes.
On Friday, a local attorney representing these instructors served a cease and desist letter to city leaders, including city attorney Mara Elliot and Mayor Todd Gloria, over its enforcement of recently-updated vendor laws to regulate activities at the beach.
The law for decades has primarily focused on unpermitted food vendors and large gatherings in public park spaces, but it was recently updated to include new language encompassing other types of commercial recreational activities in public spaces — like luxury picnics and yoga classes.
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According to the city, these types of businesses can seek a permit to carry on with their activities, although they are limited to certain parcels of land. Size is also a factor, the city says, with unpermitted commercial activities needing to keep to four people or less.
The yoga instructors believed the relatively small size of their classes, paired with their donation-based model, would mean they do not fall under the vendor ordinance. What they recently found out, however, is that was not the case.
Instructors who were impacted by the ordinance expressed shock and confusion over its enforcement, as the yoga classes had gone on without interference for more than a decade at popular coastal parks like Sunset Cliffs, La Jolla and Pacific Beach.
“They showed up with big trucks, they drove them on the cliffs to block out our class, which I thought was very overkill,” one of the instructors, Danielle MacGreggor, told FOX 5/KUSI earlier this week.
In the cease and desist letter, the attorney for the yoga teachers echoes this surprise, arguing it was not clear the adjustments the city council was seeking would ensnare their activities in its provisions.
He added that public materials about the amendment only mentioned yoga a handful of times as a type of activity that would not fall under an exception for the types of free speech activities and “expressive conduct” exempted by the law.
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“… banning yoga in City parks was never stated as being a purpose or result of the sidewalk vending ordinance that was being considered,” the letter read, adding that they believe the form of service they are providing is a form of protected expression.
“Our clients are engaged in pure speech, teaching yoga to anyone who wishes to listen and
participate. They are not charging fees, and they are not blocking or restricting access to any
public space. Passively accepting donations in a way that is not ‘inherently intrusive or
potentially coercive’ is similarly protected speech,” it further contended.
According to the letter, the yoga instructors will also be filing a lawsuit to pursue an injunction against enforcement of the ordinance to crackdown on their classes.
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