Proposal irks Vegas street performers

LAS VEGAS — On the Fremont Street pedestrian mall, Michael Troy Moore can be found wearing nothing but a G-string and a stuffed rooster on his lap while he plays heavy metal music.

To him, that’s good-natured comedy.

Inside the confines of Las Vegas City Hall on Tuesday, though, Moore dressed far more conservatively to air his grievances with a proposed ordinance aimed at creating order in the chaotic confines of the downtown Las Vegas mall that officials say are driving tourists and families away.

“Talent is not the threshold for us to be there,” he told the city’s attorney. Rather, the Constitution allowing for free expression is the threshold, he said.

Moore and a small crowd of other street musicians, magicians and impersonators and others took up the constitutional issue when offering varying concerns about a proposal to limit performances to 38 zones measuring 6 feet in diameter during peak hours between 3 p.m. and 2 a.m.

Most agreed on one thing.

“It’s chaos, basically, right now,” said Jay Gelbman who goes by Stogee Blues when he’s impersonating a Blues Brother. He suggested different rules and performance boundaries could help.

City Attorney Brad Jerbic, who fielded performers’ comments Tuesday, laid out the proposal inspired by Santa Monica, Calif.’s rules for its outdoor promenade, a system criticized by a few of the Las Vegas performers.

“The environment downtown is declining. It’s a fact of life,” he said.

Jerbic said he didn’t want a desire for perfection in the law to get in the way of passing one.