For three years, Amy Barker has been teaching free yoga classes outdoors every week at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park in San Diego.
But last Wednesday, when she went to class at 6 p.m., she found three park ranger trucks parked on the cliff. Some of her students were talking to rangers, visibly upset and crying. Thanks to a new ordinance passed in March, Sunset Cliffs no longer allows community gatherings of four or more people that could be considered a commercial event, rangers said.
Buck has worked with park rangers in the past, and they allowed her and other yoga teachers to hold donation-based classes as long as they were fewer than 50 people and no loudspeakers were used.
“That’s definitely not where my business is,” said Barker, who also offers private yoga and meditation classes for a fee. “It’s more about community and creating a sense of community in San Diego because we have people from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds.”
The ordinance stipulates which parks people can hold yoga and fitness classes and other activities in if permitted, but Sunset Cliffs is not one of them.
Jackie Kowalik also had to cancel the free classes she had been teaching at Sunset Cliffs since 2017.
“This is about our community,” she said. “I think a lot of people thought this was two yoga teachers being angry. You’re taking away joy and comfort and a place of safe mental health without consulting citizens.
Kovalik, who teaches paid classes at a fitness studio, said she heard drop-in football games and volleyball tournaments were also shut down. She and a few other yoga instructors in the community who hope they can apply for a license to teach at Sunset Cliffs have contacted their clients and asked them to let the city know how donating free yoga-based classes has helped them.
“I know these classes mean a lot to people,” she said. “People have been telling stories of how to escape depression, of moms with families and kids, of college students with no money, of unemployed people who can’t afford to take classes in a studio.”
Caleb Olsen, a city spokesman, said in an email that while many people expressed their opposition to the ordinance online, there were also those who use the park, live in the area or object “to the ordinance.” people conducting unpermitted commercial activities on city land.” ”.
Barbara Keller, president of the Sunset Cliffs Nature Park Board of Trustees, said there are some concerns about the safety of people attending yoga and fitness classes, especially in the cliffs area. Because it is long, narrow and prone to erosion, there is a risk of ground collapse and people falling to their deaths, she said.
Keller said the courses leave less space in parking lots and block off portions of the California Coast Trail.
“We realized it would be inappropriate to have 50 people on the edge of a narrow cliff, which would block the walkway for others,” she said.
Keller himself has taken outdoor yoga classes and called the activity “very important.”
“People can do this in a safe place,” she added.
Kovalik and other instructors have spoken with civil rights attorneys and contacted city officials, who agreed to meet with them. In the meantime, Kowalik has rented a private venue for her Sunday classes and said she will continue to do so out of her own pocket.
“I just wanted to teach a yoga class for the community, I wasn’t trying to cause a stir,” she added.