SAN DIEGO — CBS 8 reporter Ariana Cohen followed along on a walk with "San Diego Girls Who Walk” amidst controversy over permit regulations with their large group. The women say they are peacefully protesting against the permit guidelines.
"Let us walk! Let us walk!” shout the walkers.
More than 70 women apart of “San Diego Girls Who Walk” gathered Sunday at Balboa Park after the group was told they could not walk at the Embarcadero since their group has too many people.
Sophia Figueroa’s sister organizes the walks. It’s a free group that many women locally or from out of town join to make new friends and walk safely with other women.
'I'm glad we have become such a big group and even though it's become such a problem, I don’t regret anything about it," said Figueroa.
Elsa Rodriguez has been walking with the group for a year. She says, "We've never had issues. Our group has drastically grown. At first, we were at about 15 girls and the last walk was about 150 girls and the city is giving us problems. We tried to walk at Embarcadero and the Port of San Diego told us no, so we relocated to Balboa Park and we're still getting pushback."
The Port of San Diego told CBS 8 they "require a permit for any event that expects more than 25 people to ensure they have a safe and enjoyable event.”
Since they moved locations Sunday to Balboa Park, they ran into the same issue.
The City of San Diego told CBS 8:
Any event with 50 or more attendees requires an event permit. In this case, the City of Special Events and Parks and Recreation departments attempted to assist girls how to walk with their event needs however the organizer refused to engage and later declared their event to be a first amendment protest activity to circumvent the permit requirement."
The City of San Diego Special Events permit is $269 and needs to be submitted at least two to four months before the event.
"The permit is not the issue. We do not plan our walks for 2-4 months like the city wants us to. Our walks are 2 weeks in advance and it's not feasible," said Rodriguez.
"We need to be a non-profit to have a permit. My sister only plans the events about a week in advance. It's a lot easier to plan these walks if we don’t have a permit," said Figueroa.
The women say they can’t control how many show up and limiting the size of the group could prevent people from forming more connections.
"It's disappointing to me that the City of San Diego would limit how people can be connected and we are not taking up much public space," said a walker who wished to remain anonymous.
"We're just here to walk as a group of women; not a political affiliation. It's just a walk for women to meet other women, make friendships, and connect," said Michelle Cassell, walker.
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