San Diego s Yoga Crackdown Leaves Yogis Bent Out of Shape – WSJ

San Diego has turned yoga on its head recasting instructors into outlaws, park rangers into yoga police and pushing the practice from serenity into war.

Park rangers arrived unannounced at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park on a recent day to keep instructors and students from taking their familiar pose atop the bluffs overlooking the Pacific. 

Naturally, yoga enthusiasts are bent out of shape, the good vibes disrupted by the threat of tickets and fines. 

San Diego is the mecca of yoga, it s the reason people move here, said yoga instructor Kody Hetherington. If you don t allow people to take care of themselves in this healthy way outside, then what are people going to do?

City officials this year revised a sidewalk-vendor ordinance, and as part of that, clarified that fitness classes, including yoga, held in public parks and beaches require proper permitting and are restricted to certain spaces.

That led to the park rangers crackdown in May, and San Diego s yoga crowd has been in warrior pose ever since. Local yogis accuse city officials of being inflexible and bending over backward to soothe affluent NIMBY homeowners who live nearby.

Honestly, it seems like a wealthy, privileged few are trying to keep their ocean view clear of other folks, said Amy Baack, who has been teaching yoga class at Sunset Cliffs since 2021.

via www.wsj.com

James Fanelli.

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