The city of Houston isn’t keen on allowing musicians and performers to play on street corners and other public places in hopes of collecting a little cash and coin.

It’s right there in the municipal code, just below the ordinance against throwing rocks at people or property and above the ban on “renting premises to [a] person who engages in prostitution or related criminal activity.”

“The playing of bands upon the streets or in other public places in the city, with a view to taking up a collection from the bystanders,” the code says, “shall be a nuisance and unlawful.”

Anthony Barilla sees it differently.

An accomplished writer, musician, composer and theater artist who has recorded music for public radio’s “This American Life,” Barilla decided to navigate Houston’s permit and approval bureaucracy to become a legal and licensed busker, a person who performs in public for monetary donations. He did so in part to try to understand and expose an ordinance that is obscure, unenforced and well overdue for repeal.

So, he picked up the accordion he plays in a cover band and headed for the streets to see how people reacted to some street music.

“It was awesome,” Barilla said. He certainly didn’t get the feeling that anyone viewed him as a nuisance.

“It was mainly all smiles,” he said. “And then a family comes up and a kid will ask, ‘What is that?’ The parents explain. You let the kids hold and see how it works, squeeze out a few notes. Those were some really sweet interactions.”

What Barilla didn’t like was the fact that the city limits busking to an eight-block area of the Theater District.

“There is foot traffic,” he said, “but it’s mainly people walking from the parking garage to an event, the theater or a restaurant. You just don’t have a lot of time.”

He suggested there are places along Westheimer Road in Montrose, for example, where there is more “casual foot traffic” that would be a better audience and atmosphere for street performers.

In addition to a permit fee — $10 for 30 days or $50 for a year — the ordinance also requires that buskers get signed permission slips from the business nearest to where they are performing.

Barilla said the process was mainly a hassle in tracking down the right person who felt authorized to sign. But he also tells the story of encountering one “gruff, older manager” who “expressed his opinion that I (and anyone else) should be allowed to perform without any kind of permit at all.”

Skeptics at this point might envision a city landscape overwhelmed by lawless buskers clogging the sidewalks and polluting the public square with musicians and mimes that are more panhandlers than performers.

The reality, however, is that busking peacefully goes on in cities around the world, including many places that have recently been forced to repeal ordinances facing challenges on constitutional grounds.

Barilla points out that there are already laws on the books that would keep him from impeding traffic, blocking a business, accosting passersby or playing too loud. Singling out performers, not for performing but for accepting donations, just doesn’t seem fair.

That’s why he decided to participate in a lawsuit aimed a changing Houston’s ordinance. He hopes it can be settled amicably.

“As an artist, I have benefited greatly from the city’s support and I still do,” he said. “I’m doing this more for civic reasons. The current process is just too obscure. You Google ‘What is the busking law in Houston?’ and nobody knows the answer.”

He is not exaggerating.

The city confirmed to Houston Chronicle reporter Nicole Hensley this week that it had issued exactly “one Street Performer permit in 2018.” That was to Anthony Barilla.

And how many citations did the city issue for buskers performing without a license or outside of the Theater District?

Zero.

The city shouldn’t waste any taxpayer money fighting Barilla’s lawsuit. It should repeal the law and enjoy the music.