San Francisco mayor plans ballot measure for November after supes reject sit/lie sidewalk ban

SF mayor plans sit/lie ballot measure for November

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wants voters to decide on a proposal to make sitting or lying on city sidewalks illegal, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Newsom spokesman Tony Winnicker said the mayor plans to keep a promise that he would put the “sit/lie” ordinance on the November ballot if city supervisors rejected it, which they did Tuesday in an 8-3 vote.

City merchants and residents upset over masses of transients taking refuge on the sidewalks in front of their stores and homes supported the ordinance. They said sidewalk loiterers commonly threaten and impede residents and tourists, particularly in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, perpetuating what the proposal called a “cycle of decline” in the city.

But some homeless and civil rights advocates said the legislation was overly broad and might target harmless homeless people and day laborers.

“To begin with, it makes a completely innocent act a criminal act,” said Bob Offer-Westort, an organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco. “Police discretion shouldn’t be the basis of criminality.”

If the law were passed, Winnicker said police would use discretion in their enforcement. The problem is that their current tools for dealing with belligerent transients are limited, he said.

The ordinance would amend the city’s police code to prohibit anyone from lying down or sitting on the sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. It also would include exceptions for medical emergencies and outdoor events. If people fail to comply with a warning, they would be fined up to $100 or face community service. Repeat offenders could see jail time and higher fines.

“The problem is that people … are afraid to walk on their sidewalks because there are people who will harass them, try to intimidate them, attack them for virtually no reason, and the problem hasn’t gone away,” said Ted Loewenberg of the Haight Ashbury Improvement Association.

But supervisors were not convinced the law is an appropriate response to loitering.

“They have every tool that they need to keep people safe,” Supervisor Eric Mar said of police.